The best tech from MWC 2018
THE BIG REVEAL AT THIS YEAR’S MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS WAS, OF COURSE, SAMSUNG’S GALAXY S9, BUT A HOST OF OTHER HANDSETS AND GADGETS ALSO MADE THEIR PUBLIC DEBUT. THESE WERE THE ONES THAT CAUGHT TECHLIFE’S EYE.
WITH AUDIO QUALITY THAT COULD WELL RIVAL THE LIKES OF THE APPLE HOMEPOD, AND PRICES STARTING AT US$199, THE SMART DISPLAY IS PRIMED TO SET ANEW STANDARD FOR THE MARKET.
LENOVO SMART DISPLAY 8-inch, US$199; 10-inch, US$249 | www.lenovo.com.au
As more and more companies introduce Google Assistant speakers, it was inevitable we’d see some with screens built in. Amazon already has a display in its Echo Show, and the Lenovo Smart Display is set to be one of the first to market using Assistant. The Lenovo comes with either an 8-inch or 10-inch touchscreen display, and while that may not rival your TV, that’s not really its purpose — it’s primarily intended for things like reading recipes or watching the odd YouTube clip as it sits on your kitchen counter or in your bedroom. With audio quality that could well rival the likes of the Apple HomePod, and prices starting at US$199, the Smart Display is primed to set a new standard for the market. Here’s hoping it launches at a reasonable price Down Under, too.
NOKIA 8 SIROCCO $1,199 | www.nokia.com
The Nokia 8 isn’t a new phone — an earlier iteration released back in 2017 — but HMD Global used MWC to introduce a more premium version of its flagship “for the fans”, called the Nokia 8 Sirocco. Compared with the stock Nokia 8, the Sirocco boasts a bigger 5.5-inch AMOLED display rather than a 5.3-inch LCD panel, while maintaining its glorious QHD resolution. The overall design of the phone has had a facelift as well, with curved display edges on the front and a fingerprint scanner now found below its new camera bump on the rear. Improvements in the camera and battery are welcome, and although it’ll be running on the same Snapdragon 835 processor, a bump in RAM to 6GB and the recently revamped Android One operating system will hopefully make the Sirocco a veritable powerhouse of a handset.
SONY XPERIA XZ2 AND XZ2 COMPACT XZ2, $TBC; XZ2 Compact, $TBC | www.sonymobile.com/au
Barcelona saw the unveiling of the latest Sony Xperia phones: the XZ2 and its aptly-named smaller sibling, the XZ2 Compact. The XZ2 family has seen a complete redesigne since the originals, ditching the squared-off aesthetic for a curvaceous look. The Compact variant sports a similar design, but features a polycarbonate shell rather than Gorilla Glass, and lops off approximately 20mm and 10mm off the height and width respectively, while also reducing the Full HD display size down from 5.7- to 5-inches. The Compact’s a tad thicker, however, and has an ‘early iPod’ feel to its shape, but it’s also 30g lighter. Many of the internals are similar and, frankly, pretty standard for a 2018 flagship, but the XZ2 has integrated Sony’s DualShock vibration tech which could promise some truly immersive media viewing.
HUAWEI MATEBOOK X PRO From €1,499 (about $2,350) | www.huawei.com
Huawei is better known for its terrific smartphones rather than its laptops, yet the MateBook X Pro is impressive. This slim number looks like it’ll compete with the best from Apple and Microsoft, its sleek design includes an almost bezel-less touchscreen display. Impressively, Huawei has squeezed a 13.9-inch panel into a 12-inch form factor. The designers have had to be a bit creative with the placement of the webcam because of that, however, and they’ve neatly tucked it away under a keyboard key that’s marked with a camera icon. Press the key and the 720p camera pops up. Neat. There’s also a built-in fingerprint sensor and a very-large trackpad. In terms of performance, it should give the likes of the Dell XPS 13 a run for its money. Huawei’s promising it’ll have better battery life than Dell’s flagship ultrabook, along with powerhouse performance as well.
HUAWEI MEDIAPAD M5 & M5 PRO 8.4-inch, €349 (about $550); 10.8-inch, €399 (about $625) | www.huawei.com
Huawei’s new Android tablet range is made up of three devices — two 8.4-inchers going by the ‘MediaPad M5’ name and one 10.8-incher that adds ‘Pro’ on the end. Size aside, they look very similar, with robust aluminium chassis. Each boasts a 2,560 x 1,600 IPS LCD screen that features what Huawei calls ‘ClariVu Enhanced’ technology that theoretically improves image quality by 20% when compared to the company’s previous tablets. Huawei has used the Kirin 960 chipset in the new tabs, which has worked well in some of the company’s recent phones. Plus, Android 8.0 (aka Oreo) has been overlaid with Huawei’s own Emotion UI 8 operating system, giving them something unique to any other Oreo-toting tablet out there. While the specs look good on paper, the MediaPad M5 range’s success will come down to pricing, which was still TBC for Australia at the time of press.