Cellular World Congress—or simply MWC—isn’t one among our favourite commerce reveals simply because it’s located within the stunning metropolis of Barcelona throughout a seasonally applicable time of 12 months. (Low cost cava and tapas don’t have something to do with it both.) No, this present is a favourite as a result of it’s one of many best to navigate, and there’s all the time loads of attention-grabbing, enjoyable, or simply plain loopy tech to scavenge by means of.
This 12 months, such bounty contains transparent laptops, bendable telephones, a Barbie flip cellphone, and extra. Listed here are the highlights.
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HMD Rebrands (Form of) and Teases a Barbie Telephone
HMD was imagined to be the rebirth of Nokia telephones again when it made a splash at MWC 2017, but it surely wasn’t lengthy earlier than the corporate misplaced steam and it was clear that the Nokia model identify wouldn’t actually compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple anymore. HMD as an alternative put its deal with funds Android telephones over the previous few years and its characteristic cellphone enterprise. At MWC, it introduced that 2023 was the corporate’s first worthwhile 12 months, and now it’s attempting to alter issues up with a rebrand. First is the identify—it’s leaning extra on “Human Cellular Units” (the total model of its acronym) as an alternative of HMD. This 12 months’s lineup of gadgets will embrace an HMD cellphone, an iconic Nokia cellphone, plus a Barbie flip cellphone.
Yep, you heard that proper. HMD is collaborating with Mattel to launch a Barbie characteristic flip cellphone. It’ll be coming this summer season, will clearly be pink, and is being touted as a digital detox gadget. That’s all we all know. The one photos of all of the teased telephones have been pixelated.
What we do learn about HMD’s different cellphone is that it’s going to revolve round a system referred to as HMD Fusion. Much like Motorola’s Moto Mods or Google’s long-lost Project Ara, it appears like a system of modular elements that builders can construct for the smartphone, from an prolonged battery and a barcode scanner to a fee terminal to medical tools. It launched a toolkit that developers can use to get began.
HMD additionally had a giant deal with repairability—it expects half of its gadgets launched globally this 12 months to be repairable. However this summer season, it says it’s going to have a system that dramatically reduces the variety of steps it takes to repair a cracked display.
Motorola Bends a Telephone, and Debuts Sensible Join
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Late final 12 months at Lenovo’s Tech World occasion, Motorola unveiled a bendable idea cellphone referred to as the Adaptive Show. I obtained an opportunity to mess around with it at MWC. It appears and appears like its Razr folding telephones, besides as an alternative of getting a hinge that snaps the cellphone closed exactly in half, you’ll be able to bend the entire thing backward.
