At a glance, the best Android phone of CES 2011 might sound like quite a specific category. But as we totted up our findings, we realised that wasn’t quite the case: in fact, apart from the HTC Freestyle, we didn’t see a single new phone at the show that wasn’t running Google’s mobile OS.
So here they are: read on and meet the best of the new breed of turbo, jumbo, epic Android phones heading your way this year.
Motorola Atrix 4G
Franky, the Motorola Atrix 4G is hands down our favourite gadget of the show. It’s not just that it’s supremely powerful (It packs a dual core 1GHz CPU, a huge 1GB of RAM, and an absurdly capacious 1930mAh battery). It’s supremely inventive too: it comes with its own laptop dock you can pop it into, letting you run desktop Firefox, and Android apps in their own scalable windows. And best of all, unlike the other 4G phones announced in Las Vegas, it’s coming to the UK: Orange has snapped it up for a launch before the Summer.
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Unless the Motoblur software skin on top of Android 2.2 turns out to be really, really bad, we can’t see how this won’t crash into the upper part of our Best Android phone league table on launch.
LG Optimus Black
While the LG Optimus 2X is the LG phone for spec heads, the slightly more stylish LG Optimus Black really won us over at the LG booth this year. At just 109g and 9.3mm slimming down to 6mm thick, it’s unbelievably waif like, yet still sports a massive (approximately four inches) screen. LG is raving about its new NOVA display tech too, and while the harsh lighting of the LAs Vega Convention Center wasn’t the place to test it, you can bet we will once it launches in the UK before the Summer. Plus, LG has promised an Android 2.3 Gingerbread upgrade.
Check out our Best Android phone Top 5 now
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc
Sony Ericsson’s previous Google smartphones have never troubled our Best Android phone Top 5, but that looks set to change with the new Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, unveiled at Sony’s CES press conference. It’s bang up to date with Android 2.3, shockingly thin and boasts both a huge 4.2-inch screen and 8.1 megapixel camera. It’s due out before March – but will the PlayStation Phone thwart it?
Samsung 4G LTE phone
The Samsung 4G LTE phone has one of the world’s biggest Super AMOLED displays, clocking in at a beastly 4.3-inches diagonally. It’s solid in the hand, but the real selling point over its Galaxy S comrades is a 4G LTE connection. LTE is set to be the next global standard for speedy mobile data transfer after 3G, and this here phone, while still nameless, will be one of the first to use it. It’s due out in the US this year. No word on when we’ll see it in the UK, but we’re hoping to see at least some of this tech trickle through.
HTC Thunderbolt
Another jumbo Android phone headed to Verizon’s 4G LTE network this year, the HTC Thunderbolt is a HTC Desire HD on steroids. The 1GHz processor and 4.3-inch screen remain the same, but there’s a kickstand and eight megapixel sensor camera on the back, a 1.3MP frontfacing cam for video chat plus that ridiculously fast 4G connection. HTC plea take note, we’d like more camera, battery and awesomeness over here as you’re giving the Yanks.
