While you're enjoying a cup of coffee or tea to kickstart your week, there's a lot of MWC news to catch up on from over the weekend. Huawei, LG, Microsoft, and others all hosted events in Barcelona yesterday to show off their wares, ranging from foldable phones to 5G handsets and mixed reality. We realize you may have snoozed Sunday away, so we've summed up all that you might've missed so far in one handy spot.
Xiaomi Mi 9 is heading to Europe
Xiaomi pulled the wraps off its new Mi 9 flagship before we even boarded the plane. At a press event yesterday at MWC though, the company announced availability. Specifically, the phone will arrive in Europe on February 28th. When it does, the Mi 9 will be available in 64GB or 128GB options for €449 (about $510) and €499 (about $566) respectively. For those prices, you can expect a 6.39-inch, FHD+ (1080x2340) AMOLED display, complete with teardrop notch and 19:6 aspect ratio. Inside, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor powers the show, with 6GB of RAM and a 3,300mAh battery to round out the spec sheet. If you're hoping to snag one of the triple-rear-camera units in the US, we've got bad news: there are no plans to bring the Mi 9 to the States.
Huawei's folding (and expensive) Mate X
With the Galaxy Fold fresh on everyone's mind, Huawei chose MWC to debut it's a foldable phone, the Mate X. It may not have been the first out of the gate, but the company may have the most compelling folding handset thus far. Where the Galaxy Fold closes inward with the screen tucked inside, the Mate X folds outward. It's also slightly slimmer than the Fold and packs a larger 4,500mAh battery. Huawei tucked three cameras and the power button into a long narrow bar, rather than integrating them into the display. Of course, that means no notch, and the added depth of the bar doubles as a grip of sorts. And while Huawei's foldable model packs 5G connectivity, it's more expensive than Samsung's version at €2,299 (about $2,600).
A foldable phone and 5G weren't the only things Huawei wanted to discuss in Barcelona. The company also had some laptop news to share. At the top end, there's the Notebook X Pro. There are expected upgrades to the processor (up to 8th generation Intel Core i7), RAM (up to 16GB) and storage (up to 1TB SSD) alongside a discrete graphics option. Despite those changes, Huawei kept the Notebook X Pro thin and light, and it still carries a MacBook-like design that starts at €1,599 (around $1,800). The company also discussed the nearly all-screen Notebook 14. At €1,199 (about $1,360), the list of specs is solid, except for a pair of USB-A ports and one lonely USB-C jack. It is 2019, after all.
Nokia revives PureView
If you've been yearning for another Nokia PureView phone, you're in luck. Following HMD Global's acquisition of the mobile photography brand from Microsoft, the path was paved for a new model, and it's a doozy. The Nokia 9 PureView crams five cameras around back that work in tandem for phone-based snapshots. Senior editor Chris Velazco was able to test the handset in NYC ahead of MWC, and despite some gripes with the camera interface, there's a lot of potential here. The Nokia 9 PureView may seem like an experiment now, but it could also offer a glimpse at the future of phone photography. Heck, maybe sometimes more is more.
0 Comments