Samsung and Sony each brought their A-game to the Consumer Electronics Show this year when it comes to high-end HDTVs. If there was one other brand that could easily give these tech giants a run for their money though, it was LG. The South Korea-based company had a handfull of other devices to show off at CES 2012, but televisions took center stage in the firm’s booth and sets on display ranged from entry-level offerings to high-end stunners that were absolutely beautiful. Of all the TVs LG had on display at CES, our clear favorite — it’s not even close, really — was the company’s new 55-inch OLED model. The gorgeous panel on this HDTV gives Samsung’s Super OLED displays a run for their money, and we would be hard pressed to say which screen produces deeper blacks and more vivid colors. No pricing has been announced and we’re sure this set will cost a pretty penny, but it could very well find its way to BGR headquarters once it hits the market. Pictures can hardly do LG’s new OLED HDTV justice, but several photos can be found in our LG booth tour, which follows below.

Microsoft had a massive booth at the Consumer Electronics Show this year. It was home to brand new laptops, a huge array of Windows Phone devices, demo stations for Xbox 360 and SkyDrive, and plenty more. Sadly, however, there were no Windows 8 devices on display to give show-goers a closer look at Microsoft’s next-generation operating system. We love Windows Phone in its current state and it seems like we aren’t alone; there were tons of people gathered around the phones playing with them and it looked like plenty of people were impressed, too. Whether or not this new wave of enthusiasm will translate into sales remains to be seen, of course. There were plenty of other sights to see in Microsoft’s booth, so be sure to check out our full gallery below.

In addition to spending some time with the new Motorola DROID 4, we just went Inside The Actor’s Studio with Ed Zander’s old the new RAZR. The Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX is similar to the DROID RAZR but offers a larger battery for up to 21 hours of usage on a single charge. Despite the larger battery, however, the device still feels super thin. We didn’t notice a hint of lag while flying through menus, but we did notice that there was some sluggishness inside the web browser while loading websites. The DROID RAZR MAXX also comes equipped with 32GB of on-board storage, which should be plenty for storing movies, music and photos. Unfortunately it still runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but we hope, and suspect, that Motorola has plans to upgrade the phone to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). The RAZR MAXX will cost $299 with a new two-year contract when it makes its debut on Verizon Wireless. Photo’s are all in the gallery, minus James Lipton.

Leading up to the Consumer Electronics Show this year, Nokia’s first Windows Phone for AT&T was definitely one of the smartphone announcements we were anticipating most anxiously. We were fans of the Lumia 800 when we reviewed it, but when our sources let us know that a bigger handset that maintained the Lumia 800′s design aesthetic would launch soon after CES, the 800 lost its luster. In line with our exclusive report, Nokia’s brand new Lumia 900 features the same unique design and build as the Lumia 800 Nokia launched last year, but there are two key differences that make this smartphone our clear favorite. It includes compatibility with AT&T’s new 4G LTE network, and it packs a larger 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display. The larger form factor was designed with the U.S. market in mind according to Nokia, and the size of the device is ideal. The Lumia 900′s build is outstanding as well, and Windows Phone 7.5 is beyond smooth thanks to the phone’s 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor. Nokia and AT&T haven’t yet revealed pricing or a launch date, but Nokia did say it will become available in the coming months. We can’t wait to review this gorgeous smartphone but in the mean time, check out our hands-on Lumia 900 photo gallery below.

Nokia proved it was back in the smartphone game when it launched the Lumia 800 last year. But can its Lumia 710 gain the attention of U.S. consumers? Many would argue that Nokia should have decided to launch the Lumia 800 to make a bigger splash in a market that has long forgotten the Finnish smartphone maker. But the Lumia 710 is affordable — it only costs $50 with a new two-year contract — and it’s also powerful. It’s not as feature-rich as the Lumia 800, but can it still compete with other smartphones in its price range? My full review follows after the break.

Hardware

The Lumia 710 looks and feels like a decent device. The back cover is plastic but it has a nice soft-touch rubber feel and the entire face is glossy black, although a white version is also available from T-Mobile. There are three hardware buttons below the phone’s 3.7-inch display, which actually isn’t that impressive. While the curved glass AMOLED ClearBlack display on the Lumia 800 was very impressive, the standard ClearBlack display on T-Mobile’s Lumia 710 is not. Colors are washed out and the brightness is not where it needs to be, but this was likely required in order to keep the cost of the phone down.

The volume controls and a camera quick-launch key are in easy reach on the right side of the phone and there is a power button, a microUSB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the device. The back is home to a 5-megapixel camera and a single LED flash.

Under its hood, the Lumia 710 is powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and is equipped with 512MB of RAM, a 1,300 mAh battery and 8GB of storage. As is typical with other Windows Phone 7.5 devices, you can’t add more storage using a microSD card, which is unfortunate if you’re like me and prefer a phone with a bit more memory.

Like the iPhone 4S and the Lumia 800, the Lumia 710 uses a microSIM card that pops in under the battery as opposed to on the top of the device, as it does on the Lumia 800.

While it’s far from a deal-breaker, the most upsetting point about the hardware is that T-Mobile decided not to offer the device in the various colors that are available on international carriers. I think Nokia really could have turned heads if it launched a yellow, pink, green or blue Lumia 710 in the United States, but instead the Lumia 710 will sit camouflaged on store shelves next to other black and white smartphones.

Software

The Lumia 710 runs Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango), Microsoft’s latest mobile operating system. I wrote about Windows Phone 7.5 in great detail in September when it launched, so we’ll stick to discussing what Nokia has done to the phone.

Nokia, unlike other manufacturers, has an agreement with Microsoft that allows it to customize the phone in a number of ways. You won’t find anything intrusive, but Nokia did add its own free GPS navigation software and its own Nokia Maps application, which I like better than Bing Maps. It’s not incredibly accurate, however. A search by name for a bar a block away from me didn’t turn up any results, for example.

As I said in my aforementioned overview of Windows Phone 7.5, I really, really love the Windows Phone 7.5 operating system. It’s one of the cleanest and most intuitive mobile operating systems on the market today, and for that reason it should be a top choice for first-time smartphone buyers or anyone who wants the functionality of a smartphone without complicated menus or settings.

I love the live tiles on the home screen as well, specifically how foursquare shows the leaderboard and how my avatar jumps around the Xbox Live tile. I also enjoy the fluidity and speed of the entire OS. My biggest gripe overall is that there’s a lack of applications for Windows Phone right now, but the Windows Phone Marketplace is growing every day and recently just surpassed the 50,000-app milestone.

Camera

The Lumia 710 packs a 5-megapixel camera and it’s not the greatest sensor I’ve used. The pictures were mediocre at best and not near as good as the shots we snapped with the Lumia 800, which has an 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. The camera is capable of recording 720p HD video and it was satisfactory. There was a bit of blurriness from time to time, but otherwise it was OK. The device also lacks a front-facing camera for video chat, which is supported on other Windows Phone 7.5 phones such as the Samsung Focus S, Samsung Focus Flash and HTC Titan.

Call Quality / Data

The Lumia 710 supports T-Mobile’s 14.4Mbps HSPA+ “4G” network in the United States. Data speeds were decent in New York City, but they were nothing compared to AT&T or Verizon’s 4G LTE networks. Using the http://dslreports.com/mspeed speed test, my download speeds averaged between 1.1 Mbps and 1.26 Mbps with the device reporting a full signal. That’s on a par with most 3G networks.

Calls placed on the Lumia 710 were pretty solid in New York City. I wasn’t blown away by the call quality, but I didn’t have any real problems with it either. The speakers were satisfactory during a phone call with the speakerphone turned on, but my caller could easily tell when I was using speakerphone.

Battery

Windows Phone 7.5 has been praised for its solid battery life in the past and the Lumia 710 wasn’t an exception. It’s equipped with a 1,300 mAh battery, which is a bit smaller than the 1,450 mAh battery inside the Lumia 800, but it lasted two full days with moderate usage and was able to idle for many more. Overall, I’m impressed with the battery life and think it’s better than most smartphones on the market today.

Conclusion

The Lumia 710 isn’t as exciting as its big brother, the Lumia 800. Nokia announced a flagship device that is, in many ways, a game changer for the company moving forward. And yet even still, T-Mobile decided to launch the company’s lower end device, which surely won’t turn as many heads. Worse, it decided to launch the phone without a wide color selection that could have made the device stand out more in public. It just seems like Nokia and T-Mobile missed an opportunity to really hit the U.S. market with a bang, but perhaps Verizon Wireless or AT&T will do that with Nokia’s expected 4G LTE device.

No, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the Lumia 710. It offers decent battery life, fair data speeds and a really solid hardware design. In fact, even its letdowns are justified by its affordable $50 price point, and the Lumia 710 is absolutely not aimed at seasoned smartphone users. Instead, this phone is aimed squarely at feature phone users that T-Mobile hopes to turn into smartphone owners. The handset is reliable and easy-to-use, and I highly recommend the Lumia 710 to first-time smartphone buyers.

We finally got our hands on Verizon’s Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and… well, it’s almost identical to the HSPA+ version we reviewed last month. It’s thicker, though we actually like holding and using the Verizon unit better because the slightly thicker case makes one-hand a bit more comfortable. There’s also a small, small, (notice how we’re saying small?) lip around the display that isn’t there on the HSPA+ version, but most people probably wouldn’t even notice such a minute case difference. The problem with the display’s auto-brightness being overly aggressive doesn’t seem to be an issue on the Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus, but everything else seems identical. We’ll chime in over the next few days with a few more thoughts, but here’s a spoiler: provided there aren’t any huge issues we discover, this is easily the best smartphone to ever hit Verizon Wireless. Ready to go hands-on? It’s all in the gallery below.

We just elbowed our way through crowds, crawled on the ground under legs and ducked beneath cameras to bring you a look at the insanity that is Apple’s Grand Central Terminal Apple Store (grand) opening. The line to get in was wrapped deep inside and around the corridors of Grand Central Station, and there were hundreds of people gathered around the steps of the East Balcony entrance as well. Those who are smart enough to steer clear of the bedlam should be sure to check out our photo gallery below, and stay tuned for more pictures once if we can manage to fight our way inside.

When a product emerges that is created by a team of ex-Apple employees — including one responsible in part for leading the hardware teams behind the iPod and iPhone — that product sells out almost immediately. The latest device to fit the bill isn’t a new smartphone or even a tablet; no, this time around it’s actually a thermostat. As odd as that sounds, the Nest thermostat is exciting in many, many ways. For starters, the amount of thought that went into just the hardware alone is, well, Apple-like. It’s miles ahead of any comparable product in terms of look, form and function. It’s sleek yet is based on a classic and familiar Honeywell T87 round thermostat, and it is packed to the brim with technology including, among other things, a vivid color LCD display and Wi-Fi support.

The Nest thermostat doesn’t just provide control from your smartphone or web-browser from anywhere in the world, which is impressive in itself — it’s a learning product that will adjust to your preferences and habits. It will also adjust to factors like outside weather and other conditions to always make sure the temperature in your home or office is comfortable. Above all else, it will reduce your energy consumption by automatically adjusting your heat and airconditioning usage based on whether or not you are home. Go out for a bit, and the thermostat will lower your heat to save energy. As soon as you walk in, it senses you’re home and it will instantly dial up the heat to suit your preferences.

Installing the Nest thermostat was incredibly straight-forward even though I’ve never installed a thermostat or light fixture before. The directions are very simple to follow and well thought out. After removing the plastic piece of garbage that used to be attached to the wall, I quickly leveled the thermostat thanks to the built-in level on its base, screwed it in, connected the labeled wires to the backplate and connected the front display. There’s an outer ring wheel you rotate just like that classic Honeywell thermostat, except this one also doubles as an Apple iPod-like clickwheel, letting you select and enter text or scroll through options.

After you’re set up, Nest immediately starts learning your heating and cooling preferences. I installed the unit yesterday evening and since then I’ve successfully set a schedule from my web-based Nest account and adjusted the temperate from the Nest app on my iPhone, and the unit has performed perfectly. It’s hard to believe that I’m excited about a thermostat, but this is much more than a thermostat to me, especially if it can conserve energy. Plus I don’t have to get up to change the temperature anymore.

We’ll have more on the Nest learning thermostat soon.

We just dropped by an LG event in New York City to check out AT&T’s third 4G LTE phone, the LG Nitro HD. The device packs a sharp 1280 x 720-pixel HD display, which is easily one of the Nitro’s biggest draws. The display offers a noticeable difference in color clarity compared to the Samsung Galaxy S II; we took a picture of a Ducati motorcycle with both phones and while the red paint job really popped on the Galaxy S II display, the LG Nitro’s display reproduced colors much more accurately. The Nitro HD is also equipped with an 8-megapixel camera that’s capable of recording HD video and we were impressed with the pictures it captured during a few minutes with the phone. We’ll reserve our final judgement on the camera until we compare it with other devices, however. Hit the break for more and don’t forget to check out our photo gallery below.

The dual-core 1.5GHz processor is certainly fast — there doesn’t seem to be any lag during standard operation — but there weren’t a ton of applications installed on the Nitro we were using so we couldn’t really test multitasking under heavy use. A quick test of AT&T’s pre-launch LTE network gave us download speeds between 6.81Mbps and 8.98Mbps, which is pretty fast. We know AT&T is still testing its 4G LTE network here in New York City though, so only time will tell what performance looks like post-launch. We’re definitely excited to run the Nitro 4G through its paces in the coming days, so stay tuned for our full review.

Spotify’s New York City press conference just wrapped up and we spent some time checking out several of the popular music service’s new apps. There’s a new section on the left sidebar that lets you quickly access applications from LastFM, Rolling Stone, The Guardian and more. Rolling Stone and other publications will release playlists, some as frequently as each day, with bands the publications think Spotify users should take note of. The applications are seamless and are so tightly integrated with Spotify that they launch almost immediately. If you’re playing a song with tunewiki for example, simply tap the tunewiki application on the left sidebar and it immediately begins displaying song lyrics inside the software. We’re fans of Spotify here at BGR and we’re definitely looking forward to checking these features out a bit more when the app service officially goes live. Apps will be accessible to all users, whether they subscribe to Spotify’s premium services or not, and the beta should be made available today on Spotify’s website around 2:00 p.m. EST. Be sure to check out our full gallery below, and hit the break for a video from Spotify.

We’ve been playing with a Samsung Galaxy Nexus for the last day, and after shuffling between a Motorola DROID RAZR, an HTC Vivid and an HTC Rezound, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a welcome change in many ways. It’s obviously the Google reference handset for Ice Cream Sandwich, and in almost all cases, it is the best Android handset we’ve seen far as hardware and software go. Android 4.0 is the most cohesive release from Google yet, and while it’s not that straight forward out of the box, you do eventually get the feeling that this phone has a distinct personality as opposed to many other Android phones, which often seem to blend together. Be sure to check out our hands-on photos in the gallery below, and hit the break for more thoughts.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus we were sent from Google is an HSPA+ unit as opposed to the 4G LTE handset for Verizon, and while the device came with a T-Mobile SIM card that worked on T-Mobile’s 4G network, we’ve been using it with an AT&T SIM card and have been able to use the device on AT&T’s 3G network as well. This looks like one of the few pentaband UMTS devices in the United States; one UMTS device to rule them all, we suppose.

As far as Ice Cream Sandwich goes, it’s the most cohesive release from Google ever. The phone finally feels like it has a personality, even if it’s that of a robot from a TRON-like world. Android 4.0 also feels like an actual operating system, not just one designed for tablets and smartphones, but that’s due to the amount of options and flexibility the OS gives users, not necessarily because the OS is more powerful than competing platforms. Ice Cream Sandwich at times feels like a frozen onion, one that’s a bit hard to thaw, and then you have to peel back each layer to get to exactly what you want.

In terms of hardware, the Galaxy Nexus is definitely a unique handset. It has a huge 4.65-inch Super AMOLED display but it’s still easier to handle than a device like the DROID RAZR because it’s much more narrow. One-handed operation still isn’t as comfortable as it should be, however. The curved body of this phone is great and it feels solid, but the back of the case is still built from cheap-feeling plastic similar to other Samsung phones, and it spoils the feel of the device in your hand.

BGR’s full review of the Galaxy Nexus will be published in the next few days.

AT&T announced a handful of new Android smartphones during the most recent CTIA show in San Diego, and the Samsung Captivate Glide BGR scooped back in July was among them. Samsung kept the phone close to the chest until recently, and we finally had a chance to meet up and check it out. The phone is very similar to the Galaxy S II, but it sports a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a different processor. The Captivate Glide, an Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) smartphone, is equipped with a vivid and crisp 4-inch Super AMOLED display with an 800 x 480-pixel resolution, an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p HD video, 1GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, and a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor clocked at 1.2GHz. It also supports AT&T’s 21Mbps HSPA+ network. We really enjoyed the keyboard and it didn’t seem to add too much bulk or heft to the phone. AT&T has yet to announce a price or release date. We should be bringing you a review shortly, but in the meantime be sure to check out our full gallery below.

AT&T originally announced the Samsung DoubleTime during CTIA in early October, and we just had a chance to finally check it out. The DoubleTime isn’t a high-end handset, but it is unique in its own right. It’s a clamshell form factor device with a 3.2-inch 480 x 320-pixel touchscreen on the outside, but when you open the DoubleTime there’s a second display and a full QWERTY keyboard. The device surely won’t be for everyone, but it might attract teenagers looking for a solid text-messaging phone that still packs in a smartphone operating system. It’s equipped with an 800MHz Qualcomm processor, 260MB of on-board storage and a 2GB microSD card with support for 32GB cards. The phone runs the last-generation Android 2.2 (Froyo) operating system, which seems a bit odd to us. AT&T has yet to announce a release date or a price, but we wouldn’t be surprised if this landed at a very affordable price point in time for the holidays. Be sure to check out the full gallery below.

We just received our HTC Rezound review unit, and although we spent a few moments with the device at HTC’s announcement in New York City, we have some more thoughts on the 4G LTE smartphone after using it for the morning. For starters, while the phone isn’t nearly as thin as other 4G LTE devices like the Motorola DROID RAZR or Samsung Galaxy Nexus, it’s a completely different animal than the HTC Thunderbolt. It fits nicely in your hand, and it feels good to use and hold. The 4.3-inch 720p HD display is absolutely beautiful. In fact, it’s probably the best display on any mobile device we’ve ever seen besides the iPhone’s Retina Display. It’s so good that there are elements in HTC’s Sense interface that aren’t high quality enough for the display, but we’ll touch on that more in our review. The included Beats headphones are decent and offer very good audio reproduction, and the HTC Rezound has taken everything we’ve thrown at it and powered through without a hiccup — this device is fast. We have hands-on photos in the gallery below, so make sure to check those out while we work on our full review.

Barnes & Noble took the wraps off its brand new Nook Tablet at a press conference in New York City on Monday, and we just spent some hands-on time with the sleek new slate. First things first: the display is amazing. Barnes & Noble spent a fair amount of time during the tablet’s unveiling touting the quality of the display and we have to say, B&N CEO William Lynch wasn’t exaggerating. The display is obviously one of the most important components of any tablet and Barnes & Noble didn’t skimp in this area. The bookseller spent a lot of time comparing its new tablet with Amazon’s upcoming Kindle Fire, and in the display department it’s really not even close. Hit the break for more and don’t forget to check out our hands-on photos in the gallery below.

The case of the Nook Tablet obviously resembles last year’s Nook Color very closely, and while we weren’t allowed to handle the device during the demos, anyone who has used a Nook Color knows that we’re looking at good quality hardware here. Animations and transitions were generally smooth during the demo we were given, though there was some choppiness when moving around certain areas of the UI. The Nook Tablet’s OS is based on the first build of Android 2.3 Gingerbread and phones running this version of Android typically had some issues with lag and bogging as well — especially earlier models that used 1GHz processors like the one in the Nook Tablet.

We’ll reserve final judgement for our full review, but we definitely like what we’ve seen so far. The Nook Tablet launches next week for $249 and pre-orders begin immediately. It’s going to be a tough sell going head to head with Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire in terms of the content ecosystem Amazon has created. In terms of hardware, however, the Nook Tablet is the hands-down winner when lined up against the Fire.