If Day Zero of the Mobile World Congress belonged to Mozilla and the Firefox OS, the first day of official events belonged to Nokia. The Finnish company introduced two feature phones, the Nokia 105 and Nokia 301, and extended its Lumia range with the Nokia Lumia 520 & 720. You can read all about that here.
Not to be left out of the spotlight, other companies like Sony, LG, ASUS and ZTE also used the global stage that Barcelona offers to unveil their latest devices.
Sony announces waterproof tablet
Sony took of the covers of its new 10.1-inch Android tablet. At just 6.9 millimeters it is called the Xperia Tablet Z as the thinnest tablet of its size in the world. Sony claims the Xperia Tablet Z is waterproof and can be immersed in up to 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes.
The Xperia Tablet Z is powered by a Qualcomm 1.5 gigahertz asynchronous quad-core processor, and comes with an 8 megapixel camera, surround-sound speakers, a built-in universal remote to control other devices and weighs of just 495 grams. The Xperia Tablet Z will come with 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB of on board storage.
Asus blurs the lines further
Taiwanese tech giant, ASUS, kept up with its strategy of launching new products,which blur the line between phones and tablets. At Barcelona, they announced the Padfone Infinity, which is a premium Android phone and tablet-dock and the Fonepad which is a 7-inch mobile phone.
The Padfone Infinity, like the original Padfone, comprises a mobile phone which slots into the back of a tablet-style docking station, allowing users to access the same files and apps on a larger screen. The Infinity which will retail £799 has a a metallic design and high-resolution screen in both configurations. The phone unit comes with a 5-inch, 1920 x 1080 pixels display, a quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, LTE data and a 13 megapixel camera. The docking station has a 10.1-inch, 1920 x 1200 pixels screen and its own battery
The FonePad has a 7-inch display, which packs in 1,280×800 pixels. It does not have a rear camera, but has a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera. It is powered by Intel’s Atom Z2420 processors, clocked at 1.2GHz and backed up by 1GB of RAM. As for storage, you get 16GB of space, but can be extended to 32 GB by slotting in a microSD card.
LG takes the wrap off 6 devices
LG unveiled a range of devices across the pricing spectrum. At the top end was the 5.5-inch “phablet,” the Optimus G Pro, with the F7 and F5 aiming to offer LTE functionality to those on a mid-range budget, and the L Series bringing up the rear.
The LG Optimus G Pro is a 5.5-inch device that runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and includes 2GB of RAM with up to 32GB of expandable memory via a microSD card. Its is powered by a 1.7GHz quad-core processor from Qualcomm and has a removable 3,140mAh battery. The 13-megapixel camera back camera is capable of recording 1080p full HD video. On the front is a 2.1-megapixel camera. It also includes NFC and wireless charging capabilities.
The F7 and the F5 are new mid-range LTE phones from LG. The higher-end F7 rocks a 4.7-inch IPS display while the F5 has a smaller 4.3-inch display. The F7 runs on a mid-level 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, whereas the F5 runs on the 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon equivalent. Both phones run on Android 4.1.1, have 8GB of onboard storage, expandable by 32GB with a microSD card. The F7 features an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It also packs 2GB of RAM and a 2,540mAh battery. The F5 has a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. Alongside the slower processor, it also comes with 1GB of RAM.
At the lower end, LG announced the Optimus L7 II, L5 II, and L3 II.
ZTE announces the Grand Memo tablet
ZTE unveiled the 5.7-inch display Grand Memo phablet. The device comes with a 5.7-inch display with a 720 x 1280 pixel resolution and is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm processor, 2GB RAM, 4G LTE connectivity and 16GB of onboard storage into 8.5mm body. It runs on Android Jelly Bean and uses a custom ZTE UI called Mifavour. It also includes Dolby Digital audio for a better music or video experience. It features a 13-megapixel camera on the rear capable of 1080P HD video capture and a 1-megapixel camera on the front.
