MWC 2022: All the announcements worth knowing
Here are all the most notable product and technology announcements from MWC 2022.
By Hadlee Simons•
March 1, 2022
Despite the ongoing pandemic concerns, MWC 2022 has gone full steam ahead. The world’s biggest mobile-first trade show has returned with an in-person presence, and it hasn’t been plagued by late withdrawals like CES 2022.
Mobile World Congress is a mobile-focused trade show that takes place every year in Barcelona, Spain. After a cancellation in 2020 and a diminished event in 2021, we’ve got a full-size show this time out.
So what are the most notable announcements at MWC this year? We’ve got you covered with our rundown.
MWC 2022: What was announced?
Cat
Eric Zeman / Android Authority
Rugged phone maker Cat has turned to another product category at MWC, offering a mobile hotspot with a difference. The Cat Q10 5G is a rugged mobile hotspot delivering sub-6GHz 5G connectivity in a sturdy, durable package.
The mobile hotspot offers a MIL-SPEC 810H design and an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. You’re also getting a 5,300mAh battery that powers a maximum of 32 connections for up to 10 hours (or it can be used as a power bank).
Honor
Harley Maranan / Android Authority
Former Huawei sub-brand Honor launched its first flagship range, the Honor Magic 3 series, last year. It isn’t wasting time though, as it launched the Honor Magic 4 series at MWC 2022, consisting of the €899 (~$1,007) standard model and the €1,099 (~$1,231) Honor Magic 4 Pro. The latter is the more impressive one, as you’d expect, featuring 100W wired and 100W wireless charging, a versatile rear camera setup (50MP main, 50MP ultrawide, 64MP 3.5x telephoto), and an IP68 rating.
Kris Carlon / Android Authority
Huawei didn’t have any smartphones to announce in Barcelona, but it still brought an impressive amount of tech to the table. It offered the MateBook X Pro 2022 (ditching the awkwardly placed webcam), the MateBook E notebook, and the MateStation X iMac rival. Our own Eric Zeman spent some time with the MateBook, and you can read his impressions here.
Perhaps the most interesting announcement was the MatePad Paper e-reader/tablet hybrid. This device features a 10.4-inch e-ink display, but runs on Harmony OS and offers downloadable apps. Huawei promises up to four weeks of juice with this device, no doubt due to the power-sipping e-ink panel.
Lenovo
Eric Zeman / Android Authority
Veteran PC player Motorola had a stable of laptops on offer, including a Windows on Arm device and some Google-powered devices. Starting with the former, the ThinkPad X13s uses the latest Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. Best of all, the company claims up to 28 hours of juice.
Moving to the Google-powered laptops, Lenovo offered a new $400 Duet 3 Chromebook, the $500 IdeaPad Flex 5i, and the $400 IdeaPad Flex 3i. It even offered the $190 Lenovo Tab M10 Plus Android tablet.
Mediatek
Supplied by Mediatek
The Taiwanese chipmaker is taking aim at the Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 870, which are popular choices for phones that blur the lines between mid-range and flagship. The Dimensity 8000 series brings powerful octa-core CPU setups (four Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55), a Mali-G610 MC6 GPU, and a 168Hz refresh rate at FHD+ resolution.
Mediatek’s chips also serve up Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6E, 200MP single camera support, and AV1 decoding at 4K. Realme has already announced that the upcoming GT Neo 3 will use the Dimensity 8100.
Nokia
Expecting high-end devices from HMD in Barcelona? Well, you’ll be disappointed. The company launched three phones in its low-end but volume-shifting Nokia C series. The €119 Nokia C21 Plus is the most capable entry, coming with a 6.5-inch HD+ LCD panel, IP52 rating, 2GB to 4GB of RAM , and 32GB to 64GB of expandable storage. Weirdly enough, HMD says the phone is available with either a 4,000mAh or 5,050mAh battery. We’ve also got the €99 Nokia C21 and €79 Nokia C2 Second Edition.
Oppo/OnePlus
Harley Maranan / Android Authority
Oppo announced its Find X5 Pro flagship on the Thursday before MWC 2022, but it still had more to share at the event. The company announced that 150W charging technology was coming to a OnePlus phone in 2022. It didn’t stop there though, as it later demonstrated 240W charging that delivers a 100% charge in nine minutes.
OnePlus also had a few announcements of its own, confirming a global OnePlus 10 Pro launch at the end of March. We also went hands-on with the device if you’re curious about what it’s like ahead of the wider launch.
Finally, OnePlus revealed that the unified OS for OnePlus and Oppo phones has been canceled, with Oxygen OS staying around on global OnePlus phones. However, Oxygen OS and Color OS will continue to share the same codebase.
Qualcomm
The prominent chipmaker announced its Snapdragon X70 5G modem today, and it’s expected to appear in 2023’s flagship Android phones. The X70 maintains the same 10Gbps downlink speeds seen in the current X65 modem, but Qualcomm says it supports all commercial 5G bands.
Realme
Kris Carlon / Android Authority
Realme also held the global Realme GT 2 series launch at MWC 2022, coming a while after its Chinese launch. Nevertheless, the Realme GT 2 Pro is pretty solid at €649 (~$725). Standout features include a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, a QHD+ 120Hz OLED screen, a 50MP 150-degree ultrawide camera, and a microscope lens.
The standard GT 2 comes in at €449 (~$501), and is more in line with the original Realme GT. It offers the same Snapdragon 888 SoC seen in the GT but ups the ante with a 50MP IMX766 main camera and a 5,000mAh battery.
Samsung
Harley Maranan / Android Authority
The Korean manufacturer chose to announce the Galaxy Book 2 line in Barcelona. We got the Galaxy Book 2 360 and Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360, as well as the Galaxy Book 2 Pro and Galaxy Book 2 Business.
Interestingly enough, the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 and Galaxy Book 2 Pro both have a claimed battery life of 21 hours. That’s pretty crazy for Intel-powered laptops, being the kind of endurance you’d expect from Arm devices. We actually went hands-on with both of these devices at MWC if you’re keen to hear what it’s like to use.
TCL
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
The Chinese manufacturer also had plenty of products to announce at MWC 2022. It offered five new 30-series phones, namely the TCL 30 5G, TCL 30 Plus, TCL 30, TCL 30 SE, and TCL 30E. These phones vary in price from €139 (~$156) to €249 (~$280). All these phones feature large ~5,000mAh batteries and Android 12 out of the box.
Staying with its phones, TCL announced pricing for the Verizon-exclusive 30V and T-Mobile exclusive 30XE, coming in at $299 and $199 respectively. The 30V in particular is a mmWave 5G device, so this could be the cheapest mmWave phone in the US.
The consumer tech brand also revealed four new tablets, namely the Tab 10S 5G, Nxtpaper Max 10, 1Tab 10 FHD 4G, Tab 10 HD 4G. The former is the most capable here, offering an unnamed Mediatek 5G SoC, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and an 8,000mAh battery for €349 (~$393).
Xiaomi
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
Xiaomi itself didn’t have announcements to make, but its Poco sub-brand used the MWC week to announce the Poco M4 Pro 4G and X4 Pro. The latter is a Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G with a new name and design, featuring a Snapdragon 695 SoC, 120Hz OLED screen, and a 5,000mAh battery with 67W wired charging.
Meanwhile, the Poco M4 Pro 4G differs quite a bit from the 5G model, opting for a 90Hz OLED screen and Mediatek Helio G96 chipset instead of the 5G variant’s 90Hz LCD panel and Dimensity 810 SoC.
The Poco M4 Pro 4G starts at just €219 (~$245), while the Poco X4 Pro starts at €299 (~$335).
ZTE
Eric Zeman / Android Authority
The Chinese manufacturer had a slew of Blade V40 budget phones on offer at MWC. It didn’t dish out many details (not even pricing), but the Blade V40 5G seems to be one the best of the lot. You’re getting an unnamed Dimensity 5G processor and a 6,000mAh battery with 22.5W charging. The Blade V40 Pro looks pretty solid too, featuring a 6.67-inch OLED panel, a 5,100mAh battery with 65W charging, and a 64MP main camera.
We’ll be updating this page with information about newly launched products at MWC 2022, so check back later this week for updated info.
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