Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs The annual phone fiesta known as Mobile World Congress is almost upon us once again, and it’s set to be one of the most exciting tech events of 2025.The mobile show runs March 3-6, and I’ll be on the ground in Barcelona with my colleagues Andrew Lanxon and Abrar Al-Heeti, checking out all the new product launches and zooming in on the breakthroughs that will define mobile tech through the next year and beyond. I’ve been attending and covering the show for 11 years, writing about everything from the very first demo of the HTC Vive headset to rescuing an old Nokia 3310 from a backstreet market on the same day HMD launched a 2017 update to the iconic phone.This year, we’ll be watching for Chinese phone makers such as Xiaomi and Oppo to dominate MWC. “This will be an extremely strong show for them, and we expect a very strong presence on the show floor,” says Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.Smaller players such as HMD and Nothing are also set to unveil new phones that we can’t wait to get our hands on, plus there’ll likely be some interesting wearables, including smartwatches and AR glasses, with bonus laptops and earbuds, too. We’re also expecting to see AI everywhere once again this year, mostly flavored by Google’s Gemini, with a sprinkle of interesting features from the phone makers on top. CNET’s own research suggests that many of you aren’t that impressed with the AI capabilities of smartphones so far. We’ll be on the lookout for use cases and features that we think will be genuinely exciting and transformative when it’s time for you to upgrade your phone.In the meantime, here’s what we expect to see.The phones
From talking fridges to iPhones, our experts are here to help make the world a little less complicated.
If there’s one phone we’re especially excited to check out at Mobile World Congress, it’s the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. The camera on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra blew us away last year — it made the phone stand out in a sea of otherwise similar high-end devices. The hype has been building around the launch of its successor, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, which we expect to see unveiled at MWC.Nothing’s design-driven approach to technology is always intriguing, and we’re excited to see what’s in store for its March 4 launch event. The Nothing Phone 3a and rumored 3a Pro will likely be the star(s) of the show, and could run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, which would mark a shift away from the company’s partnership with Mediatek.Phone (3a) Series. Power in perspective.4 March 10 AM GMT. pic.twitter.com/auesJycJQy— Nothing (@nothing) January 30, 2025
Nothing’s next flagship phone is also expected to arrive in 2025, but not until later in the year. The company launched its predecessor, the Nothing Phone 2, back in July 2023, so we’re expecting the two-year intervening period to result in some upgrades. It’s unlikely the Nothing Phone 3 will make an appearance at MWC, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for teasers of what to expect from the phone when it finally arrives.Samsung had its own major phone launch of the year ahead of MWC, but that doesn’t mean we’ve heard the last of the Galaxy S25. The Barcelona event is an opportunity for the company to showcase its new flagship series in Europe and potentially also give us a better look at the S25 Edge phone it teased at Unpacked in January.Other phone companies will be following suit, with devices including the Honor Magic7 Pro and the triple-screened, dual-fold Huawei Mate XT using MWC as a victory lap after earlier launches.
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See all photos The best of the restMWC has always been first and foremost about the phones, but “mobile” as a category embraces a slew of different products, from laptops to wearables.One of the most exciting products to make its full debut at MWC 2024 was the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Competition in this space is heating up, with companies including Oura and Ultrahuman offering exciting smart rings of their own. The show could be the perfect venue for new or established tech companies to enter the smart jewelry market.In 2024, we also saw the emergence of standalone AI devices including the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1. Both generated significant hype, but largely fell flat when the time came to test them. So is this emerging device category dead in the water (especially as we know Humane’s AI Pins will cease working soon)?”Never say never,” says Wood. “But I’m not expecting a lot of those devices because of the fact that the ones that were there previously have been spectacularly unsuccessful.”The capabilities of these devices have largely been subsumed into smartphones, thanks to improvements in Google’s Gemini and Samsung’s Galaxy AI, he adds. “The window of opportunity for those products has somewhat evaporated.” Watch this: Best of MWC 2024: Bendable Screens, AI Wearables and More
04:04 One area where there’s still room for growth is in spatial computing, by which we mean smart glasses. Phone maker Oppo could be one to watch in this space, and we could also see a number of smaller companies displaying their face-worn technology at MWC, too. These could be anything from glasses with built-in AI, microphones and cameras to glasses with a built-in digital display of some kind and Apple Vision Pro-style goggles.Over the years, we’ve seen dramatic growth in the number of automakers at tech shows — in particular CES. MWC hasn’t typically hosted cars to the same extent, although last year Xiaomi showcased an electric vehicle at the show. There’s nothing to say we shouldn’t expect to see more along those lines this year, especially with chipmaker Qualcomm present. The company is at the heart of integrating mobile connectivity into cars, with use cases ranging from infotainment to safety.It’s inevitable that we’ll also see a clutch of laptops, tablets and earbuds make an appearance at the show. Lenovo is our one to watch in this respect — in our estimation, it was the standout PC maker at the previous show, and we’re keen to see what it has in store this go-around.AI Here’s Gemini AI assistant running on the Pixel 9. James Martin/CNETAs was the case last year, we’re expecting AI to be everywhere at MWC — so you might be wondering what exactly is new for 2025.Until now, the most AI-packed phones have tended to be flagship models, but this year we should expect AI features in a wider range of devices, according to Wood. “What we’re going to see is AI capabilities moving down the price curve,” he says. That means AI in midrange phones and not just the fancier models. (Case in point: the new $599 iPhone 16E that Apple just unveiled.)With Apple perpetually absent from MWC, this show informally belongs to Google. We expect to see it everywhere, showcasing all of the latest capabilities Gemini has to offer while partnering with all of the phone makers in attendance. The question for these companies will be how they’re using AI to differentiate their products, when all of them have access to the same suite of Google features.Samsung’s Galaxy AI is a prime example of this, but at MWC we’re expecting to see a bold play from Honor as the company outlines its new “Alpha Plan.” As well as an overarching direction for the brand, this strategy involves creating an open and collaborative ecosystem of AI-powered devices.As I mentioned, it’s unlikely there’ll be more standalone AI devices, but rather a continuation of the trend of embedding AI into everything we already own. Chipmakers such as Qualcomm will be extolling the virtues of on-device AI, and hopefully providing some exciting demos to showcase how we might expect AI to genuinely change and improve our technology, if not this year, then in the near future.One of my favorite demos at last year’s MWC was a partnership between Qualcomm, Brain.AI and Deutsche Telekom, which showed how AI could potentially replace the app-based interface we all know and love. I’ll be looking out for similarly interesting ideas this year.
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