MWC 2021 Barcelona: Here are some of the key highlights of the event

The Mobile World Congress is the biggest mobile trade shows in the world. And after last year’s cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MWC 2021 finally kicked off this week after a massive delay. However, the event took place on a much smaller scale this time out with just a handful of OEMs opting to attend the event virtually. So, let’s take a look at some of the highlights from MWC 2021 Barcelona.

One of the most innovative devices to make its way to the event was TCL’s NXTWEAR G, a wearable display that allows the user to enjoy content over a 140-inch display, projected straight onto his/her eyes. The NXTWEAR G Wearable Display Smart Glass can be hooked up to a device through a USB Type-C port and draw power from the connected device, so you don’t have to worry about them running out of juice. These smart glasses come with two 1080p Micro OLED panels, one for each eye. The frames display content on a 16:9 screen and feature in-built stereo speakers.

Samsung showcased its new interface for the Galaxy Watch. The One UI Watch is based on Google’s Wear OS and will arrive on the Galaxy Watch 4, which is slated to launch sometime in August. One UI Watch offers a ton of new apps and aims to offer seamless integration between your smartphone and smartwatch. Apps downloaded on your phone will sync with your smartwatch and can also be downloaded automatically to the watch. It also brings new watch faces, an interface redesign, and will also help improve battery life and performance.

Qualcomm announced a faster version of its flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset. The Snapdragon 888 Plus is no different from the vanilla model, but uses a Kryo 680 core overclocked to 3.0Ghz (2.995 GHz to be precise) and features an improved AI Engine that is said to deliver 20 percent better performance. Asus, Motorola, Xiaomi, and Vivo have already confirmed upcoming devices that will use the Snapdragon 888 Plus mobile platform.

Lenovo brought a couple of tablets to MWC 2021 Barcelona. The Lenovo Yoga Tab 13, Yoga Tab 11, Tab P11 Plus, Tab M7, and Tab M8 range between $110 (Roughly Rs 8,250) and going all the way up to $680 (Roughly Rs 50,900). The premium Yoga Tab 13 features a Snapdragon 870 SoC paired with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 13-inch 2K LTPS display with 400 nits of brightness, Dolby Vision HDR, and a 100 percent sRGB colour gamut.

Lastly, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra was crowned the best smartphone of 2021, winning the crown of Best Smartphone with the Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO). The other smartphones in the shortlist included the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, OnePlus 9 Pro, Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, and Galaxy S20 FE 5G.