All of the Prime New Devices at MWC 2024

Cellular World Congress—or simply MWC—isn’t one among our favourite commerce exhibits simply because it’s located within the stunning metropolis of Barcelona throughout a seasonally acceptable time of 12 months. (Low cost cava and tapas don’t have something to do with it both.) No, this present is a favourite as a result of it’s one of many best to navigate, and there’s all the time loads of attention-grabbing, enjoyable, or simply plain loopy tech to scavenge via.

This 12 months, such bounty consists of clear laptops, bendable telephones, a Barbie flip telephone, and extra. Listed below are the highlights.

Particular supply for Gear readers: Get WIRED for simply $5 ($25 off). This consists of limitless entry to WIRED.com, full Gear protection, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions assist fund the work we do each day.

In case you purchase one thing utilizing hyperlinks in our tales, we could earn a fee. This helps help our journalism. Be taught extra.

HMD Rebrands (Type of) and Teases a Barbie Cellphone

HMD was imagined to be the rebirth of Nokia telephones again when it made a splash at MWC 2017, but it surely wasn’t lengthy earlier than the corporate misplaced steam and it was clear that the Nokia model identify wouldn’t actually compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple anymore. HMD as an alternative put its deal with finances Android telephones over the previous few years and its characteristic telephone enterprise. At MWC, it introduced that 2023 was the corporate’s first worthwhile 12 months, and now it’s attempting to vary issues up with a rebrand. First is the identify—it’s leaning extra on “Human Cellular Gadgets” (the total model of its acronym) as an alternative of HMD. This 12 months’s lineup of gadgets will embody an HMD telephone, an iconic Nokia telephone, plus a Barbie flip telephone.

Yep, you heard that proper. HMD is collaborating with Mattel to launch a Barbie characteristic flip telephone. It’ll be coming this summer time, will clearly be pink, and is being touted as a digital detox machine. That’s all we all know. The one footage of all of the teased telephones had been pixelated.

What we do find out about HMD’s different telephone is that it’s going to revolve round a system referred to as HMD Fusion. Much like Motorola’s Moto Mods or Google’s long-lost Mission Ara, it seems like a system of modular elements that builders can construct for the smartphone, from an prolonged battery and a barcode scanner to a cost terminal to medical gear. It launched a toolkit that builders can use to get began.

HMD additionally had an enormous deal with repairability—it expects half of its gadgets launched globally this 12 months to be repairable. However this summer time, it says it’ll have a system that dramatically reduces the variety of steps it takes to repair a cracked display.

Motorola Bends a Cellphone, and Debuts Sensible Join

Late final 12 months at Lenovo’s Tech World occasion, Motorola unveiled a bendable idea telephone referred to as the Adaptive Show. I acquired an opportunity to mess around with it at MWC. It seems and appears like its Razr folding telephones, besides as an alternative of getting a hinge that snaps the telephone closed exactly in half, you’ll be able to bend the entire thing backward.