LAS VEGAS: Research In Motion has made a bid to improve the fortunes of the PlayBook tablet by adding several key productivity features to the platform.

Among the most impressive new components in the PlayBook OS 2.0 is the contact system. While users can still manually enter contact info, the PlayBook is now also able to gather and organise information automatically. Services such as Twitter and LinkedIn can connect with the PlayBook and update a user profile directly to the tablet.

The result of this is something of a small dossier on many contacts. When looking for information on a colleague or trying to connect with a possible client or business contact this can save time in researching and data-mining before meetings.

This, however, depends on the user having full and active profiles on sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Without that cooperation from contacts, the contact page becomes a rather boring and empty window. It is also a feature best suited for business. RIM has been dogged in the past by its reputation as a business-only company, and this feature will do little to win over customers who first and foremost want a fun and enjoyable personal device.

Another interesting feature is the revamped scheduling system. While it might not seem like a big breakthrough, the presentation of the calendar itself is quite useful and impressive.

Small numbers indicate days where few appointments have been scheduled, while large numbers indicate days that have little free time left. With a quick glance, you can now tell when you should book that dentist appointment and when you should opt for a quick lunch at the desk.

For more detail on a day's plan, the Playbook sports a handy side menu. In addition to seeing how full a day is, you can view who the appointment is with and bring up contact information and messaging boxes directly from the calendar.

While the Playbook OS update may not contain any radical redesigns that make people forget about the likes of iOS and Android, it does contain some very nice productivity improvements which will appeal to BlackBerry veterans and enterprise users.

LAS VEGAS: Samsung launched the second generation Series 9 laptop at CES in an effort to take on the MacBook Air and a raft of ultrabooks on the horizon.

The 13in Series 9 weighs 1.16kg, making it very lightweight. The 12.9mm chassis houses a 13in IPS display with a 1600x900 resolution. The screen also packs a very impressive brightness of 400nits. Despite being extremely thin and light, we found the device to be quite sturdy.

Samsung offers a choice of Core i5 and Core i7 processors and up to 8GB of memory. The inclusion of a 256GB SSD allows for very fast resume times. The laptop will boot from deep hibernation in 9.8 seconds and wake up in 1.4 seconds.

A Samsung spokesperson also told V3 that the device has been built to ensure users don't lose any work. Even if users find they have run out of battery, the laptop will retain some charge to power the RAM and allow users to restart the device from where they left off when it is plugged in. However, it is unclear exactly how long the RAM will remain charged for.

We weren't too impressed by the keyboard during our hands on test. The keys felt far too shallow, a problem that has plagued many a device – even the MacBook Air.

Connectivity was always going to be limited with the dimensions available. The 13in Series 9 features a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, a headphone/microphone jack and an SD card slot. Samsung has also squeezed in an Ethernet port, as well as HDMI and VGA connectors.

Samsung claims the battery will last around six hours on the 13in, which is not quite all day usage, but will be long enough for most people.

Exact release date and pricing is expected to be announced soon.

LAS VEGAS: Sony aims to get back on track in the mobile market with the launch of the Xperia S handset, a high-end device running the Android Gingerbread OS.

Sony has chosen a simple design, with the only distinguishing feature being a transparent stripe that runs along the bottom of the device. Three touch-sensitive buttons sit directly above this LED illuminated strip and, although it looks nice, we had to resist the urge to keep prodding it.

The standout feature on the handset is the 4.3in HD screen that boasts a 1280x720 resolution. It looks impressive and when we flicked through pictures and watched a HD video, the colour reproduction and playback were excellent.

The device is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260 processor, with 1GB of RAM. We found responsiveness to be smooth, but the overlay that Sony has used could bring some lag with it during everyday use.

Other key features include a 12-megapixel, auto-focus camera with an Exmor sensor and 1080p video recording capabilities. Users are also able to take pictures directly from standby mode with a long press of the camera button.

The handset packs a 1,750mAh battery, but it remains to be seen if this is enough to provide reasonable uptime. Connectivity comes in the form of aGPS, Bluetooth and WiFi. The device is also NFC-enabled, which will come into its own when the infrastructure is in place.

We were disappointed that the device will ship with Android Gingerbread, but Sony confirmed that an update to Ice Cream Sandwich is expected in the first quarter.

It remains to be seen whether the device will carry the Sony branding or will be shipped with the Sony Ericsson moniker. The name change is subject to legal paperwork and it is likely that it will carry the current branding. There is no word yet on pricing either, but it is expected to be the same price as other high-end Android handsets.

LAS VEGAS: Intel's prototype smartphone is not as eye-catching as some of the other devices on display at CES, but is a positive step for the chip manufacturer as it has yet to find its feet in the mobile market.

The Intel design looked like a cross between an iPhone 4S and a Samsung Galaxy S II. Weighing in at around the 130g mark, the device felt lighter and had a block design. Although it was far from ugly, it didn't look as sleek as the Huawei Ascend PS 1, unveiled earlier at the show.

The Intel prototype device boasted a 4.03in display a 1024x600 resolution, but the key factor was that the Android handset was running on a 32nm X86-based chip in the form of the Intel Atom Z2460 Medfield processor 1.6GHz single core processor.

Performance of the handset was smooth thanks to the Intel's graphics media accelerator for video and all Android apps ran on the device. It will be interesting to see just how fast real world performance is compared to dual-core devices.

We had a quick play with Modern Combat 2 and the device rendered detailed backgrounds with minimal lag.

On the back was an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p capabilities, and a 1.3-megapixel snapper was located on the front for video calling. The device also included micro-USB and HDMI connections. Additional features included a dedicated camera button, volume rockers and most interestingly, a micro-SIM slot.

Intel is not expected to bring this to market on its own - the design is just a "reference point" for manufacturers. A manufacturer partnership announcement is expected to be made by Paul Otellini during his keynote, which starts at 4:30(PST)/12:30am(GMT).

LAS VEGAS: Huawei has shown that it will be aggressively pushing into the high-end smartphone market with the launch of its Ascend range.

The PS 1 is set to be the firm's flagship smartphone in 2012, and initial impressions were very positive considering that Huawei has traditionally been known for making budget handsets.

Huawei is playing up the fact that the PS 1 is the thinnest smartphone to date, and with a thickness of 6.68mm it looks sleek and is comfortable to hold.

In an effort to be taken seriously as a high-end handset provider Huawei has used a number of premium components. Construction appears solid - with a metallic frame running around the edge of the device. The chassis also packs in a 4.3in Super Amoled Gorilla Glass display that delivers a sharp, clear picture and will no doubt force Samsung to up its game.

The firm has chosen to go with a 1.5GHz dual-core Texas Instruments processor rather than an Nvidia-based chip, but the processor inside the PS 1 is based on the familiar ARM Cortex A9 design. With 1GB of RAM also included, we found the device delivered an extremely smooth experience. The handset also benefits from having a stock version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and so there is no overlay to drain battery and slow the device down.

We liked the addition of the HDMI ports and the 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p recording and facial recognition capabilities.

Another area that Huawei is confident it will be able to differentiate in its device is the battery performance. The 1670 mAh battery is touted to give 30 per cent better performance than other high-end devices and it will be interesting to see just how long the handset lasts when compared to other handsets with similar specifications.

The only real disappointing features appear to be the 4GB of built in storage and the lack of pricing details. The latter could be a sticking point especially as Huawei is largely unknown to UK consumers and has no pedigree in the high-end market. However, if the firm is looking to make an impact in western markets we expect it to launch devices with a competitive price when it starts shipping in April.

LAS VEGAS: The next-gen 10.1in quad-core tablet from Acer looks to be a considerable step up from previous models released by the firm.

Not only does the tablet boast some impressive specifications, but the design looks much better than the existing Acer A500 Iconia Tab and the build quality feels sturdy too.

The Acer will follow in the footsteps of the Asus Transformer Prime, and ship with the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM.

We were impressed with the speed of the Acer during our hands on, and when pinching-to-zoom there was no redrawing and the device handled HD video playback comfortably.

The tablet comes with a 10.1in display with a 1920x1200 resolution and on the brightest setting it was reasonably bright in low lighting.

Acer claims the screen quality is better than most IPS displays on the market and the viewing angle on the tablet was impressive as we were able to view text and video when the device was flat on the tablet and we looked at it side on.

Acer will pre-load Android Ice Cream Sandwich on the device and has added some of its own customisations. Top of the list includes the Acer Ring - which allows users to access applications quickly from the lock screen by pressing and holding on the screen and choosing the app they want to open.

With a weight of around 650g, the device is comfortable to hold. However, we feel that Acer could have done more to trim a few grams off the device especially as Apple and Samsung are expected to release ultra-portable next generation tablets soon.

An area where Acer usually impresses is connectivity. The latest tablet continues this trend and will include HDMI, micro USB and micro SD ports, catering to almost everyone's connectivity needs. The Iconia tablet will also be compatible with the firm's newly announced AcerCloud service, although we did not get to see this in action.

Acer has made what looks to be a competent Android tablet and all it is missing now is a name, release date and price. If the latter can be competitive, and the device has a good battery life, this could gives the big boys a run for their money.