Lesson from CES: Wait a few months for new gadgets

Updated 12:10PM - If you're in the market for new gadgets, wait a few months for the new gear shown this year at CES. You'll see items like the pocket sized Panasonic 3CCD 1080p (24p) camera at this end of this quarter as will many other items. The last thing you want to do is buy something only to see something better for the same price a month later.

Another product that really caught my eyes were the small OLED displays on devices like the $350 Samsung NV24HD digital photo camera that also doubles as a 720p digital H.264 video camera. While I didn't get to examine the photos from the device, I saw the 2.5" AMOLED and it shined like a jewel with the vivid contrast ratios and wide color gamut. I can't wait to try one of these things out in photo and video mode. Update: Janice Chen notes that Kodak has a similar model that also shoots 720p for $250. It lacks the AMOLED display but it has a 3.0" touch screen. The price makes it sound like a great choice if you can do without the more vivid preview display.

Panasonic isn't about to cede the big screen plasma HDTV market to LCDs without a fight. Its new line of Viera Plasma displays feature true native contrast ratios of 30000:1. These new plasma displays cut power consumption by 30% while raising brightness by 30%. So instead of a 50" plasma hogging 500 watts of power while displaying white, it now only hogs 350 watts of power in peak mode. These displays will be released around the end of this quarter.

LCDs on the other hand are catching up in the contrast ratio department but they have the advantage of better brightness and lower power consumption especially when dynamic contrast technology is included and in use. All the new large screen LCDs are coming out with 120 Hz capability and inter-frame interpolation.