Hordes of gadget-lovers descend upon Las Vegas every January for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), to preview the hottest tech-toys for the coming year. Television and video products anchor the show and even while LCD and plasma models vied for attention, new, thin-display technology from Sony entered the fray. Mitsubishi, meanwhile, quietly introduced a TV that uses three lasers fired through a DLP chip to display intense colours, a technology the company hopes to introduce toward the end of the year at prices comparable to LCD models. On the computer front, Intel introduced its 45-nanometer processor, which should give rise to a raft of smaller notebooks. Asus, a formidable Chinese maker of computer parts, arrived at CES with a shipload of own-brand products, including a one-terabyte notebook and an inexpensive 4GB internet access notebook PC called the Eee. Here is our pick of the electronic gear likely to be coming your way in the coming months.

Slimline elegance

From €1,230
www.apple.com
Steve Jobs used the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco on 15 January to introduce “the world’s thinnest” notebook, the MacBook Air, which he boasted can fit inside an envelope. The new laptop features a multi-touch trackpad, which will allow users to rotate photos or zoom in and out by moving their fingers. Instead of the new notebook’s standard 80GB traditional hard drive, hardcore Mac users will be able to equip their new toy with a 64GB flash-based Solid State Hard Drive (SSD). Unsurprisingly, this skinny indulgence requires a rather fat wallet. Even Jobs conceded: “They’re pricey, but they’re fast.”

A new view

From €1,700
www.sony.com
With a depth of just 3mm, Sony’s new Organic Light Emitting Display (OLED) may someday challenge LCD and plasma models for dominance in the flat panel TV arena. The first model is the 11-inch XEL-1, and Sony showed a 27-inch prototype as an indication of larger sizes to come. OLED’s attributes include a one million-to-one contrast ratio for deep blacks; bright pictures with low power consumption; and blur-free images. Sony brushed aside concerns about panel life, saying OLED compares favorably to LCD in terms of longevity.

HD – we have a winner

€340
www.panasonic.com
With the decision by movie-maker Warner Bros. to no longer back the HD DVD format, Blu-ray machines seem destined to take the high definition video crown. Panasonic’s DMP-BD30 model is typical of the new breed of post-DVD players and is able to support an intriguing new picture-in-picture feature that allows directors or actors to appear in a small window to comment on the scene you’re viewing. There is also an SD card slot for viewing high resolution still images.