Day 2 at MWC and the product announcements keep on coming. So to help keep you up to date, CBR has compiled a list of the most interesting announcements.
1. Blackberry Leap
The new phone from Blackberry is another touch screen which may suggest that the company is giving up on the idea of a physical keyboard.
The Leap has a 5 inch screen which offers a 720p HD resolution and an 8 megapixel camera. It comes with built-in anti-malware protection and 16GB of storage.
The phone is solidly in the mid-market range but the company claims that the battery will last 25 hours under heavy use, which makes it a good choice for on the go users.
2. Xiaomi with a budget GoPro rival
The Yi Action Camera could be a genuine competitor to the GoPro with a price tag of around £40 and specs that are, in some regards, betters the GoPro Hero.
Built-in Wi-Fi, similar battery capacity and the same waterproof depth as the Hero are just the start for the product.
The Yi Action Camera can shoot photos at 16 megapixels and record 1080p video at 60fps, which bests the GoPro Hero which shoots at 5 megapixels and records 1080p video at 30fps.
The Xiaomi camera also weighs in lighter than the GoPro Hero at 72g, versus 111g for the Hero.
3. Lenovo Smartphones
The Lenovo A700 comes to the mid-range market with a 5.5 inch LCD display that delivers 720 resolution and 8GB of built in storage. Although the storage is small, a removable back reveals a microSD slot for upgrading the phone’s memory.
Also on offer is an 8 megapixel camera and a long lasting battery which, like the Blackberry phone, is said to last a full day even under heavy use.
The best quality of the phone though is the Dolby ATMOS audio enhancements which deliver surround sound and a widened listening experience.
Lenovo also released the Vibe Shot which looks strangely like a camera from the back.
The Vibe Shot has a 1080 resolution on a 5 inch LCD display and 32GB internal storage. But if that isn’t enough memory for you though, the memory can be expanded to 128GB with a microSD card.
Also on offer is a 16 megapixel rear facing camera and an 8 megapixel front facing camera.
4. An exoskeleton that allows you to control a robot
SK Telecom have been showcasing an exoskeleton suit that allows you to control a robot through 5G.
The main point isn’t really the robot but what 5G could allow you to do, but the idea of being able to control a robot is really quite fun.
The robot responds in real time by mimicking the movements of the exoskeleton wearer all of which is designed to showcase just one of the things that 5G could enable.
The potential for use of similar systems could see robots being controlled in high risk situations where it’d be too dangerous to send a person in.
5. Fujitsu’s iris scanner
Fujitsu has been showcasing a prototype smartphone, but that isn’t the story, the story is the iris scanner.
The iris scanner is a unique security measure that works by using an infrared camera to scan your iris so that the user doesn’t need to enter a password, pin or anything else.
Fujitsu say that the iris is more complex than the fingerprint so makes the security more complex and gets past issues of sweaty fingers and gloves.
The user would register their eye on the device and then be able to unlock the phone simply by looking at it. So no more having to enter your passcode every time it locks.
