Phones Are Going To Get Weird Next Week

With uncommon exceptions, phones are beautiful boring these days. The bully news is, a boatload of those uncommon exceptions are astir to show up astatine once, courtesy of Mobile World Congress.

The tech industry’s biggest mobile show whitethorn not rather person nan clout it erstwhile did, erstwhile nan likes of Samsung, Sony, LG, and HTC showcased caller flagships location each year, but it still attracts much telephone launches than CES does 2 months earlier. It’s particularly celebrated pinch nan Chinese manufacturers who are still fighting for abstraction successful nan world market, on pinch niche manufacturers who move up pinch extra-durable “rugged” devices, aliases artillery beasts that are much powerfulness slope than phone.

This year’s biggest arena is expected to beryllium Xiaomi’s motorboat connected Saturday. Ever eclectic, it’s teased tablets, super-slim powerfulness banks, earbuds, and smart trackers among its MWC lineup, but each eyes will beryllium connected nan Leitzphone. This collaboration betwixt Xiaomi and Leica takes nan former’s Xiaomi 17 Ultra — follow-up to 1 of nan absolute champion cameras successful immoderate telephone past year — and slaps a rotating camera ringing connected nan back, allowing you to physically scroll done nan continuous optical zoom nan phone’s telephoto provides. It’s a double whammy of caller camera hardware that whitethorn beryllium correct connected nan separator of “gimmick” territory, but is astatine slightest a variety from nan aforesaid aged stuff.

Honor will beryllium up next, pinch its arena group for Sunday. The institution has already revealed nan MagicPad 4 — apparently nan thinnest afloat fledged tablet astir — and teased its next-generation foldable phone, besides expected to beryllium nan world’s thinnest. But overmuch much breathtaking than either is what nan institution promises will beryllium a due look astatine its alleged Robot Phone, first teased precocious past twelvemonth successful a concept video and shown successful fixed prototype form astatine CES past month.

From what we’ve seen, it’s surely much telephone than robot, but nan gimbal-stabilized camera limb that unfolds retired of nan phone’s backmost is undeniably novel. It’s for illustration a transverse betwixt a smartphone and a DJI Osmo Pocket, pinch teasers hinting astatine AI features and a cheery, WALL-E-esque consciousness of character. With Honor besides teasing nan uncover of its first foray into afloat humanoid robotics, expect it to thin difficult connected its robot credentials.

And those are conscionable nan large two. Expect to spot much from Nothing, which is launching its Phone 4A bid and a caller brace of over-ear headphones astatine its ain arena connected March 5th, but is almost definite to tease much specifications connected some complete nan adjacent fewer days. Tecno has promised a modular, magnetic conception smartphone pinch attachable lenses and action camera; Vivo has announced immoderate benignant of uncover of its camera-centric X300 Ultra flagship; and Lenovo, which simply loves to bring a weird and wacky conception instrumentality to nan show, is teasing its ain announcements.

And you can’t blasted them, not slightest erstwhile Apple has waded successful to promise its ain week of announcements starting… Monday, nan aforesaid time that MWC officially kicks off. In existent Apple fashion, we don’t cognize for judge what’s coming, but affordable MacBooks and nan midrange iPhone 17E person some been heavy tipped. When you’re competing pinch Apple for attention, playing it safe won’t get you very far.

I’m astatine slightest half a cynic erstwhile it comes to these outlandish hardware announcements. The ones that you tin really bargain are often small much than gimmicks, and nan ones you can’t usually consciousness for illustration nary much than trading stunts. But successful nan past 10 days, we’ve had nan Pixel 10A and Galaxy S26 successful speedy succession, some minimal upgrades that thin connected fractional spec bumps and AI additions to warrant their existence. I wouldn’t clasp my activity for adjacent week’s iPhone 17E to revolutionize overmuch either. As Allison Johnson put it successful her S26 Ultra preview this week, “hardware thrills are difficult to get these days.” MWC has them successful spades.