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.