Motorola’s bendable phone leads new gadgets at MWC
The Mobile World Congress, one of the world’s biggest technology conventions, marked a busy first day of new products drawing in the crowds.
From shiny new hardware concepts to latest AI offerings, the biggest reveals at the Barcelona event included Lenovo’s transparent laptop, Motorola’s bendables and the Barbie flip phones.
Lenovo’s ThinkBook Transparent, a proof of concept, comes with a borderless, 17.3inch micro-LED transparent display, a transparent keyboard area and “a seemingly floating footpad design”.
And while it seems to function pretty well, the world’s first transparent laptop apparently has two flaws: first, since it is transparent, it is unclear how it will hold up against light, sunlight in particular. Second, anyone in front of it can see what’s on the display. Not exactly a covert way of handling sensitive or confidential files or media.
It is unclear if or when Lenovo plans to mass-produce the ThinkBook Transparent.
Meanwhile, Lenovo’s subsidiary, Motorola, wants you to keep your smartphone content closer to you – by having you wear it on your wrist. The bendable device, also a concept, is what you’d expect on a smartphone – only that if you wrap it around your wrist, it turns into a 6.9-inch smartwatch.
Samsung’s Galaxy Ring attempts to take health tracking from the palm of our hands to one of our fingers. The device was first teased at the Galaxy S24 Unpacked event in San Francisco last month. Samsung plans to release it later this year.
The Galaxy Ring is meant to provide sleep and health metrics akin to the Oura Ring and Apple Watch, integrated with Samsung’s Galaxy ecosystem, said Hon Pak, vice president and head of Samsung’s digital health team.
Xiaomi’s first electric vehicle made its highly anticipated debut at the flagship tech event. The Xiaomi SU7 looks clean and uses the Chinese company’s self-developed engines and batteries.
Xiaomi also unveiled the updated version of its CyberDog. The AI-powered canine can recognise its owner, bust out some dance moves and even perform a backflip.
HMD Global, the Finnish company that revived the once-famous Nokia brand, announced a partnership with Barbie maker Mattel and teased a line-up of Barbie Flip Phones to be launched “soon”.
There are reportedly four devices to be launched. It is believed that the colours would represent the popular dollmaker’s characters. That would be pink for Barbie and blue for Ken; it’s not sure who yellow and grey will represent. It is also unclear if this will be a limited-edition run.