What is MWC? Mobile World Congress is one of the biggest and most exciting events in the mobile industry every year. It's where a lot of big players like Samsung, LG, Sony, and Huawei usually show off their latest and greatest phones, tablets, smartwatches, and other tech products.
When is MWC? MWC formally kicks off Monday, Feb. 25, and ends on Thursday, Feb. 28. However, a lot of products will be announced at press events a day or two before the show officially starts.
Where is MWC? As with every year, MWC will take place in Barcelona, Spain, at two venues — Fira Gran Via and Fira Montjuïc.
Announcements
Many companies, including Samsung, Xiaomi, and Vivo didn't wait for the official beginning of Mobile World Congress 2019 to start showing off the goods. These were announced just before the show and there will no doubt be many other announcements over the course of the next few days. We'll update this piece periodically to reflect all of the awesome new announcements along with plenty of links to all of the MWC 2019 coverage you can handle.
Samsung at MWC 2019
Samsung had a massive launch event just before MWC 2019. It included a whopping five phones, three wearables, and a pair of wireless earbuds. Among them include three new Samsung Galaxy S10 models along with the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, new Galaxy Watch Active, two new Samsung fitness trackers, and, of course, the earbuds. However, the star of the show was the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Samsung spent most of its event talking about all of the ridiculous tech that went into it.
The devices took home several world firsts, including first Wi-Fi 6 devices and first official 5G smartphone. The family of devices should be among the best in all of Android in 2019. We covered everything.
Recommended reading for Samsung's announcements:
- Hands-on, specs, and availability for the Samsung Galaxy S10, S10 Plus, S10e, and S10 5G
- Everything we know about the Samsung Galaxy Fold
- Samsung Galaxy Buds hands-on. Better than the AirPods?
- Samsung Galaxy Fit Active, Galaxy Fit, and Galaxy Fit E
LG at MWC 2019
LG announced a few new devices that should define most of its 2019 product line. That includes the new LG G8 which can, among other things, read the hemoglobin levels in your veins to unlock your phone. We don't think anybody was expecting that. In addition, the LG V50 is LG's first 5G phone and it should be exclusively for Sprint in the United States, at least initially. The LG G8 and V50 are both strong contenders. However, a lack of change in the design of both phones may prove to irk those who wanted something a little different in the looks department from LG.
Still, both phones feature their fair share of unique technology and both come with LG's OLED displays. LG also announced a trio of budget phones ahead of the show.
- LG V50 ThinQ hands-on
- LG G8 ThinQ hands-on
- The trio of LG budget phones
- LG's V-series will now be exclusively 5G, G-series will be 4G only
HMD Global (Nokia) at MWC 2019
HMD Global announced nearly half a dozen phones just prior to MWC 2019. The Nokia 9 PureView has an astonishing five camera sensors on the back of the phone, the first phone in the world to have that feature. In addition, there were four mid-range, budget phones to help fill out the lineup. The four other devices include the Nokia 1 Plus, the Nokia 4.2, the Nokia 3.2, and the Nokia 210. The Nokia 210 is a feature phone and the others have potential to make a splash in the mid-range market. However, the Nokia 9 PureView is the big story here.
- Nokia 9 PureView price, availability, and release date
- Everything we know about the other four Nokia phones that were announced
Huawei at MWC 2019
Huawei also made quite the splash just before MWC 2019 with its own folding phone. The Huawei Mate X features a folding display while also remaining surprisingly thin when folded out to its full screen. It also comes with a 4,500mAh battery, an 8-inch display, and a neat little grip to tuck the fold into when folded closed. It's going to retail for around $2,600, giving it the distinction of the most expensive smartphone announced so far at MWC 2019. It's a strong player in the market, even if its plastic screen will never be protected from the elements, as is par for the course with Chinese foldables right now.
Xiaomi at MWC 2019
Xiaomi was among the first to announce new devices just ahead of MWC 2019. That's a bit unfortunate for them because the phones they announced are quite good, but have been overshadowed a bit by huge folding phone announcements from Samsung and Huawei. The Xiaomi Mi 9 is an above average phone with high end specs at a decent price. Meanwhile, the Mi Mix 3 5G represents Xiaomi's first jump in to the 5G world. Not one phone in any of its iterations cost more than $629. That's pretty impressive. We actually got our hands on the Xiaomi Mi 9 much earlier than its announcement, so we went ahead and just did a full review of that phone. You can find the video linked above and the article below.
Vivo at MWC 2019
Vivo also hit the ground running by announcing a new phone before MWC 2019. The Vivo V15 Pro includes a pop-up selfie camera, eye-catching (and nearly no bezel) design, an in-display fingerprint reader, and some decent specs and features. We were able to procure this one before its official announcement so we went ahead and reviewed the phone. It did pretty well. The camera could have been a little better and the phone inexplicably uses a micro USB charging port instead of a USB-C. We have our review video linked up at the top and the written version linked just below.
Everything else!
- Samsung Galaxy S10 vs LG G8 ThinQ
- TCL gives us a glimpse at its vision for the foldable future
- Oppo reveals more 10x zoom details, confirms Q2 2019 release
- Physical Google Assistant buttons are coming to more phones with new features
- Microsoft HoloLens 2 AR/VR headset is even more immersive, but you still can't afford it
- Lenovo reveals new Ideapad laptops, along with ThinkVision portable monitor
- Alcatel announces 3 new phones, one new tablet (hands-on)
- Blackberry Key2 gets a bold new color, priced at a whopping $750
- Hands-on: Huawei's sleek new MateBook X Pro (2019) and MateBook 14
Rumors and what we expect to see at MWC 2019
Of course, the actual event starts on February 25 so we literally have the entire weekend to see more announcements, teasers, launches, and more. A lot of companies got in before the event, but we suspect some companies planned to wait until the event when all of us are there to check out all of the details. Here are some estimations of what we might see.
Energizer at MWC 2019
Energizer, as in the battery company, is planning on announcing a ridiculous 26 smartphones at MWC 2019. A few of them may even have pop-up selfie cameras. To be perfectly honest, we're not entirely sure what all 26 smartphones are going to be. However, the two phones with pop-up selfie cameras should come with MediaTek processors, FHD displays, triple camera setups, and 3,200mAh to 3,500mAh batteries. These specs suggest budget-minded smartphones if nothing else. We'll know more when Energizer drops it like it's hot over MWC.
Sony
Unlike most other phone makers, Sony updates its flagship every six months or so. The company announced the Xperia XZ2 at MWC 2018 in February and the Xperia XZ3 and IFA in August. At MWC 2019, Sony is expected to take the wraps off the Xperia XZ4, which is rumored to come with the latest Snapdragon 855 chipset, a triple-camera setup, and a side-mounted fingerprint scanner — learn more about it here.
Don't miss: Here are the best Sony Xperia phones
There's also a chance we'll see the Xperia XZ4 Compact make its debut at the show. We came across leaked renders of the device in December, suggesting the phone will launch soon. However, a Sony executive recently hinted the company might be killing off the Compact series, meaning the XZ4 Compact won't be released at all.
Nothing has been confirmed yet, so things can still go either way. If Sony decides to keep the Compact series alive, the Xperia XZ4 Compact will most likely make its debut at MWC 2019.
Interestingly, we've seem more rumors about the Xperia XA3 phones, which might fall under a new Xperia 10 moniker. According to rumors and renders, the phones will have very tall displays and mid-range specs. They'll also come in at least two models: the regular Xperia 10 and an Xperia 10 Plus.
We'll learn much more about Sony's upcoming plans during its MWC 2019 press conference, which is set for February 25 at 2:30AM EST.
OnePlus at MWC 2019
OnePlus has confirmed it's working on a 5G phone and that it will launch "before the end of May," though we're not expecting an MWC launch. It will initially be available in the U.K., exclusively via the wireless carrier EE.
The OnePlus 5G phone could retail for as much as $850.
The handset will likely look like the OnePlus 6T, sport the Snapdragon 855 chipset, and cost around $200 to $300 more. This means it could retail for as much as $850, making it the most expensive device OnePlus has ever produced. However, company co-founder Pete Lau said the device will actually be priced without profit in mind. So the reason for the price hike will be the high cost of 5G components.
Lau also said the 5G phone probably won't sell in large numbers, as the technology is still in its early phase. However, he thinks that may change in 2020.
OnePlus confirmed that it'll show off its 5G smartphone prototype at MWC 2019. That said, the company's statement made it sound like it's more interested in showing off 5G capabilities than it is about showing off the device itself.
Curiously, OnePlus revealed a new micro-site prior to MWC which allows people from around the world to send a message to MWC attendees. It's not quite clear yet what OnePlus is doing with the messages, but the micro-site suggests it will have something to do with 5G.
Anything else?
There are a lot of fun things coming in the world of mobile tech this week. We expect additional announcements from Google, Asus, HTC, and Lenovo as well as possible announcements from Sprint, Nubia, ZTE, and many others. Stay tuned to our front page and our YouTube channel for the latest!
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