All you mobile lovers, its time to rejoice as the world’s largest mobile trade show, the Mobile World Congress, is going to kick off in two days time on Monday. This is the event for which every mobile geek anticipates with bated breath, and why not? Every major handset maker, except for Apple, takes the show seriously. We get to see some truly impressive phones and new services. As we all know, however, leaks and rumors starting way before the MWC give us an idea of what to expect from different makers at the MWC. That is what this Editorial is all about. We bring you a look on what we could expect to see at the Show, but, as always, there will be surprises coming our way as the Show takes off. We bring you the preview of MWC 2012, and what we can expect from the major makers to show us. Read on:
HTC:
HTC had quite a rough last year, but with its newly employed strategy of a smaller quantity of high quality phones, it is going to bring some really great stuff to the MWC this year if rumors and reports are to be believed.
HTC Endeavor has been in rumors and now concrete rumors suggest, it will launch as HTC One X and will surely be the Taiwanese company’s flagship with a beastly NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip and a buttonless 4.7-inch, 720p display.
Next is the HTC Ville or the One S which is said to be HTC’s slimmest phone up to date. It is said to feature similar specs as of Sensation XE but at a lower price point. It is also certain to make its way into T-Mobile.
The last one is said to be the One V, an entry level handset with a 3.7 inch screen and would resemble to last year’s Desire S in specs.
All of the smartphones will come with Ice Cream Sandwich and the latest version of Sense 4.0. There have also been rumors of a quad-core tablet, HTC Quatro, but that is least expected to be unveiled.
LG:
LG has already announced and revealed most of its line-up even before the MWC, but we’ll get more details, and they’ll be shown live at the MWC. We don’t really have an expectation for a surprise, but you never know.
The company has taken directly against the Galaxy Note, bringing the 5-inch Optimus Vu with 4:3 aspect ratio display and some top-notch specs onboard.
Next they introduced the design and style oriented L-Style lineup with three smartphones, namely the L3, L5 and the L7, with 3.2, 4, and 4.3 inches respectively, taking cues from the design of LG Prada 3.0. We are sure to get more details and hands on with them at the show.
LG also introduced its Optimus 3D successor in Optimus 3D Maxx bringing the 3D factor on a slim profile. Although it fails to excite us by any means, we are curious to know if there are any improvements on the 3D front.
Lastly LG introduced the quad-core Tegra 3 beast, Optimus 4X HD, previously rumored as X3, leaving us wondering if there would be any announcements at the show itself. The Optimus 4X HD which would feature a 720p display on a Tegra 3 flagship, and likely the company’s flagship, and would run the LG optimised ICS.
It seems LG has given particular attention on the build of its smartphones, leaving us craving for more. We’ll be taking a good look at all the models at MWC.
Motorola:
Motorola is going to have a no-show at the MWC, as with last year. Their RAZR MAXX and RAZR are just a couple of months old. We are going to be seeing the Motuluxe and the Defymini, but that is not exciting to say the last.
There was a leaked picture of a Motorola-Intel Android device with claims to be unveiled at MWC, but if Motorola’s CEO Sanjay Jha’s indications are to be believed, we are not seeing them until Q3. We all know Motorola likes to announce its phone first in the US, so CTIA to be held in March makes more sense, but we could get to see Motorola’s ICS skin at the MWC.
Nokia:
Nokia had a no-show at last year’s MWC, instead it announced the burning platform memo and partnership with Microsoft. We have been hearing news of Nokia having a huge appearance at this year’s MWC, and we are surely excited seeing all rumors, teasers, and leaks.
We all know that Nokia’s full attention is on Windows Phone, but at the show, Symbian Nokia Belle could be the show stealer. We’ve heard of the 803 and the Pure View 808, and the recent teaser concentrating on the term “pure.” We are almost sure to believe that we are going to see the long awaited N8 successor with some amazing camera sensor, but in the teaser we have no clue of what it would be running. It may very well turn out to be a Windows Phone handset, but all the indications point to a Symbian Nokia Belle device.
We are sure to see the international version of the Nokia Lumia 900 which will probably come with the same name, and we also expect the Lumia 610 which, would run Windows Phone Tango and bring Windows Phone at much lower price points to get the platform much needed market share. There are some Asha phones too that we could get to see at the show.
Lastly, according to Nokia’s press release for MWC, they’ll announce “Significant Industry News” on Feb 27th. We have no clue whatsoever of what it could be, so we will wait and see what news it is. It is definitely something big, and we will surely bring you details once we know. This year’s MWC is very important for Nokia, and judging by rumors, they are poised on impressing us.
Samsung:
Samsung introduced the hugely successful Galaxy S II at last year’s MWC, but we are not going to see its successor at the show, but, instead, at a Samsung individual event sometime in April. This doesn’t mean it won’t have any devices to unveil, however.
There’s the Galaxy S Advance, Galaxy Mini 2, Galaxy Ace 2, Galaxy Tab 2, Galaxy Tab 7.7, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus N, Galaxy Ace Duos, Galaxy Y Duos, Galaxy Y Duos Pro, and the Bada handsets, which we’ll see on the floor.
We might get to see some surprises too with a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 in the rumors, probably an Android tablet with Note-like S-Pen capabilities, since Samsung previously indicated it might bring its S-Pen capabilities on Tablets. Whatever it is, we’ll surely know.
Sony:
Sony Ericsson are sure to have a big presence at the show, and we’re expecting some mid range Android handsets along with the Xperia S announced at the CES.
Starting with Xperia P, which will be its main mid-range smartphone previously codenamed “Nyphon”. According to reports, a 1GHz CPU, a 4-inch qHD screen, and a 8MP EXMOR R camera.
According to recent leaks, Xperia U, previously known as “Kumquat,” will feature a 3.5 inch display and a 5MP camera. We also heard of the Pepper with a 3.7″ screen, but there has been no news of it lately, so it might not end up being revealed at MWC. Rumors of a Sony Windows Phone device have been there since the company was Sony Ericsson, so we might get to see it.
We might also get to see the skinned Android Ice Cream Sandwich by Sony.
Microsoft:
The Redmond company is expected to unveil the “Consumer Preview” of Windows 8, which is a revolutionary step in the Windows 8 platform. The preview is said to have some significant changes from the one shown at the BUILD Conference, and some applications using the new Metro Style too maybe shown off.
We might also get to see an ARM based tablet, which, according to Microsoft, will push it far deeper into the consumer tablet market than it’s ever been before. Windows 8 is also said to feature a deep integration with Windows Phone. Microsoft has gone big on the last two MWCs for its Windows Phone platform, and we might get some news on the Tango update expected to bring support for low end hardware. We hope we hear something on Apollo, which is expected to be the game changer for the platform.
Other Manufacturers:
Huawei has been pretty impressive this year starting with CES, and we are sure to again see the super thin Ascend P1 and P1 S. We may get to see the high end smartphone with the “Diamond” branding and rumored to have a quad-core SoC. Huawei is also said to be unveiling a 10-inch Huawei Mediapad to compete with top Android OEMs.
Panasonic might be a new maker in smartphones, but we might see an impressive high end device with a Lumix-based camera and a screen powered by a new display technology of its own, along with the Eluga smartphone.
Fujitsu too is said to be aiming at the high end, with a smartphone including a quad-core Tegra 3 CPU, a 4.6-inch screen and a 13.1MP camera, along with Android 4.0.
Acer will show off its CloudMobile, the ICS powered flagship, which has also recently received the prestigious iF Design Award.
Asus too is expected to unveil its EEE Padfone Tablet/Phone hybrid that first debuted at last year’s Computex.
Qualcomm, Nvidia, TI, and Intel, the SoC makers, are expected to reveal the new chipsets, designs, and functionalities.
MWC is just round the corner, and be sure to visit us for all the details and updates. Stay Tuned.
