Mobile World Congress (MWC 2019) - the largest and arguably the most important mobile industry event – is taking place in Barcelona, Spain, from Feb 25 to Feb 28, exhibiting plethora of new devices and setting the hottest trends in 2019.

As usual, Strategy Analytics will have a large team of analysts across Smartphones, Drones, Robots, Tablets, Wearables, Components, Smart Home and Connected Cars in attendance.

Please click here to meet our DEVICES analysts at the show.

Although the event is set to officially kick off on Feb 26 (Monday) vendors were eager to showcase their new devices in advance.

MWC 2019 Device Blog: Day 1: Smartphones is available here

On Day Two, we are turning our attention to some interesting devices and technologies from Huawei, LG, HMD (Nokia) and TCL Alcatel demoed in the show.

HUAWEI: In probably the most highly anticipated event, Huawei unveiled its first 5G Foldable Phone, the Huawei Mate X. When folded, the device is a smartphone with a 6.6-inch screen, and when opened, it becomes a tablet with an 8-inch screen. The device also sports a 7nm multi-mode modem chipset Balong 5000, a high-capacity 4500mAh battery and supports the 55W Huawei SuperCharge.

Huawei Mate X is a halo device, that not only looks sleek, but it can redefine how we perceive our mobile phones. Still, when Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's consumer products division, was announcing the price of the device, he had to contain his smile. That must not have been easy, facing the exasperated looks of the audience in front of him, when he proudly dropped the €2,299 price tag (retail).

It is debatable whether having foldable display and 5G capabilities in the same device together at such an early stage was the right decision. The 5G capabilities of the device will only delay its availability and makes its price extortionately high. What Huawei wanted to achieve though, was to establish itself as the leader in innovation, and it certainly managed to do that successfully.

XIAOMI unveiled a 5G version of its Mi Mix 3 smartphone, running on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor together with Qualcomm’s X50 5G modem. The Mi Mix 3 5G also includes an OLED 6.4-inch 1080p display with a hidden front-facing camera that slides out. It sports 12MP wide-angle and telephoto modules on the rear, and a 24MP selfie camera and 2MP sensor at the front. Mi Mix 3 5G will be available in May priced at US$500 wholesale, in blue and black colour variants.

If Huawei surprised us with the high price of its new 5G smartphone, Xiaomi surprised us with the low price of its new 5G smartphone. We are yet to see whether it’s sustainable for Xiaomi in the long term to work with such razor thin margins.

HMD (Nokia) announced five different devices on Sunday, covering different segments and price points:

• Nokia 9 PureView – features the world’s first five camera system on the back of a phone with ZEISS Optics. All five cameras can capture images simultaneously at different exposure and fuse them together. The new smartphone will start shipping from next week and it’s priced at around US$520 wholesale;
• Nokia 4.2 – it has a polycarbonate frame with a 5.71-inch HD+ display. It runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 439 processor and Android 9.0 (Pie). Available in April for US$120 wholesale price;
• Nokia 3.2 – a huge 4,000mAh battery powering a 6.26-inch HD+ screen and a Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 429processor. Available from May for US$100 wholesale;
• Nokia 1 Plus – an entry level smartphone 5.45-inch display, an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. Available in March for US$75 wholesale;
• Nokia 210 – a feature phone with internet capabilities, Dual-SIM and 16GB of storage. Available in March for US$18 wholesale price;

TCL ALCATEL: The Chinese vendor unveiled three new smartphones from its Alcatel brand, one new BlackBerry smartphone and a new technology enabling foldable displays.

• Alcatel 3 features TCL’s latest 5.9-inch 19.5:9 HD+ Super Full View Display with a mini notch providing an 88% screen-to-body ratio. It is powered by a Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 439 octa-core chipset and by a 3500mAh battery. The device will hit the market in Q2 2019 and it will be available for around US$130 wholesale price for the 3GB RAM / 32GB ROM version and US$160 for the 4GB RAM / 64GB ROM one.
• Alcatel 3L is the Lite version of the device above. It is powered by a Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 429 quad-core chipset and comes with 2GB RAM / 16GB ROM memory for US$110 wholesale.
• Alcatel 1S focuses on the entry segment of the market, giving you an octa-core processor , Android 9.0 (Pie) a 5.5-inch Full View Display for as low as US$90 wholesale price.

TCL also unveiled the BlackBerry KEY2 Red Edition. Featuring the iconic BlackBerry physical keyboard and loaded with BlackBerry’s security and privacy enhancements, this refreshed design of the familiar device come in a red aluminium frame with a special edition set of red BlackBerry-branded earbuds, all for the wholesale price of US$560.

Stay tuned for Day 3 blog tomorrow when we expect more news on some innovating technologies like foldable displays, 5G and AI.