This year’s Mobile World Congress was absolutely jam-packed with gadgets and delivered a surprising number of pleasant surprises and curiosities. Exactly what we’d hope for from the world’s largest mobile phone conference. If you didn’t manage to follow our Instagram stories or just want to know what we loved, we’ve picked out some of our favourite, stand-out gadgets from MWC 2019
Best of MWC 2019 – Huawei Mate X
Not to be upstaged by Samsung’s pre-MWC announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Fold, Huawei decided to use MWC 2019 as the perfect place to introduce its very own foldable smart device.
The Huawei Mate X wowed the audience, audibly, as it was revealed. Edging the Galaxy Fold in some key ways, the Mate X features a 6.6-inch screen on its front, a 6.38-inch screen on its back and opens up to transform into an 8-inch tablet with 8GB and 512GB onboard storage. Going with an outward facing curved display and using an innovative hinge that allows it told fold flat makes the Huawei Mate X futuristic, yet practical. It also houses an advanced triple Leica camera system in the hinged section, allowing the screens to be uninterrupted by punch hole cameras or notches.
Read our news coverage and watch our first impressions video here.
Best of MWC 2019 – Sony Xperia 1
Sony Xperia is back with a whole new look and naming convention. The new Sony Xperia 1 sports a striking 21:9 aspect ratio and a stunning 6.5-inch 4K HDR OLED display.
One of the most exciting thing about the Xperia 1 is that for the first time, Sony’s alpha camera division has put its name to the camera of the phone. As a result, the Xperia 1 features a triple camera setup with 10 fps burst mode capture and Eye AF, as well as tracking autofocus.
We expect the Sony Xperia 1 to offer an amazing experience for people who are interested in a device in 2019 that puts entertainment above all else.
Click here to take a look at our news coverage of the Xperia 1 launch.
Best of MWC 2019 – Microsoft HoloLens 2
HoloLens is one of the most exciting technology platforms of our age and it’s getting better. MWC 2019 gave us the first chance to experience HoleLens 2 for ourselves and it’s safe to say we were impressed.
As a number of different companies compete to create an augmented reality platform that is truly practical and successful, Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 has a superior ergonomic design and represents the furthest step in the right direction yet. Offering a wide field of view, advanced head, hand and eye tracking, HoloLens 2 blends mixed reality effortlessly, making it easier than ever to interact with projected elements in AR without frustrating lag and frequent misfires. The HoloLens 2 could truly capitalise on 5G technology as it is designed to operate completely untethered.
We seriously can’t wait to get this gadget in for review, it will be a standout piece of tech from 2019 for a number of years to come.
Best of MWC 2019 – SanDisk Extreme 1TB microSD card
Phones are getting faster and higher in memory capacity, like the top spec ceramic Samsung Galaxy S10+ with 12GB RAM and 1TB SoC memory. So naturally, microSD cards are reaching new heights to keep up, thanks to SanDisk.
At Mobile World Congress, the company showed off the world’s fastest 1TB UHS-I microSD flash memory card, the 1TB SanDisk Extreme UHS-I microSDXC card. The new card features higher speed and capacity for capturing and moving massive amounts of high-quality photos and videos on smartphones, drones and action cameras. These impressive levels of capacity and speed is a boost to creators, who won’t have to worry about space limitations or long transfer times.
Best of MWC 2019 – Nokia 9 PureView
We had a chance to see a prototype of this device back in 2017 and we’re excited to see it announced as the Nokia 9 PureView device at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
Not afraid to go left when all of the other smartphone brands are following a trend, Nokia did it again with its latest flagship. This time, Nokia has partnered with computational photography company Light (creators of the curious L16 smart camera) to produce a smartphone with five cameras, each with Zeiss lenses. Why five cameras? Light’s philosophy is that combining multiple images can allow a camera to create highly detailed stills with a broad dynamic range.
Nokia claims this phone is able to gauge depth information from 7cm to 40 metres away and produce RAW DNG files with up to 12.4 stops of dynamic range. In theory, the camera of the Nokia 9 PureView should be one of the most impressive of the year, especially within its humble price bracket expected to be somewhere between £549-599.
