Best Smartphones at MWC

MWC Smartphones

Even though HTC was crowned king there are plenty of choices

At the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Spain there are many phones of interest. Many contenders fight for high-valued attention at one of the largest consumer electronics exhibitions in the world. Among these brands are some classics, as well as some new members to the game. New phones were released and shown-off this year and almost all of these come with top of the line specs. Brands include LG, HTC, Huawei, Sony, Asus, ZTE, Motorola, and Nokia.

HTC made a stellar appearance with their new HTC One phone, boasting some of the best specifications, technology, and features available on the market today. This phone is a follow-up to the HTC One line which failed specifically to overtake Samsung's Galaxy S3 last year. The company's fate rests in this phone releasing internationally in early March (most likely the 7th) and in the U.S. in late March (most likely the 22nd). The company has lately spiraled into chaos. Their market share has decreased exponentially however if the company plays their cards right they will be able to reestablish the HTC empire of early Android. The phone has received rave reviews so far and really is a crowd pleaser with its full aluminum chassis and 1080p display. On the software side of things, HTC Sense appears to have gone in an entirely different direction. Sense 5.0 is much simpler, but it definitely is fare from stock Android. Some people will love it and some will hate it just like any OEM skin.

LG made quite the entrance with its much anticipated LG Optimus G Pro. The phone is designed as a challenger to the popular Galaxy Note series from Samsung. It boasts a 5.5-inch, 1080p Super IPS LCD panel, the same quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor as the HTC One, a 13-megapixel camera, and a monstrous replaceable 3,140mAh battery. When it comes to software LG included some new goodies to improve brand reputability. LG's QSlide UI layer lets you run several apps at once, and even drag them around the screen in small windows.You can also adjust the transparency of these windows as you multitask. LG is working hard to comeback into the world of smartphones and they are doing a great job of trying to make a new name and face for the company in the Android realm of things.

 
Chinese brand Huawei made a name for itself this year at MWC with its new phone the Ascend P2. Though it only sports a 720p LCD display don't count it out of the fight in 2013. It is one of the fastest 4G phones that will be available in 2013. The Ascend P2 features a 4.7-inch, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a 13-megapixel camera, a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, and a sleek, 8.4mm-thin body. On the inside is LTE Cat 4 support for download speeds of 150Mbps, plus NFC support, and a big 2,420mAh battery. It definitely the best phone that Huawei has ever produced. Huawei has claimed that it is the "world's fastest smartphone". No one is sure of this but its LTE Cat 4 support should make its 4G the fastest currently available. The validity of Huawei's claim should be put to the test soon after its release.

 

Sony made a scene with their new life-proof phone, the Sony Xperia Z. The phone is 146g and IP57 certified. This means that it is dust proof and water proof up to 3 feet for up to 30 minutes. Running Android 4.1.2 (with a 4.2 upgrade scheduled for later, of course) on a Qualcomm 1.5Ghz processor this thing is plenty fast. It has a primary camera that is 13.1MP that shoots 1080p video and a 2.2 MP secondary camera that also shoots in 1080p@30fps. Packed with 16GB of storage (expandable with up to 32GB on micro SD) with 2GB of onboard RAM this thing should last a while before it fills. Its display is 1080 x 1920 pixels and 5.0 inches with an approximate 441 ppi pixel density. Granted it isn't as good as the HTC One in this regard it is still better than any thing else currently available. It is currently going through the deployment process.


Nokia released several new phones at MWC this year. Most of these are mid-to-low range phones. The company has placed its trust in the Windows 8 OS and is quite successful in its pursuit of making high quality Windows phones. The company unveiled the Nokia 105, the 301, the 520, and the 720. The company is known for having one of the best cameras in the smartphone market with exceptional detail and excellent low-light performance. They also unveiled a new NFC like feature based upon Bluetooth without pairing devices. They announced camera upgrades as well as manufacturer specific OS bonuses.

Many other high class phones have been revealed including the RAZR HD the successor to the RAZR. Underneath the 4.7-inch Super AMOLED 720p display lightning fast web access on the move with great 4G support and the latest edition of Jelly Bean. Motorola is known for their great battery life and says the battery will survive an entire day on a single charge and a special Smartactions’ function will help boost battery by lowering screen brightness and switching off apps to conserve power. Just 8.4mm thin, the latest RAZR also boasts an 8-megapixel camera that can shoot HD video and there's also a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera.

What's your favorite phone from MWC? What phones are you looking forward to for the rest of 2013?