Mobile World Congress is traditionally one of the biggest phone and mobile events of the year. The Verge will cover the show live in Barcelona from March 2–5, where we’re expecting to see new phones from Xiaomi and Honor, among others.
The ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop concept even comes with a built-in drawing tablet. Lenovo just needs to find something worth seeing on the other side.
I got to check out Motorola’s concept phone with a bending display. Is it impractical? Yes. Is it cool as hell? Also yes.
I was allowed to put it on my own wrist with a special magnetic bracelet keeping it in place. Can you imagine just casually checking the time on your bendable slap bracelet phone in the middle of a meeting? The ultimate flex!
Plug in Infinix’s E-Color Shift phone, and its E Ink back rapidly cycles between different colors, and only stops when you unplug it again. Infinix hopes to one day let you choose between different colors in software (you can see less flashy design options here), since the process is far from practical in its current form.
The bezels attach and detach with a simple twist, and you also get a choice of over 180 watch faces to further customize the watch’s look. The watch’s features include the ability to track winter sports like skiing, snowboarding, ice-skating, and curling, and there are also some Apple Watch-style one-handed gesture controls for good measure. It’s joined by a new Wear OS smartwatch, the Xiaomi Watch 2. Prices start at €149 for the S3, and €199 for the Watch 2.
As well as bringing its currently China-exclusive 14 smartphone to a global audience, Xiaomi is announcing a completely new device at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this week. CEO Lei Jun has teased the design of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra phone on X, and announced its telephoto camera specs. It’ll also be Xiaomi’s latest device to use a massive 1-inch-type sensor for its main camera.
It must be MWC, because every old mobile grievance was revisited, even as we celebrated what is surely our phone of the future, Motorola’s rollable Rizr concept.
We also dug into Alex Heath’s big scoop exposing Meta’s hardware roadmap, TikTok’s unsettling new filter, and talked a little about Elon Musk. Not too much.
Hands-on with HMD’s repairable Nokia and three more phone trends from MWC we hope are here to stay.
Just when we were getting used to foldable phones, tablets, and laptops, these concept designs suggest rollable screens are in the near future, ready to extend the view by a few more inches when you need them to, without taking up more space in your pocket or bag.
Jon Porter is at Mobile World Congress 2023 this week and can show you Lenovo’s rollable screen laptop plus its Motorola-branded rollable phone.
This year’s Mobile World Congress event is in full swing, with news from Google (the new Keep widget seems useful), Nokia, and others.
You can stay tuned in to all of the updates with our event storystream.
First teased last October, the devices made an in-person appearance at Mobile World Congress 2023. But it’s clear they’re still far from ready for a public release.
