Prelude: The first smartphone innovations of the MWC 2022

From February 28th to March 3rd the Mobile World Congress 2022 will take place in Barcelona. While the CES at the beginning of 2022 was getting smaller and smaller due to the pandemic, a comprehensive hygiene and safety concept should enable the MWC to be held. Up to 1,500 exhibitors have been announced in seven exhibition halls. However, many manufacturers are still holding back and another tradition also applies this year: the trade fair highlights from Samsung’s Galaxy S series were presented in advance. Here are the first innovations at the start of the MWC 2022. Clicking on the product name will take you to the detailed article. We have even tried out some of the new products.

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is the successor to the Nord CE 5G. On the smooth back, it adopts the camera arrangement from the OnePlus Nord 2. However, the cameras (64 MP camera and 8 MP ultra wide angle) were already in the CE 5G. This also applies to the 6.43-inch FHD+ OLED display. On the other hand, the processor is faster and the CE 2 charges with a tight 65 watts! With 8 gigabytes of working memory and 128 GB of internal memory, it costs 349 euros.

The Motorola Edge 30 Pro has powerful camera equipment on the back and a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen on the front. In addition, Motorola continues to rely on its own ready-for platform for connecting to external displays. Optionally, buyers get a stylus – similar to the S-Pen from Samsung. The Edge 30 Pro costs a whopping 800 euros.

Realme exhibits at the MWC with the Realme 9 Pro and Realme 9 Pro Plus two new models that we have already been able to take a closer look at. The glitter design on the back is striking. The Realme 9 Pro Plus wins the technology rating in a direct comparison thanks to the AMOLED display and better camera sensor. The Realme 9 Pro starts at 320 euros, the Realme 9 Pro Plus at 380 euros. If that is too much for you, there is also the new entry-level model Realme 9i. That comes at prices from 220 euros.

Oppo’s new flagship smartphone Find X5 Pro offers a remarkable design: Because the housing is milled out of one piece of ceramic, the block with three camera lenses merges seamlessly into the back. The 6.7-inch OLED (10-bit, 1 to 120 Hz) is said to be particularly responsive. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor is supplemented by a special chip for image processing: The MariSilicon X is designed to record 4K videos with HDR in good quality, even at night. 50-megapixel sensors promise beautiful photos with the main and ultra wide-angle cameras.

Huawei has introduced great new hardware. The Huawei P50 Pro is among the best camera phones we’ve ever tested. Samsung’s new S series can’t keep up. The P50 pocket is a real eye-catcher and a competitor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3. However, the current Huawei smartphones are still suffering from the US ban, which impedes or even hinders 5G and GMS, i.e. mobile Google services. Nevertheless, Huawei tries to get involved in the market with premium prices. The P50 Pro costs 1,199 euros and the gold folding phone P50 Pocket 1,599 euros.

was early 2020 5G reserved for the still expensive top models or available as an option that is subject to a surcharge. Appropriately equipped devices such as the Redmi Note 9T 5G, the Realme 8 5G and the Poco M3 Pro 5G now undercut the 200 euro mark. So 5G is becoming the standard.

When it comes to batteries, manufacturers are looking for solutions to avoid high charging currents and thus fast loading times to realize in such a way that the service life of the batteries does not suffer unduly from the high currents. One approach is the dual battery design, which OnePlus first introduced on the OnePlus 8T. The charging speed king with a tight 120 watts is currently by far the Xiaomi 11T Pro. The desire for a long battery life is taken into account with gentle charging options.