VentureBeat’s top gadgets from CES 2011

Motorola Atrix

We expected to be wowed by tablets more than phones at CES, but leave it up to Motorola, creator of the Droid phone that helped popularize Android, to deliver a phone unlike any other. The Atrix is a powerful 4G smartphone for AT&T powered by a 1 gigahertz dual-core processor — but that’s not what makes it interesting.
The device is so powerful that Motorola created two docks to let consumers use it to its full potential: One, dubbed the Laptop Dock, effectively lets you use the phone as a smartbook — complete with a touchpad and keyboard. Another dock lets you use the Atrix to power a computer monitor and plug in your own keyboard and mouse.
It’s the first smartphone to truly cross the line between computer and mobile device, and it was by far the most fascinating gadget at CES.

Motorola Xoom

On top of the Atrix, Motorola also managed to deliver the best looking Android tablet with the Xoom — a feat considering that there were dozens of tablet competitors at the show. The 10.1-inch Xoom was the most iPad-like Android tablet with its polished hardware, and since it runs Google’s tablet-friendly Android 3.0 OS, it can also match the iPad when it comes to user experience. It’s a definite upgrade from Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, the only other viable Android tablet out right now.

 

 

BlackBerry PlayBook

We were already impressed with Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook going into CES, but we fell even more in love with the tablet once we got our hands on it. At 7 inches, it’s more portable than the iPad and other 10-inch tablets, and I found it to be surprisingly fast. Clearly, RIM’s reliance on QNX’s software for the PlayBook’s OS is a good thing, as the tablet is light years beyond anything we’ve seen from the company. Not only is the PlayBook a great-looking tablet, but it also gives us hope that RIM’s phones will finally get modernized with the new QNX OS.