MWC 2026 Recap: All the Phones, AI Toys, Robots, Concepts We Saw in Barcelona

The world's largest mobile show included so many trends: thin phones, modular phones that let you attach big cameras, keyboard phones and more. Iyaz Akhtar quickly rounds up all of these in this look from the show floor.

Worried about ad companies listening in to your conversations, or even governments? The $1,100 Hiroh phone, due out in April, could be for you: It has a switch on the side that manually blocks the microphone and cameras. 

The Hiroh, the first handset from the company of the same name, aims to be a security-focused phone that doesn't compromise on lifestyle. It functions like any other Android phone until you toggle on the privacy switch. 

There's also a switch on the other side that acts like a super airplane mode, cutting off all connectivity (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc). This sets it apart from privacy-focused phones like the Punkt MC03, which have internal restrictions severely limiting apps from sending data.

The Hiroh has software privacy features, too. By default, it comes with Murena's EOS operating system (an open-source version of Android), with toggles to, for example, spoof your location, block data sharing with apps and hide your IP address via a TOR router. (You can request that the phone come with stock Android if you wish.) 

It's otherwise packed with the expected smartphone features, including a triple rear camera (108-megapixel main, 13-megapixel telephoto and 2-megapixel ultrawide), a MediaTek Dimensity 8300 chip, and five years of promised software updates. 

Read more: This Privacy Smartphone Blocks Audio and Video Snooping at the Flick of a Switch

There are still folks out there who yearn for the days of physical keyboards on their phones, when BlackBerry reigned supreme. BlackBerry fans, start your engines. 

The Clicks Communicator is one device that blends tactile QWERTY keys with modern Android. Yet I saw a different device at MWC and fell in love with it: the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite. 

The Titan 2 Elite is a shrunken version of the Unihertz Titan 2. It nestled in my hands and seemed more pocketable in the bargain. Its 4.03-inch AMOLED display seems small, but the phone has a neat feature that keeps your thumbs off the screen: capacitive keys that let you scroll up and down the keyboard to navigate around the interface. I could browse the web without feeling like the display was too cramped.

The Titan 2 Elite is a capable phone on paper, with either a Dimensity 8400 or 7400 chip, two 50-megapixel rear cameras and a 32-megapixel selfie shooter, starting with 256GB of storage and a 4,050-mAh battery. The only hiccup is the memory, as Unihertz is still uncertain how much to pack in due to the RAM shortage (the demo unit I tried had 12GB). We'll find out the configuration, price and availability info when the Titan 2 Elite launches a Kickstarter campaign in March. 

Read more: This Tiny Smartphone Packs a Pocket-Friendly Physical Keyboard

Airports can be a stressful place, and robotics company AGiBot hopes to have robots make the journey to your next flight a little more fun. At an exhibit at Mobile World Congress, the company shows off humanoid robots that can help you check in for your flight or guide you around the airport.

In her piece about an airport-themed exhibit at MWC, Abrar Al-Heeti also learns about a digital ID tag for your baggage, a self-driving vehicle meant for helping anyone with mobility issues at the airport and custom water bottles for tracking your hydration.

Read more: Concierge Bots, Autonomous Carts and Smart Tags: Welcome to MWC's Airport of the Future

The $90 PetPhone, on display at MWC, aims to give your furry family member a way to call you. The PetPhone is primarily a cellular-connected location tracker, but if you train your pet to jump three times while wearing it, the device will call you for a quick catch-up.

As Patrick Holland notes in his hands-on, this raises lots of questions. Does your pet need to talk to you, or does your pet just like to jump a lot? When the call goes through, will the sound of your voice be enough to address their anxieties? 

It's worth noting that there are a number of pet cameras that offer some similar features, including the ability to speak to your pet through a speaker. If you want your pet to be able to call you, you'll need to sign up for the device's subscription service. Its three-year plan runs roughly $5 a month.

Read more: The PetPhone Lets Your Furball Dial You. These Catcalls Are Welcome Anytime

Alibaba made its wearables debut at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and it went straight for Meta's turf. Its new line of Qwen smart glasses is a direct challenge to Meta's AI-powered smart glasses, and they cost less. CNET's Katie Collins tried them on the show floor and wrote about her first impressions.

The higher-end Qwen S1 model has a head-up display etched into the lenses, plus a swappable battery pack in each arm. The cheaper Qwen G1 drops the display but keeps the core AI chops intact. This includes hands-free tasks such as ordering food, hailing a cab or getting turn-by-turn directions in your ears. Both pairs are light and comfortable, according to Katie, which matters more than it sounds for something you're wearing on your face all day long.

The real headline is the price. The G1 comes in at $275, nearly $100 less than Meta's Ray-Ban Gen 2 at $379. The glasses go on sale in China on March 8, with a potential international rollout later in 2026. Read the full hands-on here.

CNET's ground team at Mobile World Congress traveled over from California, New York and Scotland for this year's mobile show in Barcelona. Our Andy Lanxon pulled together a few team highlights for this article, showing off a little behind the scenes of the group covering the Galaxy S26 Ultra, attending Honor's conference and a variety of moments of the team at work or dinner.

Read more: Oh, the Fun We Had: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at CNET's MWC 2026

CNET goes to MWC to check out the new products, but it's also great for a look at emerging technologies that might make their way to future products. That's the case with TCL's Nxtpaper AMOLED phone display.

Nxtpaper screens have built-in anti-glare technology, making them great for e-readers and note takers like the Note A1. Their drawback has been brightness. "The vivid colors that we're accustomed to on most phones screens tend to look dull on Nxtpaper," writes Katie Collins.

Now TCL is working on a Nxtpaper phone with an AMOLED screen to make up for that luminosity. Katie gives it a first look in her report from MWC.

Our ground team at Mobile World Congress visited dozens of booths that highlighted an incredible variety of phones. There were cool-looking, powerful phones that are going on sale soon, like the Nothing Phone 4A, the Motorola Razr Fold and the Honor Magic V6. 

But also seen on the show floor were some wilder concepts that may or may not ever show up in stores, like Tecno's modular concept that lets you snap accessories onto a super-thin phone. The Honor Robot Phone has a little arm that unfolds from the phone to serve as a gimbal for the camera, and then can fold right back into it.

Check out our best phones of MWC list to see more of these highlights.

The Nothing Phone 4A is one of three new products from Nothing -- others are the Nothing Phone 4A Pro and Headphone A. CNET Editor at Large Andrew Lanxon is at MWC 2026 with the Phone 4A in a pink that evokes "candy floss or spring blossom" rather than hot pink.

The Phone 4A won't come to the US, but the Phone 4A Pro will go on sale later this month, starting at $499. For more details, you can read Andrew's hands-on here.

The iPhone 17E isn't part of MWC, but Apple doesn't need to attend the event in order to draw attention. While my colleagues in Barcelona were looking at phones with robot cameras and fire igniters, I couldn't help notice that Apple's new phone is missing one of its most innovative features. And that's OK in my book.

See why the lack of the Camera Control on the iPhone 17E is actually good news.

The Clicks Power Keyboard is useful if you want to attach a physical keyboard to your smartphone, and it also makes for a great fidget toy, as CNET Senior Social Producer Allyza Umali demonstrates in this video.

This year's Mobile World Congress is filled with interesting products, but that creates a familiar problem. Which of the gadgets, phones, robots (and robot phones) stand out above the rest? CNET's writers and editors have put in the steps and talked with vendors to find their favorites.

Discover all the highlights for 2026.

Gaming is massively popular on phones, but not every model qualifies as a "gaming phone." And gaming phones often don't come in at budget prices. 

ZTE's Nubia Neo 5 GT costs 450 euros (about $430) and features both an internal fan system and an external heat-dissipation layer to handle the thermal load of extended gaming sessions. The Nubia Neo 5 has a cooling layer and costs 300 euros (roughly $350). And the Nubia Neo 5 Max packs a larger screen and battery into a phone that costs 350 euros (around $415).

Each costs less than the iPhone 17E, but they won't be coming to the US.

CNET's David Lumb has more. Plus, don't miss the TikTok video below where David shows off the Neo 5 Max.

Tecno showed off its Atom concept phone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and on paper, it's genuinely impressive. For starters, it's only 4.9mm thick, runs Android, has no ports and charges entirely wirelessly. The party trick is a magnetic accessory ecosystem that snaps on. You can attach anything from a 23mm camera with 3x optical zoom to multiple stackable battery packs to a speaker.

It communicates via Wi-Fi, looks slick and if it ever actually ships, Tecno will be the one making it. The catch? Keeping track of all those accessories in a world where even remembering to bring a charger is a challenge.

Modular phones have been pitched before. From Motorola's Moto Mods to Google's canceled Project Ara, the idea of snapping new hardware onto a phone has struggled to take off. Even today's magnetic ecosystems like Apple's MagSafe mostly revolve around simple, functional accessories like wallets, chargers and mounts. Tecno's concept is fun to imagine, but the practicality is another question.

Hands down, one of the most interesting new features on the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the Privacy Display. Unveiled at Samsung's Unpacked event last week, it lets you apply a privacy screen to your entire phone so nosy onlookers can't catch a glimpse of what you're working on. You can also customize it for specific apps or limit it to small sections of the screen, like wherever you're entering a PIN.

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, CNET's Katie Collins got a look at what's next: an even more granular level of privacy screening. Behind clear plexiglass were two phones marked "under development." The first showed Privacy Display working across the entire bottom half of the screen; the second showed it running down one side in a vertical panel.

It points to a future with far more control over exactly what you keep public and private on your phone. Whether that arrives with the S27 Ultra or something further down the road is still unclear. Read her full story here.

CNET Managing Editor David Lumb compares the ZTE Neo 5 Max -- a gaming phone with a 7.5-inch screen -- with the iPhone 17 Pro Max and its 6.9-inch screen in this video from MWC 2026. The Neo 5 Max offers gaming features at a lower price than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but we don't know if or when it's coming to the US.

As we walked the halls of the Fira Gran Via Barcelona for MWC 2026, there has emerged an unexpected theme emerged: there are a lot of orange phones. And specifically, there are a lot of phones that are similar to the cosmic orange color variant of Apple's iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. Aside from the color, some of these phones look nothing like Apple's, but others could easily be mistaken for an iPhone 17 Pro, with details like a body-wide camera bar with a trio of lenses weighted to the left side. Take a look for yourself.

Apple's new MacBook Neo has debuted during the company's Wednesday experience events in New York, London and Shanghai. The new lower-cost member of the MacBook line starts at $599 for a model with 8GB of memory, 256GB of storage and the A18 Pro processor powering it, rather than the M series of chips included in other Mac computers. That processor can also be found inside the iPhone 16 Pro.

The Neo also comes in a $699 model that bumps the storage up to 512GB and adds a Touch ID sensor to the keyboard. The new Neo appears to be competing in the same price range as Chromebooks, lower-priced Windows laptops and the occasions when Walmart sells the M1 MacBook at $599.

While Apple isn't attending Mobile World Congress, the company's series of announcements that include the iPhone 17E, the refreshed iPad Air, and new MacBook Air and Pro models have stolen some of the limelight every day of the Barcelona show so far.

Read more: Apple Debuts Budget MacBook Neo for $599

Yes, you can have the 1889 view from artist Vincent Van Gogh's bedroom window at the Saint-Paul de Mausole asylum on your phone. Better known as The Starry Night, the iconic piece of artwork on the back of the Nubia X80 Ultra looks incredible in person. Tara Brown, CNET's social producer, says, "The phone is so pretty and appeals to the art lover." She said the cameras are noteworthy, and she was pleased with a few sample images she took with the Van Gogh phone.

The Nubia X80 Ultra is available in Europe and costs 649 euros (roughly $755). Sadly, you'll have to stick to getting a phone case with The Starry Night on it since Nubia doesn't sell the X80 Ultra in the US.

A phone that thrives in the outdoors, the Oukitel WP63 comes with a speaker, a light and a 20,000-mAh (!) battery that you can use as a power bank. The 27mm thick phone even lights fires. CNET Managing Editor David Lumb details the rugged device -- which should arrive in the coming months -- in this video.

Google's showcase at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona feels less like a corporate booth and more like a tech-themed block party. Dubbed Android Avenue, the space blends playful Android robot figurines with hands-on demos spanning Pixel devices, Android XR and the latest AI-powered Search features. CNET's Abrar Al-Heeti toured the theme park-inspired setup, exploring how Google is stitching its ecosystem together across hardware and software.

One of the biggest highlights: trying on the Android XR smart glasses prototype. A Google employee spoke in Spanish, as the display projected the live translation onto the right lens. She also followed a floating Google Maps overlay that guided her route without blocking views of the real world. It's a fun (and optimistic) glimpse at how Google imagines AI blending seamlessly into everyday life. You can read more about the full Android Avenue experience here.

A concept device from Tecno at Mobile World Congress is "really just like a Lego phone that you can just build up however you want," according to CNET Senior Technology Reporter Abrar Al-Heeti. See the superslim phone transform with an attachable camera, wallet and more in this look at the prototype.

Trade shows like MWC showcase companies' latest products, but they're also a chance to try out ideas that may never reach the market. Or just show off.

The best example this year is a new car designed for a video game that will probably never touch real asphalt. Xiaomi displayed a full-size Vision GT race car that normally exists as a digital asset in the PlayStation 5 racing game Gran Turismo.

Andrew Lanxon writes, "The car looks incredible and I'd love to have been able to sit inside the LED-strewn cockpit but sadly the doors remained firmly closed. This is a concept model designed for the game, and the company has made no statement on whether it ever plans to put something like this into production."

That's not the only concept on display. From multimodular camera phones to a robot that was introduced by doing a backflip and landing in a superhero pose, there's more to see in Andrew's report.

The Sunbooster is a $249 device that can attach to your computer and project near-infrared light that could help combat seasonal affective disorder. It appears to take up a similar amount of space as an external webcam. My colleague Abrar got to check out the device at Mobile World Congress.

Apple debuted new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops on Tuesday, with both lines updated with M5 processors. These new computers start at $1,099 for a new MacBook Air that includes 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage. Stepping up to the MacBook Pro, pricing begins at $2,199 for the 14-inch model with the M5 Pro processor. 

The new reveals come a day after Apple announced the $599 iPhone 17E and a refreshed iPad Air with the M4 processor, and one day before Apple holds an event in New York, London and Shanghai. It's rumored that Apple is still set to announce a lower-end MacBook line, with our sibling site PCMag reporting that it might be nicknamed the MacBook Neo, following a brief document including the name appearing on Apple's website.

While Apple isn't attending Mobile World Congress, the company's announcement certainly creates some competing noise as the Barcelona event's product reveals continue.

ZTE, best known for making phones, has one of the cutest pieces of tech at MWC: iMoochi. The small softball-sized furry creature is actually packed with sensors, a microphone, OLED screens for the eye and generative AI. It not only looks cute but also has as much technology as a phone.

Each of the five iMoochis (Cynomi, Hopami, Mimiu, Mogogo, and Morin) has a different personality and reacts to being petted, "playfully" tossed and spoken to. They're meant to provide comfort and relieve stress. As cute as these little furballs are, they're only available in Japan and cost around $350.

I got the closest thing to a hands-on experience with Honor's Robot Phone here at MWC 2026. The Robot Phone models at the show are still fairly delicate prototypes, so Honor isn't letting anyone touch them for now (which is fair, as it wouldn't be the first time I've dropped a concept device during a demo).

I am, however, one of the lucky few who was allowed to interact with the phone with gestures and voice. See my TikTok on it in the post below.

Our TikTok channel has over a million subscribers. At 1:45 p.m. Barcelona time (4:45 a.m. PT), CNETdotcom reached its millionth follower. And while we're still running around the halls of MWC 2026 in Spain, we wanted to thank everyone who follows us! We love making videos for you. Now take a look at this TikTok of CNET's Katie Collins testing out the Honor Robot Phone.

In this video, CNET Senior Editor Matt Elliott highlights a new laptop display concept from Lenovo with a detachable secondary display. At first, the extra display faces outward, then Matt swaps it with the Bluetooth keyboard to make it into a kind of huge foldable phone. The ThinkBook Modular AI PC Concept also has modular ports underneath the keyboard, allowing Matt to pop in an HDMI port.

Smart glasses have so much potential -- and already plenty of baggage thanks to creeps who record video without consent. So it's nice to see other features emerge to make the tech glasses more useful and appealing.

My colleague Abrar Al-Heeti got to try a pair of Google Android XR glasses at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that convinced her of their potential. At the top of the list was real-time, Google Maps walking directions superimposed in front of her.

"White text appeared in the center of the lens, showing me how far I'd need to go before turning right," she writes. "And when I looked down, I could see a visualization of the route, like you'll find in the Maps app on a mobile device, so I could just follow the highlighted path. That would solve my dilemma of wanting to know where I'm going while also trying to take in the view."

See the other reasons Abrar's skepticism about smart glasses is now more tempered in her article: This Android XR Feature Convinced Me Smart Glasses Aren't So Pointless After All.

TCL's Movetime MT48 looks like your run-of-the-mill kids' smartwatch, but it transforms into an adorable AI-powered desk companion called Tbot. Once connected to its concept docking station, the watch's screen becomes an animated robot face with big, expressive eyes, while the dock uses its own built-in camera to move around and interact from your child's desk. Aside from looking adorable, Tbot gives posture reminders, tells bedtime stories and tracks sleep. 

The watch itself already covers the basics well: 4G connectivity, video calls, GPS tracking with boundary alerts, fitness tracking and about 2.5 days of battery life.

It also has a School Time mode for uninterrupted focus time, and a completely extraneous, wildly distracting AI image generator that's basically a dare for my kid to spend that entire focus block trying to hack their way back into it. The Movetime MT48 is available now for $150, while the Tbot docking system is still in the concept stage. Check out CNET's hands-on video on TikTok.

The way Samsung, Apple and Google have addressed the limitations of small smartphone cameras is by innovating on the software side. Backed by fast image processors and machine learning, they can create genuinely stunning images.

But they've also veered hard into what AI can bring to photo capture, from overprocessing to the generative AI features that can change elements like clothing or backgrounds. Samsung's just-announced Galaxy S26 Ultra should be the pinnacle of smartphone photography. 

Yet Xiaomi just climbed past it without breaking a sweat.

That's because the Xiaomi and Leica Leitzphone embraces "what true photography innovation looks like," says CNET's Andrew Lanxon. With a new, next-generation LOFIC image sensor, moving lens elements in its periscope telephoto camera and a physical control knob around the lens elements, the Leitzphone is defining the state of the art for camera phones.

Read all about it in Andrew's commentary, Samsung Needs to Learn a Big Lesson From Xiaomi.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Wear Elite processor offers a glimpse at what wearables could look like in 2026 and beyond. Spoiler: It may mean a lot more cameras on your body. As the foundation for many non-Apple smartwatches, VR headsets and smart glasses, Qualcomm's chips often define what's technically possible in the next wave of wearable devices, making them a reliable preview of what's to come. 

Smartwatches in particular could stand to gain a 30% bump in battery life, according to Qualcomm, as well as much faster charging speed (up to 50% in 10 minutes). But it's not just for smartwatches, this processor is meant to flex across other wearable categories like glasses, AI pins, and even pendants with advanced wireless connectivity, stronger on-device and cloud-based AI controls, support for advanced health data processing, and even 1080p video input and output. CNET's Scott Stein sat down with John Kehrli, senior director of product management for Qualcomm, to dig into what this chip really means for the future of wearables. Read the full interview here.

Motorola's dishing out new details about its upcoming Razr Fold phone. The book-style foldable will include Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, which is a powerful processor even though it's a slight step down from Qualcomm's Elite processor line. It will also include a big 6,000-mAh battery that supports 80-watt wired charging and 50-watt wireless charging.

My colleague Abrar Al-Heeti got hands-on time with the new Razr Fold, and noted that it feels similar to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 in terms of sleekness. The phone's set to go on sale this summer, but we don't yet know the price nor its exact availability.

Read more: Motorola's Upcoming Razr Fold Pairs a Massive Battery With a Sleek Design

Along with announcing the new iPhone 17E, Apple's also launching a new iPad Air that includes the M4 processor. Aside from the newer processor, the tablet does appear to be similar to prior iPad Air models. It starts at $599 for 128GB of space on the 11-inch model (which is starting to look a little light since the $599 iPhone 17E starts with 256GB of space for $599) and $799 for the 13-inch model.

Apple isn't attending Mobile World Congress, but that isn't stopping the company from launching a new iPhone at the kickoff of the show. Apple's newly announced iPhone 17E starts at $599 for a model with 256GB of storage, and the lower-cost iPhone includes many of the features that were tipped off in various rumors about the phone. This includes a 6.1-inch display, compatibility with MagSafe magnetic accessories, a Ceramic Shield 2 covering for the front-display and the A19 processor.

British tech company Nothing is holding the launch event for its new Nothing 4A phone in London on Thursday, but it still showed up at MWC with a little announcement.

The Nothing Phone 4A will be available not just in pink, but also in blue. Its predecessor, the Nothing Phone 3A, was one of our favorite phones of 2025, so we're excited to see how this year's iteration measures up.

Look what I found at the Qualcomm booth! His name is Poketomo, and he's an AI companion robot from Sharp. Poketomo is powered by an LLM and can express himself through LEDs and sound. Sadly I couldn't try him out because he didn't have any power, and he also only speaks Japanese (which I don't).

I'm not sure exactly what creature he's supposed to be -- maybe an otter? He has the look of a Porg about him. With his little checked shirt and tie, he really reminds me of a Sylvanian Families figure. Definitely the cutest thing I've seen at the show so far.

Early this morning, I schlepped across Barcelona to see Qualcomm lift the lid on its new wearables platform, Snapdragon Wear Elite. Representatives from Samsung, Google, and Motorola were at the event to discuss how they'll integrate this new chip into their next-gen wearables. 

For Samsung and Google, those wearables will be smartwatches, but Motorola said it will take a more experimental approach. It's already designed an AI concept wearable called Project Maxwell based on a previous Qualcomm platform, and it promises to continue testing out cutting-edge wearable ideas with this new chip.

Wear Elite is built for running on-device AI in the most power-efficient way possible. Check out some more potential uses for the platform, as explored by my colleague Scott Stein.

Honor's Magic V5 foldable phone only launched last summer, but the company's already back with its latest model. The Magic V6 is another book-style foldable, and I got my hands on it at Mobile World Congress 2026. It packs a host of tech into an amazingly skinny body for a folding phone, and it's set to go on sale in the UK and wider Europe in the second half of the year. It'll likely hit shelves in summer, like its predecessor.

Honor has yet to announce pricing for the phone, but the previous V5 went on sale in the UK at the princely sum of £1,699. I definitely don't expect the V6 to be any cheaper, but hopefully it won't see a significant price increase too. Honor's phones are not officially available in the US, but that UK price converts to roughly $2,285. 

So what do you get for your money? Well, the design is where much of that cash is being spent. At just 8.75mm thick when closed, the V6 is one of the skinniest foldables around. It actually shaves 0.05mm off its predecessor, not that you're ever likely to notice that difference. Unfolded, the phone becomes just 4.1mm thick, but it still felt sturdy in my hands-on time. 

For more about the phone, read my I Love the Slim Design of Honor's Magic V6 Foldable Phone story.

There are parts of being a phone reviewer that are quite fun, like testing the latest handsets from companies like Samsung, Xiaomi, Honor and Apple. On a break from covering MWC 2026, the CNET ground crew went for some tapas. Hey, we're in Barcelona after all. At one point, CNET's Tara Brown counted that the five of us had nine phones between us. And then she momentarily picked up eight of the phones and fanned them out. We used the ninth phone to take this photo of Tara. (No phones were hurt in the production of this image.)

Have you ever wanted your phone to last for days in the wild and light your campfire, too? At the Showstoppers press event ahead of MWC 2026, I saw a new smartphone from outdoor electronics company Oukitel that aims to be an all-in-one device for the rugged digital nomad. 

The Oukitel WP63 phone is around $500 and checks a lot of boxes. It's got a 20,000-mAh battery -- yes, twenty thousand milliamp hours -- with an included USB-C port that can charge your other devices. It also powers the audio speaker and LED lamp embedded in the back of the phone, the latter of which can get so bright that a pop-up warns you not to look directly at it to avoid eye damage.

The Oukitel WP63's coolest feature is its ability to start a fire. You can activate that feature with a tab at the top of the phone that's surprisingly tricky to flip out. (That's a nice protective element that keeps it from accidentally popping open in your pocket.) Once deployed, an electric coil, similar to an old car dashboard cigarette lighter, activates via an app. There's a setting to keep it lit for 4 to 10 minutes, in theory, to warm your surroundings. 

I want to be honest that I didn't see the phone light anything on fire -- the preproduction unit at Showstoppers got too hot to demonstrate the lighter effect. But I saw videos of it working earlier in the night.

And yes, the phone is an actual smartphone, too. It runs Android 16 out of the box, with three years of promised software and security updates. It has a 6.7-inch Full HD (1,604x720-pixel) display, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage and a 64-megapixel rear camera, so it functioned like a regular smartphone as far as I could tell when I handled it. But if you want to buy one when it starts going on sale in April, prepare your pockets: the WP63 is a massive 27mm thick. That's almost equivalent to four of the new Samsung Galaxy S26 phones (7.2mm) stacked on top of each other.

ZTE has a trio of new phones that will make gamers happy. The Nubia Neo 5 series takes some of the coolest features from the premium RedMagic 11 Pro (launched back in November) and packs them into budget phones.

The Nubia Neo 5 is the baseline model, which will retail for about 300 euros (roughly $350), with capacitive shoulder buttons and a cooling layer that ZTE estimates reduces internal temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius. 

The step-up Neo 5 Max lives up to its name. For about 350 euros (roughly $415), it has a 7.5-inch display -- nearly as big as the 8-inch inner screen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 -- and a battery with over 7,000mAh.

But the cream of ZTE's budget crop is the Neo 5 GT. Priced at 450 euros (roughly $430), it inherits most of the RedMagic 11 Pro's features. The most prominent is an internal cooling fan that, combined with the Neo 5 series' heat-absorbing layer, cools the phone's internals by 4 degrees Celsius, ZTE estimates. The GT has a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate and a maximum brightness of 4,500 nits, a 6,120-mAh battery and 80-watt charging. Those features are more common in phones at twice the price.

With features that make them competitive with pricier phones, such as the Google Pixel 10A, the Neo 5 phones will be promising for anyone, but they'll especially appeal to mobile gamers. The Neo 5 and Neo 5 GT are expected to start selling in Europe in April, then later in parts of Latin America. The Neo 5 Max will reach the same regions around July, ZTE said. It's unclear if or when they'll be sold in the US.

Having a privacy screen protector always struck me as a paranoid measure, but the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has changed me. Over the last couple of days, the S26 Ultra's new Privacy Display setting has quickly become one of my favorite features, thanks to its practicality and ingenuity. With the setting enabled, anyone looking over your shoulder won't be able to see what's on your screen. Crucially, unlike a $10 screen protector you can buy online, this built-in hardware feature is customizable, so you can turn it on for certain apps, such as your banking account or email. It works whether you're holding your phone vertically or horizontally.

You can also change the Privacy Display settings, so it only applies to pop-up notifications. This means only that part of your screen will be blacked out for anyone snooping. That flexibility makes for a more pragmatic approach, rather than the all-or-nothing privacy screen protectors you can slap on any phone. I don't need to be secretive all the time.

I was especially grateful for the Privacy Display setting on my flight to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. As I wrestled with this article in the Notes app, I didn't have to worry about anyone watching me comb through half-formed thoughts. I browsed through my Gallery without feeling like I was putting on a presentation for any bored onlookers. I prevented people from engaging in the same second-hand entertainment I was indulging in as I glanced at the movies playing on the seatback displays around me. (There's only so much to look at on an 8-hour flight.)

Read my full story, My Favorite Galaxy S26 Ultra Feature Comes With a Side of Paranoia, to hear more about my first two days with the new Samsung phone.

I'd describe myself as a smart glasses skeptic, but I'm always happy to try out new concepts in the hope that one will win me over. I popped the MemoMind Memo One specs by Xgimi at Showstoppers, a press event at MWC 2026, and was immediately impressed by how light they felt to wear. 

A customizable head-up display lets you glance up to see information, such as stocks, if that's your thing. I tested the translation feature and found that it translated Chinese to English effectively. I also found the teleprompter feature easy to follow and could definitely see myself using it if I needed to present on stage or on camera.

Xgimi told me that the MemoMind glasses will be available from this April in the US and Europe, starting at $599 (that's $200 less than Meta's Ray-Ban Display Glasses).

MWC doesn't start until Monday, but we are getting a preview of some of the phones and gadgets at the Showstoppers press event. CNET is on the ground covering the event.

There's a good chance you're reading this on a smartphone, using technologies that debuted at Mobile World Congress an annual trade show focused on phones and wireless technologies. Features shown in Barcelona over the last two decades are like the cerulean colors of the fashion world, introduced with fanfare and then widely disseminated into phones like the one in your hand. (This year marks 20 years of MWC in Barcelona, but the show existed in other forms back in the early 1990s.)

MWC is all about the telecommunications industry, which might sound dry if you don't work for a telecom company. But now that most people carry smartphones every day, we're all affected in some way by what happens at the event.

CNET has a full team of writers and editors in Barcelona looking for the products and technologies we'll be talking about for the next year and longer. Read our full Just What Is Mobile World Congress, Anyway? story for more about MWC's history and notable products launched at the show.

MWC 2026 kicks off Monday and follows Samsung's announcement of the Galaxy S26 series. CNET's Abrar Al-Heeti has been testing the Galaxy S26 Ultra around Barcelona, where MWC is taking place. This photo shows CNET filming an in-depth, hands-on All Things Mobile video that will be published soon.

Honor's humanoid robot walks. In fact, it moonwalks. And dances and backflips. The robot made its debut on stage at the company's event, appearing alongside four dancers who were grooving to Believer by Imagine Dragons. The company's CEO, James Li, then appeared on stage, shaking hands with the robot and encouraging it to backflip, which it did. However, the robot stumbled upon landing, but managed to put its hand out to steady itself, ultimately saving itself and Honor from embarrassment.

The Chinese phone brand Honor wowed us at CES with a teaser for the Honor Robot Phone. It's part smartphone and part camera on a gimbal (think DJI Osmo). But now that MWC is here, the details are becoming clearer. We'll to learn more about the phone, what it does and how it all works. CNET's Katie Collins and Tara Brown are covering Honor's announcement. Notice their event badges have a gimbal camera head, like the Honor Robot Phone.

Mobile World Congress is where the tech world's biggest players gather to showcase their latest mobile devices. From Samsung and Xiaomi to Lenovo and Honor, almost all of the world's tech goliaths come to Barcelona to get in on the action. MWC 2026 runs from March 2 to 5, and we expect to see major product launches, some wild concepts and a lot of tapas. And indeed Xiaomi has already taken the wraps off its astonishing Leica-branded Leitzphone. But what about products we saw in prior years?

From Samsung's flagship Galaxy S phones to incredible hardware from Xiaomi, we've seen some amazing devices in the years CNET has been attending the show. But we've also seen a lot of unusual products that have promised more than they've delivered. From concept devices that are quickly forgotten to new gadgets that boast revolutionary functions, these are the MWC tech launches that arrived with a fanfare… but aren't necessarily where you'd expect them to be today.

Read more about the buzziest phones and gadgets from previous MWC conventions and what happened to those products.

Chinese phone-maker Xiaomi announced the Leica Leitzphone here at MWC, a Xiaomi 17 Ultra with a circular hardware dial around the back camera puck and Leica branding. That control dial, which feels like the focus ring on a manual camera lens, can be programmed to perform a number of actions when taking a photo, like changing the exposure.

Professional photographer and CNET editor Anredw Lanxon tested the Leitzphone and said, "The Xiaomi Leica Leitzphone is the best, most exciting camera phone I have ever used. And I've used them all, including Apple's iPhone 17 Pro and Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra. And while they're both great phone cameras for most people, Xiaomi and Leica's latest collaboration has resulted in a handset that's arguably more camera than it is phone."

In fact, after taking more than 2,000 photos with the phone, he gave the Leitzphone by Xiaomi a CNET Editors' Choice award, saying, "Its images aren't just 'good for a phone'; they're downright superb for any camera."

Read Andrew's full Leica Leitzphone by Xiaomi review here.

One does not simply walk through Barcelona -- one strolls, carouses, even gallivants through the beautiful Catalan city that will play host to MWC 2026 in the coming days. I've got the Samsung Galaxy S26 to accompany me on my jaunts through Spain's most famous coastal burg, and I've spent all morning using it to shoot photos of the towering Sagrada Familia, the stunning Sant Pau (an Art Nouveau former hospital) and more. 

The Galaxy S26 is a handy little phone -- or at least, it feels little despite its 6.3-inch screen being ever so slightly larger than its 6.2-inch predecessor, the Galaxy S25. I'm pretty sure that the phone's 167-gram weight and 7.2mm thickness (same as the S25) is thin enough to make it easier to hold while taking photos than heftier devices, and I'm personally a fan of the flat sides. It's nice to hold; now I've gotta find all of its software's little quirks, including all its new AI features.

Stay tuned as I discover more ways that the newest top-tier Android handset will help me get through the year's biggest phone show.

Something you might not know about Xiaomi is that, as well as making phones that continue to impress us, the company also makes electric vehicles.

At its launch event on Saturday in Barcelona for the Leica Leitzphone by Xiaomi, the company surprised everyone by showing off its first hypercar for Gran Turismo, the Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo. This concept car will be on display at Xiaomi's booth at MWC, and we're already excited to see this vision of the automotive future close up. Keep an eye on the live blog for more photos as we're able to grab 'em.

CNET has several writers on the ground in Barcelona to cover this year's MWC convention. And while the show doesn't start until Monday, CNET's Abrar Al-Heeti is using the early time to test the Galaxy S26 Ultra. She took the new Samsung phone out to try its new Horizontal lock video recording feature that keeps your video's horizon level no matter how much you shake, twist or rotate the phone. In early tests, we've been impressed by how well it works, which you can see clearly in the video below of our side-by-side test against the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Mobile World Congress is one of the biggest showcase events for the mobile phone industry. Taking place in Barcelona, the annual conference features everything from high-profile phone launches to the display of wild concepts that sometimes hint at future products in development.

CNET Principal Writer Katie Collins has been attending MWC for years and has put together a roundup of what we're expecting to see from this year's event.

Read more: MWC Barcelona 2026: All the New Tech, Phones, Wearables and AI We Expect to See