MWC 2024 wrap-up

After all the build up and the excitement of the congress itself, MWC 2024 is now over. This year it was less a staging ground to launch new products and more focused on the future – companies brought prototype devices and research projects that might find their way to consumers in the near future.

Still, there were phone launches too and we went hands-on with the new devices. Some newcomers were just announcing their global availability too. Here is a summary of what happened at MWC 2024.

The MWC 2024 Awards were announced on Thursday. The Google Pixel 8 series took home the Best Smartphone Award, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra was honored as the Best Connected Consumer Device. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was given the award for Breakthrough Device Innovation. The Honor Magic V2 RSR received the Best in Show award.

Use the links below to jump to a brand you are interested in – in order to not play favorites, we arranged the brands alphabetically.

Table of Contents:

HMD

The fate of HMD’s branding deal with Nokia is uncertain – but its not over yet! Come what may, Finnish company is preparing to launch phones under its own brand. The first such phone surfaced early – the HMD Phone 1 promises a 108MP camera, so it’s not just an existing Nokia-branded model under a new name. Unfortunately, we will have to wait for further details.

HMD, Nokia and Barbie branded phones are coming later this year

While HMD may have lost the Nokia brand, it has struck a deal that aligns it with a massive brand in a different category – the company is working on a Barbie flip phone. Also, the company confirmed that we will see more Nokia-branded phones, with a new batch expected in May of this year. The Barbie phone is coming in July. Details on both to follow.

Honor

While none of these made their debut at the MWC, they were present at the exhibition and were an influential presence at that. The company announced the global rollout of the Honor Magic6 Pro and the Honor Pad 9 along with European pricing.

Additionally, the company also launched the stylish Honor Magic V2 RSR at an eye-watering price of €2,700. This is clearly an enthusiast device, everyone else can have a look at the regular Magic V2 instead.

Infinix

Infinix introduced technologies that may change how phones work. For starters, colorways may become a thing of the past – the E-Color Shift technology can change the color and look of a phone dynamically, it can even do animations.

Infinix tech demos: E-Color Shift • CoolMax

More practical and just as fun is CoolMax – a combination of thermo-electric cooling (Peltier effect) and a fan, all built into a prototype phone. A prototype that set an AnTuTu score record with its Dimensity 9300 chipset. The company says that CoolMax helps the chipset run 10°C cooler.

Motorola

The Motorola Adaptive Display Concept is a wild, bendy phone – it’s a foldable, technically, but instead of folding flat, this is designed to form a bracelet that you wear on your wrist like an over-sized smartwatch.

The Motorola Adaptive Display Concept device

Additionally, Motorola announced a partnership with Corning to use Gorilla Glass on even entry-level phones (it already uses it on most of its flagships and mid-rangers).

There was also Motorola Smart Connect – a continuity feature that creates a seamless workflow between Motorola and Lenovo phones, tablets and laptops. This includes unified keyboard and mouse control, notification sync, shared clip board, quick file transfers, using your phone as a web cam and more.

Nothing

Nothing wasn’t at the MWC, it wasn’t even in Barcelona – instead, the company showed off a giant model of the upcoming Nothing Phone (2a) in London.

Nothing Phone (2a) design reveal

nubia

nubia unveiled the Flip 5G, which will be one of the cheapest flip foldables on the market with an MSRP of $600. Of course, there are cheaper flips these days, like the Moto Razr (2023), though that is after a few rounds of discounts. The Razr started at $700 MSRP.

The company then launched several use-case specific devices. The nubia Focus and Focus Pro feature 108MP main cameras that shoot at four and five focal lengths respectively. It’s just in-sensor zoom rather than optics, but keep in mind that these start at $200, which may be the most camera bang for your buck that you will get in 2024.

The nubia Neo 2 is also starting at $200. This one is a budget gaming device with a more powerful Unisoc T820 chipset (vs. T760 on the Focus), a 6.72” FHD+ 120Hz display, DTS:X Ultra stereo speakers and a large 6,000mAh battery.

Finally, the nubia Music is equipped with a large DTS-branded speaker on its back that is 600% louder than a typical phone speaker. This device also has two (!) 3.5mm headphone jacks. For more details, check out our hands-on.

OnePlus

It has been three years since OnePlus first tried its hand at a smartwatch. It was a mixed bag, but now the company is giving it another shot – this time with Wear OS – and it introduced the OnePlus Watch 2.

For more details, check out our hands-on review, which goes into details for the “Dual Engine Architecture” (it’s almost like two smartwatches in one body).

Oppo

Oppo didn’t show new phones but it confirmed that it will launch the next Find flagship in all countries where Oppo was previously operating. It also announced a 3-year partnership with the Telefonica group.

Oppo Air Glass 3 XR prototype.

Oppo did showcase one new device – the Air Glass 3 XR prototype. These glasses weigh just 50g, but create an AR experience with a resin waveguide that was developed in-house. There’s also an AI that runs on your smartphone, AndesGPT, that will power a voice assistant.

Samsung

Samsung offered more details on the Galaxy Ring – a diminutive health tracker that comes in US ring sizes ranging from 5 to 13. It will track heart rate, breathing rate, your sleep and night movements and it can even detect the early signs of sleep apnea.

Samsung Ring

Unofficial info claims that the Samsung Galaxy Ring will have up to 9 days of battery life and will go on sale in the second half of this year.

TCL

TCL unveiled two mid-rangers – the TCL 50 SE and TCL 50 5G. The 5G model has better connectivity, but the 6.6 HD+ display holds it back. The SE model has a larger 6.78” display with a higher resolution of FHD+ (both are 90Hz IPS LCDs). Check out our hands-on review for more details.

Tecno

Tecno unveiled the Camon 30 Premier with the brand new Tecno PolarAce Imaging System. It is a combination of a Sony sensor with a new Sony ISP chip and Tecno image processing algorithms. The dedicated ISP is efficient but powerful and enables full-scene processing in 4K video.

The company also launched three other models. The Tecno Camon 30 Pro is similar to the Premier, except without the 3x periscope camera and with a non-LTPO display. There are also the Camon 30 5G and Camon 30 with lower price tags.

We have a hands-on review of the Tecno Camon 30 Premier and another one for the other three.

Tecno also launched the Pova 6 Pro, a lite gaming phone. Powered by the Dimensity 6080, this phone has 8-12GB of RAM and a 6.78” FHD+ 120Hz display, plus a large 6,000mAh battery with 70W fast charging.

The company also announced that AI features are coming to HiOS devices, including a new digital assistant called Ella. There will be Call Translation and Social Media Translation, plus auto-generated subtitles for videos.

The company also demoed some prototype devices – a rollable phone, better UTG for foldables and a color-changing panel for customization. Additionally, it showed off a Windows-based portable gaming console that doesn’t have a screen but uses AR glasses instead. Another “out there” design was the Dynamic 1 robo dog.

Tecno Pocket Go with AR Pocket Vision • Tecno Dynamic 1

vivo

About a month after revealing the vivo V30, the company made the Pro model official. The vivo V30 Pro packs four 50MP cameras (three on the back, one on the front), a 6.78” 120Hz 10-bit AMOLED display, a Dimensity 8200 and a 5,000mAh battery with 80W fast charging.

Xiaomi

It’s official, the Xiaomi 14 and 14 Ultra are going global (and the Pro is staying in China). The Ultra has a 1” sensor with a stepless variable aperture (f/1.6-f/4.0), a 5x periscope, a 3.2x telephoto and an ultra wide camera (122°). For more, head over to our hands-on review.

The Xiaomi 14 camera department has triple 50MP cameras on the back, but they are more restrained – 1/1.31” main, 3.2x tele and a 115° ultra wide. With a 6.36” display, this one is smaller than most Android flagships today.