Weekly Roundup: Samsung Galaxy S9 / S9+, Sony Xperia XZ2 / XZ2 Compact, Nokia 7 Plus, 8110 4G and more from MWC 2018


This week at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 Samsung, Sony, HMD Global, ASUS and others introduced their smartphones. Motorola, HTC and Xiaomi did not announced anything new as rumored earlier. Check out all the new announcement from the MWC this year.

Samsung announced Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ smartphones with variable aperture cameras. The S9 has a 12-megapixel rear camera with variable aperture tech that uses f/1.5 aperture for night shots for a brighter picture and f/2.4 aperture for normal shots in daytime. The S9+ has a secondary 12MP Telephoto lens for live focus for bokeh effect with background blur.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ come in Midnight Black, Titanium Gray, Coral Blue and Lilac Purple colors  These will be available starting in March 16, 2018. Samsung has already started pre-bookings for the phone in India and it will launch on March 6th.

HMD Global introduced Nokia 7 PlusNokia 1Nokia 8110, New Nokia 6 and Nokia 8 Sirocco.

The Nokia 8110 is the company’s first 4G VoLTE feature phone with a 2.4-inch curved glass display and a keypad.  It is priced at €79 ($98 or Rs. 6,340 approx.) and will be available from May. Check out the hands-on impressions here.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco and is also an Android One variant. While the core specifications remain almost same, there are few additions on board like the glass body for wireless charging support, rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and a 5.5-inch Quad HD pOLED display.

It comes in Black and will be available in April priced at 749 euros ($920 or Rs. 59,533 approx.).

The Nokia 1 is an Android Oreo (Go Edition) phone sports a 4.5-inches display, MediaTek MT6737M Quad-Core processor, 1GB RAM and has supports Xpress-on interchangeable polycarbonate covers.

It comes in Warm Red and Dark Blue colors, is priced at $85 (Rs. 5500 approx) and will be available from April. The Xpress-on covers are sold separately which will be available from $7.99 in Azure, Grey, Yellow, and Pink.

 

The new Nokia 6 smartphone for global markets is an Android One smartphone. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, is powered by Snapdragon 630 Mobile platform, runs on Android 8.0 (Oreo), has a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, ZEISS optics and a 8-megapixel front-facing camera. It comes in Black / Copper, White / Iron and Blue / Gold colors, starts at 249 Euros (US$ 306 / Rs. 19810 approx.) and will roll out from early April.

Sony introduced  Xperia XZ2 and is smaller version Xperia XZ2 Compact, both with Full HD+ 18:9 HDR screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform, Android 8.0 (Oreo),  19-megapixel Motion Eye camera with 1/ 2.3″ Exmor RS memory stacked sensor, 960 fps super slow motion videos (FHD/HD) along with 4K HDR Movie recording and also offers ISO sensitivity 51200 for photos and ISO 12800 for video.

The XZ2 Compact has an anti-scratch polycarbonate body while the XZ2 comes with a 3D glass body. The XZ2 comes in Liquid Black, Liquid Silver, Deep Green and Ash Pink colors while the XZ2 Compact comes in Black, White Silver, Moss Green and Coral Pink colors. Both will roll out starting this March.

ASUS introduced new Zenfone 5 and Zenfone 5Z  with 6.2-inch Full HD+ 19:9 Super IPS display with notch design and 90% screen-to-body ratio and the  Zenfone 5 Lite with 6-inch Full HD+ display with 1.79mm slim bezel and 80.3% screen-to-body ratio.

The Zenfone 5 has a 12-megapixel rear camera with support for OIS, Sony IMX363 sensor and 0.03s Dual-pixel PDAF along with AI scene detection and a secondary 8-megapixel rear camera with 120-degree wide-angle lens for portrait shots and shoot images with wider view.

The 5 Lite has a 16MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture, 0.03-second PDAF, LED flash along with a secondary 120-degree wide-angle camera.  It also has a 20-megapixel front-facing camera with Sony IMX376 sensor, f/2.0 aperture and soft LED flash along with ASUS SelfieMaster technology for smart beautification in selfies, videos and live streams. There is also a secondary 120-degree wide-angle camera. It also has 3-axis electronic image stabilization for both front and rear cameras.

The Asus Zenfone 5 and 5Z come in Midnight Blue and Meteor Silver colors. The Zenfone 5 will be available in April. The 5Z starts at 479 Euros (US$ / Rs. 38179 approx.) and will roll out from June. The Zenfone 5 Lite comes in Midnight Black, Rouge Red and Moonlight White colors and will roll out from this March.

LG announced V30S ThinQ , the company’s first ThinQ mobile device with integrated AI features ahead of MWC 2018 next week. Apart from the A.I features, it has similar specifications of the V30, but this has 6GB RAM and comes in 128GB (V30S ThinQ) and 256GB storage (V30S+ ThinQ) variants.

ZTE has officially announced Blade V9, the latest smartphone in the Blade series. It has a 5.7-inch FHD+ 18:9 display with 83.6% screen-to-body ratio, Snapdragon 450 SoC with up to 4GB RAM, Android Oreo and has a glass back which is reflective, fingerprint sensor on the back and packs a 3200mAh battery.

It also introduced Temp Go Android Oreo (Go edition) smartphone with a 5-inch FWVGA display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 SoC and 1GB RAM. It comes in the grey model and is priced at $79.99 (Rs. 5177 approx.).

Lenovo_Yoga_730

Lenovo at the MWC 2018 introduced the new Yoga 730; the 13-inch and 15-inch variants, and Yoga 530 2-in-1 Laptops. These come with Alexa voice support and powered by the latest 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processors.

Lenovo 300e

Lenovo announced the availability of 100e, 300e, and 500e Chromebooks for Education.  The 500e is priced at $309 (Rs. 20,050 approx.), and the 300e is $269 (Rs.17,455 approx.). Finally, the 100e is priced at $219 (Rs. 14,209 approx.) and will ship in March. All the three models will be available in the US, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Brazil, and Australia through partners.

Huawei announced MediaPad M5 series 10.8″ and 8.4″ with 10.8-inch and 8.4-inch versions with WQXGA (2560 x 1600 pixels) 2.5D curved glass displays, Kirin 960, Android 8.0 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.0, metal unibody design and a fingerprint sensor on the home button. It starts at 349 Euros for the base 8.4-inch WiFi version and goes up to 599 Euros for the MediaPad M5 10.8″ Pro 4G 128GB with M-Pen Stylus.

Huawei_Matebook_X_Pro

It also introduced MateBook X Pro Windows 10 laptop with a  13.9-inches 3K LTPS display, and it is the first Huawei’s notebook with FullView design and a 91% screen-to-body ratio. It is powered by the 8th gen Intel Core processors, metal body design, and the 10-point touchscreen display. It comes in Mystic Silver and Space Grey colors and starts at 1499 Euros.

TCL detailed the specifications of the Alcatel 1X1CAlcatel 33X3V and Alcatel 5 phones along with the price and also introduced the first Android Oreo (Go edition) smartphone Alcatel 1X, ahead of MWC 2018 next week. All the phones have 18:9 displays, expect for the Alcatel 1X Go Edition, other 1X variants and 3 and 5 series have a fingerprint sensor on the back and Face Key face unlock.

It also introduced new 1T series of tablets. Both these run Android 8.1 Oreo and feature Kids Mode, a dedicated mode that comes with pre-loaded applications and content, such as games, kid’s camera, and drawing app and also has built-in parental control interface to set usage limits. It also has Eye Care mode, which is designed to reduce blue light in order to relieve visual fatigue. It also introduced LINKZONE CAT12 and LINKZONE CAT7 LTE mobile broadband devices.


Author: Srivatsan Sridhar

Srivatsan Sridhar is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast who is passionate about Mobile phones and Mobile apps. He uses the phones he reviews as his main phone. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram