Last week, the biggest event for the mobile phone industry, Mobile World Congress, occurred in Barcelona, Spain. There were many keynotes and announcements, some exciting and some insignificant. Big names, including HTC and Samsung, were at event to announced highly anticipated flagships and new devices. The Galaxy S6 and the HTC One M9 were the most talked about items of the event, followed by Huawei’s upcoming Android Wear smartwatch, the Huawei Watch. Numerous other smaller companies also made appearances at MWC, showing off their newest products. Take a look at the biggest hitters.
Galaxy S6/S6 Edge
Everyone was quite excited to finally get a look at Samsung’s newest flagship, the Galaxy S6. Samsung’s newest flagship will run Android Lollipop, sport a powerful Exynos 7420 64-bit chipset, have 3 GB of RAM, a 16MP camera, and a 5.1″ Super AMOLED of QHD (1440 x 2560) resolution. Additionally, the fairly good-looking design represents a new and bigger focus on design from Samsung, which is great for consumers. Of course, Samsung is always doing interesting things, so they released the Galaxy S6 Edge as another flagship, which has the same specs as the S6 sans the screen. The Galaxy S6 Edge has a screen that tapers off on each side, expanding the screen real estate and resulting in some interesting new use cases.
HTC One M9
HTC brought out the new One M9 as its 2015 flagship at Mobile World Congress. The phone remained largely the same as the M8, but with a few crucial improvements. Anyone who follows Android phone news knows that the cameras of the M7 and M8 were their biggest weakness and HTC has finally come listened to consumers by adding a better camera. The M9 now carries a 20MP shooter with sapphire cover lens, along with a Snapdragon 810,a solid 3 GB of RAM and the classic, best in class HTC Boomsound. If HTC can do some high quality marketing, the One M9 will sell well.
Huawei Watch
Huawei surprised everyone at Mobile World Congress with the phenomenal Huawei Watch. Since the release of Android Wear, the Moto 360 has been called the most beautiful smartwatch on the market, but with the Huawei Watch coming out, it may lose that title. The watch is made of hypoallergenic 316L surgical steel, runs Android Wear, and has six sensors, including a barometer and heart rate monitor. Another significant thing is the watch’s diameter, which is approximately 42 mm. That diameter is similar to what is generally seen on classic timepieces today. Overall, it’s a very solid entry in the wearable market.
Android Pins
Believe it or not, mobile tech can be quite fun. Google managed to deliver on that at Mobile World Congress with their interesting Android character pins. Each pin had an Android character in some sort of outfit. Distributed by Google in a fun PR stunt, the Android pins were a topic of conversation all over Mobile World Congress. With 124 types available, each quickly turned into a collector’s item.
Overall, Mobile World Congress 2015 was a great event with many exciting announcements and innovations. Everyone is excited to see some of this tech reach consumers everywhere. Of course, success for each new device or innovation is not guaranteed, but it’s still great to see this all.
