Day 1 at MWC and the big news has been coming from Samsung and Huawei, with new smartphones and smart watches dominating. CBR compiles a list from the event on what consumers should have noticed.
1. Huawei Watch
The Huawei Watch, the company’s first foray into the smartwatch market, will deliver health tracking from a sleek looking Android powered device.
The fitness tracking elements of the watch include a heart rate monitor and a 6-axis motion sensor and barometer, which detects what sporting activity the wearer is doing.
The watch itself has a 1.4 inch AMOLED display with 4GB built in storage which is supported by 512mb of RAM.
2. Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge Smartphones
Samsung were expected to release two phones and they didn’t disappoint with the S6 and the S6 Edge.
The S6 can be seen as just an updated version of the previous version of the phone, while the S6 Edge offers an innovative new look. The non-standard S6 Edge model (two versions are available) boasts a curved screen – the feature that everyone is talking about at MWC.
Both phones have a 5.1 inch quad-HD AMOLED display that offer exceptional visuals delivered by the octa-core Exynos processors that have been produced by using the 14nm manufacturing process.
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Along with the phones Samsung are offering Samsung Pay, a mobile payment system. The company were keen to stress that card data will neither be stored on the device or with Samsung.
3. Huawei TalkBand Wearable
Huawei want to offer more than a new smartwatch and so are releasing the TalkBand N1 and TalkBand B2 wearables.
The TalkBand B2 is a fitness tracker but also a Bluetooth headset which you can operate on either Android or iOS devices.
At first it appears odd that a wrist worn wearable can also operate as a Bluetooth headset, but it simply works by disconnecting the headset part from the wearable. Once in your ear, the wrist segment can push connections to the earpiece.
The TalkBand N1 is a set of headphones, but they are so much more than just headphones. The headphones offer Bluetooth connectivity, health tracking abilities and 4GB of built in storage.
Integrated movement sensors will track users’ steps, distance covered and calorie counting which can then be seen through synching to Huawei’s fitness tracking app.
4. Microsoft Lumia 640 & 640 XL Smartphones
Microsoft made some of the first announcements of the conference with two new Lumia phones, the 640 and 640 XL, which are set for release next month.
Both phones come with a one year subscription to Office 365, which the user can install on a laptop or PC. The screen resolution on offer for the 640 isn’t the best at 720 x 1280, but it is likely to be adequate for most users and with price tags expected to be below £200 – you get what you pay for.
The 640 XL offers a 5.7 inch screen, but featuring the same resolution as the smaller version has a notably negative affect on the image quality. However, with a low price expected, the 640 XL is being aimed at the mid-market range.
5. Sony M4 Aqua Smartphone & Xperia Z4 Tablet
Sony’s big releases were the new M4 Aqua smartphone and the new and improved Xperia Z4 tablet.
Sony’s M4 Aqua is, as the name may suggest, water resistant. But that isn’t all it offers, as it comes with a 12 megapixel rear camera and built in memory of either 8GB or 16GB, which can be upgraded with a microSD card.
The phone is powered by a 64-bit octa-core processor and has a 5 inch HD display, which has been priced at around £200 for a release date in spring.
The Xperia Z4 tablet builds on the success of the Z2 by offering many similar features but with some key upgrades.
Now running on Android 5 Lollipop the tablet has an upgraded core, increased memory and a pair of quad-core processors. All of that and improved screen resolution makes this a soon to be big player in the tablet market.
Users will be pleased to know that all these improvements haven’t added weight, in fact the tablet will actually be lighter and thinner than the previous version.
