One of our favorite trade shows is not simply because it takes place in Barcelona, a beautiful city, at a time that is appropriate for the seasons. (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. Here are the highlights.
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. HMD instead put its focus on budget Android phones over the past few years and its feature phone business. 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’ll be coming this summer, will obviously be pink, and is being touted as a digital detox device. 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 released a toolkit that developers can use to get started.
HMD also had a big focus on repairability—it expects half of its devices launched globally this year to be repairable. However, it claims to have a system this summer that significantly reduces the number of steps required to repair a cracked screen. Late last year, Motorola unveiled the Adaptive Display, a bendable concept phone, at Lenovo’s Tech World event. I got a chance to play around with it at MWC. It resembles the Razr folding phones in appearance and feel, but instead of a hinge that snaps the phone exactly in half, you can bend the whole thing backward. Most Popular
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It can rest on a table in this arched position, enabling two people sitting across from each other to use the screen. For example, two people can watch a movie together; I watched two people play a quick game of Connect 4. There’s also a magnetic band you can wear that the phone clips to—wrap the device over your wrist and now you have a smart bracelet (of sorts). The interface adapts to show information on the top part of the screen. It’s fun and wacky, but I have to admit it looks quite janky.
Last year’s concept phone from Motorola was Rizr, which had a screen that rolled up to extend the display size despite the small design—I dare say I’d rather it be put into production than the bendy thing.
