Mobile World Congress 2016: 5 Updates Not To Miss

A Quick Look at the Tech Making Headlines at Mobile World Congress 2016

We started the week with what was to expect from this year’s Mobile Wold Congress – Phones To Look For at World Mobile Congress 2016. A few days into Mobile World Congress 2016, lots of exciting announcements have been made, products introduced and images shared on social media. So, what does the future of mobile look like after all? Here are a few key updates from this year’s biggest mobile tech event.

Xiomi Westbound With Mi5

Selling over 70 million phones in a year may be an achievement for some, but Xiaomi is aiming higher with the ambition to reach into mature Western markets. They will be the primary destination of the company’s latest model: Mi5. With a 5.5 inch screen, 4GB of RAM + 128GB of internal storage and the all-powerful Snapdragon 820 SoC, designed under the watchful eye of former Google mobile chief Hugo Barra and priced at just a bit above $400, Xiaomi’s western ambition may well be justified. 

LG Stepping Into Modular

As we have mentioned in an earlier post, LG’s new model – the G5 – will feature a slot that would allow adding extensions to the phone. While still having a long way to go to the “intensity” of modular that Google’s Project Ara is promising – the G5 will still significantly expand a typical user’s options. Two extension units have been announced so far: a combo camera grip-battery pack and a 32bit DC audio player by Bang & Olufsen.

VR is Everywhere

VR is big at this year’s Mobile Congress – with Mark Zuckerberg himself pointing out that virtual reality could be social platform of the future. Here are the updates:

You will be able to get your virtual hands on the HTC Vive (through pre-order) as of February 29^th with the device hitting the hard reality of shop shelves in early April. Get your wallets out – ** comes at a price of $799.

Samsung offered all attendees their Gear headsets to view their press conference in virtual reality. Mark Zuckerberg stopped by just in time to appear in a photo that’s been haunting the social media ever since. Facebook’s Oculus helped develop the Gear VR and the CEO was there to talk about Facebook’s efforts in virtual reality.

LG will also be joining the VR race with a headset designed specifically for its G5 phone, while Alcatel went old school by giving out offering free Cardboard sets with their phones.

Huawei’s 4.5 G

While everyone is eagerly awaiting the arrival of 5G – which, let’s admit it, will probably take time, Huawei is offering the next best thing – 4.5G (3GPP LTE-Advanced Pro). A trial with an Australian network Optus put the peak download speed at 1.23Gb/s while Ericsson’s 5G trial boasted the throughput of 25Gb/s.

LG Rolling Bot

Last but not least. One of the funniest toys to play around with at this year’s Mobile World Congress was the Rolling Bot. Described as the “drunken, headless BB-8” (The Verge) and the gadget for freaking out pets (CNET), the mini gadgets does come with some nice functionality. It can monitor your home with its built-in 8MP camera, control a TV and talk to home appliances.