(Credit: Eric Zeman)
If you want to see the absolute latest in mobile technology, you go to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It's the biggest mobile event in the world, and PCMag is there for the entirety of it, Feb. 26-29.
Thus far we've seen a lot that has intrigued us. While some of it is standard, like upgrades on popular phones, there's also plenty of gear that pushes the boundaries of what mobile technology can be. We're talking laptops with transparent screens, phones that wrap around your wrist, and even electric vehicles.
To give you a taste of what the show has to offer this year, we've put together this list of the, coolest, craziest, and most exciting tech stuff on display. Enjoy!
Lenovo's Project Crystal
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)You see clear screens all the time in sci-fi TV shows and films—all the better to see everything in the mad scientist’s laboratory, of course. The practicality of an utterly translucent screen may soon be put to the test. At Mobile World Congress, Lenovo showed off a ThinkPad with just such a screen. It’s entirely experimental—a proof of concept that may never, ever come to market. The 17.3-inch micro LED screen sandwiched between glass may never be practical for most people, but it sure does look amazing. Hollywood will be watching, no doubt. We have a full preview.
TCL 50 XL Nxtpaper 5G
(Credit: Eric Zeman)TCL made its bones in the world of affordable televisions in the US market. It’s been trying to do the same with phones, and it's Nxtpaper technology seems like it could be a game changer. The Nxtpaper 3.0 tech at the core of the screen is like a mix of ereader-ink with high-refresh full color. There’s no reflection off the matte surface of the screen. and you can’t even get it to shine in full sun, making it visible no matter what the conditions. The rest of the phone's specs are pretty nice, too. For more, read our full report.
Motorola Bendy Phone
(Credit: Eric Zeman)Forget the flip—what about a phone that wraps around your wrist? Motorola's latest concept phone does just that and takes slap bracelets further than you ever dreamed. This phone has a full HD OLED panel that can encircle a wrist, either as is or secured with a magnetic bracelet. The phone has a fabric back, and while not every feature works while the phone is in the C shape it forms around your wrist, it can still run select apps while bent. There’s no word on if this phone will actually make it to market but as one of the most wearable wearables we’ve seen, we’d like it to.
Xiaomi SU7 Max EV
(Credit: Eric Zeman)Xiaomi made a splash at MWC by entering the electric car market with a bright blue SU7 Max EV that’s a direct competitor to the Tesla Model 3. The car has swooping curves that spectacularly show off its chlorine-soaked hue which in turn is set off by bright yellow brake calipers that advertise its speediness (it goes from 1 to 100 km/h in 2.78 seconds, according to Xiaomi). While the company did not provide many details and PCMag didn’t get to test or sit in the car, we’re eager to see where this effort goes, particularly when it comes to its promised integration with smart devices.
Samsung Galaxy Ring
(Credit: Eric Zeman)Smart rings used to be a lot more visually and conceptually interesting (we miss you Ringly) but the industry seems to have settled on basic bands that monitor health. While the Oura dominates, Samsung is now leveraging its considerable health tracker experience into the Galaxy Ring. It showed simple bands in silver and gold that will measure pulse, body temperature, and more. No word yet on an exact release date, though Samsung said to expect them sometime this year.
ZTE Nubia Flip 5G Phone
(Credit: Eric Zeman)ZTE introduced its Nubia Flip 5G as "the first flip smartphone for young people" and we're not sure if that's because of its $599 starting price or the current craze for all things '90s. Either way, a flip phone always gets us, particularly one that promises to be "wrinkleless" when open (PCMag hasn't tested that claim). While the phone is a bit chunky, it's cute, and we appreciate that it's also wallet-friendly. There's no launch date yet, but the phone will be available in available in Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, you won't be able to buy it in the United States because the brand is on the ban list.
Lenovo ThinkPad T Series Laptop Repair Improvements
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)The big money for a company like Lenovo is selling laptops in bulk to businesses. That’s where the ThinkPad T shines. But that also means the system needs easy repair options. Lenovo teamed with iFixit to come up with such a solution for extended sustainability for the T14 and T16 models in particular. The outsides have some nice updates, but it's what’s inside that counts. Changes that have iFixit now grading the models as a 9.3 out of 10 for repairability. Easier fixes include swapping out a keyboard using just two screws, better markings for things like the reset pinhole, no specialty tools necessary, and most importantly, full access to the guts when needed for repairs or upgrades.
Honor Magic V2
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)We first saw this phone at IFA last year, and going into MWC 2024 it remains the thinnest option in the world of folding handsets (even if that does include a camera bump). Magic V2 is only 0.39 inches thick when folded—that’s less than a centimeter. Even the Pixel Fold is half an inch thick folded. It can also handle, according to Honor, 400,000 folds in its lifetime. You’d have to open your phone 1,095 times per day to hit that in a year. But you don’t need to, because it has an external OLED screen as well.
OnePlus Watch 2
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)Most smart watches can only last a day or two on a single charge, but OnePlus’s latest model—the OnePlus Watch 2—kicks that up to 4 days with some seriously clever software architecture. Much like a hybrid car that uses gas in certain situations and electric power in others, the OnePlus Watch 2 uses two different operating systems to save power. In our independent tests, it outlasted Google’s Pixel Watch 2 and the Apple Watch Series 9 by a wide margin, going a whopping 102 hours before it needed charging.
Xiaomi 14 Ultra
(Credit: Xiaomi)If you think phones like the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy 24 Ultra have a ridiculous amount of lenses on their cameras, then just wait until you see the latest flagship phone from Xiaomi. This monster features a four-lens camera system from Leica that boasts not one but two telephoto lenses. Along with the new 1-inch-type Sony LYT-900 sensor, it’s poised to be one of the best camera phones of the year.
ZTE Nubia Pad 3D II
(Credit: Eric Zeman)3D phones and tablets never really caught on back when they were first introduced in the early 2010s, but ZTE is hoping to breathe new life into the concept with the new Nubia Pad 3D II: A glasses-free 3D tablet that takes an interesting approach to displaying three dimensional content. Whereas earlier devices could only display 3D content if the content was shot in 3D, the Nubia Pad can take just about anything on your screen—including 2D images and video—and use AI to instantly render it 3D. According to PCMag’s Mobile Editor Eric Zeman, the effect is “quite good."
T-Mobile's App-Free AI Phone
(Credit: Eric Zeman)T-Mobile thinks the future of phones might be free of apps. The only way that would happen is with the buzzword of the year: AI. The company is considering making a phone that is entirely dependent on artificial intelligence for, well, everything. There’s no interface and no buttons—except one to activate the microphone so you can ask the handset a question. Talking (and hopefully typing) at the little slab is the only way to interact with the blank screen. In demos, the prototype phone is being used for shopping and generating images, all without being touched. To be fair, these are all things you can do now with a regular phone, but that’s why it’s a proof-of-concept, not a product—yet.
Samsung Cling Band
(Credit: Eric Zeman)If we get one more bendable, wrist-borne phone before the end of MWC, the form factor will officially be a trend. Just a day after Motorola unveiled a phone that bends into a semicircle, Samsung debuted a similar concept called the Cling Band. It has some kinks though, both literally and figuratively. First off, its screen isn't smooth. It's nearly as segmented as the back of the phone, which doesn't look great. On top of that, the model we tested at the show was barely functional. However, given Samsung's history of making phones that fold all sorts of ways, if there's any company that can pull off such a crazy concept, it's them.