Mobile World Congress 2012

New Year: More Phones!

Mobile World Congress is an annual extravaganza, a fair, for us geeks that brings in hordes of mobile OEMs, companies, manufacturers from around the world. Here we see new tech, phones, and many other wonderful things.

Here, some of the most unique and desirable handsets are launched in front of analysts and buyers for the very first time. This year's show has been an awesome event, and I've seen many devices stretch the limits of current tech. There were a few awesome concepts and stunners. I will talk about the best of them.

HTC One X

The past year, HTC released many smartphones where neither of them was ideal. They had a lot going on in their research labs. Admiting their mistake , they have clarified that this year will be all about quality and not quantity. Thus announced, was their new flagship with awesome specs and design elements. The One X is proof that the company has listened to the critiques, and oh, how times have changed. This incredibly slim handset features an understated yet elegant design, yet it packs a Tegra 3 SoC with a quad-core 1.5GHz CPU, a drool-worthy 4.7-inch 720p Super LCD display, 32GB of internal storage and and f/2.0, 8 megapixel camera that effortlessly captures beautiful images. It features Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.0 customization that’s much less obtrusive and bloaty than previous versions, and the phone looks super slick in performance. Simply said, the HTC One X is a hell of a device on paper and looks good too. So long as battery life is up to the mark, it'll set the pace for this year’s droid lineup.

Nokia PureView 808

The PureView 808 from Nokia won the official Best of Show award here at Mobile World Congress, and while the device has undoubtedly moved the cameraphone to a new level. Put simply, the PureView 808 is a middling (and slightly clumsy) device with an amazing 41-megapixel camera. It features a 1.3GHz CPU, a 4-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display at 640 x 360, and packs quadband GSM and pentaband 3G connectivity -- all in a device that runs Symbian Belle. That said, yeah, we want one.

Nokia has put in all there effort in the research, and the final result has redefined the whole mobile phone photo system. This phone actually doesn’t take a 41 megapixel photos or for that matter 8000 x 5000 or a 130 MB photo; it collects 41 megapixels of data and uses all those details to create a very rich photo of a much smaller size of 3000x 2500 pixels which is roughly 8 megapixels.

So what nokia has developed is that they click a photo @ around 8000×5000 pixels and shrink it down to something significantly smaller @ around 3000 x 2500 pixels. So, now as per nokia’s equation, 41 MP of collective data = 8 MP of great quality of image (which ofcourse would of great quality and only about 5-6 MB in size.) Conclusion on their camera, GREAT.

Huawei Ascend D Quad

Could you have ever dreamed that one of the standout smartphones of Mobile World Congress would be from Huawei? Huawei as a manufacturer is known for cheap mobile phones( the dual and triple sim variety), but it wasn't until they released this beast that I realized just how serious (and capable) the company was. Paling only in comparison to the HTC One lineup, the Huawei Ascend D Quad boasts some of the finest aesthetics that we've seen at the show. It features a 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, a 4.5-inch IPS display with 720p resolution, an 8MP camera, quadband GSM, pentaband WCDMA and, wouldn't you know it, a big bite of Ice Cream Sandwich.

LG Optimus 4X HD

The sequel to the Optimus 2X is here, and it asks to be called the Optimus 4X HD. As the name implies, it now packs a Tegra 3 SoC with a quad-core 1.5GHz CPU and a large 4.7-inch IPS display with 720p resolution, along with an 8 megapixel primary camera. While there's no doubt plenty of power with this handset, LG's software is rather slow and. However the device does look sleek and durable and much better than its ancestor. Also its specs look good and sure with right key ingredients, can be a winner.

Xolo X900 (LAVA X900)

What discussion of potential game-changers from Mobile World Congress would be fully complete without Intel and its new lineup of Medfield chips for smartphones? Enter the Xolo X900, a slab that's based on the 1.6GHz Z2560. The device is currently destined for India (via LAVA), Yes we will be the first ones to get it (hurray!!), it offers some worthwhile insights to what we might expect from handsets that'll land closer to home. The performance is noteworthy and looks responsive on the stock Gingerbread phone, but  the battery life looks dodgy with a meagre 1450mAh battery. The Xolo X900 itself features a 4-inch, 1024 x 600 LCD screen, an 8 megapixel camera and is said to ship in Q2.

As can be seen, the upcoming mobiles have entered the multi core era with the launch of the Quad core SoC from Nvidia(Tegra) and Samsung(Exynos). The future of computing now in our hands.

In my opinion this years winner is Nokia 808 Pureview for such an awesome concept and tech that has been put into it. Nokia deserves laurels and applause. Take a bow. 

Adios

HellRa1SeR

PS- I have been getting some requests from few readers, so I'll be covering their requests pretty soon. Stay tuned.( If you wnat something to be posted do comment below.)