The HTC One Series Smartphones

HTC used MWC as a chance to announce a new line of smartphones, the One Series – three Android powered phones.

HTC One X – Leading the pack is the One X, HTC’s new flagship smartphone. It will have a 4.7-inch 720p HD display, 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor (possibly the dual-core Snapdragon S4 in some markets), and 32GB of internal storage. If all goes as expected, it should be available by the end of April. This is definitely a phone to keep an eye on.

HTC One S – The One S will be the X’s little brother, weighing in a bit lighter with a 4.3-inch qHD display. Under the hood, it will have a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, so it ought to keep up with the X pretty well.

HTC One V – Intended as an entry-level device, the One V dials things back considerably. It will have a 3.7-inch display and only a 1GHz single-core processor, but despite its lackluster specs, this has the potential to be an excellent phone, as long as they get the price right.

Nokia 808 PureView

When we tell you about the 808 PureView, you’re going to think we’re nuts. Basically, it’s a smartphone with a 41MP camera – no, that’s not a typo. If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ll know that megapixels aren’t always everything, but as the PureView demonstrates, having a lot can be useful.

The 808 PureView actually only takes 5MP photo by default. For a smartphone, the ability to take giant 41MP photos that are typically 10MB in size isn’t exactly practical, so PureView uses the extra megapixels for a different purpose. All those extra pixels go towards things like lossless digital zoom and increased light sensitivity. This may very well be the first camra phone that can truly replace a point and shoot.

Samsung Galaxy Beam

We’ve seen those pocket-sized projectors; we’ve even seen Nikon stick one into a camera, but until now, we’ve never seen one in a phone. That’s exactly what the Galaxy Beam is, a 1GHz dual-core Android smartphone with an integrated projector. The projector unit itself only has a resolution of 640×360, but can project up to a 50 inch screen.

The Fancy New Mobile Processors

Both Intel and Qualcomm had a strong presence at MWC this year, and both had good reason. Intel got to showcase their brand new Medfield processor in an actual production phone, the Orange* Phone, built by Gigabyte.

In its current form, Medfield is only single-core, but don’t let that fool you. It uses x86 architecture, which is considerably more efficient than ARM. In terms of performance, the single-core Medfield processor is actually on par with some quad-core ARM chips. It will be very interesting to see how they truly perform when Intel powered smartphones hit the shelves later this year.

Qualcomm’s new processor is the Snapdragon S4. They’ve only so far announced dual-core versions, but quad-core variants will be out before the end of the year. But again, don’t let the core count fool you. The S4 processors showcased at MWC this year actually kept up with (and even out performed) Nvidia’s latest quad-core Tegra 3 offerings.

Microsoft’s Windows Announcement

Windows 8 has been in the works for quite a while over in the secret labs of Microsoft, but rumor has it that we’ll get to peak behind the curtain. Microsoft has plans to release a “Consumer Preview” version following its presentation at MWC. And considering that this is a conference for mobile technology, there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing a lot about Windows Phone 8 as well; however, a Windows Phone 8 launch is surely still a while off. Any official announcements will likely be about the WP7 “Tango” update.

Samsung Galaxy S III

Ineterestingly, some of the biggest news so far is actually news about a smartphone that won’t be there – the Samsung Galaxy S III. It would seem Samsung will be opting to host their own product launch event for the successor to the popular Galaxy S II, and possibly even as early as March 22^nd. Not a lot is known about the SIII, but rumors are that it will sport a quad-core Exynos 4412 processor with unrivaled graphics capabilities as well as a 12MP camera.

Qualcomm’s Quad-Core Chips

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor rocketed smartphones like the Nexus One and EVO 4G into the future with unheard-of performance at the time. Snapdragon S2 saw even more performance gains as well as major reductions in power draw. The S3 generation brought us dual-core, but at this point Nvidia had stepped in with Tegra 2. Once again, Nvidia has been first to the punch with its quad-core Tegra 3 processor, but Qualcomm has big plans for MWC this year. The next generation Snapdragon S4 will be grabbing a lot of attention this year. So far, we only know of dual-core S4 processor, but their performance actually competes with Nvidia’s Tegra 3. There’s a good chance MWC will give a glimpse at a few quad-core S4 behemoths.

HTC, Sony, and LG

With the exception of Apple, virtually every big mobile phone manufacturer will be attending MWC this year.

HTC in particular is expected to make a couple of big announcements. Not only do we expect to hear some official details on the upcoming Ville, a smartphone said to be only 8mm thick with some very attractive styling as well as power, but also the Endeavor, which is expected to be HTC’s latest flagship device, sporting a 4.7-inch 720p display and quad-core processor.

Sony should be busting out the Xperia U, which looks to be a slightly smaller version of the Xperia S. Its scaled down specs aren’t likely to steal the show, but Sony is also expected to showcase its updated User Interface for Android 4.0.

LG will likely be showcasing its new Optimus 4X HD smartphone. Like many other smartphones we expect to see at MWC, the Optimus 4X HD has a large 720p screen as well as a speedy quad-core Tegra 3 processor. It’ll also be showing the Optimus Vu, a 5-inch phone to compete with Samsung’s Galaxy Note, and the Optimus 3D Cube, an improved successor to the Optimus 3D.