It’s been over a week since the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2018) happened. The tech event is officially over and we’re glad to know there are dozens of new smartphones, mobile devices, and services to look forward to. Samsung is perhaps the biggest brand in Barcelona but we also won’t forget those other OEMs that have come up with premium phones that are potentially powerful and really smart with the AI features. A number of other announcements and launches spilled over the week so allow us to review and list down all the products you have failed to learn about or haven’t heard.
It was early in January when we heard the idea the next Sony Xperia flagship phones would be announced at the MWC 2018. Sony Mobile joined the event even if it’s a thriving company. Before the announcement, we learned the Sony Xperia XZ2 phones would have an 18:9 screen but sans the headphone jack. That’s not a problem because there is the Sony Xperia Ear Duo that was introduced with dual listening experience.
We finally got our hands on the Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact and we noted that it’s really time for a change. These are premium flagship phones and we believe they are powerful enough.
Samsung launched the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus at the Unpacked event last February 25. Of course, we’ve got our Samsung Galaxy S9 hands-on. The South Korean tech giant settled on a similar design with some improvements on the features as noted by an infographic comparing the S8 and S9.
We’ve dedicated several pages for the S9 duo and now that it’s here, we’re curious how others perceive the phones. Pre-orders are reportedly the same or slightly lower than S8. We’ve seen the Speed Tests after some early adopters received their orders. The reimagined camera proved to be a good thing because the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus now holds the top rank at DxOMark. There are other exciting features that we have yet to uncover.
Huawei and LG did skip the MWC 2018 by not announcing their premium flagship offerings. LG did announce the LG V30S ThinQ, LG X4 (with LG Pay and HD DMB TV support), and the LG K8 and K10 phones. The new LG V30 variant was introduced with AI features.
Several Android Go phones were unveiled including the Nokia 1, ZTE Tempo Go, and the Alcatel 1X with the Alcatel 1T Android tablet. Some other smartphones introduced were the Land Rover Explore rugged phone and the Cat S61.
The ARCHOS Hello was launched as a smart display and speaker for the home. Huawei rolled out the MediaPad M5 tablets that evoked a sense of déjà vu. ASUS revealed a bunch of new ASUS ZenFone 5 Series smartphones as promised and it was even followed by the ASUS ZenFone Max Plus M1.
Vivo introduced the APEX FullView concept Android phone. ZTE launched the Blade V9 and Blade V9 Vita while Nokia announced the Nokia 7 Plus, new Nokia 6, and the Nokia 8 Sirocco. SanDisk showed off the world’s fastest microSD card in the 400GB SanDisk Extreme while Google released the Flutter SDK beta to improve on cross-platform app development.
If you may notice, the MWC 2018 focused a bit of augmented reality and artificial intelligence (AI). Check our MWC 2018 coverage HERE.
