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Making sense of the 5G phones at Mobile World Congress 2019
After years of talk, the era of 5G is finally upon us. This time around, you couldn't take more than a few steps on the MWC show floor without bumping into someone driving a delivery truck via 5G, or seeing a man remotely directing a surgery across town thanks to 5G's ultra-low latency. (In case you hadn't heard, MWC is weird.) For most of us though, 5G just means faster data for our smartphones, so we wanted to take a moment to dig into what the 5G phones we found in Barcelona really bring to the table.
MWC's folding fetish in seven GIFs
Besides whole new families of phones, the evolution of augmented reality and the true start of 5G networks and devices, you couldn't escape the folding phone. MWC went so hard on the old folding device trend, we began to see them even where they didn't exist.
Our favorite smartphones from Mobile World Congress 2019
The last week has been a whirlwind of jamón-flavored chips, 5G talk and things that fold, so naturally, we're still reeling a bit. As we begin pulling ourselves out of this trade show-induced stupor, though, we've taken stock of everything we've seen in Barcelona and compiled this list of our favorite smartphones from the show floor. Not everything that made the cut will be a massive success, or go on sale around the world -- still, because of the ambition and ingenuity that went into each of these devices, each is worth celebrating in its own way.
The final dispatch from MWC 2019
All the phones have been powered down here in Barcelona. Some have even been folded up to make the journey home. After a week's worth of flagships, foldables and 5G, we're departing MWC with a good idea of what the immediate future of phones looks like. We covered a lot of news over the last few days, and it's understandable if you didn't catch all of it. Here are the biggest stories from the show.
The five-camera Nokia 9 PureView hits the US March 3rd
HMD Global isn't wasting much time with the Nokia 9 PureView. While it just announced the phone, which has five rear cameras, a few days ago at Mobile World Congress, it will start selling the handset in the US March 3rd. If you're interested, it might be best to act quickly as the PureView will cost you $599 to begin with, but that jumps to $699 March 11th.
I drove an autonomous delivery truck from 1,200 miles away
With all the talk of 5G phones at MWC this week, it's easy to forget about the practical uses for the public, enterprise and more. Applications across a range of industries are on display in Barcelona, and one of the most interesting is from Einride. The Swedish company has already made headlines for its T-pod autonomous, and all-electric, delivery truck. Einride later revealed the T-log, a version of the T-pod, but as the name suggests, a model designed for logging. Here in Barcelona, the company is showing off a new setup for the first time: a system that allows someone to operate the T-pod truck remotely over 5G. And in this particular case, from over a thousand miles away.
HTC's Exodus smartphone is about much more than Bitcoin
'A blockchain phone? But why?' That was my first reaction when I read about the HTC Exodus last year. It felt like a wild, foolish bet from a company that's struggling for sales and relevancy in the mobile space. But then I spoke with Phil Chen, the company's "Decentralized Chief Officer." I'm still skeptical of the product's commercial viability, but I have a better idea of what the Taiwanese manufacturer is trying to achieve. It might sound silly and ill-conceived, but HTC genuinely wants to improve society with this phone.
Nreal's mixed reality glasses can be powered by a 5G phone
Can 'mixed reality' glasses ever go mainstream? Nreal certainly thinks so. The company is pushing ahead with Light, a pair of "ready-to-wear" spectacles that project immersive videos, games and characters into your field of vision. Back at CES, we used the glasses while they were attached to a small, clip-on computing unit called 'Toast' (apparently it looks like a toaster?) Now, the company is showing how the smart glasses can work with a 5G-enabled, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855-powered smartphone instead. That means, in theory, the company can offer a cheaper Light at launch that doesn't require you to carry an extra gadget in your pocket.
Motorola confirms its foldable phone is coming
By now, it's not much of a secret that Motorola is working on a folding phone of its own: A patent for such a device surfaced late last year, and a subsequent report in The Wall Street Journal basically confirmed the company's plans. Despite the ensuing hype, Motorola has mostly kept quiet about its progress, but in an interview with Engadget this week, Motorola VP of Global Product Dan Dery shed some additional light on the company's ambitions.
The F(x)tec Pro 1 is a love letter to your old QWERTY keyboard phones
If you're a geek of a certain age, you probably had some kind of phone with a physical keyboard. For me, it was the BlackBerry Tour. For my younger sister, it was the magnificently chunky Motorola CLIQ. And for F(x)tec co-founder Liangchen Chen, it was the Nokia N900.
Hills can't stop this all-wheel-drive robot lawn mower
Robotic lawn mowers aren't a recent development, but they're still far from common, at least in the US. This week at MWC, Husqvarna announced its first all-wheel drive (AWD) option with the 435X. In addition to some other unique features, this new Automower works with Amazon's Alexa and Google Home to fit in with the rest of your smart home devices. And yes, the integration with virtual assistants means you can control the robotic landscaper with your voice.
Comparing the Galaxy S10+ and the Xperia 1 to the iPhone XS Max
Folding phones aren't the only big displays you'll see at this year's Mobile World Congress. Plenty of traditional, non-bendy devices have graced the show floor this year, with screens far past six inches — we're long past the days when handsets like the Galaxy Note were anomalies. This year's S10+ is certainly a contender in size, but Sony won't be left behind thanks to its super tall Xperia 1. These two flagships are entering a race that the iPhone XS Max is already in thanks to its 6.5-inch screen, though the addition of triple rear cameras will certainly help the newcomers' chances. For the full skinny on how this competition will shake out, you'll have to wait for our reviews of the new Samsung and Sony handsets in the coming weeks, but for now check out our handy spec table to see how the early numbers stack up.
Ultra-fast USB 3.2 is coming to desktop PCs in 2019
The speedy USB 3.2 format has technically been ready for the better part of two years, but it's finally ready for a PC near you. The USB-IF standards body has revealed that 3.2-capable controllers will be available later in 2019, hinting that you'll see it in desktop PCs (where dedicated controllers are most common). To put it another way, you could buy a gaming rig or workstation that handles 20Gbps speeds through a very ordinary port.
Comparing the Galaxy S10, Nokia 9 and LG G8: Cameras galore
So we're more than neck deep into Mobile World Congress, and our hands-ons have been coming pretty fast and furious. Though you'll have to wait a bit to see our full reviews of the latest flagships from companies like Samsung and LG, we can always take a peek at the specs to see how they stack up against each other. Here we're looking at some of the smaller flagships — though when you're pushing six inches and up, small is relative. Check out the table to see all the key specs of the Galaxy S10, the Nokia 9 and the LG G8 — for starters, between three phones we've got 11 rear shooters alone!
The 5G Galaxy S10 is coming to South Korea first in April
MWC attendees were among the first in the world to get their hands on Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G, but some of the company's biggest fans won't have to wait too much longer to buy one. The company has already publicly said that its 5G flagship would go on sale in Q2, but people familiar with the matter provided Engadget with a little more insight: In Korea at least, the S10 5G will go on sale in April.
How KaiOS claimed the third-place mobile crown
In December 2015, Mozilla announced it would be abandoning Firefox OS as a smartphone platform. Many assumed the company's withdrawal would kill any hope of a mobile operating system built around the open web, rather than a combination of native apps and tightly-controlled storefronts. In the last few years, plenty of "alternative" smartphone platforms, including Ubuntu Touch and Windows 10 Mobile, have faded into obscurity, too. Jolla has struggled on with Sailfish OS, but it's never felt like a true challenger to the Android and iOS duopoly. Three years later, a surprising competitor has emerged: KaiOS. The relative newcomer, which makes feature phones smarter, is already running on more than 80 million devices worldwide. How did it grow so big, so quickly? With a little help from Firefox OS.
Dispatches from MWC: Six things that don't fold
Did you hear? They're making foldable phones now! Yes, it's the unavoidable bendy trend of the show for sure, but there's plenty more going on here in Barcelona, and we've summed it all up here to provide some respite from our foldable future.
Comparing the Galaxy Fold, the Huawei Mate X and the Royole FlexPai
Over the past few years, new handsets haven't had a lot to distinguish themselves from the competition. We've seen more powerful cameras and larger screens, but the basic design has been a bit stuck. However, in the past week both Samsung and Huawei have showcased bendable devices that can unfold from pocket-size into a larger tablet-like screen. And companies like Oppo and TCL are also showing off their own concepts, though those are only prototypes for now. In terms of what you'll be able to buy soon, we've taken the incoming Galaxy Fold and Mate X and faced them off against the only folding phone that's made it to market so far: the Royole FlexPai. There's a lot more than just those eye-watering prices to take a look at below.
Energizer's big battery smartphone is almost three iPhones thick
Energizer has teased a huge array of smartphones for a while. The company that makes the devices, Avenir Telecom, has used that branding to showcase dummy phone models at MWC with stupidly-high capacity batteries several times but I never got to see one of them working. That is, until this chunky azure thing showed up. The P18K Pop (as it's known) is probably thicker than any battery pack you currently own. It's basically an 18,000mAH battery with a smartphone stuck on it.
HTC's Vive Focus Plus is a business-ready VR bundle
Oculus Quest is coming. The all-in-one VR headset, which is due this spring for $399, represents a major threat to HTC and its expanding Vive business. So how is the company responding? With a new headset bundle, of course. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, I was able to try a brief demo with the newly-announced Vive Focus Plus. The headset is near-identical to the Vive Focus that came out in 2017, however the controllers are much improved and promise similar immersion to the Vive Pro.
