MWC 2013: Pocket-lint's pick of the show
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is once again upon us with a?new venue - Fira Gran Via - and the ever-increasing rise of the tablet aside, it's the phones that everybody gets most excited about. And it's the phones that we'll be looking at in depth while we're out here.
HTC may have launched the HTC One early, and BlackBerry wanted to ensure it had a clean run for the BlackBerry Z10, but most of the other manufacturers have been saving little treats for those hungry for the latest tech. So, in our rolling feature, which will expand as we get more and more playtime with the devices that matter, here are the hottest handsets of MWC 2013.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
While not technically a phone - after all you'd look like Dom Jolly on a good day with one strapped to your ear - the Note 8.0 does have voice calling abilities, so we can include it here. It's also rather good, so worth a gander anyway.
It's an 8-inch device with a 1280 x 800 TFT touchscreen. Some have whinged a little about the bezel around the screen, but when you hold the device you don't really care. It's surprisingly light and nimble, for starters, and although the pixels per inch aren't the best on show, it is as crisp and vibrant as you'd expect from a company well versed in screen technologies.
The inner gubbins are meaty too, with an 1.6GHz quad-core A9 processor running the show, and 2GB of RAM for good measure. It comes with the latest version of Android, 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, from the box, and the S Pen works better on the Note 8.0 than we've found on all previous devices in the family.
Read: Hands-on: Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 review
Huawei Ascend P2
Described by the company as the "world's fastest 4G LTE smartphone", the Huawei Ascend P2 supports download speeds of up to 150Mbps thanks to an LTE Cat 4 modem. Obviously, that depends on the network in your region, but still.
It's 8.4mm thick, so not the thinnest phone on the market. Nor is it particularly luxury in feel, being made mainly of lightweight plastics. However, it does have a healthy 4.7-inch screen, with 315ppi, and a 13.1-megapixel camera on the rear that has the potential to mix it up with the best.
The Ascend P2 also has a proprietary 1.5GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM, so offers plenty of decent spec for the money. At 399 euros (?349), it certainly won't break the bank.
Read:?Huawei Ascend P2 pictures and hands-on
ZTE Open
Not the best specified phone by any stretch of the imagination, but the ZTE Open deserves to be in our hottest phones of MWC 2013 round-up because it's one of the first to be announced with Mozilla's Firefox operating system at its heart.
Looking quite like a Nokia Lumia 620, but dinkier and even more basic, the ZTE Open is really a smartphone for those who are entering the market for the first time. It's cute and cuddly, but wouldn't even win a conker fight against most other handsets out there, thanks to a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 display.
However, playing with the ZTE Open has given us our first taste of Firefox OS and it's looking interesting. So while it may find a market in developing countries primarily, its cheapness may also be attractive to tech fans who want to dabble with a system that's new, as their second or, even, third device.
Read: ZTE Open pictures and hands-on
Nokia Lumia 720
The Lumia 720 is easily Nokia's most exciting offering at MWC. Think of it as a new cheaper alternative to the 820. It lacks a lot of the power and battery punch of the 820 as well as drops the LTE.?
You do get a crisp WVGA 4.3-inch WVGA ClearBlack LCD display, which is as good as any other display Nokia has to offer right now, if lacking in resolution a touch.
The real draw of the 720 is how it outshines other budget Android alternatives. Build quality is just that much better. The handset is thin and has removable cases, including one which adds wireless charging capabilities to the phone.
Nokia is also kicking up a fuss over the 720s camera. On the rear is a 6.7 megapixel sensor with a f1.9 Carl Zeiss lens. That should translate to pretty top notch low light performance. Nokia has also included all its own camera applications.
Read: Nokia Lumia 720 pictures and hands-on
LG Optimus G Pro
LG's Optimus G Pro isn't yet confirmed for European release but that doesn't stop it being exciting. Sat in pride of place at LG's stand at MWC, the flagship G Pro is quite a handset.
It features a 5.5-inch screen, runs Android Jelly Bean and is much more lightweight than its large screen might suggest.?
The phone is flying the flag for Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 600 processor. It uses a 1.7GHz quad-core chip, which is just about as powerful as it gets in smartphone land right now. Also keeping things top of the line is a 1080p screen as well as a 13-megapixel camera on the back and a 2.1 megapixel snapper on the front.
32GB of storage and 2GB of RAM have the rest of things covered off in the performance department. Throw in a big 3,140 mAh battery and this is quite a desirable piece of kit. LTE is also part of the package.
Read: LG Optimus G Pro pictures and hands-on
Tags:
MWC2013 Phones Samsung Galaxy Note 8 ZTE Open Huawei Ascend P2
Hottest phones of MWC 2013 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Sun, 24 Feb 2013 21:31:00 +0000