MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2017: DIALLING IT RIGHT
Text: Vishal Mathur; Graphics: Santosh Sharma/Mint
The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017, being staged in Barcelona, is the venue for showcasing new gadgets. Some top picks from the annual event.
Nokia 3310
The legend is back, 17 years after its first coming. It is still a feature phone, runs the Series 30+ software, has a 2.4-inch colour display, a 2-megapixel camera, FM Radio and a microSD slot. It works on 2.5G networks only, though the Opera Mini web browser is preloaded for basic web browsing. The battery standby time is a month. The nostalgia carries a price tag of $52 (around R3,400).
LG G6
The G6 has a 5.7-inch IPS LCD FullVision display—the FullVision referring to the ever-slimmer bezels around the screen. But what is truly unique is the 18:9 aspect ratio (16:9 is what we generally consider as wide-screen), with a resolution of 2,880x1,440 pixels. It is also the first G-series phone that is water and dust resistant. It will run Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chip, with 4GB RAM. Prices not announced.
Nokia 6
The aluminium unibody signals Nokia’s return in the smartphone space. It runs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, and have a 3GB RAM and a 5.5-inch display (1920 x 1080). There will be a limited edition glossy Arte Black variant, which will have 64GB storage and 4GB RAM. The standard variant of the 6 (colour options include matte black, silver, blue and copper) will cost $242 (around R16,000), while the Arte Black will cost $315 (around R21,000).
Huawei P10 and P10+
The P10 and the P10+ both run Huawei’s Kirin 960 processor—the former gets 4GB RAM, 5.1-inch Full HD display and 64GB storage, while the latter gets 6GB RAM, 5.5-inch Quad HD display and 128GB storage. The new design language looks slick, and so does the new colour options. Huawei continues to partner with Leica, for the 12-megapixel and 20-megapixel dual cameras, and is also using GoPro’s expertise for photo sorting features. Pricing details are awaited.
Sony Xperia XZ Premium
It is very similar to its predecessors. It will run the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. The 5.5-inch screen is the world’s first 4K HDR (2,160 x 3,840, high dynamic range) display in a smartphone. Sony will bundle 4K HDR content from Amazon. The 20-megapixel camera is claimed to be faster than even last year’s Xperia flagships. The only drawback could be the mirror-like finish on certain versions.