The Mobile World Congress 2017 (MWC 2017) is one of the largest technology conventions where the smartphone makers, chipmakers and telecom service providers from all over the world come to showcase their latest and greatest technologies. It is a hub of activity as there are a lot of keynote addresses, new smartphone launches, technology announcements and more. This is an annual event on the calendar of every mobile phone enthusiast. But overall the mood of MWC may be different this year than usual, from what we have come to know. Given below, is a detailed a list of things that you can expect at the MWC this year:
Samsung
Image: @venyageskin1 (twitter)
The Samsung S8 was and still is considered to be the most hyped device all across the industry. This comes especially after the entire Samsung Galaxy Note 7 battery fiasco which left a huge gap in the smartphone market with no current high-end devices available from Samsung. We expected the company to launch this latest flagship at the largest mobile show in the world. But according to the reports, Samsung is working hard at rigorously testing the new batteries to ensure that the Note 7 does not repeat itself. In addition to that, the company has snagged the supply for Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, the latest processor by Qualcomm with the 10nm manufacturing process. This means that other device makers will have to wait till Samsung releases the S8 in March.
The company is currently hoarding the supply to ensure that Samsung S8 is the first smartphone with Snapdragon 835 in the market to increase the prospects. Considering Samsung is making these chipsets, one cannot really protest much. The launch date for the smartphone is expected to March after MWC is concluded.
However, Samsung will be present as always at the MWC and will launch Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 on 26 February.
LG
Image: The Verge
LG is all set the launch LG G6 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, 5.7-inch display and a screen to body ratio of over 90 percent. The reason for LG or any other company to not use Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 is because of the supply hoard by Samsung. The company also showcased teasers for the new rounded screen and the new square interface in YouTube videos. The company also hinted at revamped UX with G6 in addition to the 5.7-inch ‘FullVision’ display.
The latest tease by the company is the much talked about Square interface used to preview photos as they are clicked in the new camera interface.
This is particularly bad for the smartphone buyers who don’t want to buy Samsung but are due to upgrade their smartphones. They will be forced to by a year old smartphone processor. The company has sent invites for the launch and the device renders have leaked online.
Nokia
Image Credit: JD.com
Nokia, the former king of mobile devices is all set to enter the smartphone market again thanks to HMD Global. The Nokia name still commands a lot of respect and loyal fan following across the world. The feature smartphone market is still dominated by Nokia smartphones, even if the department is now owned by Microsoft. HMD Global, the Finnish smartphone maker is likely to launch Nokia 8, the likely Nokia flagship for 2017.
According to the report, the Nokia 8 is expected to come in two variants. The flagship one with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, 6GB RAM, either 64GB or 128GB storage with the option to expand the storage using a microSD card slot. The second variant will house a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset with 4GB RAM. Both the variants are expected to come with a 24MP OIS + EIS sporting rear camera and a 12MP front-facing camera. The smartphone was spotted on Chinese online seller JD.com making the chances of the launch more concrete.
According to rumours, the company may launch Nokia P1 during MWC 2017. This comes right after the company launched Nokia 6 with 4GB RAM and Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 and a 16MP camera.
HTC
It was rumoured that the Taiwanese smartphone maker will launch the HTC U Ultra during MWC 2017, but that may not be the case. So far, there is no information, leak or hint about the same from HTC. This is not to say that we don’t know about anything going on in camp HTC. Right after the rumours, the company announced HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play along with HTC Sense Companion AI, there are now reports of HTC working on new smartphones and they are completely different from the leaks which indicated that the company is working on HTC 11 and an unknown smartphone with code name Ocean.
Xiaomi
One of the most shocking moves came from Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, when it announced that the company would not be present during MWC 2017 because the smartphone maker did not have anything new to launch during the event in Barcelona. Xiaomi has not been doing particularly well in its home market, although the India division saw some record sales in 2016. But the more recent upset was its global VP Hugo Barra departing from the company for Facebook. But worry not, there are already rumours floating about the Mi 6 launch.
Huawei
The Chinese smartphone maker was silent about two weeks back and we thought that the company will sit out just like Xiaomi. But things have taken a turn in the last two weeks. We have received a lot of leaks about what to expect from the company during Mobile World Congress 2017. The company teased the launch of a new smartphone, Huawei P10 almost a week back on its Twitter handle. The company will announce the smartphone on 26 February 2017 in Barcelona. One thing to note is that the smartphone will come with a dual-camera system and probably better than the Huawei P9. There are more details out on the Huawei P10, thanks to Evan Blass.
OPPO
Image Credit: OPPO
Oppo has also sent out invites about their announcements during MWC 2017. This came last week when the company sent us an invite detailing that they will be announcing a new 5x technology. The ‘5x Project’ is a new smartphone camera technology that will push the smartphone camera to a whole new level. The company is fairly certain of their technology and seems to claim that this will pave wave for the next generation of smartphone photography innovations.
Oppo had showcased some smart camera as well as fast charging demos at MWC 2016. Oppo had announced a SmartSensor image stabilisation technology, which it claimed was the smallest in the world and the first ever sensor-based image stabiliser. It senses and calculates vibrations on the pitch axis, yaw axis and roll axis, and makes split second compensations through the use of a comb-shaped, voltage-driven MEMS (microelectromechanical system. Maybe we could see a smartphone incorporating these technologies this year.
Lenovo (Moto)
Lenovo is all set to launch the upgraded version of Moto G smartphone series with Moto G5 and possibly Moto G5 Plus. The company has sent out invites for 26 February. There are no expectations that will catch us off guard in terms of the design or hardware. The smartphones will run Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box but they will lack USB Type-C.
Sony
Sony is also planning to launch a new flagship during MWC 2017 in addition to four other smartphones. We could not confirm the plans as different publications have reported different information with no official information from Sony. Recent leaks do point out that the company may launch Sony Xperia X2 during MWC but nothing is clear at the time of writing. But, one thing to note is that the company does need to start improving the way it prices its smartphones as keeping anything at an extra orbital price is almost suicidal for Sony’s Smartphone division.
BlackBerry
Just like the fallen mobile device giant Nokia, BlackBerry is launching a new flagship in hopes of building up its brand name with a new smartphone called, Blackberry Mercury. The company will announce the device on 25 February along with Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage.
ZTE
ZTE, yet another Chinese smartphone maker recently cancelled Hawkeye, its crowdsourced smartphone but this is not stopping the company from launching a new product during MWC. The company is set to launch a 5G-ready smartphone named Gigabit which according to leaks sound like one stellar device. The device will include 360-degree VR and ability to record 4K video. The company may also release Quartz, it’s the first Android Wear 2.0 based smartwatch.
Vernee
Vernee is a relatively unknown smartphone maker from China. The company is set to announce the Apollo 2 according to rumours during Mobile World Congress 2017. The smartphone maker sent out invites terming the new smartphone as ‘Powerful beyond compare’.
You may be interested in our release plan of this year. #VerneeMWC2017 https://t.co/RdYLHURkPD pic.twitter.com/fxbFqXIMkQ
— Vernee (@verneeglobal) February 13, 2017
The company confirmed the launch of Apollo 2 in a tweet giving out specs of the smartphone. Apollo 2 will be powered by MediaTek Helio x30 while running on 6GB RAM along with 64GB storage. The smartphone will come in two variants with the second variant packing 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. There are no additional details available about the smartphone at the time of writing.
The post MWC 2017: Here’s what to expect from this year’s Mobile World Congress appeared first on Tech2.