Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra review: first look

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

The Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra might be a bit of a mouthful, but it’s one of the most surprising phones we’ve seen this week at MWC.

It’s set to arrive across Europe in April or May at a price of €359, and there’s one thing about it that stands out above all else: at 6.45mm from front to back, it’s comfortably the slimmest smartphone in the world – thinner than both the iPhone 5 and the Sony Xperia Z.

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HP Slate 7 review: first look

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

The HP Slate 7 and the recently released HP Envy x2 hybrid are HP’s attempts to put the TouchPad disaster behind it.

In contrast to the £800 Windows 8-based Envy x2, this is a 7in tablet aimed squarely at the low-end of the Android tablet market. When it’s released in the US later this year, it will cost $169, and a UK release will follow shortly after. We were told by an HP representative to expect a price of around £129, which is similar to the basic Amazon Kindle Fire.

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ZTE Grand Memo review: first look

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

This year at MWC in Barcelona, big phones and “phablets” have stolen all the headlines, and Chinese manufacturer ZTE is hoping to grab some of the limelight, too. Its Grand Memo is a rival to the Samsung Galaxy Note II and the Huawei Ascend Mate (announced at CES earlier this year), and in terms of size it sits right between the two, with a 5.7in screen diagonal.

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Nokia Lumia 520 review: first look

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

The Nokia Lumia 520 is one of two low-cost Windows Phone 8 smartphones Nokia unveiled at its MWC press conference, and it really is cheap.

It’s set to cost around £120, and yet when we took our turn with it on the Nokia stand after the news conference, we found little evidence of cost-cutting.

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Huawei Ascend W1 review: first look

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

We expected to see our fair share of high-end mobile hardware at MWC, but this year’s show has been notable for the rise of another type of smartphone: the low-cost Windows Phone 8 handset. First came Nokia with the Lumia 520 and Lumia 720, and it’s now Huawei’s turn with the Ascend W1.

First unveiled at CES earlier in the year, Huawei announced this morning that the Ascend W1  is set to arrive in the UK at same price as the Lumia 520. It will cost only £120 on pay-as-you-go and will be free on a £13.50 per month contract. Both deals are exclusive to O2, and the phone will be available from 7 March.

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Sony Xperia Tablet Z review: first look

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

After unveiling its flagship smartphone at CES earlier in the year, Sony is using MWC as the platform to promote a new Android tablet — the Sony Xperia Tablet Z — and it’s not only a name that this new product shares with its smartphone sibling.

We’ve just been down to the Sony stand here in Barcelona, and were struck by how similar the styling is between the two devices. Just like the phone, the Xperia Tablet Z is completely flat on the front and back, and just like the phone it’s very, very slim. At a mere 6.9mm, the Tablet Z makes the iPad 4 look positively porky. It’s even slimmer than an iPhone 5.

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Asus PadFone Infinity review: first look

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

There was a sharp collective intake of breath at the Asus launch event for the PadFone Infinity at MWC. Not out of wonder or excitement – but at the price.

At €999 (around £799), this is a seriously expensive piece of tech – right up there with the priciest iPads Apple has to offer. As such you’d expect the PadFone to exude a little bit of luxury, to be beautifully built, to feel exclusive; we’re happy to report that it does exactly that.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 review: first look

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

We were as surprised as everyone else at MWC when Samsung quietly announced the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 a day before the show began. So, as soon as we had the opportunity, we scuttled down to the Samsung stand to get hands-on.

If you don’t know already, the Note 8 is the Samsung’s big play in the “phablet” market. It’s an 8in tablet that can also make phone calls. It has a 1,280 x 800 resolution PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching) display, a 1.6GHz Exynos Quad 4412 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel snapper at the front, plus an absolutely enormous 4,600mAh battery. Wireless connectivity comprises 3G (not 4G), dual-band Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.
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Asus Fonepad review: first look

Monday, February 25th, 2013

Asus hasn’t exactly been tight-lipped about its announcements at MWC 2013. It let slip the fact that at at least one of its devices would be running Intel’s new dual-core mobile chip on its Facebook page the day before the conference, and Fonepad rumours have be swirling around all day at the show.

As expected, it announced the latest instalments in its Padfone range – but it was this more practical and affordable Asus Fonepad that captured our attention, despite the confusing naming convention.

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Greatest Hits of MWC 2013

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

With the world’s largest mobile technology show about to take place in the sunny environs of Barcelona. it’s time to kick off something new for our coverage of the show this year: PC Pro’s Greatest Hits of MWC 2013. It’s our pick of the best products and technologies on show at the event. Nine products will walk away with a Greatest Hits award, and as ever we’re looking for our readers’ help in picking the winners.

If you see a product you think deserves to be considered, then make a comment on this blog by midnight Tuesday 5 February (UK time). In addition to five products earning the Greatest Hits accolade, we’re giving away four awards in the following specific categories:

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