Best of MWC 2019: GearBrain names the hottest new mobile tech devices

Alistair Charlton

Mar. 03, 2022 12:47PM EST

This year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), held in Barcelona, had two huge themes — folding smartphones and 5G.

The former, folding phones, is the first draft of an answer to years of steady smartphone stagnation. The latter, 5G, is worshipped by many who believe it will revolutionize not just phones, but cars, smart home devices, and everything in-between.

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As ever, Mobile World Congress is a show more suited to the largest companies than the smallest. While there are halls full of small tech firms striving for recognition, they often offer services at the enterprise, or business, level. Others are companies not quite ready for consumers, or do not have confirmed plans for entering the U.S. market.

But the bigger names, and a couple of old faces, made a return to MWC to show off what we think will impact your life in the coming year. Here are GearBrain's favorite devices from Mobile World Congress 2019.

Hover over the image below and click the blue arrows to navigate through the slideshow.

The S10 has a speedy in-display fingerprint reader which uses new ultrasonic technology

Launched a couple of days before everyone else had chance to walk on stage, the Galaxy S10 is a far greater leap forward than we have seen from Samsung's flagship smartphone in recent years.
To start, there are four different models (perhaps even five if you include the ceramic version of the S10+), covering four different sizes and prices.
What we liked most about the S10 (although admittedly missing from the cheaper S10e) is the in-display fingerprint reader. We have seen these before — on the OnePlus 6T, for example — but Samsung is using an entirely different technology here, called ultrasonic, to vastly improve the experience.
One needn't even wake the phone up; just touch a fingertip to the right part of the display, and the phone unlocks. No hesitation, no Face ID-style hit-and-miss, and no need to illuminate the screen to maximum brightness to read your print, because visible light isn't how this tech works. It's seamless, and a reminder that sometimes waiting for version two of a new technology is the smart move.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Available for Pre-order at Best Buy
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Huawei didn't allow anyone to touch the Mate X, which is priced at the equivalent of $2,600

Samsung may have landed the first folding phone punch (if we discount Royole and the FlexPai, which is only being sold to developers for now), but Huawei, as far as MWC is concerned, delivered the knockout blow.
The Mate X is a simpler design — a tablet which folds into a phone instead of a phone which opens out into a tablet — yet produces more impressive results. The external screen is larger and does without the huge borders of the Samsung Galaxy Fold. The inner display of the Huawei also avoids the Samsung's awkward notch in its top-right corner, and feels like an altogether more cohesive package.
It isn't perfect, though. The jury is still out on whether we actually need folding phones (or folding tablets, as perhaps the Huawei is), and the $2,600 (€2,299) price tag attracted audible gasps from the audience. But the Chinese company wins this early skirmish.
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The new Nokia 9 has five rear cameras and a 3D depth sensor

Nokia's long-anticipated flagship finally arrived at MWC this week, and that PureView name is an indication that it means business. Last used on a Nokia with a 41-megapixel camera (in 2012, would you believe), the PureView name now adorns the Nokia 9, which has five cameras on its back.
Joined by a flash and time-of-flight sensor for 3D scanning, the cameras use a complex system which creates enormous image files ranging from 60 to 240 megapixels, before crunching masses of data into something useable.
Three monochrome sensors and two color sensors work together to pick out detail sometimes lost by other smartphone cameras, while the 3D sensor breaks each image down into over 1,000 layers of depth. For context, other phones tend to create 10 layers of depth in an image.
The Nokia 9 PureView can't just be a fancy camera — it must perform as a flagship smartphone too. So we look forward to stretching its legs soon, along with its stripped-down, Google Pixel-like Android One operating system.
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The new HoloLens 2 has double the field-of-view of its predecessor

It wasn't just smartphones at MWC this week, as Microsoft used its first visit to Barcelona in several years to announce the HoloLens 2.
The company's second-generation augmented reality headset, the HoloLens 2 has a field of view which is double that of its predecessor (which should mean 70 degrees, but Microsoft hasn't disclosed an exact figure just yet). The headset uses carbon fiber to keep the weight down, and the front now flips open to make talking with colleagues more convenient.
We say colleagues and not friends, because Microsoft is sticking to its guns here and continues to market the $3,500 HoloLens as an enterprise device. And so it should; Google Glass crashed and burned as a consumer product after failing to deliver a sci-fi experience for everyone to play with it.
A broader field of view is joined by a new set of gestures, letting wearers of the HoloLens 2 press and slide elements of the virtual interface by reaching out with their fingers. If Microsoft can make this feel natural and intuitive — more so than using a hand controller — then it will be on to a winner.
HoloLens 2 — in one instance at MWC shown off attached to a construction worker's hard hat — knows what it is, and the direction it should take to be a success.
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HTC's 5G portable hotspot promises lag-free VR and HD movies downloaded in five seconds

It was impossible to walk 10 feet at MWC this year without seeing '5G' written on something. We even saw a '5G Ambulance.'
Much of this feels like companies leaping aboard the buzzword bandwagon. But one device with immediate real-world practicality is the HTC 5G Hub. At its simplest, this is a portable Wi-Fi router, like the 4G models you already know.
But of course it has 5G, which means incredible fast download speeds (as in, an HD movie in five seconds), very low latency — key for gaming and virtual reality — and the ability to stream 4K video wherever you are. Up to 20 devices can be connected at once, which will feel like bringing a fast home fiber connection with you on the go.
An integrated 7,660mAh battery is good for up to three days of 5G connectivity, HTC told us, and there's a USB-C port so hooking up a wall plug or portable battery is easy. The Hub, which will be offered via Sprint in the US in the next couple of months, runs Android 9 and has a 5-inch touch screen for easy set-up and use.
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A phone with the camera will go on sale in the second quarter of 2019

Oppo wowed at MWC this year with its ingenious solution for solving poor smartphone camera zooming. Where most smartphones can offer an optical zoom no greater than 2x, with the rest done digitally and often ruining image quality, Oppo has developed a 10x optical zoom system.
It works by sending light through a lens on the back of the phone, as normal, but the light is then reflected by a 45-degree mirror, sending it down and through three more lens arranged perpendicular to the front of the handset. The light then hits the image sensor, creating the photo.

Oppo has only installed the camera system on prototype phones for now, but promises that a consumer model will go on sale in the second quarter of 2019.
While Google breaks new ground with the artificial intelligence of its Pixel phone cameras year-in, year-out, we're thrilled to see Oppo prove how good old-fashioned photograph hardware — lenses and mirrors — can be equally effective.
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A phone with the camera will go on sale in the second quarter of 2019

Oppo wowed at MWC this year with its ingenious solution for solving poor smartphone camera zooming. Where most smartphones can offer an optical zoom no greater than 2x, with the rest done digitally and often ruining image quality, Oppo has developed a 10x optical zoom system.
It works by sending light through a lens on the back of the phone, as normal, but the light is then reflected by a 45-degree mirror, sending it down and through three more lens arranged perpendicular to the front of the handset. The light then hits the image sensor, creating the photo.

Oppo has only installed the camera system on prototype phones for now, but promises that a consumer model will go on sale in the second quarter of 2019.
While Google breaks new ground with the artificial intelligence of its Pixel phone cameras year-in, year-out, we're thrilled to see Oppo prove how good old-fashioned photograph hardware — lenses and mirrors — can be equally effective.
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This wearable aims to combat dry eyes caused by excessive screen time

The Umay wellness wearable doesn't even have a smartphone app — that's how much those behind it want us to step away from the screen and give our eyes a much-needed rest.
In a bid to combat dryness caused by not blinking while staring at computer and smartphone screens, the Umay uses so-called 'thermal meditation' — warming up and cooling down — to help increase moisture in your eyes without using drops.
Those behind Umay suggest the device is used as part of a daily wellness routine, instead of only when your eyes feel dry. The company also explained to GearBrain how guided meditation sessions are also included, with instructions to breath delivered in the form of gentle vibrations emitted by the device.
While tech giants like Apple and Google begin to combat excessive screen time with apps — which are, of course, on screens — we like Umay's relatively low-tech approach.
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