Mobile World Congress 2017- What to Expect?

One of the biggest tech events of the year, Mobile World Congress is just around the corner and we cannot wait to see what different manufacturers have in store for us. Mobile World Congress 2017 will kick off on 27th February and will go on till 2nd March. This is the time of the year where manufacturers bring out their best products, churn up an impressive presentation and show the world what they are up to. Not only will we get to look at different smartphones but tablets, smartwatches, and mobile accessories from a variety of global brands.

MWC’s theme for this year is ‘The Next Element’ which will focus on different innovations and where the mobile industry is heading next. So, do the industry big’s have anything new for us, or will we be looking at the same old designs which do not excite us anymore? Let’s have a look at what different manufacturers are up to.

Here is the list of some Big events at the Mobile World Congress 2017

LG

LG will be announcing their new flagship, LG G6 on their event scheduled for 26th February. This time around this smartphone is the one to watch, as LG has worked on bringing us the ‘Ideal Smartphone‘ which is ‘More Intelligent’. After the lackluster sales of LG G5 with a modular design, LG decided to change its design strategy and stick with something that people loved. For that purpose, they have gone with a metal glass unibody design. The renders and the leaked images that we have seen till yet have impressed us, LG is on to something and they are confident that G6 will put them back on track.

LG G6 will feature a 5.7-inch, 18:9 aspect ratio Univisium display. Under the hood, the smartphone will be equipped with Snapdragon 821, not the latest Snapdragon 835 SoC, as they couldn’t get their hands on ample chipsets in time for mass production to start. Along what that, it will have a 6GB RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. The latest promos from LG hint at an AI assistant, as they claim that LG G6 is ‘Less Artificial, More Intelligent‘. Rumors suggest Google Assistant will be making its way to LG G6, making it the first non-Pixel device to have it on board. In addition, we may look at some other LG G6 devices as LG filed a trademark for LG G6 Compact and LG G6 Wear, but this seems a bit unlikely as we haven’t heard much about these devices.

Samsung

Samsung will not be unveiling the new Galaxy-S flagship at the MWC. For the past few years, Samsung has made us of the MWC platform to impress people with their new S-series flagships with innovative features and top of the line specs. This time they have delayed the announcement for Galaxy S8, given the Galaxy Note 7 disaster.

The company wanted to take additional time to test the devices for every possible issue that can occur. Samsung made the report of the investigations on the Galaxy Note 7 public last month after which they introduced an 8-point safety check system to assure that the same will not happen to their upcoming devices.

Now given that Samsung’s flagship will not be at the event, will it be missing out on the MWC event? No, Samsung will be present at the MWC 2017 and they do have some new devices to show. Samsung will be unveiling a new tablet, Galaxy Tab S3 at the event.

This tablet was supposed to be announced last year, but after issues with Note 7 started, Samsung scrapped up the idea. Galaxy Tab S3 will be a high-end flagship tablet by Samsung which will sport a 9.6-inch 2048 x 1536 display. The tablet will be equipped with Snapdragon 820 processor with a 4GB RAM. Earlier reports also suggested that the Tab S3 will use Exynos 7420, there is a chance that in some of the markets the tablets will be powered by this chipset. There will be two variants, one will be LTE enabled and the other one will have Wi-Fi certification. In addition, Galaxy Tab S3 will come with an S-Pen.

Apart from the tablet, Samsung will also show a prototype of a foldable smartphone to a select group of individuals at a private exhibition. So, for their investors and industry partners they will up the ante by showing the different tech under development. Now what’s left to see is, would Samsung hold a low key event given the absence of the Galaxy S8 flagship or will they go all out with an impressive presentation?

Huawei

Huawei is making its space in the global market by producing smartphones with impeccable specs. The company at the moment is the 3rd biggest smartphone supplier in the world. In 2016, the company sold 30% more smartphones than it did in 2015 and this year they plan to push the sales thereby doubling profits.

Huawei at the MWC will be unveiling their P-series flagship smartphones. Huawei P10 and P10 Plus are making their way to the MWC. Their predecessors, Huawei P9 and P9 Plus were impressive devices that had great specs and an affordable price tag in comparison to the flagships which offered the same specs.

This time expectations from Huawei are high and we expect them to bring devices that show how they are at the top of their game in the industry. The specs of Huawei P10 and P10 Plus leaked a few days ago, as a promotional flyer from China leaked online. Both Huawei P10 and P 10 Plus will feature a 5.5-inch Quad HD display. The only difference in terms of the display is that the P10 Plus will have a dual-curved display, similar to the one used in Samsung S7 Edge and Mate 9 Porsche Design.

Huawei P10 Plus will have two variants which will vary in their storage capacity. One model will have 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage and the second model will have 6GB RAM and a whopping 128GB of internal storage. The devices will be priced at $726 and $828 respectively. Huawei P10 like its counterpart will have three different models which only vary in their storage capacity.

The first model will have a 4GB RAM and 32GB of base storage, the second will have 4GB RAM and 6GB of internal storage, and the last model will have a 6GB RAM and 128 GB ROM. The device will be priced at $508, $595, and $682 respectively.  Do you think Huawei will be able to outshine LG at the MWC with the P10 flagship devices?

BlackBerry

BlackBerry, one of the leaders of the smartphone industry will be making a come back this year at the MWC. There is no doubt that BlackBerry devices in terms of their features and security that they provided were the best. No other brand has been able to achieve that but sadly, they failed to innovate in lieu of the rapid developments in the industry. Having learned what went wrong and pushed them out of the smartphone race, BlackBerry is set to announce a new smartphone at the MWC which they hope will put them back in the game.

BlackBerry will be announcing an Android smartphone which to date has been called ‘Mercury’. The name may change in the final announcement. BlackBerry showed the prototype of the device at the CES 2017 last month. The smartphone at the first glance looks to be an amalgamation of the best of BlackBerry devices along with the features required today.

The iconic QWERTY keyboard is back which can also be used as a touch-pad. The device will feature a 4.5-inch display and will be equipped with Snapdragon 821 SoC, along with a 3GB RAM. Earlier reports also suggest that the camera lens will be similar to the one used in Google Pixel devices. The rest of the specs are unknown, but we do know how the device looks like courtesy of the invitation that Blackberry sent out a few days ago, inviting people to ‘Something Different‘.

Nokia

Along with BlackBerry, Nokia is also marking its return to the global arena by unveiling a new Nokia branded smartphone at the event. Nokia under HMD Global has successfully launched Nokia 6 in China. The popularity of the smartphone can be attributed to the fact that it secured almost 1 million registrations before the sale of the device went live. On the day of the launch, Nokia 6 was sold out in under one minute. Nokia is one of their announcements on their Facebook page asked fans to save the date, 26th February. We already know that this a day before the MWC kicks off officially and a lot of other brands will be announcing their devices there.

As per rumors go, Nokia may unveil P1 at the event. Nokia P1 will be equipped with Snapdragon 835, which is quite unlikely as Samsung’s Galaxy S8 will be the first device to have that on board. Most probably Snapdragon 820 of Snapdragon 821 processor will be in the works.

In terms of storage, it will have a 6 GB RAM and 128 GB of internal memory. A 22.6 MP main camera will adorn the device. As we haven’t even seen the element of the device leak, we are a bit skeptical about this announcement.

Another Nokia device that may get unveiled at the MWC is an 18.5-inch Nokia tablet. We first heard about this tablet last month when it stopped at GFXBench. In terms of specs, the tablet will feature an 18.5-inch 2560 x 1440 resolution display.

It will be equipped with a Snapdragon 835 processor along with a 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The device will have a 12MP main and front-facing camera. The Nokia tablet will run Android 7.0 Nougat and again if the company plans to equip it with Snapdragon 835, this will not be seen at the MWC.

Motorola

Motorola & Lenovo make some nifty devices under the Moto brand. They successfully executed the concept of a modular smartphone with Moto Z devices. At the MWC, the company will be announcing Moto G5 Plus and some new ‘mods’. Moto G5 Plus has been in the news lately, usually when a smartphone is about to be announced rumors about it get rampant. A few days ago, new images of the device leaked revealing the specs of the device.

Moto G5 Plus will feature a 5.2-inch full HD 1080p resolution display, earlier a 5.5-inch display was rumored. The device will be powered by a 2.0GHz octa-core processor. A 12-megapixel main camera with a rapid autofocus feature will adorn the device.

The smartphone will run Android Nougat, a 3,000mAh battery, a fingerprint scanner, and NFC support will be present. Apart from that new ‘mods’ will also be seen, in a recent hackathon we got to see some unique and creative concepts, let’s see what we will get to see at the Mobile World Congress.

Sony

Sony has been unable to make its mark as a market leader in the smartphone industry. One of the major reasons is that Sony smartphones fail to offer users something new or unique that other brands are not offering.

Their smartphones are good, but in a uber-competitive industry, just being good will not pass. Sony needs to pick up its game if they want to sustain their position. Earlier reports suggested that Sony will be unveiling 5 new smartphones at the Mobile World Congress 2017 with the code names: Yoshino, BlancBright, Keyaki, Hinoki, and Mineo. 

Sony reportedly will be equipping Yoshino and BlacBright with Snapdragon 835 SoC. Well, with Samsung getting hands on the early supply of the chipset resulted in Sony delaying the launch of these two devices till April or May. a few specs of the rest of the smartphones are a bit sketchy.

Keyaki will have a Full HD display and will be powered by MediaTek Helio P20 chipset, along with a 4GR RAM and 64 GB of base storage. Honki will be equipped with Helio P20, which will be accompanied by a 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. A 16MP main and 8MP selfie shooter will be found on the device. Let’s see which Sony Xperia devices do we get to look at the Mobile World Congress.

Alcatel

Alcatel will also be present at the MWC and they are not planning to just showcase one smartphone. The company reportedly will be bringing 5 new devices to their ‘Light Up’ event. Not much about the devices is known at the moment so we cannot say much about their specs and features. One of the announced smartphones will be a modular model which Motorola successfully launched last year, that would allow users to enhance the functionality of their smartphone by attaching different ‘mods’. One of the rumored mods will have colorful LED lights that would light up according to the beat of the music.

Alcatel Idol 5S was also spotted at the GeekBench and this may be announced at the MWC. the smartphone will be equipped with an octa-core Helio P20 SoC, clocked at 1.69 GHz, accompanied by a 3GB RAM. The device will be powered by Android 7.0 Nougat. The rest of the specs and features at the moment are not known. Like Sony, Alcatel also has their plans under the wraps so we cannot say what other devices will stop by at the MWC.

Mobile World Congress 2017 sure is gearing up to be an amazing event with brands like BlackBerry and Nokia making a comeback. Along with that LG and Huawei are set to unveil their flagship devices set to beat the competition. So, which smartphones are you looking forward to the most? Do let us know what you think of the MWC line up and which brand do you think will end up surprising us, Nokia or Alcatel?