Mobile World Congress 2023: the 4 most exciting reveals, from Xiaomi AR smart glasses to world’s fastest-charging phone and Honor foldable
- The Mobile World Congress returned with devices such as Motorola’s rollable-display smartphone prototype and a Realme phone that charges in under 10 minutes
- The coolest devices at the Barcelona event also included a foldable phone from Chinese tech giant Honor, and Xiaomi’s augmented reality glasses concept
The annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show returned to Barcelona, Spain, this week in full swing, after being severely affected by measures to curb the Covid-19 pandemic for the past three years.
A slew of new electronic products were announced.
Here are the four most exciting devices introduced at the show.
Xiaomi Wireless AR Smart Glass Explorer Edition
The smart glasses are truly cutting-edge. They can map high-definition visuals onto the wearer’s field of vision, and are completely wireless.
The glasses can source from a host device, such as a smartphone, via Xiaomi’s proprietary connection technology that has a latency of just 50 milliseconds – low enough that most people won’t be able to perceive any lag between what they are doing on the host device and what they are seeing.
Motorola Rizr
Not sure about foldable displays? How about rollable displays? Motorola showed off a its Rizr concept device, which has a screen that augments its height via a roller mechanism.
At the press of a button, the display grows from 5 inches (127mm) to 6.5 inches.
While the concept is interesting, it seems further from becoming a reality than Xiaomi’s AR Smart Glass. The roller mechanism lacks robustness to judge by the demonstration models shown, and given that the extended display will probably be constantly exposed when the phone is in use, it looks pretty much impossible to employ in the real world without it sustaining damage.
Realme 240W fast charging solution
Introduced as a concept at last year’s show by Realme’s sister brand Oppo, this extremely fast charging solution is now reality, as a feature of the Realme GT3 smartphone.
The 240W charger brings the phone’s 4,600 mAh battery to full charge in just nine-and-a-half minutes.
Perhaps even more impressive than the time to full charge is the shorter burst charging. Realme reps say a 30-second charge will fill the battery enough for a two-hour call, or 40 minutes of video streaming.
The secret to the fast charging lies in Oppo’s proprietary “SuperVOOC” technology that prioritises current over voltage, and which it has licensed to Realme.
Honor Magic VS
Following months of testing, Honor’s large-screen foldable phone has finally been released for the global market. This is noteworthy because it ends Samsung’s monopoly of the foldable industry outside China.