It’s that time of the year: Mobile World Congress 2022 (shortened to MWC) is here, ready to bring us boat-loads of new gadgets from all the world’s biggest tech companies.
Day 1 of MWC 2022 has wrapped up, though we saw lots of launches yesterday too from Samsung, TCL, Huawei and HMD Global. The event technically kicks off on Feb 28 and runs to March 3, though lots of brands jump the gun.
MWC is an annual tech event which generally takes place in late-February, though we haven’t seen a proper one since 2019 thanks to the pandemic. It takes place in Barcelona, Spain, and it’s one of the biggest events in the calendar for fans of tech and smartphones.
As well as lots of consumer tech launches, MWC is big event for tech business and infrastructure, and our sister-site TechRadar Pro, which focuses on these areas, has their own MWC 2022 live blog here.
TechRadar has roving reporters on the ground in Barcelona, as well as lots of expert journalists covering the event from afar. So expect a week of news, hands-on reviews, analyses and event coverage from loads of brands including Xiaomi, Samsung, Realme, Huawei, OnePlus, Oppo, Honor and more.
With this live blog, we’ll bring you all the big news as it happens, so it can be your one-stop-shop for all the important details to come from the event.
Refresh
So now it’s time to start wrapping up the live blog for today. So what did we see throughout the day?
HMD Global
Realme
- Realme launched its GT 2 series of smartphones
- We’ve got a hands-on Realme GT 2 Pro review here
- You can expect more coverage from Realme in the next few days
Xiaomi Pocophone
- Xiaomi launched two new budget phones under its Pocophone sub-brand
- You can read our entire Pocophone live blog here
- We’ll have reviews of these devices very soon
Honor
- Honor unveiled two new premium smartphones
- Honor also unveiled a new smartwatch
- Expect initial reviews of all these products soon
Qualcomm
- Qualcomm unveiled a new sound platform for better-latency audio
- It also launched a new connectivity certification
- It also unveiled the world’s first Wi-Fi 7 chip
- It also showed off 5G modules for laptops and PCs
OnePlus
- OnePlus launched the 10 Pro but confirmed a standard 10 isn’t coming
- OnePlus confirmed it wasn’t planning to start using ColorOS any more
- OnePlus announced it’s working on foldable software, but not hardware yet
- Oppo told us that a future OnePlus phone will have 150W charging
Oppo
- Oppo unveiled a 150W fast charging solution and a new 5G hub (we didn’t write about these as the former was covered in the Oppo news, so check that out for more information on this).
ZTE
Lenovo
Lenovo rolled out new Intel 12thGen ThinkPads, updated ThinkBooks and Yoga systems, consumer-friendly IdeaPads, and even some redesigned gaming systems at MWC 2022, but we’re most intrigued by the new ThinkPad X13s, Lenovo’s first ARM-based Windows 11 machine. It’s as light and thin as you might expect (no fans!) and is promising 28 hours of battery life.
So thanks for following along with the day’s smartphone news – phew, what a busy day!
Tomorrow promises to be quieter on the launches front, but that gives opportunities. We’ll be bringing you hands-on reviews of certain devices, interview write-ups as we ask questions about these new devices, and analyses on all the launches.
We’ll see you tomorrow, then, for more tech coverage!
Wait, we were wrong, there’s one more announcement for the day.
ZTE has dropped its Blade V40 series with four new affordable mobiles: the standard, the 5G, the Pro and the Vita.
Press weren’t provided a whole specs sheet for these devices, but they seem to focus on huge batteries and really big displays, and we’ve seen some other budget phone brands lean that way before.
You can read our full report on the ZTE Blade V40 series here, and with all these low-cost mobiles launching at MWC, you can bet we’ve got some analysis articles brewing.
It seems like the sun is starting to set on Barcelona after its first ‘proper’ day of tech launches – at least, according to this web cam on Skylinewebcams.com, which gives us a lovely view out over the W Hotel on the beach.
So it’s time to reflect on what we saw today, including all the launches and gadgets that showed up.
This isn’t strictly MWC related, but if you’re a phone fan, you might want to know:
We’ve just published our Samsung Galaxy S22 review, where we make the case for it being only a 3.5/5 phone.
Find out why by checking out our review here.
News has quieted down after a frantic few hours, but we don’t imagine the day is over just yet…
OnePlus has given us a grand total of four pieces of news, and they’re all fairly major.
1. The OnePlus 10 Pro – but no 10
The OnePlus 10 Pro was launched in China in January, and it’s finally seen a re-launch in the west. I’ll be releasing in late-March around the world.
However, there’s no OnePlus 10 coming with it – that’s right, it’s a Pro version of nothing.
OnePlus also confirmed it has loads more phones on the cards, including its cheapest-ever 5G phone.
OnePlus is gearing up to join the busy foldable phone market, as it confirmed it’s working on software that would suit a foldable phone…
… but not hardware just yet. That’s right, while the brand is working out ways to turn its OxygenOS operating system into a true foldable platform, it’s not actually got solid plans on the foldable phone front. Yet.
3. It’s sticking with the software
When the OnePlus and Oppo merger was first announced, the companies stated that future phones from the company would stop using OxygenOS, OnePlus Android fork, and would move over to ColorOS, Oppo’s.
Well, that’s not happening any more, and it’s because of the fans. Apparently, outcry from OnePlus users halted the brand in its tracks, and made it stick with OxygenOS.
Apparently, both software will be developed in tandem, so they’ll likely end up very similar. But they’ll have different names at least.
4. It’s got a super-charging phone out soon
At the Oppo press conference, it unveiled 150W charging, developed in collaboration with OnePlus.
Apparently, this will come to a OnePlus phone launching in the second ‘quarter’ of the year, or April to June.
We don’t know much about this phone just yet, other than the charging speed – we don’t even know what family it’ll be a part of. But judging by the above news, it won’t be the OnePlus 10 or a foldable.
Oppo’s press conference is already over – it was short and sweet(ish).
The brand first unveiled a new 5G router, and then discussed its new 150W charging solution.
This is said to power up a 4,500mAh battery from empty to 50W% in just five minutes, and will debut in an upcoming OnePlus phone in ‘Q2 2022’ – that’s April, May or June.
Realme announced this same power charging earlier today, and also confirmed that the Realme GT Neo 3 will get it, so it’s a race between the brands to get a device out first.
And we’re off: the Oppo event has begun, so let’s see what they have.
Qualcomm have made a few MWC announcements recently.
Firstly, there’s the new Snapdragon Connect, which is a certification that devices can receive which shows that they have top-notch wireless connectivity. This can be for 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more.
Secondly there are some new audio platforms which reduce battery consumption and improve latency, which sound be particularly good for gamers, though all audiophiles will benefit.
We’re still just getting over Honor and Xiaomi’s launches, but Oppo’s keynote starts in 20 minutes – you can find the YouTube premiere page here.
We’ve also got some information for you on a new smartwatch shown off at the Honor launch event, which you can read in full here.
This is the Honor Watch GS 3, which presumably follows the rugged Watch GS Pro from 2020, though we haven’t seen a GS 2 (or a non-Pro original GS, for that matter).
It has over 100 fitness modes, a 1.43-inch AMOLED screen and a leather strap.
The Honor event has finished, and you can see everything you need to know about the two new phones below. We’ve also got an analysis on the Pro model that you can find by clicking here, explaining why it’s tempting us over the S22 Ultra.
| Phone | Honor Magic 4 | Honor Magic 4 Pro |
| Screen | 6.81-inch 1224 x 2664 120Hz | 6.81-inch 1312 x 2848 120Hz |
| Rear cameras | 50MP main, 50MP ultra-wide, 8MP periscope | 50MP main, 50MP ultra-wide, 64MP periscope |
| Front-facing cameras | Unspecified | Unspecified main, 3D depth |
| RAM / ROM | 8,12GB / 128,256,512GB | 8,12GB / 256,512GB |
| Battery and charging | 4,800mAh, 66W | 4,600mAh, 100W, 100W wireless |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 | Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 |
| Fingerprint scanner | In-display | In-display |
| Connectivity | 5G | 5G |
The Poco launch just brought us the two phones, but Honor’s event is now bringing us some extra gadgets, including the Honor Watch GS 3 and Honor Earbuds 3 Pro. More info on these imminently.
The Xiaomi Poco launch event has wrapped up. We saw the Poco X4 Pro 5G, which sounds like a seriously impressive budget phone, as well as the Poco M4 Pro, a more affordable alternative.
You can see our full round-up on the phones here, including us gushing on the former.
Honor’s event is still going on, but we’re hearing about the Honor Magic 4 Pro currently.
Both the Xiaomi and Honor launches have basically started now, though the live streams on YouTube are both playing sizzle reels for the devices or brands.
As a reminder, you can find the Xiaomi Poco one here and the Honor Magic one here. There are very different energies on both. We’ve also got our Poco live blog here which is starting to ramp up ahead of the event.
Expect bucket-loads of news to come out in the next hour as we cover both events.
If you’re excited for the Xiaomi Poco launch, we’re actually hosting a separate live blog for it, which you can find here.
We’re not doing the same for the Honor launch, but we’ll still be tuning in to bring you all the biggest and most important announcements.
There’s an hour until the next event…s.
Yep, that’s right, two phone launches are happening simultaneously, much to the chagrin of tech journalists and fans everywhere.
There’s the new Xiaomi Pocophone launch, where we’re expecting to see the Poco X4 Pro 5G and Poco M4 Pro, and you can find the YouTube live stream here.
There’s also a new Honor launch, where we’re expecting to see the Honor Magic 5 series, and you can find the YouTube live stream here.
So, pick which brand you’re more interested in. At the time of writing, Honor’s has slightly more viewers in it, but Poco’s is creeping up at a quicker rate.
Check out our hands-on Realme GT 2 Pro review here.
Our reviewer loved the look of the display, as well as the many cool camera features the phone offered. In particular, they enjoyed playing around with the 40x microscope mode, finding it great for taking close-up pictures of things.
They weren’t breathless on the phone though, for a few reasons: they found its design was perhaps a little too gimmicky and impractical, and that’ll doubly be the case for people who clad their phones in cases. Plus, they found a few software issues.
We’ll be posting a full Realme GT 2 Pro review in the coming weeks, and we’ve got way more tech coverage coming from Realme and other brands over the next few days, so stay tuned.
This is the Realme GT 2 Pro, Realme’s first-ever flagship phone which just debuted at its MWC 2022 event.
It has a good-looking 6.7-inch screen with a 2K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. Its cameras are a 50MP main, 50MP ultra-wide and microscope camera for super-close-up pictures.
It uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset so it’s sure to be super powerful, and its design was inspired by ‘paper’ apparently to feel… papery?
Check out our full coverage on the new premium phone, as well as its non-Pro sibling, by clicking here.
That’s a wrap on the Realme event. In total we saw:
- Realme GT 2
- Realme GT 2 Pro
- Realme Book Prime
- Realme Buds Air 3
We’ll have some full coverage for you in just a moment.
It’s time for the first launch of the day.
The Realme GT 2 series is here, and Realme’s YouTube livestream is just warming up now.
We actually know a bit about these devices already, since they launched in China a few months ago, and you can see our Realme GT 2 hub here for all the news. Saying that, they could have changed some specs for the international launch, so we might be going in blind.
Welcome to (the official) Day 1 of MWC 2022!
We’ve got a few reporters on the ground, a few in the cloud (well, remotely), ready to bring you all the news from this super-busy day of tech.
There’s not too long to wait before the events start either.
Well, that’s it for TechRadar for today.
Thanks for following along with the MWC 2022 announcements that we’ve already seen, and we’ll pick this live blog back up bright and early tomorrow morning ready for the busy day of fun.
Tomorrow, or Day 1 as we’ll call it, is looking a lot busier. There’s set to be launch events from:
- Realme
- Xiaomi / Pocophone
- Oppo
- Honor
And maybe a few more brands besides. Each company could unveil multiple devices, and it could be a really busy couple of hours. So this is set to be the day when our coverage will really ramp up.
So what have we seen today, in day -1 of MWC?
- Huawei hosted its launch event which brought a new E-Ink tablet, a new budget tablet and its debut portable Bluetooth speaker, amongst other things.
- TCL launched five new budget Android phones
- Samsung launched two new laptops
Nope, it seems that’s it for the first pre-day of MWC. We’ll give brands a little more time before winding down this live blog for the day.
The very short Samsung event is over, and the laptops were the only products unveiled during it.
The pre-MWC day is nearly over, so if there’s more to come, we expect it to be along very shortly. Or maybe there isn’t.
Samsung’s event is for the Galaxy Book 2 Pro and Galaxy Book 2 Pro 5G – yep, those are some tongue-twister names.
Despute the ‘M’ in ‘MWC’ standing for ‘mobile’, lots of companies do show off their new laptops at the event, so this isn’t a huge surprise – but it does result in lots of mobile journalists having to work out lots of laptop specs!
Read our full Galaxy Book 2 Pro story here for all the specs and information on these new laptops.
We’ll stay tuned to the Samsung Galaxy event in case any new products are launched too.
Samsung’s event has begun – here’s the link to tune in.
Samsung’s event live stream has started, but we’re just seeing a looping animation of the Samsung MWC teaser at the moment. Expect the real deal to start in 10 minutes.
There’s about an hour to go until the next event: Samsung’s MWC event.
You can find a placeholder on YouTube here – it’s set to start 15 minutes before the event actually does, but there will probably be some pre-able footage beforehand. The real thing starts on the hour.
We don’t actually know what to expect from this event, so make sure to pay attention. Or not, that’s what this live blog is for after all.
TCL also showed off a few more gadgets as part of its MWC collection.
The most interesting is the one that’s depicted above, the TCL NxtPaper Max 10, which is a 10-inch Android tablet with an E-Ink screen (like a Kindle). However it seems like this device is only releasing in Asia.
There are also a few more Android tablets, including a re-release of the NxtPaper 10s which we saw at CES in January.
The NxtWear Air was shown off, and these are some smart glasses, though again we’ve already seen them. Finally there was a huge collection of audio products with loads of true wireless earbuds that you might see on store shelves or Amazon soon.
And there’s been another product launch, and this has brought us the first smartphones of MWC 2022.
TCL has launched five new phones. Check out our coverage on them here, but for the brief low-down, they are:
- TCL 30
- TCL 30 Plus
- TCL 30 5G
- TCL 30 E
- TCL 30 SE
These are five budget phones, and they’re all pretty similar too, but we don’t imagine all of them will drop in any one region.
One other interesting device from Huawei’s conference: the new MatePad. Yep, the successor to the Huawei MatePad 11 doesn’t have a number.
You can read our whole Huawei MatePad report here, but it’s a fairly low-cost HarmonyOS tablet that could be tempting for people who are split between an Amazon or iPad tablet.
It’s got a 10.4-inch 2K screen which seems like its biggest feature, but also stylus compatibility and a thin design.
Here’s another device from the Huawei press conference that we’re intrigued by: the Huawei Sound Joy may have a weird name, but it’s the company’s first-ever portable Bluetooth speaker.
This gadget has four speakers, a 8,800mAh battery life (26 hours of use, according to Huawei), IP67 resistance and costs €149 (around $170, £130 or AU$230, though availability hasn’t been confirmed yet).
We’ll have to test this out to see if Huawei can hold its own against Sonos or JBL, but it looks pretty neat.
So that Huawei event was surprisingly eventful.
Perhaps the biggest announcement was the Huawei MatePad Paper, a new E-Ink tablet-slash-ereader that’s coming to Euro soon.
It’s bigger and more powerful that the Amazon Kindle, which is the natural rival to any E-Ink device, and also comes with stylus support, video playback and handwriting recognition. Very nifty!
Read our full news on the Huawei MatePad Paper for all the details on this device, but we’re pretty keen to test it out when possible.
Okay, here we go – things are starting to kick off, and it’s Huawei who are first out of the blocks with their press conference – you can watch it right now.
This conference is named “Huawei Spring 2022 Smart Office Launch”, which means business related announcements, rather than consumer devices. We’re keeping an eye on it however, just in case.
Though nothing’s launched yet, some companies have been announcing their MWC 2022 plans.
Case in point, Mobvoi (which makes TicWatch smartwatches) has announced it’s launching a new device on March 1.
This seems to be a smartwatch with an emphasis on heart rate tracking features – we’ll make sure to bring you the news whenever Mobvoi officially announces this device.
And we begin! Sunday technically isn’t part of MWC, since the event only truly kicks off tomorrow, but that doesn’t stop some companies.
We already know Samsung is doing something today, and that’s the biggest news through Sunday that we’re aware of – but we might see other companies debut devices without warning too.
