It’s not the best of times to buy a phone, and that’s because we’re absolutely swamped with new ones. Lots of phones. Flagship phones. 5G phones. A few more foldable phones if we’re lucky. That’s because it’s MWC 2019, this year’s edition of the annual phone show formerly known as Mobile World Congress.
Now we've had most of the official press conferences, we've seen new folding phones from Samsung and Huawei, a phone with five cameras from Nokia and the HoloLens 2 from Microsoft. Read on for a breakdown of what we've so far.
Huawei
Firstly, something we didn't see at Huawei's MWC conference on Sunday, February 24: the Huawei Mate P30 and P30 Pro are confirmed to launch at an event in Paris on March 26.
Who cares about those, though, because by far the splashiest announcement was Huawei's foldable phone, the Huawei Mate X. The front screen is a 6.6-inch display with a 6.3-inch display on the back but, of course, they fold out into a FullView, 8-inch 2480 x 2200 screen. So the displays are always on the outside - scratch much? But Huawei, in fairness, has built a case to protect it. Note: there's also a curved panel that juts out from one edge which houses the Leica front/rear camera etc - so it won't lie flat as a tablet.
It's 5G and there's a two-in-one power and fingerprint button on the side. Huawei say it has been working on the hinge for three years and that's there's no gap (like the Galaxy Fold) thanks to a patented hinge with over 100 components inside. It's also 5.4mm thick versus the Galaxy Fold's 6.9mm and 11mm thick when closed, versus the Fold's 17mm. Basically Huawei seems to have trounced Samsung on this front.
For multi-tasking, you can have side by side browsing in two tabs or view two apps at once - Samsung had three. There's a dual, 4,500 mAh battery with 55W fast charging and dual SIM card slots.
We haven't seen it up close yet but it looked slim, slick and durable on stage - Huawei CEO Richard Yu was really prodding it around. One reservation - it does look a little plasticky. It's €2,299 which gets you 512GB of storage - that's a couple of hundred euros more than Samsung - and it will be available in the "middle of 2019".
Out of the way at the top of the conference, Huawei also used the show to launch a 2019 upgrade to its MateBook X Pro laptop with a 3K touchscreen, a recessed camera in the keyboard, Huawei Share OneHop (which works well when transferring photos, videos etc between Huawei phones, tablets and laptops) and a OneTouch fingerprint power button. The MateBook X Pro runs on an 8th-gen Intel Core processor with a Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics card, Thunderbolt 3 and 13 hours video playback.
Rounding out the range, Huawei announced MateBook 13 and MateBook 14 laptops. The MateBook 13 will be on sale at the end of February, the MateBook X Pro and 14 will be later, in April.
Samsung Unpacked 2019
We're not sure what more Samsung could have done to try to overshadow MWC at its big Unpacked events in San Francisco and London last week. To be honest, it's has been matched in everything it announced in a matter of days. But regardless, DJ Koh is still probably pretty smug he got there first.
Most of all with the Samsung Galaxy Fold, the first mainstream, foldable smartphone. Based on flexible display tech that has been in development at Samsung for over a decade, the Galaxy Fold is a €2,000 phone-tablet hybrid that has a slightly retro-looking 4.6-inch display on the front of the device and a folding, 7.3-inch AMOLED display inside. Samsung hasn't permitted any journalists to see the device up close, though, and it's not on sale until end of April in the US, beginning of May in Europe.
Up for pre-order now and on sale much sooner, on March 8 - the Samsung Galaxy S10 series, which consists of the 6.1-inch Galaxy S10, the 6.4-inch Galaxy S10 Plus and the more compact 5.8-inch S10E. They arrive with the first OLED punch-hole displays, ultrasonic, in-display fingerprint sensors and on the S10 and S10 Plus, you get a rear camera setup of a main 12-megapixel camera with variable (f/1.5/2.4) aperture plus a 12-megapixel zoom and 16-megapixel ultra-wide (123 degrees) lens. The cheaper S10E has slightly reduced features, with two rear camera lenses instead of three, and the S10 Plus comes in a 1TB ceramic model.
Also announced at Samsung’s pre-MWC event: a pair of wireless Galaxy Buds, a new Samsung Galaxy Watch Active smartwatch and two Galaxy Fit fitness trackers. Oh, and a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G with a 6.7-inch screen and big 4,500mAh battery, that Samsung predicts will be released in the summer.
Xiaomi
Xiaomi is at MWC for the first time this year and it held one of the first press conferences on Sunday, February 24. We now know that the flagship Xiaomi Mi 9 (above), announced in China last week, will launch in the UK and Europe on February 28 and it could well be the first Xiaomi phone you consider. In Europe it will cost €449 for 64GB and €499 for 128GB - there's no UK price yet but a Xiaomi rep told us it will be competitive with rival phones from Huawei and OnePlus.
It will arrive with iridescent 'piano black', 'lavender violet' and 'ocean blue' finishes, that are more subtle than Huawei's, but you'll have to wait for the eye-catching, faux-Transparent edition as we saw on its predecessor, the Mi 8. Hardware includes a new AI triple rear camera setup made up of a 48-megapixel main Sony sensor, a 16MP super wide-angle lens and a 12MP with telephoto 2x zoom, a Snapdragon 855 processor and 6 or 12GB of RAM.
The screen is a 6.39-inch AMOLED (made by Samsung) that's the same display as on the Mi Mix 3. A small teardrop notch is an improvement on the larger notch on the Mi 8 and there's an improved in-display fingerprint sensor. It fits a larger screen into a smaller, body than the Mi 8 that's 7.61mm thick and weighs 173g. In our hands on time with it, we found that the new, rounded edges on the back make it noticeably more comfortable to hold. The Mi 9 will have fast 20W wireless charging so you can charge the 3,300mAh battery to full in 90 minutes; with wired you can get to 70 per cent in 30 minutes.
We also got news of its first 5G phone, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G, which is going on sale in May for €599 - that's €100 over the regular device. It's working with 3, Vodafone and Orange Spain, but what's impressive here is that, unlike Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G, it looks to be fairly similar to the Mi Mix 3 with a 6.39-inch, 2340 x 1080 display, and magnetic slider design, just with a spec boost, thanks to the Snapdragon 855. That said, in the hand, it is admittedly quite chunky. No word on battery life yet but the battery is a 3,800mAh unit.
Xiaomi talked about everything else it's doing in Europe too. As well as smart-home partnerships with Ikea and Philips, it has a new €20 Mi LED Smart Bulb that works with the Mi Home app, Alexa and Google Assistant, with Apple HomeKit support coming later this spring. Xiaomi also says it sold over 560,000 of its Mi Electric Scooters, which are available in cities including London and Milan, in 2018. Not bad.
Microsoft
Microsoft made an unusually significant appearance at MWC this year. Its CEO Satya Nadella was in Barcelona, hosting an event on Sunday, February 24 with corporate vice president Julia White and Microsoft technical fellow/HoloLens inventor Alex Kipman.
And, as you'd expect with Kipman on the line-up, the HoloLens 2 was the headline product launch. Microsoft says the new device has more than double the field of view of the original and kept 47 pixels per degree of sight - so essentially it's corrected for the major flaw of the first HoloLens. Kipman said that Microsoft invented a new MEMS display and that the comparison to the first HoloLens would be like going "from 720p to 2K for both of your eyes".
As well as voice controls, there's eye tracking and articulated hand tracking with pinch sliders and holographic objects that react to your 'touch' or follow you around the room if you ask them to. As well as a couple of fun demos - playing the piano in mixed reality and whatnot - though, the focus was squarely on how the headset can be used in construction, healthcare, manufacturing, virtual meetings etc. There was even a 2-in-1 HoloLens and hard hat from Trimble though, unsurprisingly, not a word on contentious military contracts.
It's also reportedly more comfortable, so much in fact that it "floats" on your head with a carbon fibre front enclosure and iris authentication thrown in for good measure. The HoloLens 2 is up for pre-order now for $3,500 or $125 a month.
Nokia
The Nokia 9 PureView is one of the most interesting new phones from MWC. It uses technology from the Light L16 camera, released in 2018.
Five sensors are positioned across its back, and all five fire at least once whenever you take a photo. It’s almost the opposite approach to most rivals, which use a single camera with multiple exposures, and make up the difference with software. The Nokia 9 PureView is a high-end phone but, at $699, is far from the most expensive around.
Other new Nokia phones at the show are more conventional. The Nokia 4.2 is an upper-entry-level phone with glass front and back, and a starting price of $169. It has dual rear cameras, the primary a 13-megapixel sensor and the screen is 5.71 inches across.
The Nokia 3.2 is a little cheaper, starting at $139, and has a larger 6.2-inch screen but a plastic casing. These phones are a continuation of the Nokia strategy of catering for a real mass market audience. There’s also a new feature phone, the Nokia 210, at $35.
Vivo
Chinese phone brand Vivo got in early with a pre-MWC announcement of its new mid-range phone, the V15 Pro, which promises high-end features.
It has a pop-up 32-megapixel selfie camera which means an almost bezelless 6.4-inch OLED display (sans notch) and there's also an in-display fingerprint sensor, a 3,700mAh battery, 128GB of storage and three rear cameras. In other words, this is the new mid-range. The V15 Pro is launching in India, where it will be on sale for Rs28,990 (the equivalent to just over $400) with no further global availability announced as yet.
Sony
Sony is showing no signs of quitting the phone business. It's out at MWC with new devices, which includes its new flagship phone, the Xperia 1.
The Xperia 1, together with the new Xperia 10 and 10 Plus, all arrive with tall screens with "cinematic" 21:9 aspect ratios. The flagship Xperia 1 has a 6.5-inch 4K HDR OLED screen, a metal body and a 3,300 mAh battery with fast charging.
Eschewing the trend for 48-megapixels and the like, found on rival phones with Sony sensors, here Sony has opted for three 12-megapixel cameras on the rear (wide-angle, super-wide and telephoto) with extra DSLR-like features like Eye AF. It will run on the Snapdragon 855 processor with Android Pie, shipping is set for late spring.
In our hands ons, we found the fresh batch of Sony phones to be nicely built and more ergonomic than the old Xperia slabs. But it's a good job Sony has included software tweaks to help you use the phones one-handed.
LG
Another tech company that is vying to stay relevant in smartphones is LG. The LG G8 ThinQ is nice and wacky - the 6.1-inch Crystal Sound OLED screen doubles up as a speaker, a time of flight depth sensor that can scan your palm and track hand gestures - the latter giving us a case of smartphone deja vu.
Its 5G phone - everyone has to have one this year, it seems - is the LG V50 ThinQ which comes with a 6.4-inch OLED screen, Snapdragon 855, the same three camera setup as the V40 and a big 4,000 mAh battery. Continuing the crazy it also has a flip cover case... with an extra 6.2-inch 1080 x 2060 screen inside, powered by the V50's battery. Well, it does technically fold.
As a pre-MWC bonus, LG announced three mid-range phones, the LG Q60, LG K50 and LG K40. LG hasn't specified prices yet but the Q60 and K50 have 6.26-inch displays with teardrop notches, 3,500 mAh batteries, a fingerprint sensor and a Google Assistant button. The Q60 also has three rear cameras: 16MP, 5MP super wide-angle and a 2MP depth sensor.
HTC
HTC launched a 5G Mobile Hub at MWC. It runs Android, has a 5-inch display and can act as a hotspot to connect up to 20 devices to 5G (or 4G). HTC's working with networks including Three and EE and the Hub's coming in Q2, which means it should be on sale by June at the latest.
HTC's CEO Cher Wang gave a MWC keynote about 5G, VR/AR, artificial intelligence and blockchain, reminding everyone, in case you'd forgotten, that HTC has a blockchain phone, the HTC Exodus 1.
Elsewhere, another headset launch for this year's show comes in the form of the Vive Focus Plus, HTC's refreshed standalone VR headset for enterprise.
New for this device, there's dual 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) controllers, design tweaks to make it more comfortable to wear and device management features. As with the Vive Focus, it's a 3K AMOLED screen. The Vive Focus Plus will go on sale later this year, in Q2, and will be at MWC alongside the more exciting, eye-tracking Vive Pro Eye that we demoed at CES.
Honor
Huawei sub-brand Honor recently unveiled the Honor View 20 in Paris in January, though, so we didn't see another big hardware announcement. Honor confirmed that the View 20 will support Fortnite gameplay at 60fps with an in-game refresh rate of 60Hz so that tie-in, and the exclusive Honor Guard Fortnite skin also got a mention at MWC. Honor's calling the upgrade Gaming+ and it includes a increase in GPU efficiency and AI loading predictions. It also announced new AR apps to make use of the View 20's 3D time of flight camera.
Oppo
Chinese smartphone maker Oppo’s event was one of the first on the schedule, on Saturday February 23. Following its official launch in the UK and with big plans for Europe and the unveiling of a prototype Find X 5G, Oppo presented its first 5G smartphone. We don't know much about it yet - including the name - apart from that it will be powered by a Snapdragon 855 chip and MWC demos will include 8K video downloads, cloud gaming and multiplayer AR/VR gaming.
Oppo also showed off its 10x 'lossless zoom' smartphone camera at MWC with a promise that it will appear in a real phone this spring. And lo and behold, Oppo VP Brian Shen posted a video on Weibo on the first official day of MWC, showing a folding phone prototype that follows the same form factor as the Huawei Mate X. Don't expect to see it on sale soon though; Oppo VP Alen Wu told us that Oppo is waiting to see what "pain points" foldable phones solve before building devices using this tech.
ZTE
From ZTE, the expected Axon 10 Pro 5G, which is its new flagship, coming to Europe and China in the first half of 2019. It's all pretty standard: 6.47-inch display with teardrop notch, three rear cameras, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 and X50 5G modem. ZTE also announced a couple of more affordable phones, the ZTE Blade V10 and Blade V10 Vita.
Under its Nubia line, there's also a crazy smartwatch/smart bracelet hybrid with a wraparound display. The Nubia Alpha was first shown off at IFA last year but it's not a real product, updated for 2019. The impressive screen is a 4-inch, flexible OLED and there's @550 eSim and LTE or @450 Bluetooth and Wi-Fi models to choose from. Throw in a 5MP camera for stills and video calls, and stainless steel and 18k gold finishes and you've got one of the strangest - and, to be honest, ugliest - devices we've seen at the show. The Nubia Alpha will launch in China first, then Europe and the US later this year.
Lenovo
Lenovo announced a lot of tablets, laptops and PCs at MWC. A lot. The 2019 line-up includes a bunch of new ThinkPads, two 14w and 14e Chromebooks, a couple of pairs of X1 and Yoga ANC headphones, the phone-tablet hybrid Tab V7 (with a 6.9-inch screen), upgraded IdeaPad laptops, including the convertible C340 for sketching and typing, and a new IdeaCentre all-in-one PC.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
