Earlier last month we attended CES 2017, an event about consumer electronics in general. However if you were less interested in refrigerators, robots for the home, or the latest and most beautiful televisions, and are more interested in the mobile scene, then MWC 2017 is probably the event that you’ve been waiting for.
Just like CES, MWC has been hosted every year for the past few years and this year it will be back again. MWC has been mostly about smartphones and tablets (and infrastructure), but with the rise of wearable tech, we’ve also seen how some companies have taken the opportunity to launch new wearables such as fitness trackers and smartwatches at the event. Below is a list of devices from various companies that we can expect (or hope to see).
In 2017, Ubergizmo’s main sponsor at MWC is Lenovo, so we would like to thank them. It is no yet clear what Lenovo will announce, but you can follow Lenovo at MWC on Twitter @lenovo with the tag #LenovoMWC or on Facebook at facebook.com/lenovo.
LG
The LG G6 is pretty much a given. This is LG’s upcoming flagship smartphone for at least the better half of the year. The company has more or less confirmed its existence, and all that’s left to be done is for LG to make it official and reveal the final details. We’re hearing interesting things about a new display aspect ratio, a possibly bezel-less (or near bezel-less) design, and recently it was also suggested that it might be powered by 2016’s Snapdragon 821 chipset.
Samsung
Samsung’s presence at MWC 2017 has been confirmed. The company sent out an invite to an announcement that they will be making, and in the teaser some sort of device has been teased. The company has already confirmed that they will not be announcing the Galaxy S8 at the event, although we have heard that they might share the date of when they will announce the handset. So far, many seem to believe that Samsung’s announcement could be for a new tablet (Android or Windows?).
Nokia
Nokia is back in the smartphone business and they are expected to unveil a slew of handsets at MWC 2017. This much has been confirmed by Nokia who said that they would be at the event, although what we (and probably a lot of you guys) are most excited for is the rumored Nokia 3310 homage that is expected to show up at the event. We know that feature phones don’t really have a place in today’s world, but to see a “new” 3310 in 2017 would definitely be a treat.
Motorola
Earlier this month it was discovered that Motorola had put a countdown timer on its website, which after doing the math seems to take us to some kind of announcement that will take place during MWC 2017. So far there has been a lot of talk about Motorola launching the Moto G5 and G5 Plus, but oddly enough there hasn’t really been much talk about the Moto Z’s successor. There is some mention about new Moto Mods so perhaps we’ll learn more about that too.
Lenovo
Motorola’s owner Lenovo is also expected to have a presence at MWC 2017. So far there hasn’t really been much said about Lenovo’s smartphone efforts, but earlier this month there were leaked images regarding the upcoming Lenovo Tab3 8 Plus, which we can only assume will be part of Lenovo’s announcement during the event.
Alcatel
While Alcatel might not necessarily be a name many of us think of when it comes to smartphones, the company is expected to make some kind of splash at the event by launching a modular smartphone of their own. It is interesting that Alcatel is choosing now to get into modular smartphones, especially after LG and Google had basically called it quits as far as modular smartphones are concerned. Either Alcatel did not get the memo or they think that they have a solution that will succeed where everyone else has failed, but either way it should be interesting.
BlackBerry
Recent reports have suggested that BlackBerry’s market share is at a very uninspiring ~0%, but the company and its manufacturing partners are still trudging along just fine and are expected to detail the BlackBerry Mercury at the event. The handset was officially revealed at CES 2017 earlier in January, but details of the phone were pretty much non-existent, so we expect BlackBerry will fill in those gaps at MWC.
So far Huawei is the only company on this list that has confirmed that they will have a wearable that they’ll be launching at MWC. About a week ago they confirmed that the Huawei Watch 2 would be launched at MWC, so if you liked what you saw in the first version, then the second version should be worth looking forward to. We are also hearing that Huawei might have a new tablet as well as the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus handsets that they could unveil.
