Top Phones at Mobile World Congress 2016

Mobile World Congress kicked off last Saturday, 20th Feb, at Barcelona, Spain. Official dates are from Mon, 21st Feb to Thu, 25th Feb. Like every year, we expect fascinating mobile tech during this 5 day festival.

So far, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge phones, LG with brilliant G5 and HP’s Elite X3 impressed mobile enthusiasts. Below is a brief write-up and videos posted by industry leaders.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

Bigger batteries, Cameras and Waterproofing

Samsung has tweaked the winning formula of its S6 and S6 edge just enough to make new devices a lot more useful. Visually, not a lot has changed but under the hood there is innovation galore.

S7 Edge is a refinement of stunning S6 Edge, with bigger screen at 5.5″, battery capacity of 3600 mAh, waterproofing for it to be submerged under water for 30 minutes and finally external storage has made this device a must have for Samsung / Android phone lovers.

S7, although not as good looking as S7 Edge, has all the new features described above with decent 3000 mAh battery.

Both devices have improved Exynos chips which reportedly serve up to 30% performance boost over their predecessors. Justin Denison, Samsung’s Product Strategy Senior VP, also touted these phones as ultimate gaming machines. He mentioned that with improved GPU, which is 60% faster than previous phones, can give desktop like gaming experience on phones.

LG G5

A Modular Phone

A most complete phone that LG has built so far, yes this is a big statement, but that is how LG G5 feels. Smaller than its predecessor, G5 is a radical reinvention of an Android phone. While project ARA has been delayed indefinitely, LG G5 offers a perfect work around for adding components, LG calls these Add-ons G5’s Friends.

Phone has removable battery compartment which can be used to plugin camera module with analogue zoom key or improve music play back or simply add more juice to the phone.

HP Elite X3

Phone, Phablet, Laptop, Desktop

While rumors of Windows Phone shutting down making round, HP chose to release its All-in-One Windows Mobile. At 5.8″ screen, HP’s new Windows Phone looks like a typical Phablet, but it has quite a few tricks up its sleeve. Elite X3 has been pitched by HP as “One device that is every device”.

Utilising Windows’s Continuum feature HP’s Elite X3 can be docked to project its screen on larger displays. They even built a laptop case which can be paired with phone to give full laptop experience. It runs a Snapdragon 820 processor, so its again not a PC replacement however, will run all universal apps including Microsoft Office Apps.

Phone comes with impressive specs Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB RAM, 4150 mAh battery, 64 GB storage + external micro SD slot, 16mp rear and 8mp front camera, 2560 x 1440 px AMOLED screen (538 ppi). Unfortunately, I am not sure specs alone will be sufficient, especially when Microsoft themselves are not supporting WP eco-system.

I will be posting more updates from MWC 2016 on this site, keep checking this space for more cool news.