The best gadgets, phones and concepts to be featured at the Mobile World Congress
A PHONE first released 17 years ago stole the show at the biggest mobile tech show of the year. But there was also plenty of new gadgets and ideas.
IT TURNS out the famously indestructible Nokia 3310 mobile phone really was impossible to kill. The old favourite made its return at the biggest annual mobile technology show — the World Mobile Congress — along with a reboted version of the BlackBerry.
But there was also plenty of new gadgets and concepts. Here are the best gadgets, phones and concepts to be featured at this year’s event:
NOKIA 3310
NOKIA confirmed the highly anticipated return of arguably the most iconic phone ever made.
The small, rounded phone comes with a 2.4-inch colour screen, a microSD slot, and a two megapixel camera. And yes, it has Snake.
It comes in four different colours — black, silver, yellow and red — and will cost somewhere around $65.
Just like it’s famous predecessor, it promises durability and battery life unlike anything else on the market. According to its makers, it boasts 22 hours of talk time and an incredible one month standby time, per charge.
It may have Snake, but there is not much else you can do on the phone other than make calls, send texts and maybe surf the web a little bit. It only runs on Nokia’s new Series 30+ software, rather than Android and has slow-speed 2.5G internet — a technology Australian telcos are leaving behind.
LG G6 SMARTPHONE
LG had one of the biggest launches at the event, debuting its new flagship smartphone, the G6.
It’s a device for gamers and entertainment lovers with a large screen that stretches across nearly the entire face of the phone. The 5.7 inch screen display makes it easier for users to do split screen multi-tasking on the device and has a 18:9 aspect ratio, as opposed to the 16:9 ratio used by most handsets. This means that when viewed in landscape mode, the screen appears wider than usual.
The phone is also the first smartphone to support HDR 10 and Dolby Vision — image technology that was previously available only on TVs and allows for brighter and more vivid colours.
Available: March 28
SONY TOUCH
After debuting last year, Sony’s innovative projector device is almost ready for sale.
It can be used for interactive games projected onto a tabletop such as air hockey, or you can swap it around and direct it onto the wall to watch Netflix.
Sensors on the front of the device detect which part of the projected image you touch with impressive precision.
Sony thinks the device could be great in classrooms to take children away from individual tablets and bring them around a table to solve puzzles and play games.
It doesn’t yet have a price or a release date but as a Sony spokesman told news.com.au, because it’s a first generation product, we can expect it to be pretty pricey.
Available: 2017
PEUGOT’S INSTINCT CONCEPT CAR
Imagine getting into your car after a bad day at work and it offers to drive you home, dims the lights, tilts the chair back and plays you some soothing James Taylor to calm you down.
Well, that’s the idea behind Peugot’s Instinct Concept Car. The futuristic vehicle has four different modes that make the car drive differently depending on your mood and the level of control you want.
The car connects to Samsung’s Artik cloud service, allowing it to gather data from your other connected devices to learn to cater to your needs.
For instance it could connect to your fridge and suggest swinging past the supermarket or perhaps access data from your personal fitness tracker and drive you to the gym if you need a workout.
The concept car will make its official debut at the Geneva Motor Show next week, though Peugeot says that the technology underpinning it probably won’t enter production until 2025. Nonetheless, it’s very cool to think about.
Available: TBA
GALAXY TAB S3
Still reeling from its exploding battery catastrophe from the Samsung Note 7, Samsung opted to push back the release of its next smartphone and instead debuted some new tablet devices.
The successor to the popular Tab S2 has beefed up specs, an HDR screen, S pen support and looks set to rival Apple’s iPad Pro.
Samsung also announce a pair of Galaxy Books powered by Windows 10 as a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Surface Pro all-in-one devices.
Available: 2017
HUAWEI WATCH 2
Depending on your tastes, the chunky design leaves a bit to be desired but Huawei’s new smart watch is packed full of features and processing power.
It focuses on fitness and comes with GPS technology to track your runs, monitor your steps and tell you about the state of your cardio.
It has LTE connectivity to enable you to make calls and send texts, and supports Android Pay so you can tap and pay, if your bank allows you.
The Chinese company also released its new flagship smartphone P10 device at the event this year as it become apparent that much of the smartphone battle is taking place at the mid range level.
Available: May/June
SONY XPERIA XZ PREMIUM
Along with a super slow motion camera that shoots at an astonishing 960 frames per second, the premium version of the Xperia range boasts exceptionally sharp display quality. The 5.5 inch smartphone will be the first in the world to have a 4K HDR display.
With the powerful phone, Sony is looking to take on Apple and Samsung at the top of the market so expect it to come with a high price tag.
“On the Xperia premium we are really focusing on three areas. The first one is camera, the second one is display and the viewing experience and the third one is the performance — the download speeds, the upload speeds,” Sony’s head of global marketing, Joao Seabra told news.com.au.
Available: June
CONNECTED GLASSES THAT GUIDE THE BLIND
Plenty of companies are investing in smart eyewear that can help the disabled, like allowing autistic people to read the emotions of others, or Microsoft’s AI glasses that takes pictures and describe what it sees to its blind user.
US company Aira has come up with a similar idea with a pair of glasses that allow users to connect to a remote agent via a smartphone app who can see what they are viewing with the glasses and can help guide them through tasks such as taking public transport into the city or picking out the right thing at the shops.
Available: Already available in US, TBA for international release.
OPPO’S 5X DUAL CAMERA ZOOM
Rising Chinese smartphone manufacturer OPPO unveiled a new prototype camera design, inspired by a submarine periscope, that allows it to fit a dual camera system in its phone capable of five time zoom.
The camera system gives an unprecedented three time optical zoom, and can achieve five times optical zoom with a little digital help.
In order to limit the negative effects of vibration when using the zoom function, Oppo applied Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) directly to the telephoto lens and the result is a surprisingly smooth zoom and steady picture quality when zooming in for close ups.
Available: TBA
SHOES THAT SHOW YOU THE WAY
If you don’t want to spend big on a new phone or tablet, there was a couple of nifty little devices that might prove a bit of fun.
For instance, a company called Lechal Footwear has created a connected GPS device that fits into the sole of special orthotics and gently vibrates either your left or right foot when walking to tell you which way to go.
You have to pre-program your destination and whether you’re walking or riding a bike, it will guide you through your journey with little vibrating prompts on the sole of your feet.
While it could prove confusing when there is more than one left direction to take, it would certainly help prevent you checking Google Maps every ten minutes when in a new city.
Available: now
The author travelled to MWC as a guest of OPPO
Originally published as The best gadgets, phones and concepts to be featured at the Mobile World Congress
