As the dust settles over another Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, it's time to reflect on the best new gear previewed at the 2011 event. From LG's 3D tablet to Facebook's tie-in with HTC, it's been a show that, while predictable, has nevertheless thrown up tons of quality new phones and tablets to start saving the pennies for.
Tech Digest here pick, in no particular order, our ten favourite gadgets from the show.
One of the more daring tablet designs we saw this week at MWC 2011 was Acer's Tab W500 Windows slate.
Running Windows 7 , you'd expect the device to be a little less touch friendly than an Android equivalent, and you'd be right; Windows is still too clumsy an interface to comfortably use on a tablet, at least until they throw up a dedicated touch edition. Acer have got around this problem by including a rather smart docking system for the tablet, which offers a full size QWERTY keyboard and pointer nub, powered solely by the tablet's own battery.
In some senses it's an admission that the OS just shouldn't be squeezed into tablet devices, but business users will definitely appreciate the flexibility of the device, which folds away with the dock like a notebook, or can be as portable as a tablet.
Powered by an AMD C-50 processor with Radeon HD6250 graphics, it also features Acer's media ring, turned from a hardware feature of some of their previous laptops into a touch-sensitive UI control.
ViewSonic have rocked up at MWC 2011 with a very interesting handset in the shape of the V350.
While its initial specs seem pretty standard (3.5 inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen, Android 2.2, 5 MP still camera) it sets itself apart thanks to its dual-SIM card functionality.
This allows you (potentially) to run two SIMs from two different carriers, getting the benefits of calls and data from each different network, or to take advantage of roaming SIM cards alongside your regular home country SIM when abroad.
Now here's an interesting smartphone from the folks over at Acer. The above video features the Acer Iconia Smart, a media-orientated smartphone that pushes its cinematic credentials to the fore by boasting an unusual 21:9 screen ratio and Dolby Surround Sound tech. It basically means your getting the same superwide cinema experience on this handset as you would down your local Odeon, with no annoying black bars sitting at the top and bottom of the picture.
Elsewhere the specs hold up well to rival handset on show at MWC 2011 too. The edge-lit LED 1024 x 480 touchscreen measures up at an impressive 4.8 inches, with Acer's latest re-skinning of Android 2.3 as the UI. Processing speed is clocked at 1 GHz, while an 8MP camera sits on the rear and 2MP on for video calling lies on the front. It's a fairly slim phone too, measuring up at just 64.5mm thick.
Acer's main tablet on show at MWC 2011 is the Iconia A500 Tab, a 10.1 inch slate which will launch in the Spring with the Android Honeycomb OS (not the OS present in this video's demo model).
A dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 250 Cortex 19 processor runs the show, capable of full HD playback on the 1280 x 800 screen. A HDMI port lets you output video to a big screen TV, while a 5MP camera sits on the rear and a 2 MP camera for video calling lives on the front. Like many of Acer's devices, it'll feature the clear.fi syncing and sharing system, allowing you to send files quickly and wirelessly between other clear.fi compatible devices.
We go hands-on in this video, and get slightly baffled by the tablet's gesture-based bezel controls.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro is another new offering on show for the first time at MWC 2011. Much like the Neo we showed you earlier, the Xperia Pro has a 3.7 inch touchscreen with mobile Bravia Engine tech thrown in, as well as an 8.1 MP camera and 1GHz Qualcomm processor.
It sets itself apart by the inclusion of a full slide out QWERTY hardware keyboard, integral to the Xperia Pro's re-working of the Android UI as popping it out causes context sensitive screen options to appear. For instance, if you're checking an email with the keyboard tucked away, popping it back out will throw "reply", "forward" and "reply all" touchscreen options to appear.
The much-coveted and innumerably leaked Xperia Play phone has finally made its official debut here at MWC 2011. A touchscreen Android Gingerbread phone, it's the first to come with PlayStation certification thanks to it's slide-out hardware gaming controls.
Looking much like a PSP Go, the 4 inch touchscreen is powered by a 1GHz Scorpion Core with Adreno 205 Qualcomm graphics tech pushing the gaming aspects hard and fast. The controls will be familiar to and PlayStation owners (Cross, Triangle, Square, Circle, Start, Select, L1, R1 and two interesting touch sensitive analogue pad replacements), with the phone launching preloaded a handful of titles. A 5.1 MP camera also sits on the rear.
Keep in mind that those buttons are assignable too, so those who like a bit of emulator action on their Android phones will find the Xperia Play will (unofficially) suit their needs to a tee.
Officially revealed at Sony Ericsson's MWC 2011 conference after many rumours, Tech Digest got to play about with the Sony Ericsson Neo smartphone this morning.
Most closely resembling the Vivaz line, the Neo has a 3.7 inch touchscreen incorporating Sony's Bravia Engine, initially designed for use in their flatscreen HD TVs.
Android 2.3 is the OS of choice, with stripped-back Timescape features. An 8MP camera sits on the rear, with video and images able to be outputted over a HDMI connection. There's also a modest front facing camera for video calling.
Click the video above for a look at the handset in action.
As much a stonking smartphone as it is a tiny tablet, ViewSonic have launched the ViewPad 4 hybrid at MWC 2011 this week.
An angular Android handset that will launch with the latest Gingerbread build , it's a 4 inch touch number with 720p recording capabilities, a 5MP still camera, a gig of RAM and expandable storage options.
A nippy device, it flew through Android menus and had a nice responsive accelerometer. This'll be a great device for web browsing, whether you class it as a phone or tablet.
ViewSonic's James Coulson talks us through the device in this video.
Windows tablets have a bit of a bad rep from a consumer point of view, but it still remains the platform of choice for enterprise users. Trying to corner both market points at MWC 2011 are ViewSonic, who have launched their dual-OS ViewPad 10 Pro tablet.
Running both Windows 7 and Android, users can switch between both operating systems on the 10 inch tablet with just a tap of a soft-button, swapping between the two in just a few seconds.
It doesn't scrimp on specs under the hood either, with a 1.5 GHz Oak Trail processor powering the show, as well as 32GB of built in storage (expandable by a further 32 GB via microSD), a 1.3 MP front facing camera, full size USB ports and 1080p playback.
ViewSonic's James Coulson talks Tech Digest through the device in this video.
Google's outgoing chief executive Eric Schmidt used his keynote speech in Barcelona to have a dig at Nokia after being snubbed by the Finnish mobile giant in favour of a partnership with Microsoft.
During the talk, Schmidt revealed that Google had held "extensive" discussions with the firm about using its Android operating system, before Nokia announced it would opt for Windows Phone 7 instead.
"We would've loved if they would have chosen Android; they chose the other guys," Schmidt said. "I think we were pretty straightforward. We would like them to adopt Android at some point in the future; that offer remains open." "We think Android was a good choice for Nokia, and we're sorry they made a different choice," he added. Nokia plans to begin shipping Windows Phone 7 handsets this year but is unlikely to shift large volumes of Microsoft powered smartphones until 2012.
During an intriguing question and answer session, Schmidt batted away questions over Facebook and whether it was encroaching on Google's business.
Schmidt said that Google still looked upon Microsoft as its biggest competitor and that Facebook was "additive", with no evidence suggesting that the social network was cutting into his firm's ad revenue.
When asked if there were any truth to the rumours that Google and Facebook were looking into buying Twitter, Schmidt responded by saying simply, "We love Twitter, and I love to tweet."
The GSMA awards have been announced at Mobile World Congress, and showing that the GSMA remain impartial and good sports, they've announced Apple's iPhone 4 as the mobile phone of choice for the year.
This is despite the fact that the Cupertino-based firm repeatedly snub the show, preffering to reveal their devices at their own personal shows. It seems that the might of the Retina display and Apple's software tweaking in iOS 4 won the judges over, despite the phone's well documented signal issues, now comically known as "Antennagate".
Other big winners were HTC, who were awared the title "Manufacturer of the Year", and Roivo, whose Angry Birds game won both best overall app and best iOS app.
Honeycomb tablets will soon be getting a movie editing software suite, Google's Eric Schmidt has revealed at the company's MWC 2011 keynote.
Called Movie Studio, the app was shown running on a Xoom tablet, and appears to be tailored to larger devices rather than smartphones, as is the Honeycomb OS itself. All basic cutting and pasting controls look set for inclusion, as well as some more advanced controls to touch up the picture using filters and effects.
Being a Google app, integration with YouTube is a dead cert, which will handily coincide with the news that YouTube video upload speeds are to get a boost too.
We've seen a lot of great tablets at Mobile World Congress this week, but if we were going to put money on one to really rival the iPad this year in the slate stakes, we'd back the HP TouchPad.
Only announced last week, the TouchPad's use of Palm's webOS software looks sure to set it apart from the now-quite-crowded tablet market.
Under the hood of the 9.7 inch device is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.2 GHz processor, which, while not as impressive as the dual-core offerings currently doing the rounds, kept the pace well with intensive multi-tasking, Flash playback and 3D polygonal gaming.
While the hardware specs are little to right home about, it's the webOS software that is again wowing critics and casual gadgeteers alike. Excellent email and exchange support, allowing for multiple contacts and multiple simultaneous messages is superb, a re-sizable keyboard with number pad that can have a different scale independently for each application, aggregated photo libraries from online sources with built in commenting and friend features; as HP continue to stress, the software features are all about ease of use and convenience.
Take for instance the TouchStone integration between the new Pre 3 handset and the TouchPad; simply place the webOS smartphone on top of the new HP tablet and watch as they instantly sync and share web URL data across both devices. Lot's of smart little touches like this are littered throughout, and look set to finally give Apple some real competition, especially now the might of HP's coffers are behind the webOS platform.
Though we couldn't nab hands-on time with the device at MWC 2011 (it seems these are still very much work-in-progress tablets in terms of software, and so off-limits to everyones fingers but those of HP staff) we caught some footage of one of the public demos HP offered throughout the day.
We think webOS-powered smartphones are going to finally live up to the mobile operating system's early promise this year, and proving our point is the very impressive Pre 3.
HP have been beavering away at two webOS handsets since buying out Palm last year, and pick of the pair is the Pre 3. A portrait QWERTY-slider with a 3.6 inch touchscreen above, it's rocking a 1.4 GHz processor tucked away in a 64 x 16 x 111mm chassis.
Camera snapping is of the 5MP variety with 720p video recording capabilites too, but the real magic comes when pairing the phone with the recently announced HP TouchPad. Simply placing the phone on top of the tablet activates the proprietary TouchStone data sharing connection, allowing you to quickly and securely exchange web and URL data between the two devices.
We're a little bit in love. See why in the preview video above. Sadly, still no firmer pricing or release details than that initial Q2/Q3 information supplied earlie, but we'll keep you posted with the specifics.
HP have been pretty quiet since acquiring Palm, but last week they blew the doors wide open with three smoking-hot new devices. Each running webOS, the smallest of the trio is the HP Veer demoed in the video above.
With a portrait QWERTY slider form-factor, it's a tiny device, no longer than a credit card and little thicker than a poor-mans wallet.
The afore-mentioned webOS software is looking great, with an 800MHz processor allowing for responsive multitasking and impressive polygonal gaming.
Tech Digest get talked through the handset by HP's Porag, a gentleman among product experts.
Cast your mind back a couple of years and you may remember Sonim's tough-nut Land Rover handset.
Although primarily aimed at folks in the construction industry, the supposedly indestructible phone was also pitched towards clumsy types who have a habit of giving their mobile an accidental dive into the loo.
Their latest indestructible handset also looks likely to find favour beyond the building site, only this time with chatterboxes.
The XP3300 promises a ridiculous 20 to 24 hours of talk time, a figure that Sonim claim marks a record for mobile phones, and is good for over a month in standby.
With its decidely 20th century low-res colour screen, a 2MP camera, and an app site based around Java, it's a long way short of being the most cutting edge phone at MWC, but then there's not many out in Barcelona that can be submerged in 2 meters of water or withstand temperatures of between -4 and 131 Fahrenheit.
With 1.5mm Gorilla Glass covering the display, the housing of the device is reinforced with fiberglass and it can survive salt, fog, humidity, and thermal shock, while it can be dropped from seven metres onto concrete without the phone missing a beat.
No word on pricing, but you'll only have to wait to May if you want to put it to the test.
The mega-popular Desire handset from HTC also gets a revamp this year, as revealed this morning in Barcelona at MWC 2011. The sequel to the award winning handset has been given the Desire S moniker, and it again is looking mighty fine.
Android 2.3 is the OS of choice, with a 1GHz processor powering the 3.7 inch touchscreen. This time round you'll also get 1.1GB of built in storage space as well as microSD expandable space, with 768MB of RAM.
3G, GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity options sit next to a 5 MP camera in the spec stakes, while the phone overall is a touch smaller without cutting back on the screen size. Overall it feels a little tidier in the hand, thanks in part to a new single-body build.
Check out of first impressions in the video above.
Love HTC's Sense re-skinning of Android, but need a phone that wont bulge out of your trouser pockets in an inuendo-welcoming sort of way? Take a look at HTC's new Wildfire S handset then, just revealed this morning at MWC 2011.
Fitting snugly in the palm of your hand, it still manages to squeeze in a 3.2" touch screen and the latest version of HTC Sense. In terms of specs under the hood, you're looking at a 600MHz processor with both 512MB of ROM and RAM, 3G, HSPA and GPS connectivity, as well as Wi-FI, a G Sensor and a 5 MP camera.
Take a look at the video above for our first impressions.
The rumours surrounding a link-up between HTC and Facebook ahve proven true with the release of the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa handsets.
Relatively low spec Android models (the QWERTY packing ChaCha has a 600MHz processor and 2.6" touchscreen, while the Salsa is a bit more finger-friendly with a 3.4 inch screen and identical processing power) they are aimed at Facebook power users.
A dedicated Facebook button on the handsets fires up the app instantly, meaning it's now even quicker to document your drunken prat-falls on Facebook via a mobile. Both handsets also feature a 5MP camera, again making it easier to spread your gurning face all over the web.
Hit the video above for a quick look at the two new Facebook phones.
Honeycomb tablets will soon be getting a movie editing software suite, Google's Eric Schmidt has revealed at the company's MWC 2011 keynote.
From: Apple tease Galaxy Note owners with iPhone stylus patent application