The eyes of the world especially the eyes of mobile phone
fanatics are all on Barcelona, Spain these past few days for the 2013 Mobile
World Congress – the largest exhibition for the mobile industry where
manufacturers, vendors, mobile operators, technology providers and content
owners from across the globe.
And this year, MWC has gotten a lot more interesting with
the entry of other brands such as ZTE, Huawei and Alcatel adding a bit more
variety into the mix. But of course big names such as Nokia and LG were also
there too. So here’s a list of the handsets these manufacturers are going to
release in the very near future.
Nokia Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 – Nokia is standing by its
commitment to support Windows Phone 8 not only for their flagship models but
also for their mid-range and entry-level product lines. Having said this, the
Finnish company has unveiled their latest Windows Phone devices at MWC. The
Lumia 720 designed for the mid-range market segment and the Lumia 520 for the entry-level
market.
Both phones feature dual-core processors and Nokia’s super
touch technology, as well as other Nokia apps such as Nokia Drive and Nokia
Maps. The Lumia 520 has a slightly smaller screen and smaller camera sensor,
but with all things considered, both phones share relatively the same specs and
features. The Lumia 720 and 520 is scheduled to hit the shelves by Q2 2013.
LG F, G, L and V phones – Another big name that graced MWC
this year was LG. And unlike other brands who limited themselves by announcing
1 or 2 devices, LG went all out by announcing an entire product line at the
event – 6 devices to be exact.
These include their two premium devices the LG Optimus G Pro
and the Optimus Vu II, their upper tier phones – the LG Optimus F7 and L7 II,
their mid-range handsets – the Optimus F5 and L5 II and their budget friendly
Optimus L3 II.
HP Slate 7 – After HP announced that they are discontinuing
the production and development of their WebOS, HP is jumping into the Android
bandwagon with the HP Slate 7. This 7-inch tablet features Android Jelly Bean,
a 1.6GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a 3.15MP camera.
Asus Fonepad Infinity and Padfone – Taiwanese brand Asus on
the other hand focused on tablets this year, well sort of. This year they
announced their Padfone budget tablet that runs on Android Jelly Bean and is
powered by an Intel Atom processor.
Also on Asus’s booth is the Fonepad Infinity, the newest
revision in the company’s Fonepad series. Following in the footsteps of the
Fonepad 2, the Fonepad Infinity improves on the shortcomings of its predecessor,
most notably the screen resolution which is now at 1080 x 1920 pixels.
The Padfone Infinity runs on Android Jelly Bean and is
powered by 1.7GHz quad-core Krait processor complimented by 2GB of RAM. It also
has a 13MP camera at the back and an Adreno 320 GPU.
Huawei Ascend P2 – Huawei’s pride and glory this year is
their Ascend P2 smartphone. The company claims that they have made the world’s
fastest smartphone in terms of connectivity. Through its Cat 4 LTE, the phone
will have data transfer speed of up to 150Mbps download speed.
This handset will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and will be
using a 1.5GHz quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM. And similar to other
superphones in the market today, the Ascend P2 will pack a 13MP shooter at the
back with autofocus and LED flash. Screen size is at 4.7 inches with a resolution
of 720 x 1280 pixels at 312ppi.
ZTE Open and Grand Memo – ZTE is another Chinese brand that
made news this year with the Firefox OS-powered ZTE Open and its Grand Memo
phablet.
The ZTE Grand Memo features a 5.7-inch screen. It will have
16GB of on-board storage and 2 GB of RAM. It will be powered by a 1.5GHz
quad-core Krait processor on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset. There’s a 13MP
camera at the back of the device and a 1MP front facing camera for self-portraits
and video calls.
The ZTE Open on the other hand is a budget smartphone that
runs the new Firefox OS. It has a 1GHz Cortex-A5 processor with 256MB of RAM
and 512 MB of internal storage.
Alcatel One Touch series – another brand that went all out
this year was Alcatel. This year they introduced the Firefox OS-powered OT
Fire, and a slew of Android devices including the OT Snap/Snap with LTE, OT
Idol X and OT Scribe Easy.
