Category: MWC 2013

HTC awarded phone of the year award for the HTC One

The HTC One was and is a cracking phone, which is rumoured to get a whole lot better very soon. Over at MWC HTC have picked up an award for the HTC One, it scooped the Global Mobile Award for Best Smartphone. So well done HTC, let’s just …

MWC – Behind the scenes

With the big Samsung launch happening later this week, Mobile World Congress is quickly becoming a hazy memory. However, like last year, we put together a video showing you some “behind the scenes” footage from the event. This, by the way, was all filmed on the Sony Xperia …

MWC – Alcatel One Touch Idol X and Idol Ultra

Top of the tree, this is the Idol X and Idol Ultra from Alcatel. I’ve gotta be honest, the Idol X is easily the best handset I’ve seen from the company in a long time. The One Touch Idol X is painfully thin at just 67.5mm thick and …

MWC – The One Touch Star

Another Alcatel handset with a dual-SIM version and it’s this – the One Touch Star. Shock, horror, there’s only one version of this particular device (Alcatel are famed for making several flavours of each device). This one is a sort-of mid-range puppy with a 5 megapixel shooter (plus …

MWC – The Alcatel One Touch Scribe Easy and Scribe HD

I usually approach the Alcatel stand each year with a sense of foreboding. They usually have a humongous selection of new handsets and they’re as confusing as heck. This year, it’s slightly less confusing. There’s still a couple of different versions of the same handsets such as we …

MWC – Behind the scenes. The Sony Xperia Z, our essential gadget.

Mobile World Congress is an extremely busy event filled with hundreds of reporters. They range from the big-boys all the way down to dedicated bloggers and tech reporters who run round the event covering every angle of the yearly mobile madness. This year, I must confess, I wasn’t …

MWC – Behind the scenes. Keeping connected

Connectivity out here in Barcelona is always part of our planning when we do these trips. A local SIM came to our rescue this time, but there’s also the option of unlimited roaming data packages from the odd UK network provider. What has surprised me, as someone who …

MWC – How good is the HTC One camera, really?

HTC have been extremely vocal about the camera capabilities of their latest flagship, the HTC One. Having had chance to get hold of the device this week and actually take some photos we decided it would be fun to compare against some other camera phones on the market. …

MWC – Exclusive photo of the Microsoft stand

The Microsoft stand this year took a very different appearance. It’s relatively small and carpeted, but has no logos, staff or products on display. The same can be said for the Android / Google stand, which is similarly sparse with a distinct lack of free drinks and snacks …

MWC – The story behind the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0

Do you want to know more about the Galaxy Note 8.0? Do you want to know the story behind the Note 8.0? Well you could watch our own hands on video here or you could watch a new promo video from Samsung. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW7VYBWje9A

Orange announce three new own-brand phones

The Orange Lumo (above), Nivo and San Remo are coming to “select markets” in the first half of this year. The Lumo is a 4G phone, although it’s not clear whether this or any of these phones will be heading to the UK. All of these new handsets …

MWC – Asus transformer Aio PC

As well as the Padfone, Fonepad confusion Asus had the Transformer Aio PC sat in the corner, looking rather lonely. Essentially, the device is an 18.4 inch tablet that has a rather nice looking dock, which also connects to a keyboard and mouse. The clever part is that …

MWC – Huawei Ascend P2 Hands on video

OK I buckled. Yesterday we had a very informative and direct demo of the Huawei Ascend P2, but today I went back to get another one. Don’t ask me why. It’s got a long-life 2420mAh battery, quad-core 1.5GHz CPU, 16 GB storage and a 4.7″ screen. Here a …

MWC – ASUS PadFone Infinity hands on

ASUS yesterday announced their latest PadFone device called the Infinity.  This interesting touch screen phone with tablet docking station is the third in the PadFone series and is easily the best one yet from the 1080p screen to LTE connectivity and beautiful design. This was my first ever …

MWC – Sony Xperia Z Tablet hands on

The big announcement for Sony this year at MWC is in the form of the Xperia Z Tablet, a tablet which looks very much the same design language as seen on the Xperia Z flagship phone. It is clear that Sony want to create a top end suite …

MWC – NEC Medias W hands on. You want this. You want this now.

Remember last year? Remember NEC at Mobile World Congress 2012 ? They were showing off some rather swish handsets, but unfortunately they were all firmly behind glass and sadly not fully functional. The NEC Medias W really interested me however I couldn’t see a great deal of it …

MWC – HTC in Barcelona. A full workout with the One

Last week we were in London for the launch of this, the HTC One. The launch event was pretty crowded and, although we got a video demo and some pictures, I asked the guys at the HTC stand to give us a full run-through of every new feature …

MWC – Nokia Lumia 520 hands on

So we have had some time with the Lumia 720 yesterday after it’s announcement, today we managed to get hold of one of the reps for the Lumia 520 and talk us through some of the main features of this new low end yet powerful affordable smartphone running Windows …

MWC – LG L Series hands on

LG announced the L Series as well as the F Series here at MWC and we managed to get a tour of the L Series devices this morning. Instead of having us talk through the details we thought it best to leave it to the professionals so managed …

MWC – Huawei Ascend Mate hands on

Looks like large phones are in fashion for a lot of people these days with the Samsung Note 2 being a big seller here in the UK and of course around the world. We have seen a few slightly larger phones here at MWC but none bigger than …

MWC – LG Optimus Vu II hands on

Here at MWC we see lots of different designs from the various different manufactures, but touch screen input is all over the place.  One device which has a slight twist on this is the LG Optimus Vu II which instead of the traditional widescreen format has opted for …

MWC – Asus introduce the Fonepad

Asus have decided that we need a tablet that can be used as a phone. Not the other way as per the norm. They have partnered with Intel to bring us the Asus Fonepad. The guys in Barcelona have yet to get their hands on the Fonepad over …

MWC – Nokia Lumia 620 hands on

As well as the Nokia 720 and 520, Nokia had their existing smartphones on sale including the 820, 920 and the 620 which is the more recent of the devices from that group. Considering the stand was packed (and still is hours later) we got some more time …

MWC – Samsung accessories

You know what it’s like. You walk into an electrical store and you want to get some speakers to work with your new Samsung Galaxy SIII or Galaxy Note. But when you look around the store all you can find are iPhone docks, speaker docks and random Bluetooth …

MWC – Nokia HERE apps available for other Windows Phones now

Announced in our earlier report from the Nokia session at MWC, Nokia have rebranded their Mapping, Navigation and Transit apps under the new HERE name. Previously only available on Nokia devices (Nokia Drive+ beta briefly excepted), HERE Drive, HERE Maps and HERE Transit are now available to other …

MWC – Huawei Ascend P2 Up Close

The Huawei P2 was launched just yesterday and we’ve already got plenty of snaps at the event but, if you’re after a little more, I popped down to their stand this morning. Huawei are really pushing at the moment and their motto is to “Make it possible”. There’s …

MWC – Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 Demo

The Samsung stand this year is huge. I really mean it. HUGE. I’m sure it almost has it’s own postcode and takes up around a quarter of one of the halls. The picture above doesn’t really do it justice – I couldn’t fit it in the shot if …

MWC – Galaxy Note 8 hands on

Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 8 on Sunday, and there are plenty of units here at the Samsung stand. The device feels good, and is quite light, and for some strange reason is capable of taking phone whilst used as a handset. Yes, an 8″ handset. Crackers, as …

MWC – Hands on with the LG Optimus G Pro

LG have announced the Optimus G Pro here at MWC with some top of the range specs in a stunning design. Featuers of this include a huge 5.5 inch Full HD display (1080p) with 440 PPI making images jump out with colour. It also has a speedy 1.7GHz …

MWC – Sony Mobile Press Event

Kunimasa Suzuki, President and CEO of Mobile Communications took to the stage early this morning on the first anniversary of Sony Mobile. There weren’t any great surprises today – the Xperia Z and the Xperia Z Tablet were shown off, but there was a glimpse of the new …

MWC – LG clarify each of the four Optimus ranges

LG seem to have a lot to tell the world about recently. For some the barrage of model numbers and range names may be a little confusing. Leading up to the unveiling of their new devices LG have published details of what each range is about. The four …

MWC – Samsung announce Galaxy Note 8.0

Mobile World Congress 2013 is only hours away from kicking off and today we have the first device announcement from Samsung. Following hot on the heels of the highly acclaimed Galaxy Note II Samsung have today announced the Galaxy Note 8.0, a mid sized tablet that will “offer …