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Mobile World Congress 2012

The Mobile World Congress is undoubtedly the biggest mobile technology event of the year. As ever, smartphone, tablet and industrial equipment manufacturers are lining up to show off their latest creations at MWC 2012, which opens on Monday 27 February in Barcelona.

Florence Legrand / Romain Thuret
Translator: Catherine Barraclough
Updated: February 8, 2012

MWC 2012 - 27 February to 1 March

Get set for four days of product announcements, news, presentations, hands-on sessions, new technology and upcoming products live from Mobile World Congress 2012!

This year's MWC will be a little different to previous years' events, as we already know that two of 2012's most eagerly awaited smartphones won't be putting in an appearance. While Apple never comes to the show, instead organising special one-off events for its product launches, MWC regular and Apple arch-rival Samsung has decided to put off presenting the Galaxy S III. Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S smartphone will instead be presented in the spring, no doubt to rival Apple's iPhone 5 in headline grabbing, but also to bring the product announcement nearer to its actual release date. The world's number one smartphone seller won't be entirely absent from the show, however, as Samsung still plans on presenting some smartphones at MWC.

Plenty of other smartphone makers will be on hand to show off interesting alternatives to the two market superstars.

LG, for example, is keen to get back in the game—and it's about time too, as the firm has been talking about its comeback for the last two yeas. Panasonic will be showing off new phones, and Huawei and ZTE will be attacking the market from below with a whole load of competitively priced handsets. Surprisingly, Fujitsu will be showcasing the world's slimmest smartphone, while Nokia will be on hand to present its Lumia range and HTC will be unveiling some new models for 2012.

Handsets aren't the only battleground in this market though, as processor makers are still racing to make dual-, triple- and now quad-core chips. Qualcomm, Nvidia, Texas Instruments (now equipping the Galaxy S II) and Intel will all be gearing up to show off their new high-performance, power-packed processors.

Stay tuned to this page to keep track of all the news in the build-up to MWC 2012 and live from the event in Barcelona.

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Mobile World Congress 2012

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MWC 2012: Our Breakdown
The 2012 edition of MWC came to an end at the beginning of March. What stood out? Here’s our breakdown! The Mobile World Congress is the show for handsets

MWC 2012: STMicroelectronics Slim Projector Module for Mobiles
You may never have heard of STMicroelectronics, but this French tech firm makes a whole load of components for electronic devices. On the company's stand at the recent Mobile World

MWC 2012 - The Qualcomm Quad-Core Strategy
Leader in the juicy chip market for smartphones and tablets, Qualcomm seems to fear no one, wherever they're from. The Californion chip manufacturer still doesn't do quad-core, but doesn't seem

MWC 2012: Emporia SOLID Plus, Mobile For Adventurous Seniors
Specialist in mobile phones for seniors, without any of the confusing connectivity and pared back to the essentials, Emporia was showing off its new Hummer-style phone, the SOLID Plus, shock

MWC 2012: ZTE Develops Cloud-Based Motion-Control Game System
As well as making Android ICS mobiles by the bucket load, ZTE is also seeking to make its mark with some innovative home-grown products. One such contraption is the Web

MWC 2012: The Sony Xperia U
Despite being the entry-level smartphone in Sony Mobile Communications' new Xperia series, the Xperia U does have a few strengths, notably its colour and style. When we first presented Sony

MWC 2012: Mozilla Presents Its Mobile OS Boot-to-Gecko
Presented at MWC 2012, Boot-to-Gecko, the new Mozilla mobile operating system, is getting ready to launch in the coming months. Still in development stage, Boot-to-Gecko is based on the

MWC 2012: NEC Medias W, Folding Twin-Screen Smartphone on Android 4.0
Although NEC may not be the first mobile brand that springs to mind when it comes to gleaming new concept phones, the firm had some interesting stuff on show at

MWC 2012: ZTE Era Brings Tegra 3 to the Masses
Following the ZTE Mimosa X with its Tegra 2 processor and Icera modem, the Mobile World Congress also saw ZTE present the Era—a 4.3-inch handset on a mission to bring

MWC 2012: Huawei Getting Into Art?
The Chinese brand Huawei really has entered a new era at this edition of the Mobile World Congress. Above and beyond its product announcements, Huawei is also looking to impose

MWC 2012: Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Powerful and Versatile
With no Galaxy S III to show off at the Mobile World Congress, Samsung instead took its Note range a step further with the ambitious Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. After

MWC 2012: Fujitsu Goes Waterproof
Japanese brand Fujitsu was already spotted showing off some underwater products at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. Now, it's back at MWC with a full range of smartphones

MWC 2012: Sony Mobile Communications Demos Smart Stickers For NFC
Making payments with your mobile phone's NFC chip might still be a little way off, but in the meantime, Sony is having fun thinking of other ways to use the

MWC 2012: Light Relief On The Google Stand
As a company that prides itself on its fun-loving image, this year's Google stand at the Mobile World Congress is once again true to form with games and activities to

MWC 2012 - Microsoft: Mobile OS Battle For Survival
'Certain operating systems will soon be disappearing from the market'... but certainly not Windows Phone. Buoyed by its partnership with Nokia, Microsoft is reasserting its claim among smartphone platforms. In

Correction: Nokia 808 DOES Have 41 MP Camera, But 8 MP Photos
Yesterday saw the launch of the Nokia 808 PureView, a Symbian smartphone apparently capable of taking photos at a resolution of up to 41 Megapixels. We were a little hazy

LG: 'We Want To Get Back In The Smartphone Game'
Does LG have what it takes to get back in the smartphone game this year? That's a question we asked the firm, which (still) refuses to be beaten and is

MWC 2012: New Nokia Phones Outed, Share Price Down
Yesterday morning at 9 a.m. deep in the Fira de Barcelona, a hall almost entirely given over to Nokia at MWC 2012 was buzzing with people. The firm's press conference

MWC 2012: Huawei Ascend D Quad Top-End Smartphone With IPS+
Huawei had already outed some information about its upcoming quad-core smartphone before the handset's official unveiling at this year's Mobile World Congress. With the event now in full swing, we

MWC 2012: Samsung Galaxy Beam With Pico Projector
Just 12.5mm thick, the new Android Galaxy Beam smartphone includes a pico projector. Compact and rather singular looking in its final version, the Samsung Galaxy Beam, stands out here at

MWC 2012: Nokia 808 PureView Phone With 41 Megapixels ... Apparently
Update February 29, 2012: Nokia has published technical documentation covering the 808 PureView, and contrary to our initial interpretation of their press conference and early reports, it really does have

MWC 2012: Sony (Re)Launches Xperia S, Adds P and U For Good Measure
After being unveiled at the CES tech show Las Vegas, the Xperia S is now strutting its stuff at the Mobile World Congress. However, the Barcelona trade show is the

MWC 2012: Asus Padfone Smartphone, Tablet and Surprising Stylus
After outlining the changes to its tablet range at the firm's MWC media event, Asus presented the many features of the Padfone, a new concept smartphone that slips into a

MWC 2012: Panasonic Eluga Phone In Pictures
Announced just a few days ago, the Panasonic Eluga super-slim, waterproof, dustproof mobile is on show at this year's Mobile World Congress. Here are a few pictures of the handset

MWC 2012: Asus Transformer Pad, New Name, Expanded Range
Asus was full of announcements this morning at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, with a press conference rich in Transformer transformations, including a new name for its range of tablets

HTC Unveils One X, S and V at Pre-MWC Event
Like Sony Mobile Communications, HTC presented a new range of smartphones just a few hours before the Mobile World Congress 2012 opened its doors. This 'One' series of handsets is

ZTE Mimosa X: New Smartphone With All Nvidia Components
After Huawei, the next big Chinese manufacturer to have a go at the smarpthone market is ZTE, whose new mobile, the Mimosa X, will have an Nvidia Tegra 2

LG Optimus L-Style: Three Android Smartphones, Three Screen Sizes
LG promised it would be more present in the smartphone market in 2012, and here the firm is already unveiling a whole new range, the Optimus L-Style, comprising the L7,

Huawei Ascend D1 Q High-End Quad-Core Smartphone
After unveiling the Ascend P1 and Ascend P1 S handsets at CES 2012, Huawei is now gearing up to present a high-end smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 in the Pipeline?
With the 2012 Mobile World Congress just around the corner, rumours and slips of the pen have already got plenty of people talking. From the look of this guide to

Acer Iconia Tab A510 Arriving in Europe: Launching in France in March
After catching a quick glimpse of the Iconia Tab A510 at CES 2012, Acer's latest Android 4.0 ICS tablet complete with Nvidia Tegra 3 processor has now been announced for

Acer Iconia Tab A200 Gets Ice Cream Sandwich
Acer is already offering an Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4) update for its recently released Iconia Tab A200 tablet, initially shipped with Android Honeycomb (Android 3). Acer isn't wasting any

Acer to Present CloudMobile Smartphone
Acer is gearing up to present a high-end cloud-enabled smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February. We're often told that cloud computing is the

LG Optimus Vu: Hybrid Smartphone with 5'' Screen
The Samsung Galaxy Note clearly wasn't going to be the only 'big smartphone/mini tablet' on the market for long, and now it seems that the handset's first challenger could

MWC 2012: No Show for the Galaxy S III
Samsung won't be showing off the Galaxy S III at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February. We already knew that Samsung would be making a

Samsung Galaxy S Advance: Coming Soon?
The Samsung Galaxy S range is due to welcome yet another new smartphone, the Galaxy S Advance. This models is a mid-range handset that's less powerful than the

LG X3 Quad-Core Smartphone Coming Soon?
A new generation of power-packed smartphones is due to be presented at the World Mobile Congress next month in Barcelona. LG will no doubt use that opportunity to

Nokia To Launch Lumia 910 In June With 12 Megapixel Camera?
The Nokia Lumia 900 smartphone is set to go on sale in the US in March before arriving in the UK in June—which could leave it trailing the as yet

Fujitsu Arrows: Slim, Waterproof Android Smartphone
At CES 2012, we spotted this rather surprising Fujitsu Arrows smartphone, an Android 2.3 handset just 6.7 mm thick and weighing 105 grammes. It has an OLED screen and a

HTC Primo: (Not So) Entry-Level Smartphone
With one of the most important events in the mobile phone world just around the corner, HTC is apparently gearing up to present a budget smartphone with nothing to envy

Samsung To Announce 11.6 Inch, 2560 x 1600 Pixel Tablet?
Samsung might use next year's Mobile World Congress to launch a new 11.6'' tablet with a 2560 x 1600 pixel screen running Android 4.0. Samsung Galaxy Tab

First Look: Our Sneak Peak at Panasonic's Smartphone
Panasonic last week announced the upcoming launch of its first Android smartphone in Europe in March 2012. We've been lucky enough to see this intriguing model in the flesh, and

Asus Padfone: A Smartphone AND A Tablet
Asus is set to confirm plans to launch its new product, the Padfone, at next February's Mobile World Congress after giving us a first glimpse at this spring's Computex show.

Nikon D3200 HTC One V

HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus Samsung SCX-3405W

Samsung SP-A600B Optoma HD720X

Iiyama ProLite X2775HDS Iiyama ProLite B2274HDS-B1

Sony HDR-CX740 Panasonic HC-V700

LG 47LM860V Panasonic Viera TX-L47DT50

Hercules Dualpix HD720p for notebooks Microsoft LifeCam HD-5000

Asus Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Asus GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP

Xtreamer SideWinder 3 Xtreamer Prodigy Black

Cooler Master V8 Cooler Master Hyper TX2

AMD A4-3400 Intel Core i5 3570K

iPhone 4S

Samsung Galaxy S2

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray

Acer Iconia Tab A500

iPad 2

Mobile World Congress 2012

MWC 2012: Our Breakdown The 2012 edition of MWC came to an end at the beginning of March. What stood out? Here’s our breakdown! The Mobile World Congress is the show for handsets

MWC 2012: STMicroelectronics Slim Projector Module for Mobiles You may never have heard of STMicroelectronics, but this French tech firm makes a whole load of components for electronic devices. On the company's stand at the recent Mobile World

MWC 2012 - The Qualcomm Quad-Core Strategy Leader in the juicy chip market for smartphones and tablets, Qualcomm seems to fear no one, wherever they're from. The Californion chip manufacturer still doesn't do quad-core, but doesn't seem

MWC 2012: Emporia SOLID Plus, Mobile For Adventurous Seniors Specialist in mobile phones for seniors, without any of the confusing connectivity and pared back to the essentials, Emporia was showing off its new Hummer-style phone, the SOLID Plus, shock

MWC 2012: ZTE Develops Cloud-Based Motion-Control Game System As well as making Android ICS mobiles by the bucket load, ZTE is also seeking to make its mark with some innovative home-grown products. One such contraption is the Web

MWC 2012: The Sony Xperia U Despite being the entry-level smartphone in Sony Mobile Communications' new Xperia series, the Xperia U does have a few strengths, notably its colour and style. When we first presented Sony

MWC 2012: Mozilla Presents Its Mobile OS Boot-to-Gecko Presented at MWC 2012, Boot-to-Gecko, the new Mozilla mobile operating system, is getting ready to launch in the coming months. Still in development stage, Boot-to-Gecko is based on the

MWC 2012: NEC Medias W, Folding Twin-Screen Smartphone on Android 4.0 Although NEC may not be the first mobile brand that springs to mind when it comes to gleaming new concept phones, the firm had some interesting stuff on show at

MWC 2012: ZTE Era Brings Tegra 3 to the Masses Following the ZTE Mimosa X with its Tegra 2 processor and Icera modem, the Mobile World Congress also saw ZTE present the Era—a 4.3-inch handset on a mission to bring

MWC 2012: Huawei Getting Into Art? The Chinese brand Huawei really has entered a new era at this edition of the Mobile World Congress. Above and beyond its product announcements, Huawei is also looking to impose

MWC 2012: Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Powerful and Versatile With no Galaxy S III to show off at the Mobile World Congress, Samsung instead took its Note range a step further with the ambitious Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. After

MWC 2012: Fujitsu Goes Waterproof Japanese brand Fujitsu was already spotted showing off some underwater products at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. Now, it's back at MWC with a full range of smartphones

MWC 2012: Sony Mobile Communications Demos Smart Stickers For NFC Making payments with your mobile phone's NFC chip might still be a little way off, but in the meantime, Sony is having fun thinking of other ways to use the

MWC 2012: Light Relief On The Google Stand As a company that prides itself on its fun-loving image, this year's Google stand at the Mobile World Congress is once again true to form with games and activities to

MWC 2012 - Microsoft: Mobile OS Battle For Survival 'Certain operating systems will soon be disappearing from the market'... but certainly not Windows Phone. Buoyed by its partnership with Nokia, Microsoft is reasserting its claim among smartphone platforms. In

Correction: Nokia 808 DOES Have 41 MP Camera, But 8 MP Photos Yesterday saw the launch of the Nokia 808 PureView, a Symbian smartphone apparently capable of taking photos at a resolution of up to 41 Megapixels. We were a little hazy

LG: 'We Want To Get Back In The Smartphone Game' Does LG have what it takes to get back in the smartphone game this year? That's a question we asked the firm, which (still) refuses to be beaten and is

MWC 2012: New Nokia Phones Outed, Share Price Down Yesterday morning at 9 a.m. deep in the Fira de Barcelona, a hall almost entirely given over to Nokia at MWC 2012 was buzzing with people. The firm's press conference

MWC 2012: Huawei Ascend D Quad Top-End Smartphone With IPS+ Huawei had already outed some information about its upcoming quad-core smartphone before the handset's official unveiling at this year's Mobile World Congress. With the event now in full swing, we

MWC 2012: Samsung Galaxy Beam With Pico Projector Just 12.5mm thick, the new Android Galaxy Beam smartphone includes a pico projector. Compact and rather singular looking in its final version, the Samsung Galaxy Beam, stands out here at

MWC 2012: Nokia 808 PureView Phone With 41 Megapixels ... Apparently Update February 29, 2012: Nokia has published technical documentation covering the 808 PureView, and contrary to our initial interpretation of their press conference and early reports, it really does have

MWC 2012: Sony (Re)Launches Xperia S, Adds P and U For Good Measure After being unveiled at the CES tech show Las Vegas, the Xperia S is now strutting its stuff at the Mobile World Congress. However, the Barcelona trade show is the

MWC 2012: Asus Padfone Smartphone, Tablet and Surprising Stylus After outlining the changes to its tablet range at the firm's MWC media event, Asus presented the many features of the Padfone, a new concept smartphone that slips into a

MWC 2012: Panasonic Eluga Phone In Pictures Announced just a few days ago, the Panasonic Eluga super-slim, waterproof, dustproof mobile is on show at this year's Mobile World Congress. Here are a few pictures of the handset

MWC 2012: Asus Transformer Pad, New Name, Expanded Range Asus was full of announcements this morning at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, with a press conference rich in Transformer transformations, including a new name for its range of tablets

HTC Unveils One X, S and V at Pre-MWC Event Like Sony Mobile Communications, HTC presented a new range of smartphones just a few hours before the Mobile World Congress 2012 opened its doors. This 'One' series of handsets is

ZTE Mimosa X: New Smartphone With All Nvidia Components After Huawei, the next big Chinese manufacturer to have a go at the smarpthone market is ZTE, whose new mobile, the Mimosa X, will have an Nvidia Tegra 2

LG Optimus L-Style: Three Android Smartphones, Three Screen Sizes LG promised it would be more present in the smartphone market in 2012, and here the firm is already unveiling a whole new range, the Optimus L-Style, comprising the L7,

Huawei Ascend D1 Q High-End Quad-Core Smartphone After unveiling the Ascend P1 and Ascend P1 S handsets at CES 2012, Huawei is now gearing up to present a high-end smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 in the Pipeline? With the 2012 Mobile World Congress just around the corner, rumours and slips of the pen have already got plenty of people talking. From the look of this guide to

Acer Iconia Tab A510 Arriving in Europe: Launching in France in March After catching a quick glimpse of the Iconia Tab A510 at CES 2012, Acer's latest Android 4.0 ICS tablet complete with Nvidia Tegra 3 processor has now been announced for

Acer Iconia Tab A200 Gets Ice Cream Sandwich Acer is already offering an Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4) update for its recently released Iconia Tab A200 tablet, initially shipped with Android Honeycomb (Android 3). Acer isn't wasting any

Acer to Present CloudMobile Smartphone Acer is gearing up to present a high-end cloud-enabled smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February. We're often told that cloud computing is the

LG Optimus Vu: Hybrid Smartphone with 5'' Screen The Samsung Galaxy Note clearly wasn't going to be the only 'big smartphone/mini tablet' on the market for long, and now it seems that the handset's first challenger could

MWC 2012: No Show for the Galaxy S III Samsung won't be showing off the Galaxy S III at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February. We already knew that Samsung would be making a

Samsung Galaxy S Advance: Coming Soon? The Samsung Galaxy S range is due to welcome yet another new smartphone, the Galaxy S Advance. This models is a mid-range handset that's less powerful than the

LG X3 Quad-Core Smartphone Coming Soon? A new generation of power-packed smartphones is due to be presented at the World Mobile Congress next month in Barcelona. LG will no doubt use that opportunity to

Nokia To Launch Lumia 910 In June With 12 Megapixel Camera? The Nokia Lumia 900 smartphone is set to go on sale in the US in March before arriving in the UK in June—which could leave it trailing the as yet

Fujitsu Arrows: Slim, Waterproof Android Smartphone At CES 2012, we spotted this rather surprising Fujitsu Arrows smartphone, an Android 2.3 handset just 6.7 mm thick and weighing 105 grammes. It has an OLED screen and a

HTC Primo: (Not So) Entry-Level Smartphone With one of the most important events in the mobile phone world just around the corner, HTC is apparently gearing up to present a budget smartphone with nothing to envy

Samsung To Announce 11.6 Inch, 2560 x 1600 Pixel Tablet? Samsung might use next year's Mobile World Congress to launch a new 11.6'' tablet with a 2560 x 1600 pixel screen running Android 4.0. Samsung Galaxy Tab

First Look: Our Sneak Peak at Panasonic's Smartphone Panasonic last week announced the upcoming launch of its first Android smartphone in Europe in March 2012. We've been lucky enough to see this intriguing model in the flesh, and

Asus Padfone: A Smartphone AND A Tablet Asus is set to confirm plans to launch its new product, the Padfone, at next February's Mobile World Congress after giving us a first glimpse at this spring's Computex show.