MWC 2017: Here is what's awaiting you

While the CES 2017 did not pay much attention to smartphones, all eyes are now focussed towards the announcements at the year’s major mobile event that will take place in Barcelona, Spain between February 27 and March 2.

The World Mobile Congress (MWC) 2017 will commence next week and the four days will see major announcements from top technology brands from around the world. However, the tech world is eagerly waiting for smartphone giants to showcase their products and future plans, especially with smartphone enthusiasts waiting to see their next flagship smartphone powerhouses. Top brands including Samsung, LG, Nokia, Sony, and a few others are expected to show off their power in the smartphone race.

Smartphone giants don’t seem to show any slowdown, but are constantly trying to up their benchmarks with features, performance and designs. Let’s look at what we should expect from the smartphone giants at the MWC this year.

Samsung: While Samsung does not have plans for announcing their flagship Galaxy S8 at the Barcelona event, the Korean giant will be showing off their next Galaxy tablet, the Tab S3. Invitations were out a few weeks ago and the company will announce its 9.6-inch 2K display tablet, powered by the Snapdragon 820. However, the rumour mill still expects Samsung to talk about the Galaxy S8 — probably a glimpse of the new flagship, and also possible plans and display of the foldable phones expected ahead this year.

LG: While most of the information is already out there, there does not seem to be any more secrets lying low. LG will be showcasing their next flagship G6 at the MWC and all are eagerly waiting to see if the rumour mills have been revealing till date are finally true. The G6 is expected to eliminate the modular design and LG is said to be focussing on an edge-to-edge display this time. Read more.

Nokia: The comeback by the old and faithful handset seems to be the major highlight too. The Finnish company HMD, who has brought back Nokia, is expecting to unveil two new devices — the Nokia 5 and Nokia 3, after the unveiling of the Nokia 6 at the CES last month. Also expected is the comeback of the old, faithful Nokia 3310, in a revamped version and a flagship Nokia 8 with a 2K display and a massive 24MP camera. Read more.

HTC: Earlier, HTC did confirm to the media that we should not be expecting any Snapdragon 835-based handset at the MWC. However, a new entrant into the HTC U-series is on the plates this week, HTC will probably announce the HTC One X at the MWC and probably also announce some more details in the Vive VR department. Read more.

Lenovo/Motorola: Lenovo is expected to put on a big show again at the MWC this year. On the horizon, we are possibly going to spot the Moto G5 and G5 plus, which aims towards a budget price with high-end specifications. However, there does not seem to be any flagship from Motorola this year, but probably we could be in for a huge surprise. Read more.

Sony: The big brand in the smartphone name that is slowly being phased out, Sony seems to be cooking something different this time. While online leaks have pointed out the Xperia X2 showcasing, we are also hearing of a possible IoT device this time being shown off. Read more.

BlackBerry: TCL is scheduled to announce their next BlackBerry smartphone, dubbed ‘Mercury,’ at the MWC next week— the new device is said to be its first in-house device. Read more.

Huawei: The Chinese tech giant has already informed about the P10 at the MWC. However, there isn’t much information about the device, but we could expect the newcomer to have the company’s own processor up against the SoC giants this time. Read more.

OPPO: While the brand is not as famous internationally, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is definitely turning heads in its home town. OPPO seems to be playing big this time and their recent teaser points out to a new smartphone with an advanced camera technology — the 5x project. OPPO has been concentrating more on their phone’s camera performance lately — their recent release was a smartphone with a massive 16MP selfie camera! Read more.

ZTE: After failing to keep Hawkeye (the crowd-sourced project) up high, ZTE seems to heading on a different route. The company has planned to launch the next-gen Gigabit Phone at the event. The new device will focus on a 5G-ready network and is also rumoured to show some big features — 360-degree VR along with 4K video capabilities. An earlier online leak also pointed out that ZTE will be announcing a new Android Wear 2.0-based ‘Quartz’ smartwatch. Read more.

Others: This time, Xiaomi has backed out from the MWC. Last year, they announced their flagship Mi 5 at the MWC, but this time, after losing their global face to the social giant, Xiaomi seems to be quiet. We did expect them to announce their new in-house developed Pinecone chipset at the MWC, or even the Mi Mix successor; however, online rumours state that they will announce it separately in another event back home. OnePlus and LeEco haven’t made any official announcements of their presence at the MWC, but we could see some surprises, nevertheless. While Apple was definitely being part of the MWC with leaks about their exhibitor position in the news; however, shortly after that, Apple seems to have pulled out from the event completely. It seems like there could be a surprise, or Apple will take its announcements for the WWDC later this year. Google and Apple are expected announce their flagships only in Q3 2017. Read more.