Izwan Ismail finds out what is driving mobile devices this year
THE recent Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona, Spain gave consumers some ideas of the smartphones in the pipeline this year.
While the resurrection of Nokia 3310 model was one of the highlights of the event, other phone makers like LG, Huawei, Oppo and Sony continue to push camera capabilities in their products, signalling mobile photography will be hot among consumers this year.
Samsung, the usual dominant force at the event, delayed the unveiling of its flagship Galaxy S8 phones. The company, however, unveiled some tablets and notebooks, to show that it remains a force in the mobile scene.
NOSTALGIC RESURRECTION
Nokia’s return to the smartphone scene certainly got everybody in the industry excited.
The Finnish brand revived its 3310 model, its most popular phone launched 17 years ago.
The phones are designed by HMD, a Finnish company that develops smartphones and tablets, which now owns the rights to sell Nokia phones and tablets.
What’s interesting is that, this time, it has finally embraced the Android operating system, with the announcement of Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3, all of which run on the latest Android Nougat.
The new Nokia 3310 resembles its predecessor and may appeal to Nokia users who have had experience of using the phone.
According to Forrester Research, HMD is creating a vintage hype to generate buzz around the Nokia brand.
HMD has also revived the popular game Snake featured on the original phone. In a modern twist, fans can now play Snake on Facebook Messenger.
Nokia is not the only company that made a surprise comeback at the Mobile World Congress. BlackBerry, now a TCL company, also unveiled the BlackBerry KeyOne.
The design, which features both traditional BlackBerry-style keyboard and a touchsceen with a full Android system, may appeal to fans who miss the look and feel of the original BlackBerry phones.
MOBILE IMAGING
The camera is the top selling point of most smartphones today, and for companies like Huawei, Oppo and LG, the Mobile World Congress is the best time to showcase their phone cameras.
These companies continue the trend of dual-lens camera in their premium devices with enhanced capabilities from last year.
Huawei, which has been successful with its Leica partnership and dual-lens technology, came out with the P10 and P10 Plus.
Both phones feature the dual camera set-up with 28mm f/2.2 and f/1.8 Summilux optics respectively.
Besides the two devices, for the first time, Huawei features a Leica front-facing camera with portrait mode.
Competing with Huawei in the phone camera arena are LG and Oppo. LG announced the G6 phone, which features dual 13MP rear cameras, one of which has a 125-degree wide-angle lens, to give the flexibility of switching between standard and wide-angle settings.
Oppo did not announce a new phone, instead it unveiled a phone with a breakthrough camera technology called 5X Dual Camera Zoom.
The new technology is designed with a periscope-style setup, and is said to be able to get rid of ugly camera bump at the back. Sleek and with just 5.7mm thickness, it uses the phone width to accommodate an optical zoom as opposed to digital cropping and enhancement.
4K MODE AND WATERPROOFING
Meanwhile, Sony presented a high-end smartphone, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, which is said to be the world’s first mobile with 4K HDR screen and a 5.2 inch screen. It has a rear camera of 19MP and records video in 4K.
The phone comes with a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, along with water — and dust-proofing features which have always been a strong feature of Xperia phones.
Sony also announced the mid-range Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra phones with 5-inch and 6-inch displays respectively. Both have a whopping 23-megapixel rear camera and octa-core MediaTek processors.
The LG G6 phones also come with water-proofing capabilities and is the first smartphone from the company to sport IP68 water-and dust-resistant features.
Samsung, as expected, didn’t unveil its Galaxy S8 model at this year’s event but announced the Galaxy Tab S3, a new premium Android tablet with S Pen stylus.
The company also displayed its Galaxy Book 2-in-1 tablets/laptops with Windows 10.
ACCESSORIES
With Google officially launching Android Wear 2.0, Android Wear makers have started to offer device models with this OS.
Among the first are the Huawei Watch 2 and the Huawei Watch 2 Classic, which sport a classier design.
These phones are packed with features such as LTE, GPS, heart rate sensors, and NFC for Android Pay. They are much thicker and bulkier than the first version and look better, resembling watches.
Staedtler Noris Digital got some attention with its S Pen for Samsung’s tablet line. It looks and feels like a Staedtler pencil that sports the classic hexagonal shape and waxy coating, and is said to have a traditional pencil drag feel.
With all these new products and promising technologies, the mobile scene is set for another interesting year.
And if you’re planning to get new phones, just wait for these devices to arrive.