Gearing up for MWC 2019

Mobile World Congress is the premier smartphone and mobile technology showcase event of the year and it's set to start today. Expect no shortage of exciting reveals, ground-breaking tech and some new phones to fold the conservative smartphone design into pieces.

A couple of new smartphones have already made their mark on the event. Oppo's already made some noise at the event with their new phone. Oppo's new phone has an out of the world zoom feature, with 10x optical zoom on the main camera.

From one Chinese company to another, Xiaomi too has released the Mi 9 and other major phone manufacturers are expected to show off their latest and greatest products.

But if you've been following on since CES 2019, then you know that smartphone design and tech has been heading in very distinct directions for a while, that being, the foldable design and the implementation of 5G in smartphones.

One phone that we can all expect to see is Huawei's foldable 5G enabled phone. It's also been rumoured that LG will showcase their own foldable design at the event.

And speaking of 5G, CES 2019 gave us a little glimpse into what the technology can offer with Qualcomm and D-Link showing off new tech during the event.

The event will not only be a showcase of 5G and foldable phones. HMD Global have already said that they will unveil the new Nokia smartphone at the event, so perhaps it's going to be the Pureview 9 device? 

Alongside Nokia, expect unveilings from Vivo, Honor and Sony. Each company are set to take the stage during the course of the event. 

Apart from smartphone unveilings Microsoft and HTC are set to make big splashes at the event. It's been rumoured that Microsoft will be unveiling the Holo Lens 2 while HTC will be showing off the new Vive Focus Plus, their standalone VR headset.

The 3 day event is set to begin today at 2.30pm local time and will end on the 28th of February.  With the release of the Samsung S10 and all its 5G glory, more manufacturers will try to trump one another at the event.

And with so many devices already making headlines, even before the start of the event, it's a refreshing change of pace after two years of notched glass sandwiches. Keep an eye out for the next issue of Bytes for the full coverage and our picks for the best tech reveals all from MWC 2019.