We’re back with more coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show 2007, more commonly referred to as CES. The tradeshow features the latest in industry news and product announcements. While some of the products are only prototypes and are never actually delivered to the market, many others are released. The tradeshow is an excellent source for finding the latest trends in the IT industry and also provides manufacturers an opportunity to show off their technological prowess, an example being the above photograph of Sharp’s 108 –inch LCD TV, currently the largest working model in the world.

Our last article over CES outlined the current high definition format war. This article discusses the more interesting products that were on display during the tradeshow and covers some very interesting products, including the new Terabyte HD introduced by Hitachi, Samsung’s new 27-inch full-HD monitor, ASUS’ highly anticipated notebook PC which features Windows Vista Slideshow Technology, and Flybook’s notebook PCs.

This year’s CES also proved to be an excellent opportunity for us to get more familiar with some emerging technologies. We were able to see products based on new technologies on display from various manufacturers. What caught our eye the most were OLED displays which were being showcased by LG and Sony. Sony’s OLED display turned out to be especially remarkable primarily because it was a 27-inch display.

Dell recently leaked a new 27-inch LCD screen which supports a maximum resolution of up to 1920x1200. Once CES started, they officially announced the display. The new LCD scren, which we didn’t get a chance to actually see on the CES show floor, turns out to very similar to Samsung’s model, the Syncmaster 275T, which Samsung was more than happy to place on display in its booth.

The two displays from Dell and Samsung, in truth, are practically identical to each other. In fact, they both even use the same LCD panel, the LTM270M1, which is manufactured by Samsung.

It has already been possible for quite some time to purchase full-HD (1920x1200) LCD screens. These displays, however, are only 24/25-inches while the new display from Samsung is 27-inches. Thus, the Syncmaster 275T can be considered the largest LCD screen whose native resolution is 1920x1200 and allows for viewing at 1080i and 1080p. The screen format is not 16:9, but actually 16:1.

The display also has some impressive technical characteristics. The contrast ratio is 3000:1 and the monitor has a 6 millisecond response speed. It comes with DVI-D, 15-pin D-Sub, S-Video, and component connectors.

The price of the monitor isn’t for budget consumers. Considering the many technical features and extremely large size, the monitor actually isn’t a bad deal for the suggested retail price of 999 USD. The Syncmaster 275T will be available for retail at the beginning of February 2007.

Hitachi Global Storage Technology had on display in its booth the world’s first 3.5inch 1 Terabyte hard drive.

The photographed model is expected to debut within 6 months. Seagate is also expected to release its first Terabyte hard drives this year as an addition to its Barracuda line of products. Naturally, Seagate’s drives will also be 3.5-inches.

In its booth, ASUS had on display its highly anticipated notebook PC the W5fe. The notebook’s main feature is a small secondary display built right into the notebook’s hood. On its release, the W5fe will be the first notebook that supports Windows Vista Slideshow Technology.

The laptop is based on the Intel Core 2 Duo platform and has 512 MB of DDR2 memory. The hard drive has a total capacity of 160 GB and the 12-inch TFT display supports a maximum resolution of 1280x800 (WXGA). The small external display is 2.8 inches, can display 65 million colors, and has a resolution of 320x240 (QVGA). The laptop also comes with a built-in webcam.

The main selling point of the laptop will be the small secondary display. As we said before, this display allows the laptop to take advantage of Windows Vista’s Slideshow Technology. The small screen comes equipped with a cross-directional pad along with 2 push-buttons. The first push button is for general use while the second takes users back to the main menu. It is possible to carry out a number of tasks using the secondary screen, such as reading email, playing MP3s, and viewing photos, all without ever needing to power up the laptop.

An interesting feature of Windows Vista Slideshow is that it displays the power state of the laptop. In addition, it searches for WiFi signals in your area and connects to the best available network in order to check email.

Another very interesting product ASUS had on display at its booth was the XG Station, which is basically a dedicated external graphics card for notebook PCs. The XG station comes equipped with a standard PCI Express 16x slot, allowing any standard PCI Express 16x video card to be used with it.

The XG Station has a built-in screen which displays system information such as the framerate of the game being played, GPU temperature, and the cooling fan’s speed.

ASUS was also displaying two new notebook models, the G1 and the G2. Both solutions are based on the Intel Core 2 Duo and the only major difference between the two is the chipsets used. The G1 uses the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7700 while the G2 uses the ATI Mobility Radeon X1700.

Both laptops have been designed to be aesthetically pleasing, as is evident in the above photograph. The “WASD” keys, the major keys for movement in PC games, light up whenever a video game is running. The NVIDIA-chipset based model lights up green while the ATI-chipset based model lights up red.

The Taiwanese heastink manufacturer Cooler Master decided to launch its new line of GPU heatsinks at CES this year. In the above photo we are able to see the CoolViva G1, which can be used with both ATI and NVIDIA video cards. The fan runs at 3,300 RPM and generates 11.78 CFM of airflow. The heatsinks also come packaged with mini-heatsinks, which have become quite popular among video card manufacturers, for placing on the video card’s memory chips.

Cooler Master also launched its CoolViva Pro series at CES. Made for video cards, these heatsinks are targeted specifically at overclockers.

Cooler Master also had on display its new Notepal notebook cooler designs. These models are constructed out of the same aluminum material as the other models; however, they also allow notebooks to be placed at an angle allowing for users to more easily view their laptop screen at eye-level.

Flybook was exhibiting a number of its new notebook PC designs at CES this year. These are the first notebooks designed specifically to be “Airline Friendly.” This means that they are able to fit into the cramped conditions of a flight and other such situations by a special mechanism on the laptop’s screen which allows users to easily adjust the positioning of the screen. The LV Model, which is in the above photograph, is based on a 1.66 GHz Core 2 Duo with 512 MB of DDR2 memory (expandable to 2GB). The notebook also features the Intel 945GM chipset along with the ICH7m Southbridge. The 1.8-inch SATA HD is upgradeable from 30GB to 60GB. The notebook also features a DVD combo unit, weights in at 1.64 kg, has an integrated fingerprint reader, and is Windows Vista compatible.

The above photograph shows the mechanism which makes the Flybook notebooks so “Airline Friendly.” The monitor can easily be adjusted forwards/backwards and can also be raised/lowered. When closed, the mechanism can barely be noticed.

The Flybook V33i is a widescreen tablet PC which features integrated Wireless Lan, Bluetooth technology, and WWAN 3.5G. Based on the Intel Pentium M 1.1/1.3GHz, the notebook uses the ATI RC410 chipset along with the RS450 soutbridge. The notebook comes with 512 MB of memory which is expandable to 1 GB.

The Flybook V5i is the compay’s ultraportable tablet PC. Its technical characteristics are the same as the V33i, however, this model has a built-in fingerprint reader and also comes with an integrated webcam.

Kingmax introduced its KingDisc line of flash-based products this year at CES. These products are all targeted specifically at consumers. Various flash memory formats are part of the series. The above photograph shows high capacity (4GB to 8GB) SD cards on display. The primary use of these products is for cameras, MP3 players, cellphones, etc.

The main innovation of Kingmax was the release of the first 4GB microSD card based on SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) 2.0.

The above photo compares the flash card to the tip of a pen. The theoretical transfer rate of the microSD cards is 25 MB/s. Towards the end of third quarter 2007 KingMax plans on launching an 8GB microSDHC card.

AOpen was exhibiting its mini-ITX form factor motherboards. The i045CMt-FA (right) is based on the Intel 945GM chipset paired with the ICH7M Southbridge. The motherboard can support all Intel Core 2 and Core 2 Duo CPUs. It also features Realtek Gigabit LAN and Realtedk HD Audio. TV-out connectors are also provided along with an S-Video connector. The small design of the motherboard makes it very ideal for a multimedia room.

AOpen was also showing its barebone mini-PCs. The one in the above photo supports Intel Core 2 Duo chips, comes with a remote control and built-in receiver, offers 6-channel audio, and supports Windows Vista. In addition, the mini-PC is Intel ViiV compliant and supports Windows Vista.

OLED-based (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays had a large appearance at CES this year. As they will be the next major technology upon which TVs are based, we decided to take a look at some of these displays. This year, many more manufacturers had OLED-based products on display compared to 2006. At the LG booth, we took pictures of the company’s three smallest OLED displays:

As is evident in the photo, the displays are extremely thin. The 2.2-inch displays display at resolutions of 240x320 and can show up to 262 million colors. The contrast ratio is 10000:1. They also have excellent visibility at angled shots.

Another very interesting OLED product was on display at Sony’s booth; a 27-inch OLED screen. As can be seen, it was sharp, bright, and very much viewable in a well-lit environment. It is also important to note that OLED products consumer far less energy than traditional LCD screens.

A sideshot shows just how thin the screens are. Sony is planning on creating even larger screens throughout the course of this year.

Sony also showed a number of smaller OLED displays. Although not meant for home theater rooms, they would prove to be particularly useful in laptops and small TVs.