The Biggest Announcements from the Mobile World Congress

This year’s Mobile World Congress is running from 27 February to 3 March. These are the days that the show itself is open. Sunday 26 February was the big launch day and the devices below were launched that day.

Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy S8 wasn’t announced at MWC – that will be announced sometime in March – but Galaxy Tab S3 was launched a new Android tablet with an included S Pen stylus.

 Galaxy Book 2-in-1 tablets/laptops was also announced. The Galaxy Tab S3 has a 9.7-inch Super AMOLED display, while the Galaxy Book comes in two versions: a 10.6-inch TFT LCD model as well as a 12-inch Super AMOLED one. The Windows 10 devices come with a detachable keyboard to switch them between notebook and slates. They also come with Intel processors inside and can be used with an optional S Pen.

Samsung also unveiled a new version of the Gear VR headset which comes with a dedicated touchpad controller. This is also the company’s first Gear VR headset with a controller. There is a home button, volume rocker and back button, and then a trigger button is on the underside.

Nokia

The rumours about the Nokia 3310 were confirmed as an upgraded version of the device was unveiled. You can get more details about the device here.

HMD Global also announced three Android phones releasing under the Nokia name – The Nokia 3, 5 and 6. They come in 5, 5.2 and 5.5-inch screen sizes respectively.

 

LG

The successor of the modular G5, the G6 was unveiled.

The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, which is supported by 4GB of RAM. The rear camera is made up of two lenses with a 13-megapixel sensor. One of them is wide-angle. The LG G6 also has 5.7-inch (2,880 x 1,440 resolution), and an 18:9 screen aspect ratio – the first time this has been seen on a smartphone. It is also the first phone with Dolby Vision HDR support to offer better contrast and a wider colour gamut for video playback. The LG G6 runs Android 7.0 Nougat and has Google Assistant built in.

 

Sony

At the Sony MWC Press Conference, they announced four new phones – Xperia XZ Premium  Xperia XZs, Xperia XA1 Ultra and Xperia XA1.

The Xperia XZ Premium has a 5.5-inch 4K HDR display, 19-megapixel rear “Motion Eye” camera and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. It also features 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, along with water and dust proofing to a high standard.

The Sony Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra come with 5-inch and 6-inch displays respectively. The XA1 has a 720p screen while the XA1 Ultra comes with Full HD. They both have octa-core MediaTek processors and then 23mp rear camera.

The Sony Xperia XZs is an upgrade on the existing XZ and also features the Motion Eye camera and 4GB of RAM. It’s a 5.2-inch Full HD device, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and 2,900mAh battery.

 

Huawei

Huawei also announced the Huawei Watch 2, which runs on Android Wear 2.0 and comes in Classic and Sports formats. It also features GPS functionality, so you can go on a run without the need of a smartphone in your pocket. The company also unveiled the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus smartphones, with 5.1 and 5.5-inches respectively. They both run on the latest Kirin 960 octa-core processor.

Lenovo

The Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus were both launched. Both run Android 7.0 with Google Assistant.

The G5 has a 5-inch, full HD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage with a microSD card slot. The rear-facing 13MP camera has a f/2.0 aperture and autofocus; on the front is a 5MP wide-angle f/2.2. The battery is a sizeable 2800mAh.

The G5 Plus has a 5.2-inch screen, 2.0GHz Snapdragon 625 octa-core chip, 2GB or 4GB of RAM, 32GB of 64GB of internal storage and a microSD slot. The main camera is 12MP with an f/1.7 aperture. The front-facing camera is the same as the G5’s. On the inside is a 3000mAh battery.

 

Blackberry 

Apparently, Blackberry is not giving up as they landed their license to TLC. TLC used the 2017 Mobile World Congress, to showcase the BlackBerry Mercury as well as unveil the KEYone.

The KEYone has a 4.5-inch display (1620 x 1080 resolution/434 PPI) and combines a touch display with a physical keyboard “to give users more useable space for typing than a typical 5.5-inch all-touch smartphone.”

Elsewhere, the BlackBerry KEYone runs Android 7.1 and comes loaded with BlackBerry Hub, bringing all your messages into one consolidated place; including emails, texts and messages from any social media account.