When people talk about the future of tech, you often hear the phrase, "We don't have a crystal ball." What we do have is tech expos, and sometimes they are much better than a dubious spherical quartz crystal.
In the past couple of days, we were able to get a glimpse of the future during the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And boy, oh boy, was it a crazy time. You might think that a titanium iPhone counts as innovation, but how about a laptop with a transparent screen, AR glasses that look like a fashion accessory and offer spatial computing, a hybrid satellite phone, a 28,000 mAh battery smartphone, working smart rings, a Xiaomi car, and a phone that you wrap around your wrist?
Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for a crazy ride. This is our MWC 2024 summary.
Before we get to the crazy stuff, we should mark a few important launches. Honor officially brought its Magic 6 Pro flagship worldwide, alongside a very cool Porsche Edition of the company's latest foldable.
The Magic 6 Pro impressed us a lot with its 5,600mAh silicon-carbon battery (scoring very high in our tests), super-bright screen, and very potent 180MP telephoto camera. You can check out our full review for more details. Also, the company teased a Porsche version of the Magic 6 as well, so stay tuned for some added luxury pretty soon.
Xiaomi 14 Ultra replaces the Pro version outside China
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra looks like a point and shoot camera with its accessories on
Xiaomi kind of caught us off guard with the launch of the 14 series. Everyone expected the usual Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Pro pair, but surprise, surprise—this year the Pro version is China-only, while the Ultra goes on a global tour.
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We shouldn't be disappointed, though, as the Ultra is much more differentiated than the vanilla Xiaomi 14. It comes with a Photography Grip accessory that not only adds some comfort mimicking poin-and-shoot cameras of old but also doubles as an extra 1,500 mAh battery with a physical shutter button. There's also a 67 mm adapter for standard camera filters to be mounted on the phone. Check out our Xiaomi 14 Ultra hands-on preview here.
OnePlus Watch 2 has two operating systems
The successor to the original OnePlus Watch
The original OnePlus Watch was pretty uninspiring and received a mixed reception when it launched a couple of years ago. Now, the OnePlus Watch 2 takes things to a much more exciting level because it features two operating systems you can switch between.
The idea is simple: for basic tasks, you default to the simple RTOS, while for more complex tasks, you enter Google's Wear OS4. To get a better idea of how this works in practice, check out our OnePlus Watch 2 Hands-on Preview.
Now, off to the futuristic stuff.
Xreal Air 2 Ultra AR glasses
The Xreal Air 2 Ultra glasses look rather cool
Xreal is a known player on the AR scene (we tested the Air 2 a couple of months ago), but at MWC, the company brought its latest prototype, the Xreal Air 2 Ultra. What's so different, you might ask? Spatial computing! Yes, the thing Apple boasts about with the Vision Pro. The only difference is that the Air 2 Ultra is priced at $699.
Okay, the experience might not be on the level of the Vision Pro, but still, the glasses offer three levels of pass-through via electrochromic dimming, 120Hz OLED displays, and 3D mapping, and the glasses are featherweight at just 80 grams. You can check out our Xreal Air 2 Ultra hands-on preview for a deep dive.
Motorola Adaptive Display
For those of you who want to wear their smartphone on the wrist
Last year, Motorola showed a cool rollable concept called the Moto Rizr. At this year's MWC, things got even crazier with a proof-of-concept called the Motorola Adaptive Display. Basically, it's a smartphone that you can wrap around your wrist.
We saw the concept in action with our own eyes, and even though it looks a bit strange and bulky, it could accelerate the adoption of smart gadgets with flexible screens (we've been waiting for those for ages, remember the Nubia Alpha bracelet?)
Now, this is only a concept at this point, and Motorola now has a couple of those tucked safely inside some super-secret lab, but fingers crossed we see more of the Rize and this Adaptive Display tech in the future. Check out the whole preview here.
We saw the Galaxy Ring (but literally, no hands-on)
The Galaxy Ring looks pretty... from a distance
It would've been oddly satisfying to take the recently announced Galaxy Ring for a spin, but it wasn't meant to be. We saw the device under glass and talked to the representatives on site, but sadly, no hands-on (it was more like "hands off" these rings!). We're not sure if the Galaxy Ring is actually ready for its debut, but it's all the hype these days.
Smart rings are not a completely new idea, most of you guys are probably well aware of the Oura ring, but Samsung will try to make these gadgets mainstream. There was another take on that technology at the MWC from a company called HiFuture, and you can buy one of their rings if you want to get a taste, but you'll have to wait a bit for the Galaxy Ring to arrive and kickstart the adoption.
Lenovo showed a transparent screen laptop
Lenovo Crystal concept laptop
Remember the Xperia Pureness? It was a strange phone with a transparent screen, and it launched 15 years ago. Now, the technology seems to have picked up pace and developed to the point where we could have a transparent laptop.
The concept is awe-inspiring, but the actual applications of such technology are a bit out there. Do we need smartphones with see-through screens? Probably not. But maybe in the future we could be able to turn our windows into smart interactive consoles without blocking all the light, and that's an interesting prospect, at least.
Xiaomi showed its SU7 Max car
Xiaomi SU7 Max
We've been hearing about the Xiaomi car for the past couple of months, and there it was, in all its glory. The sleek and stylish SU7 Max. Some say it resembles a Tesla, but for me, it reminds me of a Porsche Taycan.
This vehicle marks a very important point in history, where the tech and automotive industries start to meet and mingle. We've heard about the Sony and Honda partnership before, but to see the marriage of these two worlds in person is astonishing. The car can go from 0 to 60 in less than 3 seconds, and the base model will go on sale for as little as $40,000. Take that, Elon Musk!
Itching for a bigger battery? How about a 28 000 mAh smartphone?
Our batteries are stuck in the past, and it's a constant struggle to get a full day on a flagship smartphone. Well, if you're willing to do some physical exercises on a daily basis, you can get a 28 000 mAh P28K smartphone made by Energizer. This thing weighs 570 grams, so it's like doing biceps curls every time you take a call. But currently, that's the price for having a week of battery life.
There were other big-battery rugged phones around the expo, and for some people, this approach might work. We're much more excited about solid state batteries, though. Let's bring this tech to smartphones already!
Bonus: The Nothing Phone (2a) is real!
The Nothing Phone (2a) has a very distinct design
Carl Pei's new brainchild is called the Nothing Phone (2a), and it has been hyped like crazy in the past couple of weeks. We had the chance to see the phone (but not touch it), so we have a pretty good idea of its design... and nothing more. This model is supposed to be a more budget-friendly version of Nothing's regular phones (Google Pixel A-series anyone?), so we shouldn't expect a powerhouse.
The phone is on its way to our test lab, so stay tuned for a full review pretty soon. The full official reveal of the model will happen on March 5.
Final Thoughts
The Doogee flip phone is one of many
MWC has always been a huge and wild place for tech, and it's hard to even physically visit all the stands, as there are hundreds of them. We tried our best to give you a glimpse of the most interesting and important things at the fair.
A few closing thoughts. There were lots and lots of Galaxy Z Flip inspired phones, so expect more and more companies to come up with their own flip phone models. AR glasses are also on the rise, but we're not sure if the Vision Pro has something to do with that.
One big company I can't mention also shared off the record that its AR concept glasses aren't completely dead and there's a team working on them, so exciting times ahead! And of course, almost every big tech company is either utilizing or working on its own AI at the moment, as the OpenAI foundation seems to have opened the software Pandora box. So there's no going back from that.
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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