MWC—isn’t one of our favorite trade shows just because it’s situated in the beautiful city of Barcelona during a seasonally appropriate time of year. (Cheap cava and tapas don’t have anything to do with it either.) No, this show is a favorite because it’s one of the easiest to navigate, and there’s always plenty of interesting, fun, or just plain crazy tech to scavenge through.
This year, such bounty includes transparent laptops, bendable phones, a Barbie flip phone, and more. The best parts are listed here. Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off) with a special offer just for Gear readers. This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.HMD was supposed to be the rebirth of Nokia phones back when it made a splash at MWC 2017, but it wasn’t long before the company lost steam and it was clear that the Nokia brand name wouldn’t really compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple anymore. Over the past few years, HMD, on the other hand, has concentrated on its feature phone business and budget Android phones. At MWC, it announced that 2023 was the company’s first profitable year, and now it’s trying to change things up with a rebrand. First is the name—it’s leaning more on “Human Mobile Devices” (the full version of its acronym) instead of HMD. This year’s lineup of devices will include an HMD phone, an iconic Nokia phone, plus a Barbie flip phone.
Yes, you read that correctly. HMD is collaborating with Mattel to launch a Barbie feature flip phone. It is being touted as a digital detox device, will be available this summer, and will undoubtedly be pink. That’s all we know. The only pictures of all the teased phones were pixelated.
What we do know about HMD’s other phone is that it will revolve around a system called HMD Fusion. Similar to Motorola’s Moto Mods or Google’s long-lost Project Ara, it sounds like a system of modular components that developers can build for the smartphone, from an extended battery and a barcode scanner to a payment terminal to medical equipment. It made available a starter toolkit for developers. HMD also had a big focus on repairability—it expects half of its devices launched globally this year to be repairable. However, it claims that by the summer, it will have a system that drastically simplifies the process of repairing a cracked screen.
