‘Please Sir,
I want some more’ said Oliver, and were he living in the 21st century, he’d
surely mean Ian McGurren’s MWC 2012 coverage…
Ian is a
professional IT analyst, a semi-professional writer and a pretty amateur
electronic musician. He likes gadgetry and loves making gadgets do things they
were never designed to do.
BarcelonaTech (UPC) is taking part in the Mobile
World Congress (MWC) 2012
MWC 2012
was the year mobile phones and tablets made the jump to quad-core CPUs, with
chipsets such as NVidia’s Tegra 3 powering many of the devices at the
conference. However, there was one company which has decided to make its own
chips in order to offer a low-cost solution: the-possibly-named-by-Geordies
Huawei (the lads). There was a positive buzz around tis Ascend D handsets,
powered by its K3V2 SoC design, a chip that’s being kept for Huawei’s use only.
Both come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, 1.5GHz CPUs, large 720p IPS
displays and more. Look for them in the next few months, possibly under an
operator’s branding.
Joining the
smartphone ranks since last releasing a mobile phone in the West around 2004 is
Japanese home entertainment giant Panasonic. Announced at MWC to a reasonable
fanfare, the Eluga is on paper not only difficult to pronounce, but a pretty
straightforward affair – 4.3” 960 x 540 OLED display, dual-core 1GHz CPU,
Android Gingerbread. However, it has some defining features, such as being
housed in a shell that is not only super thin (8.9mm) but water- and dust-proof
to IP57 standards. There are also a few tricks up its sleeve when working with
Panasonic Viera TVs too. Can it compete with the big names, though?
Samsung Galaxy
Samsung’s
Android dreadnought, the 5.3” Galaxy Note, had no competition in the huge phone
stakes – until now. Thinking that Samsung may be on to something, fellow Korean
company LG has also thrown its gate (yes, a Korean hat) into the ring, and what
a big gat it is. The LG Optimus Vu is a 5” device in a curious 1024x768 4:3
arrangement, 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and like the Note, a stylus. It’s big,
there’s no doubt about it, some 4” across, and bizarrely still as tall as the
Note. However, as the jury is still out on the Note, will the Vu even make it
past the starting line?
Two of the
quirkier devices from MWC 2012 were Asus’s Padfone and Samsung’s Galaxy Beam.
Both are mobile phones, but like superheroes, both have a hidden secret power.
Asus’s Padfone
Asus’s
Padfone has echoes of Motorola’s Atrix handset, and like the name suggests,
it’s a ‘fone’ that transforms into a ‘pad’ (or tablet to you and me). This
seems a pretty sensible solution for those of us with device overload or who
simply want to be able to use their phones with a bigger screen. Slip the
1.5GHz powered ICS handset into the screen and not only do you get a 10”
1280x800 screen to play with, but there’s also a ton more battery power.
There’s even a keyboard coming, making this a tantalising prospect for those
after an all-in-one approach.
Finally,
ever looked at your phone and thought ‘It’s great, but what it really needs is
the ability to project an image onto a wall in pasty low resolution’? Of course
you have, and Samsung has heard your prayers! The Galaxy Beam is a sort of Galaxy
S with a tiny LED projector popping out the top like one of those little LED
torches. A decent handset in itself (3.8” screen, dual-core 1GHz CPU, Android
2.3), the projector pushed a 15 lumens bright 50” image at around three feet.
Useful for
business and possibly as a teaching aid, it’ll probably be equally at home
being used by kids to project rude words on the backs of unsuspecting members
of the public.
