Despite Apple’s absence at the 2012 International CES, its presence was still felt by many companies competing with the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and rumored upcoming iPhone 5. If you’re thinking about jumping off the Apple bandwagon, one of these new phones might be a good fit.

Motorola Droid 4 (Verizon Wireless)

The Motorola Droid 4 may be the nicest QWERTY Android phone yet, with a sleek slider design and a laser-cut five-row QWERTY keyboard with sharp edge lighting that aims to emulate a laptop keyboard in its design (Fig. 1). It also boasts a 1.2-GHz dual-core processor and 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) data speeds. 

The Droid 4 improves on two parts of the Droid 3—the keyboard and LTE. All other improvements are subtle, such as how the keyboard is now centered and backlit as well as its updated 1.2-GHz dual-core CPU and 1 Gbyte of RAM. There’s an 8-Mpixel camera on the back of the phone with 1080p video recording, plus 16 Gbytes of internal storage, a free microSD memory card slot, and a mirroring mode that allows you to easily view images or video on an HDTV.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Sprint)

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which will be offered by Sprint sometime in the spring, is one of the first phones to use Android Ice Cream Sandwich (Fig. 2). It features the Google Wallet capability that Verizon Wireless disabled. The oversized 4.65-in. Super active-matrix organic LED (AMOLED) screen and dual-core processor are impressive, as is the 4G service, near-field communications (NFC) capability, and 32 Gbytes of internal storage. Another feature to try out is Face Unlock, although this seems impractical and finicky. The Galaxy Nexus a rather large phone—at 4.65 in., it feels almost tablet-like. The pricing will allegedly start at $200 (with a two-year contract).

Samsung Galaxy Note (AT&T)

Also from Samsung, the Galaxy Note features the largest Super AMOLED touchscreen of any Android phone to date, at 5.3 in. (Fig. 3). While too large for some, this could be a good option for anyone debating between getting a smart phone or a tablet.

The Note comes bundled with a stylus referred to as the “S Pen,” which works together with Samsung’s S Memo app to jot notes, snap images, and capture voice recordings. It has a 1.4-GHz central processor, a 1280-by-800 resolution display, a huge 2500-mAh battery, and an 8-Mpixel camera. An Ice Cream Sandwich update is planned for the future.

Sony Xperia Ion (AT&T)

The first Sony smart phone, the Xperia Ion, offers a 4.6-in., 720- by 1280-pixel glass screen, LTE capabilities, 16 Gbytes of memory, and two HD cameras (12 Mpixels rear and 1.3 Mpixels front) that have shot-to-shot speeds of 0.9 seconds. It features a 1.5-GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that can handle music and video, as well as PlayStation games (Fig. 4). The current default operating system (OS) is Android 2.3, but Sony promises an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich within the next six months.

This phone also includes Sony’s Bravia Engine, which the company claims produces more accurate color and resolution reproduction, and thus provides the most accurate colors you can find on a smart phone. This has not been tested, but the company calls it the only Android smart phone designed specifically for color accuracy and depth.

HTC Titan II (AT&T)

The HTC Titan II is the first 16-Mpixel camera phone that can take pictures with a resolution of 4640 by 3840 pixels (Fig. 5). For the sake of comparison, Nikon recently announced the D4, a $6000 camera that shoots 16-Mpixel photos.

In addition to the amazing camera, this phone sports Windows Phone 7.5, LTE data speeds, a 4.7-in. screen, a single-core, 1.5-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 processor, 480- by 800-pixel screen resolution, a 720p camcorder, and 16 Gbytes of internal storage (with no memory card slot). The Titan II is expected to be released sometime in February.

Huawei Ascend P1 S (Carrier TBA)

Huawei’s Ascend P1 S already has replaced the Motorola Droid Razr as the world’s thinnest smart phone (Fig. 6). The Huawei device, from a brand not well known in the United States yet, is just 0.26 in. thick, which is two-hundredths of an inch thinner than the Razr.

In addition to appearance, the Ascend P1 S impresses in other ways, with a 4.3-in., 540- by 960-pixel Super AMOLED Gorilla Glass screen with a qHD (960 by 540) display, a 1.5-GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 dual-core processor, a pair of cameras, and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) preloaded. There’s no word on a carrier yet for this one, though. It is expected to be released in April.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx (Verizon)

Many users are claiming that the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is going to be the best Android smart phone yet. The Razr Maxx is much like the Motorola Razr, but with a dramatically boosted battery life with a 3300-mAh battery, the biggest of any smart phone today.

According to Motorola, this battery will provide 15 hours of video playback, six hours of continuous streaming video over LTE, 10 hours of constant GPS navigation, or 21.5 hours of continuous talk time (Fig. 7). To compensate for this change, all Motorola did was increase the thickness of the phone by 1.91 mm to 9 mm.

The phone contains the rest of the high-end parts already in the Droid Razr, making this a powerful, long-lasting smart phone. The Droid Razr Maxx will be released within the next few weeks.

ASUS Padfone (carrier TBA)

The ASUS Padfone was selected as a Best of Innovations honoree in the Wireless Handsets category at CES. This device is a 4.3-in. handset that neatly docks into a 10.1-in. tablet, transitioning its display seamlessly to the larger screen (Fig. 8). It’s an effective solution for users who don’t want to port around a phone and a tablet, and a nice feature is that the dock extends the phone’s battery. Insiders say that the Padfone sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and that it will run Ice Cream Sandwich when it is released sometime in 2012.

Fujitsu Arrows (carrier TBA)

Fujitsu unveiled the Arrows waterproof smart phone, a device just 6.7 mm thick (Fig. 9). The phone runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and is powered by a 1.4-GHz Snapdragon CPU. It sports a 4-in. AMOLED display made of Gorilla Glass as well as, a 5.11-Mpixel camera, and it uses handwriting recognition for input.

Nokia Lumia 900 (AT&T)

Winner of several Best of CES awards this year was the Nokia Lumia 900, Microsoft’s first major Windows Phone 7 device (Fig.10). This phone integrates LTE connectivity, the latest Mango OS, and a single-core 1.4-GHz CPU. The 4.3-in. ClearBlack AMOLED display offers a front-facing camera and a rear 8-Mpixel shooter with dual-LED flash and 28mm f/2.2