The leading smartphone manufacturers, like Apple, and Samsung, are big enough a deal to announce their new handsets in major events that attract the attention of the entire tech media. For all others, there’s MWC, the biggest and most influential connectivity event of the year. Each year, smartphone and chip manufacturers, along with companies from pretty much every other industry related to telecommunication, gather in Barcelona in February to showcase their latest innovations at the Mobile World Congress. Here are some of the most exciting products we’re expecting to see at MWC 2023.
Nokia and HMD Global
While Nokia has lost its leading phone maker status over its years of struggling with Windows phones, it’s now back in the spotlight. Its consumer handsets are decent, and its retro feature phones are fun. We’re expecting more of the same from them this year.
Nokia usually announces little more than generic consumer handsets (as in no flagships) at the MWC but it always has something exciting for its fans – it has announced its revamped 3310 at MWC 2017, for example.
Nokia still has quite a few iconic models it could relaunch. Imagine, for example, browsing the web on a refreshed Communicator 9000, checking out the games at https://www.topaustraliangambling.com, and playing them all on history’s most iconic QWERTY-keyboard handset but with the processing power of a modern-day smartphone.
HMD Global, the company owning the Nokia brand, will have a separate booth this year, meaning that we can expect both phones and telecommunication equipment to be presented at this year’s event.
Huawei
Huawei is expected to bring quite a few strong devices to MWC 2023. We can expect to hear more about its upcoming foldable Mate X3, with satellite communication capabilities, along with the P60 handsets.
The Mate X3 is expected to be powered by Qualcomm’s 2nd-generation Snapdragon 8 SoC, along with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Satellite which enables (premium) smartphones to send and receive messages via satellites even when there’s no cell coverage in their location.
The P60 is expected to have specs similar to its foldable counterpart, along with a camera assembly with Sony optics, lightning-fast LPDDR5, a 120Hz display, along with 100W wired and 50W wireless charging capabilities.
Motorola
Motorola is expected to launch a new Edge handset soon. It may be the 2023 edition of the Edge+, the only handset with a 156Hz display. The phone is already available in China, and the manufacturer might announce its global launch at MWC 2023.
Motorola’s announcement history at previous editions of the Mobile World Congress was pretty weak, especially when you consider that it was preparing the 3rd-generation Razr in 2022 and was expected to (but ultimately didn’t) announce the revival of the Motorola Razr at the MWC 2019.
Foldable phones and other news
Several brands, like Honor, and OnePlus, are also expected to present their own foldable smartphones at this year’s MWC. Honor is expected to announce the global launch of the Honor Magic Vs, released last December in China. OnePlus is rumoured to at least tease its upcoming V Fold and V Flip handsets, expected to hit the shelves toward the end of this year.
Samsung already had its own major launch events, so – although it will participate at the MWC – we can’t expect it to reveal any new and exciting devices. The same goes for MediaTek. Qualcomm, in turn, is expected to talk a lot about its 2nd generation Snapdragon 8 SoC, along with hardware dedicated to VR, AR, and other next-gen mobile platforms.
There’s more to the MWC than just exciting new gadgets
These are the most interesting gadgets we expect to hear about at the Mobile World Congress this year. But there’s more to the MWC than just new gadgets. Among the topics covered by the event, we find innovations like sixth-generation mobile networks (6G), quantum computing, Metaverse and VR/AR, and “Digital Everything”, covering things from self-driving cars to smart factories. The event is held at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain, between February 27 – March 2.