Mobile World Congress (MWC) is easily the biggest mobile phone showcase of the year. The annual tech show kicks off next week in Barcelona, bringing the spotlight on the latest mobile technology, trends and products. LG, HMD Global/Nokia, BlackBerry, Lenovo, and Samsung all have events at the show and all are expected to launch new flagship smartphones. This year, we expect to see some great innovations from the established brands, as well as from relatively unknown companies and start-ups.
Here’s everything we expect to see at the annual Mobile World Congress.
HMD Global/Nokia
HMD Global, the Finnish company that owns the exclusive rights to manufacture and market mobile devices under the “Nokia” brand, is expected to launch a slew of devices in Barcelona. The company, earlier this year, launched the Android-based smartphone, Nokia 6; however, the device is available in China. At this year’s MWC, the Finnish firm is expected to unveil the global variant of the phone. As we previously reported, HMD Global has plans to bring the phone in the vicinity of Rs 19,000 when it gets launched in India in May.
It’s being said that the company will be relaunching the iconic Nokia 3310 in an all-new avatar. The feature phone is expected to be priced less than Rs 4,000, and will come in multiple colours. In addition, we might get to see three new smartphones – Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 8 at MWC 2017. The latter smartphone will likely to be a high-end smartphone, featuring a Snapdragon 821 processor, 5.7-inch QHD display, 24MP rear camera with OIS and 12MP front camera – and is expected to come in two storage versions – 64GB and 128GB. The other two phones, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3, will run Android 7.0 Nougat and feature low-end specifications. HMD Global’s pre-MWC event is scheduled for February 26, at 4:30pm local time (9:00pm IST). It will be live-streamed through the company’s YouTube channel as well on Facebook.
LG
LG will certainly hog the limelight this year, with the release of the G6 flagship smartphone. The company has teased the G6 already, and all we’re waiting is the official release of the smartphone. Set to launch on February 26, LG G6 will feature a 5.7-inch QHD+ ‘Full Vision’ display (2880×1440) with an unusual 18:9 aspect ratio. LG has confirmed that the taller display will enable users to see more information on the G6.
The new interface, called UX 6.0, will be optimised for the taller display. The G5 was a modular phone – the G6, on the other hand, is likely to take an inspiration from the V20 smartphone. That means it will have a non-modular, unibody design. LG used dual-cameras on the G5 and V20, chances are, the company will stick to the same setup for the G6. But don’t expect the smartphone to feature a Snapdragon 835 processor. LG will likely to settle for a Snapdragon 821 chipset. This is because Samsung is hoarding Qualcomm’s supply of Snapdragon 835 chips until Galaxy S8 release. LG’s event is scheduled for February 26 and will begin at 12pm Barcelona time (4:30pm IST). You can catch the live event through LG’s official YouTube channel
BlackBerry
BlackBerry will be launching a new smartphone at the Mobile World Congress next week. Codenamed “Mercury”, the flagship will feature a rectangular touchscreen and the company’s iconic QWERTY keyboard will be present underneath. Interestingly, this will be the last phone from the Canadian company that will be designed in-house. The actual manufacturing is being handled by TCL, a Chinese electronics major that has the rights to use its brand on future phones and sell them around the world.
There is very limited information about the smartphone, at least, in terms of specifications. According to reports, the phone will likely to have a 4.5-inch Full HD display, 3GB RAM, 32GB of internal storage, USB Type-C support, and a 3,400mAh battery. The Mercury is expected to run Android 7.0 Nougat, although it’s not clear whether the phone will get BlackBerry’s marque security features. BlackBerry’s press conference is scheduled for February 25. Crackberry is the official partner for live-streaming. The event will start at 7:00pm Barcelona time (11:30pm IST).
Lenovo/Motorola
Lenovo’s subsidiary Motorola will be making a big show of its upcoming smartphones. The Moto Z maker will be showcasing the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus smartphones at MWC 2017. The upcoming phones have been leaked by Spanish e-tailer Ktronix. According to the listing, picked by Venture Beat, which has now been pulled down, the G5 Plus will have a 5.2-inch display, while the G5 will have a slightly smaller 5-inch screen.
The G5 will further come with a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 5-megapixel front camera, Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a fingerprint scanner, a 2,800 mAh battery and Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. As for the G5 Plus, it will get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, 64GB of internal storage, a 12-megapixel primary camera, 5-megapixel front camera, and a 3,000mAh battery. Motorola’s G series is highly popular in countries like India, so we’re anticipating to see the smartphones to land in India in the coming weeks. Motorola’s pre-MWC conference is scheduled for February 26. The launch event will be streamed on Motorola’s YouTube channel. It starts at 4:30pm Barcelona time (9:00pm IST).
Samsung
There were rumours in the past about Samsung’s absence from this year’s Mobile World Congress. Well, Samsung will make its presence felt in Barcelona, you surely won’t see the Galaxy S8. Instead, Samsung will likely to show off the Galaxy Tab S3. A premium tablet from Samsung is long overdue, with all the bells and whistles.
A recent image leak by the German tech website WinFuture.de, shows a render of the high-end tablet. While it doesn’t reveal any new features, it does suggest that the tablet will support S Pen stylus. Meanwhile, multiple rumours suggest the Galaxy Tab S3 will feature a 9.6-inch, 2,048 x 1,536-pixel display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 12-megapixel camera on the back and a 5-megapixel front shooter. The tablet is expected to run Android 7.0 Nougat, and support both Wi-Fi and LTE connectivity. Samsung’s press conference is scheduled on February 26, at 7:00pm Barcelona time (11:00pm IST).
0 comments:
Post a Comment