Neonode's Pint-Sized Phone U.S.-Bound

Weighing in at a hair over two ounces and small enough to snap onto a key ring, the N2 has to be one of the smallest handsets I've ever laid eyes on, yet it packs in a touch screen, a 2-megapixel camera, and full-on music and video playback.

The N2 has been available in Europe for about six months now, but Neonode reps say it'll be making landfall in the United States sometime this year. I got a little hands-on time here at CES, and it's an impressive little package. The featherweight N2 easily fits in a pocket (and a small pocket, at that), and its rubberized shell feels pretty tough. You swipe the screen vertically or horizontally (little lines of arrows on the display show you where to do so) to navigate the various menus; it takes a little getting used to, but within a few minutes, I was zipping around the N2's screens with ease. I also liked that the buzzing haptic feedback you get with each "key" press. If you don't want to bother with the touch screen, there's always the four-way navigational stick just below the screen.

The quad-band GSM N2 lacks 3G or even EDGE data capabilities, so don't expect speedy web surfing or streaming video, but it scores with its full-featured music and video player. I tried a few videos on the N2, and they looked impressively sharp and vivid, considering the size of the screen. Even better: MPEG-4, DivX, and XviD video formats are supported, and miniSD memory expansion is good for a few gigabytes of memory.

All in all, it's pretty cool, but the N2 may not come cheap; it sells in Europe for about 350 to 400 euros, and I'm told the pricing for an unlocked U.S. version would likely fall in the same range—ouch.