It’s that time of year again. Mobile World Congress is returning to Barcelona, where it’ll fill the halls of the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via convention center from February 26th to February 29th.
The trade show bills itself as “the largest and most influential event for the connectivity ecosystem” with tens of thousands of attendees from manufacturers, mobile operators, and other companies.
From a consumer tech perspective, in practice, this means smartphone and other mobile device launches. Expect Chinese giants like Xiaomi and Honor to use the show as a venue to bring their domestic phones to a global audience, while others like OnePlus and HMD could have all-new devices to show off. And we wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few flashy concept devices shown off for good measure, even if many will be destined to stay in the lab.
Read on for all the biggest news coming out of the show, and be sure to check back, as we’ll be updating this page regularly throughout the course of the week.
Without looking up any leaks or rumors, I’d bet that you could probably sketch most of the phones rumored to be launching at Mobile World Congress next week. Over the years, smartphones have settled on a relatively consistent design formula of big rectangular touchscreens, small selfie camera cutouts, app-based interfaces, and large camera bumps with an array of different lenses. But more than a decade and a half into the smartphone era, I’m getting more and more curious about what’s going to come next and why existing attempts to reinvent smartphones like foldables have struggled to go mainstream.
To my mind, much of the answer comes back to apps. We barely think about them because it’s so easy to take for granted that all your third-party software will work on your next phone, but you’d never consider buying a device that can’t run your banking app or ridehailing service of choice. Just look at Huawei, which went from challenging Apple to be the world’s second-biggest smartphone manufacturer to getting its Android license revoked and dropping out of the top five altogether. First-party apps are the foundation of a smartphone, but it’s the third-party software that makes it feel like your personal tool.
Xiaomi’s phone lineup has a new leader. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra has just launched in China and features a range of impressive photography specs including a main camera with a large one-inch-type sensor (specifically the Sony LYT-900) and a variable aperture with 1,024 stops between f/1.63 and f/4.0. Prices start at ¥6,499 (around $904) for 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, rising to ¥7,799 (around $1,084) for 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage when the phone goes on sale on February 27th. There’s also a special-edition titanium model that’ll retail for ¥8,799 (around $1,224).
Although Xiaomi only shared Chinese release details of the 14 Ultra today, it won’t be long before the phone’s international launch. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has said that the phone will make an appearance at the company’s presentation at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday, where it’ll appear alongside the Xiaomi 14 that launched in China last October. Expect the handsets to be made available in Europe but not in an official capacity in the US.
Xiaomi teases a new flagship smartphone for MWC.
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.
