Mobile World Congress 2023: Looking Back
DroidApp was present at the Mobile World Congress 2023. After years of corona, the atmosphere was completely back. Time to look back at the annual telephone fair in Barcelona.
MWC 2023 recap
DroidApp was present in Barcelona last week. It was again very busy, but it was a bit less in terms of announcements, if we compare this with previous years. Is that bad? Not necessarily. There was still plenty to do at the Mobile World Congress. Let’s summarize the past week for you.
Who what where?
In the Fira Gran Via exhibition complex, seven huge halls were filled with the stands of manufacturers and companies. Everything about telephones, networks, supplies and parts could be found here. For three editions, the Mobile World Congress was not held or was held in an adapted form due to the corona virus. With the many tens of thousands of visitors, this was hardly noticeable, in that respect it was the old days.
However, not everything was as usual. For example, there were relatively few announcements. Samsung already presented its new Galaxy S23 series at the beginning of February, OnePlus also announced the OnePlus 11 in February, which we received positively in the OnePlus 11 review, and Sony still has to wait and see when the announcement will be made. Sony was missing at the MWC anyway. No booth, no announcement, too bad. We did have Xiaomi, which presented the new Xiaomi 13 series. A series of beautiful devices that we also discussed in our preview of the 13 and 13 Pro.
There was also an announcement from Realme, a much too long-winded announcement of the Realme GT3. 90 percent was just about 240W charging. Then a little bit about the design and the rest of the information we had to find out ourselves. Subsequently, Realme would not even have clear whether the device would be released in Europe and if that happens at all, which countries are eligible. Sloppy.
What was there to see?
As far as I’m concerned, Motorola stole the show. In the days of the MWC it was always very busy at the manufacturer’s stand. All this thanks to the Motorola Rizr. A concept smartphone with a rollable screen. A cool technique about which we wrote our extensive Motorola Rizr preview.
We have seen even more innovation around screen techniques. The previously presented Oppo Find N2 Flip was on display. And we visited the Samsung Display stand, where we were introduced to various new folding techniques in the screen of the smartphone, tablet and laptop. OnePlus also announced that it is also working on a foldable phone. In Barcelona, the brand presented the OnePlus 11 Concept, with a luminous back, cooling the phone.
We immediately make a bridge to the luminous back. We saw the technology we know from the Nothing Phone 1 at the relatively unknown Unihertz. The Unihertz Luna has a back with ‘pipes’ that can light up in different colours. Incidentally, we also saw the Jelly 2 at this Chinese manufacturer, which is the smallest Android smartphone you can buy. We also published a nice article about the Unihertz Tank, which, given the battery capacity, lives up to its name.
But where was the focus this year? Especially with screen techniques with folding foldables. Smart glasses were also invented. Concepts now, but who knows where we will be next year. The glasses must be able to translate directly, for example, or even photos can be taken with it. No doubt we will be hearing more about this in the near future.
What did you find most spectacular at the 2023 MWC? We’d love to hear from you by commenting below this post.
