Mobile World Congress (MWC) is where it’s at for fancy new smartphone launches. Held on 27 February to 2 March in Barcelona, this huge conference is one of the biggest of the year, with the likes of Samsung, Sony, LG and Huawei showing off their latest flagship, mid-range and budget smartphones. But what announcements can we actually expect from MWC 2017?
MWC 2017 is all about mobile technology. While smartphones are always the big-hitters, other interesting products such as tablets and smartwatches are also shown off, as well as plenty of enterprise equipment to keep those businesses happy.
Here, though, I’m going to take you through the smartphones you can expect to see at MWC 2017.
MWC 2017: Samsung
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Samsung’s Galaxy series flagships are the usual Android kings. Typically, each MWC is dominated by some sort of Galaxy S announcement, but it looks like the Galaxy S8 won’t be talked about this year. With new information released during the Note 7 investigation, Samsung has said that the Galaxy S8 won’t be launching in Q1 or Q2 in 2017.
Samsung may still have a presence at MWC 2017, though. The company still has its Galaxy A series phones to talk about, after all, and it may pull off a few surprises. Did someone say Galaxy Note 8?
MWC 2017: Apple
Apple doesn’t usually have much of a showing at MWC. I really doubt MWC 2017 will be anything different, with the California-based tech giant opting for its own series of conferences to announce those shiny new products.
Apple is well known to let slip about new products around MWC, though, in an effort to divert media attention away from its competitors. We won’t be seeing the iPhone 8 at MWC, but I’ll put money on the company announcing something (a new iPad or otherwise) around that time.
MWC 2017: Sony
It hasn’t been long since Sony launched its Xperia XZ handset, and we wouldn’t really expect to see a replacement anytime soon. But Sony is never too shy to treat us to plenty of handsets every year and, after all, we did get the Xperia X and XA at MWC last year.
MWC 2017: Huawei
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Huawei’s P9, P9 Plus and P9 Lite are all well regarded here at Expert Reviews. A P10 is inevitable, and recent rumblings suggest we might see Android 7, a 2.3GHz octa-core processor and a 5.5in Quad HD display. Alexa is on the cards, too.
MWC 2017: LG
We’ve already seen a teaser come from LG itself. Expected to be the LG G6, early reports suggest the handheld will have a 5.7in Quad HD display with a lovely thin bezel. It won’t be modular like last year’s LG G5, though.
MWC 2017: HTC
Before the HTC U Ultra and U Play launch at CES in January, I’d have said it was a given we’d see the HTC 11 debut at this year’s MWC. Now, though, I’m not too sure. HTC may well surprise us, but I can see the Taiwanese manufacturer pooling all of its efforts into those AI-driven and dual-screened handsets.
I’ll be updating this article as and when we hear more information in the run-up to MWC 2017. Watch this space.