Meet this year’s mobile marvels
EACH year around this time, the world’s top technology manufacturers gather in Barcelona, Spain, for Mobile World Congress (MWC), the leading global showcase of cellphones and the tech that makes them tick. Here are the handsets that caught my eye this time round.
At last year’s MWC, LG made quite a splash with its modular G5, a bravely innovative design that was just a little clunky in its execution. This year, the South Korean conglomerate’s stuck to safer ground with the G6, a more conventional, yet stylish and feature-packed flagship smartphone that earned it plenty of kudos in Barcelona.
It boasts a big 5.7-inch screen, but thanks to its unconventional aspect ratio of 18:9 (the equivalent of 2:1) and the near absence of bezels it feels smaller in the hand than other big phones like the iphone 7 Plus.
Another stand-out feature is the camera with two 13-megapixel sensors on the back that offer optical zoom capabilities as well as “grid mode” which lets you take four square pictures in a single grid.
Throw into this already attractive mix IP68 water resistance, a tough metal body, a big battery that LG promises will hold its charge over time and multistandard wireless charging, and it’s not hard to see why the G6 reigned in Spain awards-wise. The P10 has a 5.1-inch screen and the P10 Plus a 5.5-inch display, with a maximum of 64GB and 128GB of storage and 4GB and 6GB of RAM respectively. They’re powered by 3200mah and 3750mah batteries. The cherry on the top is the Leica Dual-camera 2.0, technology with a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor and a 12-megapixel colour sensor, which should make for excellent pictures in a variety of lighting conditions. Both sizes are available in an array of attractive colours, including blue, green, black and white.
For sheer specs appeal, it’s hard to beat Sony’s new flagship smartphone. The Xperia XZ Premium’s 5.5-inch 4K display boasts an eyeball-caressing 801 pixels per inch – that’s close to twice the pixel density of the iphone 7 Plus.
It’s powered by a top-of-theline Snapdragon 835 processor backed by 4GB of RAM and packs a 19-megapixel rear camera capable of shooting 1000 FPS slow-motion video.
Several recent Sony smartphones have foregone the water resistance the Xperia line has become known for, so I was pleased to see that it’s back with a vengeance in the XZ Premium, in the form of ruggedized IP68 water and dust resistance.
Remember Nokia? The oncedominant cellphone brand, which we all thought had died when Microsoft dropped it from its Windows Phone line-up two years ago, is back and, judging by the buzz it generated at MWC, we could be in for a resurgence of note.
While I and many tech watchers were impressed by its line of top quality mid-range Android smartphones – the Nokia 6, 5 and 3 – the wider world went gaga over another, altogether more retro offering, the re-incarnated 3310.
And who can blame them? The original 3310 was a legend, beloved for its cheerfully colourful design, marathon battery life and near indestructibility.
The new 3310 looks a lot like its 17-year-old namesake, but with a bigger colour display. Feature wise, though, not much has changed.
You’ll be able to use it for calls, text messages and to play Snake. You’ll also be able to do some limited web surfing via the Opera Mini browser. But forget using it for Whatsapp and other chat apps. And the camera is pretty rudimentary.
What the new 3310 lacks in features, it makes up for in battery life, with up to 22 hours talk time and an astonishing month-long standby time. Now that’s enough to make anyone nostalgic.