The Mobile World Congress has returned to its full glory in 2023, with thousands of attendees and brands participating in one of the largest tech fairs in the world. The event officially commenced today, February 27, and will continue until March 2. The first day of the event is typically the busiest, as brands compete to unveil their most significant products and technological advancements on the opening day.
As expected, the first day of MWC 2023 was packed with activity, with numerous announcements from high-profile brands such as Huawei, Honor, Oppo, OnePlus, Lenovo, and others. Given the vast number of products showcased at the event, let’s quickly review the standout product announcements made on the first day of the event.
Here are the Best Products & Announcements of MWC 2023
Lenovo’s Rollable Concept Smartphone & Laptop
MWC 2023’s first day kicked off with two interesting products on display – the Rollable Concept laptop and the Moto Rizr rollable smartphone.
As foldable smartphones and even laptops are gaining popularity, Lenovo’s take on a rollable form factor looks a lot more promising. Both the smartphone and the laptop can extend their screen size to suit your requirement, with a single push of a button. While the Rizr looks very interesting and some might even prefer it over a traditional foldable, the rollable laptop concept looks a lot more viable.
The rollable laptop comes with a standard 12.7-inch display with a 4:3 aspect ratio in its default mode. However, with the push of a button, a pair of internal motors smoothly extend the screen from beneath the laptop’s keyboard to an almost square 15.3-inch display with an 8:9 aspect ratio, providing a significantly larger viewing area.
Here are more details on the Rollable Rizr Smartphone and Lenovo’s Concept Laptop.
LiFi – The next evolution in Wireless Connectivity?
Li-Fi or Light Fidelity is a wireless technology that utilizes light to transmit data between two devices. The technology employs light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to send data at high speeds over the visible light spectrum. It comes with several advantages over Wi-Fi, such as faster speeds and even better security. However, it requires a direct line of sight between the transmitter and receiver, limiting its implementation.
That said, Li-Fi may go mainstream as smartphones could soon add Li-Fi as another wireless communication technology. This is made possible by pureLiFi’s Light Antenna One, a first-of-its-kind wireless communications antenna, that implements this technology on smartphones and other connected devices at a large scale. The device is compliant with the forthcoming IEEE 802.11bb standard, so manufacturers can seamlessly integrate LiFi with existing 802.11 Wi-Fi networking equipment and the billions of devices that currently use 802.11 Wi-Fi chipsets annually.
More details on pureLiFi Antennas are here.
Satellite Comms Go Mainstream on Phones, Thanks to Qualcomm
Satellite communication is the new buzz in the smartphone industry with major players like Apple, Samsung, and even Huawei (rumored) integrating this technology into their smartphones and devices. However, Qualcomm is making satellite communications more accessible to smartphone manufacturers by integrating this feature into multiple RF modems and its 8 and 4 series of processors for smartphones. The company has partnered with the satellite service provider Iridium to bring two-way texting and more emergency satellite communication options to smartphones.
So if you were feeling left out by the announcements from Apple and Samsung, fret not as Qualcomm confirms most major manufacturers like Xiaomi, Vivo, Motorola, Oppo, Honor, and Nothing are going to bring satellite communication to their smartphones in the near future. Unfortunately, we don’t have a timeline yet on when it will be available on these manufacturer devices.
It is worth noting that MediaTek is also bringing a similar feature (in partnership with Bullitt).
You can read more about Qualcomm’s announcement about Satellite Communication technology here.
OnePlus 11 Concept Gets Glowing Liquid Cooling
OnePlus’ awaited OnePlus 11 Concept smartphone was officially unveiled today and the wait was fairly justified because it brings a glowing liquid active cooling technology called Active CryoFlux. The OnePlus 11 concept can bring the thermals down during gameplay by up to 2.1℃ and during charging by around 1.6℃. OnePlus claims this technology can increase the frame rate by up to 3 to 4 fps and reduces the charging time by around 30 to 45 seconds.
Along with the smartphone, OnePlus showcased an even more interesting gadget – a 45W Liquid Cooling Accessory that can reduce phone temperature by up to an impressive 20℃.
More information on OnePlus 11 Concept here and the OnePlus 45W Liquid Cooling accessory here.
Tecno Has A Color Changing Chameleon Smartphone
Tecno’s love for color-changing smartphones isn’t new. Last year we saw the Tecno Mondrian edition with unique color-changing technology. At MWC 2023, it takes things to another level with its Chameleon Color Changing Smartphone concept.
The smartphone allows you to manually select from a total of 1600 different colors using the device software, or it can be set to vary automatically based on the battery level, music, or notifications. The material can change its color in just 0.03 seconds and also utilizes very little energy; around 100 changes throughout the day will use energy equivalent to watching a 5-minute video.
You can read more about Tecno’s color-changing technology from our story here.
Two New Foldables – Honor Magic Vs & Tecno Phantom V Fold
MWC 2023 saw two new foldable launches.
Honor announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 powered Honor Magic Vs Fold, featuring a 6.45-inch external OLED 120Hz display and a 7.9-inch large 90Hz unfolded OLED screen. The Magic Vs will start at EUR 1599.
On the other hand, the Tecno Phantom V Fold is powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 9000+ processor and has an ultra-clear 5-lens photography system featuring a 50-megapixel main camera and a super light-sensitive custom sensor. However, no more details are available about the device.
While Tecno has not shared any details about a potential launch of its foldable, it’s good to see more brands enter this market.
More details about the Honor Magic Vs here and Tecno Phantom V Fold here.
These were some of the most interesting announcements on the first day at MWC 2023. But if you want to check out all the announcements from the event today, like the Lenovo Laptop updates, Google’s new Android features, or even Xiaomi’s 13 series launches – head over to our MWC 2023 page.
