Mobile World Congress 2024 | All the releases

Barcelona is once again hosting one of the most important technological events in the world: the Mobile World Congress. From 26 to 29 February, new products and technologies that will reach the market in the coming months will be launched.

With nearly 100,000 attendees, more than 2,400 exhibitors, and 1,100 speakers, leading brands such as Samsung, Xiaomi, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, and Huawei do not want to miss the event.

Despite its name, the event is turning into a showcase for all kinds of technologies, not just mobile phones, with robots, flying cars, AI developments, and the latest in displays. If you weren’t able to attend, here’s what’s new!

Mobile World Congress 2024 | Recap

Flying car by Alef Aeronautics

It has been one of the launches that have attracted the most attention, and with good reason. Although flying cars take us to a more movie-like product such as the DeLorean from Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future or the futuristic world of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, the startup Alef Aeronautics has managed to take the idea from the big screen to real life.

It is not yet on the market, but they have already sold some 3,000 units of this flying car, which is 5.20 meters long and can cover a maximum of 322 kilometers on the road and 170 kilometers in the air.

It is a 100% electric, vertical take-off and landing car, which means it does not require a runway and has a patented technology of eight propellers hidden inside its body. With a price tag of $300,000, we will have to wait until mid-2025, at the earliest, for it to hit the market.

Next generation cameras

One of the strengths of tech giants in recent years has been the improvement of phone cameras.

ZTE has presented its Nubia Z60 Ultra, which has three cameras of 18x, 33x, and 120x and can record in 4K. Its processor is one of the top processors on the market, the Smart Dragon 8 GEN 3.

It has also bet on the improvement of its 3D tablet, the Nubia Pad 3D II, which can now be used without glasses by detecting the user’s eyes, which allows “centering” the objects on the screen to see a three-dimensional image.

Xiaomi SU7 Max

The Chinese company also used the event to unveil its most advanced variant of its first electric car.

With an aesthetic similar to the Tesla Model 3, it has a large 16.1-inch horizontal screen with 3K resolution integrated into the interior of the vehicle, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 processor, and a CATL nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery, which is integrated into the body of the vehicle through a technology developed by Xiaomi called “Cell to Body” or CTB.

In terms of software, the Xiaomi SU7 Max comes with HyperOS, Xiaomi’s new operating system that aims to improve the integration of all its devices: mobiles, watches, tablets, cars, etc. The vehicle, therefore, becomes the cornerstone of the ecosystem that they have called “Human x Car x Home,” which also incorporates innovations in mobile photography, such as the Leica Summilux optical lenses of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, or robotics, with the CyberDog 2 as the greatest exponent, a quadruped robot equipped with 19 sensors that simulate the senses of vision, hearing and touch.

Instant translation and AI images

Samsung has also made a commitment to improving its cameras but has gone one step further by adding AI. They now offer the ability to edit the image on the spot with options ranging from making people bigger or smaller, removing them from the photo, or capturing places with hardly any light, a five times wider zoom, and so on.

They have also introduced an instant translation service for calls, which facilitates conversations between people who do not speak the same language. Live Translation is what they have called it, and it is going to become a very useful tool in, for example, trips abroad where you have to make a reservation or ask for something in a language you don’t speak.

Flexible and transparent screens

Lenovo has opted for a more futuristic concept in its displays with a laptop that presents itself as a mix of reality, mixed with augmented reality and virtual reality glasses, and transferred all of this to a computer.

The camera recognizes the object, and the system collects it and displays the information on the screen. You can see it in this video.

Motorola, for its part, continues to focus on flexible screens and has presented a prototype of a mobile phone that can be worn as a wristband. The 6.9-inch diagonal POLED screen is flexible and can be wrapped around the wrist.

Dog Robots

Robots are once again one of the main protagonists at the Congress, and this year, there were two that stood out: Xiaomi’s CyberDog 2 and Tecno’s Dynamic 1.

Xiaomi unveiled version 2.0 of its “robodog,” which has a more animal-like appearance, resembling a metallic Doberman. It is equipped with the self-developed CyberGear micro-actuator, which improves the robot’s mobility and helps it perform high-difficulty maneuvers, such as continuous backflips and fall recovery. In fact, it can stand on one leg.

CyberDog 2 is equipped with 19 high-precision sensors for vision, touch, and hearing, consisting of an AI-backed interactive camera, four ToF sensors, a LiDAR sensor, a depth camera, an ultrasonic sensor, a fisheye lens sensors, a force sensor, and two ultra-wideband sensors.

For its part, Tecno has unveiled Dynamic 1, a dog-shaped robot with built-in AI equipped with headlights to lighten up the darkest paths. It can climb stairs, bend down, or shake hands. It also responds to voice commands, as it is equipped with four microphones and an AI-based voice recognition algorithm.

The robot is able to respond to certain requests via an app or remote control, thanks to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. It is powered by an ARM CPU, which enables dynamic stability, fast post-fall recovery, and speeds of up to 3.7 meters per second.

What’s new on Android

Google has taken the opportunity to showcase the new features coming to its platforms and services. AI is going to be the protagonist of the improvements in all of them, where the following stand out:

• Android Auto: will now be able to summarise long messages or chats via AI, as well as generate responses to them.
• AI-generated image descriptions: Lookout will now include the ability to generate descriptions on these images, which will help people in need of accessibility tools.
• Better integration of Lens in Google Maps: it will now be possible to circle a place on the map to get relevant information.
• Support for handwritten comments in Google Docs: for those with a stylus-enabled tablet or smartphone, handwritten annotations in Google Docs will be possible, as well as annotations using your finger.

These are just a few, but they promised many more in tools such as Google Wallet, Wear OS, Spotify or Fitbit.

So far all the news from MWC 2024, but if you don’t want to miss out on the latest tech trends, sign up for our newsletter!