Every February, Barcelona becomes a playing field not only for its iconic soccer club but also for several mobile phone companies that converge on the Spanish city for Mobile World Congress (MWC), one of the world’s biggest technology events. Masu. For the next few days, the city becomes the unofficial mobile capital of the world, with brands competing against each other to showcase their best and brightest products and ideas. MWC 2024 was no exception, with dozens of products, services and concepts being unveiled in Barcelona.
When the dust settled, the products that stood out from the rain of modern technology in Spain were:
Lenovo ThinkBook Transparent: see-through notebook
The coolest product seen in Barcelona this year wasn’t a mobile phone. It may not have actually made it to market, but it was so cool that people lined up to see it. This was Lenovo’s ThinkBook transparent notebook.
It’s pretty much a standard notebook, except for the 17.3-inch microLED display that’s crystal clear. When the pixel is off, the display is transparent, and when it is on, it is opaque. That’s not all. The notebook’s “keyboard” is also a touch surface where you can sketch and write if you want. Very cool, but what’s the practicality?
To be honest, it’s pretty limiting (why would anyone want to see the world through a notebook display in general?). However, you can literally see and sketch what is right in front of you. Also, when in transparent mode, the notebook can: Identify objects visible through that display.
The display resolution is also only 720p, which is far from the ultra-high resolution found on many notebooks. Lenovo has no plans to commercialize this product yet, but it certainly has a wow factor. However, as of this writing, it’s more a matter of style than content.
Motorola’s rollable concept phone: Rollable that shocked MWC
One of the most photographed devices at this year’s MWC was a cell phone that could be strapped to your wrist. This one comes from Motorola, and the company rather intricately called it a “rollable concept phone.” In its normal form, it looks like a run-of-the-mill candy bar Android smartphone with a touchscreen.
When you pick it up, you can see that the back is made of fabric. And because it can be bent. Bend the bottom part back to create a freestanding stand, or just wrap it around your wrist (you’ll need a magnetic band) to create a fairly wide smartwatch.
This is a fully rollable phone, unlike foldables, there are no creases. Motorola uses multiple batteries in the phone to ensure that the phone bends smoothly. Not much has been revealed about its hardware, and the phone remains strictly a concept at the time of writing. I hope that happens from scratch.
Xiaomi 14 Ultra: inside the leica
There was no doubt what was the most talked about phone in Barcelona. It was his Xiaomi 14 Ultra, which is extremely camera-centric from Xiaomi.
Like its predecessor, this model incorporates a touch of photographic goodness from none other than the legendary German Leica. The back of the phone houses the large circular camera unit that’s all the rage these days, led by a 1-inch sensor with an aperture that can be adjusted between f/f and a Leica-flavored He has four 50-megapixel cameras. 1.63 and f/4.0, two telephoto sensors and he is equipped with one ultra-wide sensor. However, it’s not just the numbers.
Featuring the same highly innovative Leica shooting modes and filters, there’s also a camera kit that includes a grip that adds a zoom lever and a two-stage shutter button, and doubles as a 1500mAh power bank.
These shooters pack amazing hardware, including a 6.73-inch Quad HD+ LTPO AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor with plenty of RAM and storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with support for 90W wired and 50W wireless charging. Also included. .
At £849 (over $1,000) it’s not cheap, but it definitely has what it takes to take on and defeat the iPhone/Galaxy S Ultra/Pixel hegemony in mobile photography.
Honor Magic 6 Pro: eyes have it
Honor has been returning to the smartphone spotlight since parting ways with Huawei a few years ago, and its Magic 6 Pro certainly turned heads in Barcelona.
The phone is one of the first to feature a silicon carbon battery, which Honor says is not only less heat-generating than traditional lithium-ion batteries, but also more environmentally friendly.
But what caught my eye (just kidding) was the phone’s eye-tracking interface, which allows you to interact with apps through your eye movements. This wizard is powered by a front-facing camera and lots of AI that recognizes where you’re looking and executes relevant commands.
Honor provided one of the show’s most memorable moments by showing how this feature is used to control a car.
There you’ll find a triple camera consisting of a 50-megapixel main sensor, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor, a huge 180-megapixel telephoto sensor, and a flagship with an impressive 6.78-inch Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor It has a lot of ship-level hardware. inch AMOLED display.
The spherical camera unit housed within a square box on the back gives this phone a very distinctive look, but it’s not the only highlight of this flagship model, which retails for £1,099. No, we don’t know if and when it will come to our shores.
OnePlus Watch 2: OnePlus is back so watch out
OnePlus has been relatively quiet in the watch space since the OnePlus Watch made headlines a few years ago, but it returned to the premium smartwatch space at MWC 2024 with the OnePlus Watch 2.
And in the best OnePlus tradition, the OnePlus Watch 2 is packed with attention-grabbing features. This watch has two processors and two operating systems. Google’s WearOS 4 handles more complex app-related tasks and features an RTOS (similar to the one found on the OG OnePlus Watch).
The idea behind this is to ensure that smartwatches can take advantage of the best of both worlds: the speed and long battery life of an RTOS, and the smarts of WearOS. OnePlus claims this will give the watch 100 hours of battery life. This is amazing by WearOS standards. It also has 32 GB of storage and GPS, heart rate and blood oxygen sensors.
It has a very classic analog watch design with a sapphire crystal cover and stainless steel chassis, and is IP68 dust and water resistant. Although it is more expensive than its predecessor at Rs 24,999, its dual-OS setup and battery life could challenge Apple and Samsung’s hegemony in the premium smartwatch zone.
samsung galaxy ring: The world finally got to see it
Samsung announced the wearable device “Galaxy Ring” at the Galaxy S24 series presentation in January, and many people saw it in action in Barcelona, and some even used it for a short time. Although not many details were revealed, there was a lot of buzz in the ring.
Samsung showcased the Galaxy Ring in Barcelona in three colors (gold, silver, and ceramic black) and nine size variations from 5 to 13. Although exact details were not revealed (for example, battery life and notification handling are still unknown), Samsung told some media outlets that it will support women’s menstrual cycle tracking, as well as support for women’s menstrual cycle tracking. Samsung said it will also feature a new health metric it calls “My Vitality Score,” which is based on sleep, activity, heart rate variability, and resting heart rate.
There’s also talk of integration with Samsung’s broader ecosystem, specifically the Galaxy S24 series and Galaxy Watch 6, and of course Galaxy AI will be heavily involved in that.
ZTE Nubia Flip: Pocket friendly and reversible
One of the biggest challenges facing foldable devices is the fact that most of them are very expensive. ZTE is trying to change that with the Nubia Flip. With a starting price of $599, it’s one of the most affordable flip phones on the market.
And while it doesn’t boast flagship specs (it’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip), it has a colorful 1.43-inch external display and a 6.9-inch internal display that’s likely to appeal to many users. Comes with a sophisticated design. OLED display.
Dual 50-megapixel cameras handle the primary photography, while a 16-megapixel camera handles selfies from the internal display. It also has a 4310 mAh battery with support for 33W charging. ZTE is positioning the Nubia Flip as a portable and stylish alternative for younger users.
Only time will tell if it will be successful, but for now we are reversing at its cost.