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Huawei's foldable phone will be revealed on February 24th
After years of buzz, we could finally see not one but two foldable phones launched this month. Huawei has taken to Twitter to announce an event at Mobile World Congress on February 24th at 2PM Barcelona time / 8AM ET, just days after Samsung's annual Unpacked festivities. The company revealed its plans to launch a foldable phone in 2019 last October. At the time, it said the device was undergoing fine-tuning, but the imminent launch indicates that Huawei may have smoothed out any wrinkles.
Microsoft might surprise us with HoloLens 2 next month
Microsoft has hinted it could reveal the long-awaited HoloLens 2 next month. It sent out invites to a press event taking place on February 24th, which CEO Satya Nadella, CVP Julia White and technical fellow Alex Kipman will host. Given the names involved, it seems Microsoft has something significant up its sleeve. Kipman is the creator of HoloLens, so his presence suggests Microsoft will have at least some news on the latest version of its mixed reality headset.
Samsung will launch the Galaxy S9 in February
You won't see Samsung's upcoming flagship phone before CES 2018 ends, but you won't have to wait that long to get a peek, either. DJ Koh, the Korean conglomerate's mobile chief, has announced at a press conference in Las Vegas that the company will launch the Galaxy S9 and S9+ at the Mobile World Congress. Samsung will also reveal when the phone will be available for purchase at the annual trade show, which will take place at the end of February in Barcelona, Spain.
Qualcomm's new fingerprint sensors work underwater
Hot on the heels of Apple's plans to reinvent its iPhone's fingerprint reader, Qualcomm looks set to position itself at the forefront of the fingerprint sensor market. It claims that it will be one of the first, if not the first, companies to produce under-display sensors. Unveiling its plans at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, the company revealed that its next-gen fingerprint sensors will use ultrasonic technology that can be fitted under displays, glass and metal, and can scan through OLED displays up to 1200um -- something we got to see in action for ourselves at Vivo's booth.
AI continued its world domination at Mobile World Congress
Silicon Valley investor and web pioneer Marc Andreessen said in 2011 that "software is eating the world." The explosion of app ecosystems seems to prove his point, but things have changed dramatically even since then. These days, it might be more accurate to say that "AI is fueling the software that's eating the world," but I've never been very quotable. In any case, it's impossible to ignore the normalization of artificial intelligence at this year's Mobile World Congress -- even if a resurrected 17-year-old phone did end up stealing the show.
The makers of the most stylish Windows Phone embraced Android
Last year, at CES, I fell hard for a chubby, round Windows Phone called the NuAns Neo. Who could blame me? The two most notable Windows Phones at the time -- the Lumia 950 and 950 XL -- were drab, unimaginative-looking slabs. The Neo, with its friendly design and swappable back plates, was quirky enough to give me the kind of frisson that comes with seeing something totally out of the ordinary. Alas, Trinity, the company behind the phone, tried and failed to launch the Neo around the world by way of a Kickstarter campaign. The demand just wasn't there. Feedback from potential buyers told Trinity CEO Tetsushi Hoshikawa that they would've backed the campaign -- or bought a Neo in Trinity's native Japan -- had it run Android instead. You can probably guess what Hoshikawa did next.
Meizu fires back at Oppo with its own high-speed phone charging
Last year, Oppo rolled into Mobile World Congress with what seemed like the fastest battery-charging tech in town. These days, the Chinese company is still eager to show off its impressive, periscope-inspired smartphone camera, but Meizu has been more than happy to pick up where Oppo left off. Now, in fairness, Meizu's Super mCharge isn't quite as fast as Oppo's SuperVOOC solution, but it's still damn fast. Specifically, it can take a 3,000mAh battery from zero to full in 20 minutes -- and it might be a little safer too.
Netflix learned how to stream good video on bad connections
This morning, a gaggle of journalists and I huddled around a table full of smartphones, watching a clip from Netflix's Stranger Things. There was plenty of grain and blockiness to be sure, but it was sufficiently -- even perfectly -- watchable. The kicker: That surprisingly decent video is what Netflix told us to expect on a 100 kilobit/second data connection. That's a fraction of a fraction of the LTE speeds we're used to in the US but something that's all too common in other parts of the world.
Motorola's Alexa mod is just the start of an important AI plan
Motorola might have lured people to its MWC press conference with the promise of new phones, but the real talking point came toward the end of the event. After hyping a pair of midrange devices and some fun Moto Mod concepts, the company confirmed that it's working with Amazon to bring Alexa to Moto phones. While the first steps of Motorola's Alexa partnership are now well-known, it's the stuff that Motorola later told Engadget about its plans that seems most exciting.
Oppo's clever, zooming dual camera was inspired by periscopes
The dual-camera craze is real at Mobile World Congress, but Oppo decided to break from the pack with its own, very clever implementation. Long story short: the company managed to build a 5x "lossless" zoom system for smartphones using two sensors and a zoom mechanism inspired by periscopes. The latter part is nothing new, of course: 'tis a feature which was once common on compact digital cameras, and ASUS even applied this to its ZenFone Zoom last year. Oppo's implementation, however, takes things up a notch.
The Xperia XZ Premium may be the 4K flagship we've been waiting for
After a mostly disappointing year of Sony smartphones (ahem, Xperia X and X Performance), the company might have just built its finest yet. Say hello to the Xperia XZ Premium, a high-performance sequel to last year's XZ that ticks just about every box on our list when it comes to flagship devices. The few things the XZ didn't exceed out early expectations on might be the device's undoing, but for now, Sony seems to have gotten enough right that we're willing to see where the XZ Premium takes us.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab S3 is basically another Note tablet
For the first time in what seems like ages, Samsung hasn't brought a flagship smartphone to Mobile World Congress. It seems like we'll have to wait until well after the show for our first look at the Galaxy S8, but at least we have a new Android tablet to fiddle with in the meantime. Surprising absolutely no one, it's called the Galaxy Tab S3, and, despite the name, it actually feels more like a plus-size Galaxy Note than a successor to the last-gen Tab S2.
Motorola and Amazon will bake Alexa into Moto Mods and phones
You just can't stop Alexa. According to Amazon and Motorola representatives here at Mobile World Congress, the two companies have teamed up to explore ways to bring Amazon's voice-controlled assistant onto Motorola hardware. Amazon's Jon Kirk took the stage at a press event to run through a very short concept video in which a Moto phone was connected to a Harman Kardon-made speaker Mod that doubled as an Amazon Echo.
The new Moto G5s trade fun colors for mature looks
When Lenovo/Motorola first revealed the 4th-generation Moto G and Moto G Plus last year, it did so at a surprisingly secretive launch event in India. That was probably just as well: They were perfectly decent mid-range phones that didn't excite the way earlier G's did. The swanky interior of the W Hotel in Barcelona seems to suit the new G5 and G5 Plus a little better. Lenovo still wanted to build a set of reasonably priced mid-range phones, but it's clear the company was angling to give the G series something of a premium makeover. This year is all about cleaner lines and metal bodies, but I wonder if the G5 and G5 Plus didn't lose a bit of character in the redesign.
BlackBerry's KEYone is an exciting return to form
With a global launch in the works and the hopes of diehards at an all-time high, the pressure was on BlackBerry and TCL to deliver on all that Mercury hype. We can't render an official verdict yet, but my gut tells me they're onto something. Say hello to the BlackBerry KEYone. Yes, "Mercury" was a better name, and yes, the capitalization is weirding me out too. No matter: Despite the nature of its creation, the KEYone feels like a pretty triumphant return to form for a brand in need of a boost.
All the smartphones we expect to see at MWC 2017
It's that time of year again. Barcelona, with its stunning architecture and succulent jamón, will soon be packed with new smartphones, tablets, wearables, networking gear, app developers and, well, tech journalists like us. By the time you're reading this, we'll already be on the ground in Spain, laying the foundation for a week of intense coverage. Read on for a rundown of what we expect to see as the show unfolds.
Samsung will showcase C-Lab's AR and VR projects at MWC
Samsung will exhibit four new augmented and virtual reality projects out of the C-Lab program at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. C-Lab or Creative Lab is the chaebol's in-house initiative that gives employees time off to work on their most innovative ideas. For instance, the first of the four exhibits is Relúmĭno -- a visual aid app for the Gear VR that can help visually impaired people watch TV and read again "with new levels of clarity." The app does that by enhancing visuals, repositioning images to get rid of blind spots and correcting images that appear distorted for people with metamorphopsia.
Huawei is launching its P10 flagship smartphone at MWC
Huawei has confirmed that it's debuting its upcoming flagship handset at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona through a mysterious video teaser. Unfortunately, it doesn't even show you a glimpse of the phone. What you do get are the words "Change the way the world sees you," along with a photo of a hashtag and two eyes. That could be a hint that the P10 will have dual cameras, just like the iPhone 7 and its own predecessor, the Huawei P9.
MWC Revisited: The most interesting wearables
Wearables failed to make much of a splash at MWC 2016. The category seemed to be an afterthought for many manufacturers -- such as HTC and Samsung -- which instead focused on smartphones and virtual reality products. Unlike in 2015, when we saw new smartwatches from Huawei, LG and others, Android Wear was mostly missing from this year's Barcelona show. Now, that's not to say the cause was completely lost, since there were a few wearables that grabbed our attention. Especially the one designed for cows, not people. Don't you agree?
MWC Revisited: The best phones in Barcelona this year
The booths have been dismantled, the bigwigs have boarded their planes and the doors have been closed. That's a wrap for Mobile World Congress 2016. Now that our team has had a chance to kick back and reflect on the mobile maelstrom we've just waded through, meet the four smartphones (in no particular order) that stole our hearts and stole the show.
