Tech2's top 10 hits at MWC 2012

Is it just us or did this year’s Mobile World Congress feel like it got over in a day’s time? It’s probably because all the major announcements happened on the first day, itself, and what a first day it was! ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ and ‘quad-core’ seemed to be the buzz word around every booth at the event and it will only spread as we make it through this year. We’ve seen offerings from all major manufacturers and we hope you got the play by play as well, if not then we can get you your fix from our MWC 2012 coverage.

Today, rather than just listing out the phones and tablets that were announced at MWC, we’ve shortlisted 10 devices that have gotten us really excited, either due to the design, build, features, or simply because it has a mind boggling camera. So, let’s have a quick look at some of the gadgets that will soon bleed your wallet dry.

Samsung Galaxy Beam

Move over Maxx Mobiles and Spice, Samsung is now having a go at a concept that has failed to really take off, which could pave the way for a new niche segment, after 3D phones. On the face of it, it’s just another Android phone, that is, until you turn your attention to the HD projector sitting on top. The 15 lumens lamp is capable of projecting a 50-inch wide screen and this coming from Samsung, you know it will be good (at least, we hope so). 

Samsung's new direction

Huawei Ascend D quad

Huawei is one of our favourite OEM for mobile phones and they haven’t disappointed this time. Out of all the phones they announced, we are really looking forward to the Ascend D quad, primarily due to its own, homegrown quad-core number cruncher. The phone hits all the check boxes as well, 4.5-inch “Retina” grade screen, 8.9mm thick and ICS. While Nvidia have been harping about their Tegra 3 SoC, Huawei’s K3V2 SoC could give it a run for its money. It has more GPU cores (16 vs 12 on Tegra 3), the CPU is supposed to be faster in pure number crunching tasks and is more power efficient, due to a smaller fabrication process. Plus, it’s one hell of a looker! 

The Ascend D quad

Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD

Sticking with Huawei, we are also looking forward to their MediaPad 10 FHD tablet that feels like a nice mix between a Galaxy Tab, HTC Flyer with a sprinkling of the new Transformer 700. It’s powered by Huawei’s K3V2 SoC, but this time, it’s clocked at a higher 1.5GHz. It will support LTE and pack in an IPS, Full HD screen, which should be a sight to behold. 

Four-cores and no slowing down

Nokia 808 PureView

One of the most talked about phones right now, happens to be a Nokia – Who'd have thunk? We knew they were planning on a successor to the N8, but no one saw this curve ball coming. The 808 packs in a whopping 41MP sensor, along with a new pixel oversampling technology that captures data from seven neighbouring pixels and condenses it into one pixel. This means even though you’ll mostly be shooting in 5MP or 8MP mode, the quality will be of a 41MP sensor, so images are mostly noise free, even in low-light conditions. Nokia says, you’ll also be able to capture an image in true 38MP resolution, but obviously, the quality will go for a toss. 

Some crazy optics

HTC One X 

We can’t wait for HTC's entire new ‘One’ series to launch and the One X is definitely ‘one’ of the phones to watch out for. This is their replacement for the Sensation XE (we think) and is packed to the gills with features. Despite the large screen and Tegra 3 SoC, HTC have managed to squeeze them all in a 9.3mm polycarbonate shell (like the Lumia 800) and their new design, which has the screen ‘spilling’ over from the sides. All we know is, this is one sexy looking phone, dripping with awesomeness. Oh, and all the new phones come with Beats Audio and Sense 4.0 as well, so there’s another bonus. 

'X'ceptionally good

Asus PadFone

Asus teased us with the PadFone at Computex 2011 and now that it is finally announced, it looks like an impressive piece of kit, if productivity is of utmost importance to you. Asus has taken their concept of the Transformer one step further here. The phone itself is a standard ICS smartphone, which transforms into a tablet when docked with the Station. This also has a built-in battery that extends the battery life of the phone. Furthermore, you can also dock it with the same Station dock used by the Transformer Prime for even more battery life, extra connectivity and a full-sized keyboard. This is going to be one costly gadget, make sure you have your affairs in order, if you’re lusting for this one. 

Is it a phone or tablet? You decide

Sony Xperia P 

Sony is about to make a big splash with their new NXT series and also their first line-up without the Ericsson tag. The Xperia P will feature an all-aluminium, unibody design and their new ‘WhiteMagic’ technology, which adds a fourth white sub-pixel to the traditional RGB pixels, thereby enhancing the brightness levels. Their new ‘Reality Display’ is powered by Mobile BRAVIA Engine and is one of the main USPs of this phone. 

Sony's fresh new start

Acer CloudMobile

This particular phone peaked our interest, since it will be the first Acer phone to feature their new AcerCloud service that will be launching for PCs in Q2. The service allows you to share your photos, music and documents among Acer notebooks, PCs and Android phones, so you have access to your data, no matter the device you’re on. Acer will launch special apps, like clear.fi Photo, clear.fi Media, AcerCloud Docs, just for this purpose. Rather than dumping all the files in the cloud, AcerCloud will merely index them for you in the cloud and if you request that file, it will be transferred from that device to your phone or PC. Acer says that you’ll be able to pull files from your PC, even if it’s off as AcerCloud will wake the machine up and send across the file you requested. This all sounds pretty cool and we can’t wait to have a go at it.  

To the clouds!

Asus Transformer Pad Infinity 700

Asus’s new Transformer series is a bit of a puzzler, as it’s hard to tell, which their flagship model is. We have the Transformer Pad Infinity 700 that features LTE, Full HD Super IPS+ screen, but only dual-core CPU. Ok, so it’s not any dual-core CPU, but the first tablet to feature Qaulcomm’s new S4 SoC, which uses ARM Cortex A15 CPU cores built on the smaller 28nm fabrication process, so this is going to sip the battery, rather than gulp it. On the other hand, we have the Transformer Pad 300, which also features LTE, but is powered by a Tegra 3, quad-core SoC, so it will be more powerful. You know what, we’ll take both of them please.  

The first LTE tablet!

Lava XOLO X900 

The X900 is also set to be India’s first Android phone, based on Intel’s Medfield Atom SoC. The chip in question here is the Intel’s Atom Z2460, built around the 32nm fabrication process, it features a 1.6GHZ single core CPU with Hyper-Threading and Burst Performance Technology (BPT) that dynamically scales the CPU, depending on the load. With everyone focusing on quad-core and beyond, Intel’s single-core SoC may not seem like much, but remember, it’s how you use this power that matters most, so we hope to be surprised. There isn’t too much information on this right now, so here’s what we have so far. 

Bringing Medfield to India

Disappointments at MWC

Along with some of the standout devices we just witnessed, there were a couple of duds as well. Well, duds may be a little too harsh, it's more like disappointments.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 series

If you’re going to launch a new product which from the title, suggests that it’s going to be a successor to an existing product, we as consumers expect a big overhaul, something that would warrant you to upgrade. Sadly, Samsung didn’t’ get that memo and their Tab 2 series of tablets was quite disappointing.

Not much of an upgrade

Not that it was hyped up or anything but still, they could have put on a better show. Simply adding ICS, Full HD recording and GLONASS GPS onboard just doesn’t cut it.

LG Optimus 3D Max

Besides being a little slimmer with a slight re-design, the 3D Max appears to be more or less the same phone as the first Optimus 3D. It is using Corning’s Gorilla Glass 2 so I guess that’s something to look forward to.

Not impressive enough

But otherwise, the camera is still a 5MP which isn’t too impressive anymore, at least an 8MP would have been nice. And yes, it comes with Gingerbread, which is probably the biggest sore point here and going by their track record for updates, there’s a long wait ahead for ICS.

LG Optimus Vu

This one makes the list simply due to its odd-ball shape. Its 5-inch screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio which is just a little weird and also looks a bit strange in your hand (going by the press images of course). Specifications wise, it seems ok but we don’t know how everyone will take to this form factor.

Simply strange design

The Galaxy Note may be bigger but at least it resembles a phone/tablet. This reminds us a bit of the X5-01, which was another doozie of a phone and we all know how well that did.

That’s it from us. What were your favourites this year and which gadget are you most looking forward to buying?