What to expect at MWC 2012

The Mobile World Congress 2012 is just around the corner. Starting 27th February, the most popular smartphone manufacturers in the world, barring Apple, will showcase their wares for the current year. In the past few days, we’ve already got some inside scoop from a few of the smartphone manufacturers with leaks and announcements, but here’s what will most probably (unless there are some sweet surprises) be fighting for the spotlight at MWC 2012. 

LG’s answer to the Galaxy Note? Or just another oversized Android device? We’re betting on the former when the handset will be showcased at LG’s stall at the MWC. This one’s raking it up in the spec department as well.The Vu comes with a 5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, and a 1.5GHz dual core processor. There’s 32 gigs of internal memory and LTE, HDMI, DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct. The Optimus Vu comes with 1GB of RAM and has a 2080 mAh battery under the hood. This monster of a phone has an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 1.3 megapixel front camera. With these specs, LG are definitely banking on the Vu to take an ample share of the spotlight at MWC. 

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

The next large smartphone is announced

Besides this phone, they’re also going to unveil their 3D Cube, L range phones and the 3D Max. Too little too late? Or game changing phones? It’s just a matter of time before the curtains on LG’s new smartphones are drawn. 

HTC One X 

This one seems to be inspired by the Matrix series, but it’s got a couple of name changes. So, if you don’t see the HTC Edge or the Endeavour, don’t fret, they’re all the same device and they’ve been renamed the One X. We don’t know much about this device, in terms of specs, but it will supposedly have a 3.7-inch display and a 5 megapixel rear camera that can capture videos at 720p. It will be powered by a 1GHz processor and have 1 gigs of RAM. On the software side, the phone is expected to come with Ice Cream Sandwich on board. 

Image Source: PocketNow

Besides this, we might also get to see the HTC Ville, which may be rebranded to the One S and the HTC One XL as well. HTC have been keeping their cards close to their chest so far, but we can pretty much expect that they’re launching not one, not two but three to four swanky new handsets. 

This one exists because of this mini jigsaw puzzle we had in our hands recently. Tango is coming, with reduced RAM and other spec requirements. The Lumia 610 has us going back in the numerical order, with the Lumia 710,  the Lumia 800  and the Lumia 900. The Lumia 610 is going to be their latest WP7 phone keeping in mind the budget conscious. 

Image Source: Nok4us

Nokia is evenly planning their strategy with one competing smartphone at different price ranges. The Lumia 710 is already priced close to the 15K mark so it’ll be interesting to see where the Lumia 610 fits in the price range. A sub 10K price with some competitive specs would definitely make it one potential budget smartphone to watch out. But again, with camera megapixel count being reduced to 3 MP and a few other limitations with Tango, Nokia might be treading a dangerous route ahead that could go either ways.  

This brand might not be as popular as the other top tier ones but it’s making an effort to get noticed. And that in itself deserves credit. Huawei is planning to launch a quad – core at the MWC. Is quad core really required in smartphones? That’s a debate for another article. 

The MediaPad (Image Source: Hi-tech.mail.ru)

As mentioned earlier, the Huawei Ascend D1Q was “Being ‘a step higher’ than its dual-core Ascend models. It stands to reason that the D1 Q may prove to be a Diamond 1 (Q)uad-core smartphone.”  One thing we know for sure, the D stands for a Diamond. But, will this diamond shine brighter than the other ones getting polished for the MWC? More spec details (and pricing) will definitely tell us in a few days. Besides this, a 10 inch MediaPad is on the cards as well.  The only known details for this tablet are that it will have 3G connectivity, a 16:9 aspect ratio and an 8 megapixel camera. On the software side, it will run on Ice Cream Sandwich. Does Huawei have an ace up its sleeve? 

A mixture of the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 - that’s what the Galaxy Note 10.1 seems to be all about. There’s not too much detail divulged about this handset as of now. While Steve Jobs negated the requirement of an additional stylus, when humans have ten styluses on their hand, Samsung doesn’t believe so. They’re planning to launch a 10.1 inch tablet with S-pen capabilities in the form of the new Note 10.1. Plus, they’ll definitely beef up the spec sheet of this new device with a quad core processor, for good measure. Will this combo spell success for Samsung though will only be seen in the coming days. 

10.1 inch version coming soon?

Besides this major launch, the Galaxy Tab 2 has also been announced in quite a quiet affair. With so many 7-inched Samsung tablets around, we’re not complaining if this one went a little under the radar. 

Sony is going to be launching a slew of Xperia phones, we’re pretty sure about that. The Xperia U has been teasing us since the past few days with leaked images and specs and from what we can see, we quite like that device. The Xperia S was announced at CES 2012 and the U might just be a slightly stripped down version of it. 

The Sony Xperia handsets snapped alongside each other

But hey, the stripped down version still has a dual core processor and a 3.5 inch Reality display. It may not have a 720p resolution display or massive internal memory, but if that means a substantial price cut, then we’re definitely game for it. The Xperia P has also been making an appearance on and off in the recent past and that might complete the range of Xperia smartphones that might debut at the Mobile World Congress. 

Thankfully, the wait won’t be too long, and you can be rest assured that we’ll give you a comprehensive coverage of the event when it starts. The dedicated page for the upcoming MWC event can be viewed here. From all these rumours, image leaks, pre-announcements and news, which product launch are you looking forward to?