Mobile World Congress 2016: the biggest news in mobile from Barcelona – The Verge

Qualcomm is back with a vengeance

2016-02-26T09:12:17-05:00

The biggest winner of Mobile World Congress 2016 wasn't a phone or a phone manufacturer, but a phone chip manufacturer: Qualcomm. Having endured a rough time in 2015 due to heat and power issues with its Snapdragon 810 flagship-class processor, the American chipmaker has returned to form with its new Snapdragon 820 generation. Practically every smartphone manufacturer in attendance at MWC had a Snapdragon-powered device to show off to the world.

Samsung introduced its new pair of flagship handsets, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, which will rely on the Snapdragon 820 in the United States. LG broke all its previous records for hype and excitement …

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Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra says the company wants to be known as a design leader

2016-02-24T16:37:05-05:00

Xiaomi just announced its latest flagship, the Mi 5, and we got a chance to sit down with vice president Hugo Barra following the phone's introduction. Barra is the company's public face, having previously served as one of the leaders on Google's mobile team, and he exudes both the vast ambition of his current employer and the quiet confidence of his former company. The big thing he wanted to get across today was that Xiaomi's attendance at Mobile World Congress is mostly an ambassadorial mission. The company isn't announcing new markets for its products - it's still focused primarily on China and building out its operations in neighboring c …

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LG’s new virtual reality headset has a problem: too much reality

2016-02-24T06:14:40-05:00

As part of LG's range of peripherals for its new G5 flagship smartphone, the company has created a lightweight virtual reality headset: the LG 360 VR. Like Samsung's Gear VR, it's powered by a smartphone. But unlike the Gear, it doesn't use your smartphone's screen as a display. Instead of slotting the G5 into the back of the headset, you attach it via a USB-C cable and use the 360's own internal screens. This has the advantage of making the headset super light (just 118 grams), but that's about the only good thing this thing has going for it.

LG's biggest mistake is the headset's design. Rather than adopting the face-hugging foam gaskets us …

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First look at Xiaomi’s Mi 5 flagship

2016-02-24T05:50:01-05:00

One of the biggest names in China's smartphone market has come to the world's biggest mobile show to debut its next flagship, the Mi 5. Today, Xiaomi introduces itself to a global audience on the Mobile World Congress stage as it details its latest top-of-the-line Android smartphone.

The Mi 5 is a classic Android flagship in the sense that its primary selling point is its overwhelming spec sheet. Xiaomi pairs Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 820 chipset with 4GB of memory, the latest 16-megapixel camera sensor from Sony (IMX298), and as much as 128GB of storage. It's engineered to wow with its sheer speed and power, but it's also extremely ligh …

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Xiaomi announces the Mi 5, its latest flagship phone

2016-02-24T03:49:25-05:00

Xiaomi has officially announced the Mi 5, its latest flagship device, at events in Beijing and Barcelona today. The Mi 5 follows the Mi 4 launched 18 months ago. It is a 5.15-inch smartphone with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor, up to 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, a 3,000mAh battery, and what Xiaomi is calling a "3D ceramic" body. It has a similar design language to last year's Mi Note and Samsung's Galaxy Note 5, with a metal frame, front and rear glass panels, and a fingerprint sensor integrated into the home button. The Mi 5's camera is a 16-megapixel unit with four-axis optical image stabilization.

Read now: First look at Xiaomi's …

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Watch Xiaomi launch its new flagship phone live at Mobile World Congress

2016-02-24T01:08:27-05:00

Buzzy Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi is making its first major appearance at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year. The company is set to unveil the Mi 5, its latest flagship smartphone, in what it calls a "Global Launch Event." Could that naming, along with the event's location, hint that Xiaomi might be looking to expand its borders further beyond Asia? It'd be a long shot, but you can tune into the live stream above to find out.

Xiaomi announces the Mi 5, its latest flagship phone

Xiaomi rose to prominence a few years ago as one of the first companies to sell competent smartphones at extremely low prices, gathering a large user …

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Hanging out with the adorable Starship delivery robot

2016-02-23T13:39:18-05:00

Picture this: You're hungry, so you order some food online. But when it comes 30 minutes later, it's not being handed to you by a human. Instead, you pluck it out of a robot.

It sounds weird, but some of the founders of Skype want to make it a reality. So Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis started a company called Starship Technologies. Their concept is an autonomous delivery robot that drives on sidewalks and looks like a small cooler on wheels.

Pizza, anyone?

We first learned all about the robot - called Starship - late last year, and how the company wants it to help small suburban businesses make low-cost deliveries with almost no added infrast …

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The Vive can save HTC

2016-02-23T13:37:29-05:00

At this year's Mobile World Congress, the HTC Vive virtual reality headset has been adorned with an aggressive $799 price and a few small aesthetic tweaks to finalize its consumer edition look. It has also wowed and amazed everyone who has tried it, myself included. HTC is rapidly speeding toward becoming a one-product company with the Vive, but on the evidence of what I've seen and experienced today, I don't think anyone at the company should be too afraid of that prospect.

I've just come out from a demo of the Vive Pre at HTC's booth - whose performance is equivalent to the upcoming consumer edition - and all I can say are good things. Of …

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Up close with the HTC Vive consumer edition

2016-02-23T11:02:46-05:00

It costs $799 and it can be preordered next Monday for delivery in April. It's the Oculus Rift's closest and sternest competitor, and today at MWC, it makes its public debut. The consumer edition of the HTC Vive virtual reality headset is being shown off for the first time at the Taiwanese company's booth. It's not dramatically different from the HTC Vive Pre introduced at CES, but that's to be expected given the short time that's passed since then and the mature design that HTC was already working with. The company has only made a few ergonomic tweaks and optimizations, so you'll have to look closely to spot the differences. For that purpos …

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MasterCard unveils ‘selfie’ security checks, says heartbeat authentication could follow

2016-02-23T10:06:52-05:00

MasterCard says it plans to bring "selfie pay" security checks to more than a dozen countries. Last year, the company started trialling the technology - which uses facial recognition to authenticate users' identity - but now says it has firm plans to roll the feature out to users after positive reactions from testers.

Users still have to enter credit card information

To use selfie pay, customers will have to download MasterCard's app to their phone or tablet. Then, after entering their credit card information as normal during an online payment, they'll hold their device up to their face to take a quick picture. Users will have to blink to pr …

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