MWC 2019: foldable phones, 5G, and other news from Mobile World Congress – The Verge

Vergecast: Mobile World Congress round table

2019-03-01T11:31:57-05:00

Mobile World Congress 2019 just wrapped up, and The Vergecast wraps up the coverage in a bow for you to ingest. With Dieter on vacation, Nilay and Paul bring in senior editor Natt Garun, reporter Chaim Gartenberg, and senior editor Dan Seifert to give context and detail to the new phones announced at MWC. We've got a very tall phone, a very fat phone, a very bendable phone, and whole lot more.

We've also got some first hand experience with Microsoft's new HoloLens 2, so keep listening for that exclusive content.

And of course, we've got Paul's weekly segment - which turned into explaining the revised names of USB speeds - so keep listening …

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The Punkt MP02 is Android minimalism at its finest

2019-03-01T06:50:39-05:00

It's not every day that a tech CEO throws his phone down on the ground before my feet, so when that happened with Punkt's Petter Neby this week at MWC, it's safe to say I was intrigued. Punkt, stylized as "Punkt." in the company's wordmark, is about putting a full stop to the distractions and diversions of modern life. Its phones are the postmodern anti-flagship devices that suggest that maybe their users don't need the internet with them every waking moment of every day.

Nebby was talking me through the intent behind the Punkt MP02's minimalist design when, without warning, he threw his personal phone to the ground, then picked it up, and …

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The OnePlus 7 is looking unlikely to have wireless charging

2019-03-01T04:24:04-05:00

OnePlus 6T, the current OnePlus flagship device. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

Comments made by OnePlus CEO Pete Lau at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona have cast doubt over the hopeful expectation that the next OnePlus flagship phone will have wireless charging. In speaking with CNET, Lau calls wireless charging "far inferior" to his company's wired Warp Charge and the tone of the interview, via a translator, was apparently strong enough for CNET to conclude that the feature will definitely not be on the OnePlus 7. The sentiments expressed by Lau echo previous comments he's made, saying that OnePlus won't include wireless charging until it can be made as fast as the company's wired charging, but fans of the bra …

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Nokia 9 PureView will be available in the US on March 3rd

2019-02-28T08:00:00-05:00

HMD Global's new Nokia 9 PureView - and all five of its rear cameras - may have just gotten announced at MWC 2019, but it's hitting stores in the US really soon, with sales set to start March 3rd.

To go with the launch, HMD is also offering a special limited time offer on the Nokia 9 PureView that will lower the price by $100 off the usual $699 price, bringing it down to $599 for the first week of sales. After March 11th, the price will go back up, which doesn't leave a ton of time for customers to decide on whether they want to buy it. But if you're planning on being an early adopter, the extra $100 off certainly can't hurt.

The Nokia 9 P …

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Best phones of MWC 2019

2019-02-28T08:00:00-05:00

I don't know if you've noticed yet, but the world of smartphones is going to look very different in 2019 than in the years prior. Instead of seeing incremental changes and improvements, silly notch size comparisons and feeble iPhone copycats, we're seeing some genuine originality and creativity. Sony has stretched the phone, Nokia has riddled it with cameras, Huawei and Samsung have folded it, Energizer has fattened it up, and Nubia has bent it around the user's wrist.

These experiments aren't all going to turn into great products, but the overall thrust toward exploring the boundaries of smartphone design for a winning new formula sure mak …

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Motorola confirms its foldable phone is coming, and it could look like a RAZR

2019-02-27T14:28:47-05:00

Following reports that Motorola would, too, get into the folding smartphone scene, the company today confirmed in an interview with Engadget that it is working on a folding device that would launch "[no] later than everybody else in the market."

That puts Motorola's timeline at sometime this year at the latest, with Samsung due to launch its Galaxy Fold in April and Huawei's Mate X in mid-2019. Motorola usually holds an annual smartphone launch event around August. That time last year, it announced its 5G-ready Moto Z3 with the 5G Moto Mod, so we'll likely get a glimpse at Motorola's take on foldable screens this summer.

The Engadget inter …

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I used a Mercedes-Benz as a Mario Kart controller, and it was amazing

2019-02-27T13:13:04-05:00

The whizz-kids at Daimler Research Group have done something that's equal parts silly and ingenious: they've adapted a version of Mario Kart (the open-source SuperTuxKart) to work on the MBUX infotainment system of a Mercedes-Benz CLA. It plays the game on the screen to the right of the driver, who can control it with the car's steering wheel and pedals. The interior lighting system activates in sync with the starting signals in the game, the seatbelt tightens anytime you crash in the game, and the air conditioning blows cool air at you with an intensity matched to your speed in the game.

I played it and I loved it.

The game's frame rate i …

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Sony and Xiaomi are partnering with Light for their next multi-camera smartphones

2019-02-27T13:10:15-05:00

When Light first came out with its 16-lens camera, it seemed ridiculous to cram so many cameras into a single product. But now that flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S10 are bumping its cameras up to three or even four in a single device, multi-camera smartphones are starting to look more like the norm.

You can expect to see more of this soon, as Light has announced it will be working with Sony and Xiaomi to develop more multi-lens devices. With Sony specifically, Light is working to incorporate its multiple camera array with Sony's image processing system to make apps that could make use out of this combination. Together, Light says it wil …

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All the 5G phones announced so far

2019-02-27T12:16:11-05:00

"5G is here" was the straightforward claim plastered all over Qualcomm's booth at this year's Mobile World Congress. But while that might be true for the chipmaker, the reality is far more complicated. Carriers are still in the process of upgrading their networks ready for the launch of consumer-ready 5G services, and even then the proportion of areas covered will be slim.

Although they won't be ready for a little while longer, phone manufacturers have wasted no time in announcing 5G devices at this year's MWC. Huawei, LG, Samsung, Xiaomi, and ZTE introduced their own 5G handsets that are complete with vague release dates, while Sony, Oppo, …

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Huawei chairman accuses American critics of hypocrisy over NSA hacks

2019-02-27T07:35:04-05:00

Huawei's rotating chairman Guo Ping has gone on the offensive this week at Mobile World Congress, following continued pressure on US allies to drop the Chinese telecoms giant over national security fears. In a strident on-stage speech and a Financial Times editorial, Guo is escalating Huawei's side of the story by explicitly calling out the NSA, which Edward Snowden has shown to have hacked Huawei in the past, while presenting his company as a more secure option for the rest of the world.

"If the NSA wants to modify routers or switches in order to eavesdrop, a Chinese company will be unlikely to co-operate," Guo says in the FT, citing a lea …

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