We’ve spent the last week in Barcelona checking out all the latest and greatest in the world of tech, and having visited all the booths and exhibitions, we’ve picked out the best of MWC 2024. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.
For those who don’t know, MWC, or Mobile World Congress, is the biggest smartphone trade event on the calendar, with brands from all over the world coming together to display and detail their latest products. This year’s gathering was as impressive a showcase as ever, with everything from AI-powered smartphones to innovative AR gaming consoles, and we’ve got our picks for the best of the lot down below.
Best phone – Xiaomi 14 Ultra
This award was a tricky pick, with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and the HONOR Magic6 vying for the top spot. Still, there can only be one winner, and for us, that’s the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. Xiaomi’s latest flagship is bold and beautiful, with some of the best cameras and photography features we’ve ever seen on a smartphone.
It also has all the AI capabilities we’ve come to expect from a device in 2024, including potentially the best implementation of text-to-image generative AI we saw at the show. With how impressive this device is, it’s no wonder the brand built up the hype in the run-up to this year’s MWC. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is certainly worthy of all the praise that it’s receiving.
Best folding phone – Porsche Design HONOR Magic V2 RSR
While the Magic6 just lost out on our top spot for the best smartphone, there’s no doubt at all that the Porsche Design HONOR Magic V2 RSR stole the show in terms of foldable phones this year.
Sure, it’s expensive, but it boasts a beautiful design, top-tier performance, and a vivid 120Hz LTPO OLED with a peak brightness of 1,600 nits, all of which make it the ideal first foldable for those still not convinced by the form factor. For more on this one, we’ve got a full Porsche Design HONOR Magic V2 RSR review that is well worth checking out.
Best gaming phone – TECNO POVA 6 Pro 5G
Considering the TECNO POVA 6 Pro 5G’s low price point and impressive specs, this might end up being one of the best gaming phones of the year, let alone what was on show at MWC. With a fantastic battery life that promises hours of gaming, or even longer with just everyday use, this thing is an absolute bargain and is more than capable of giving some of the much more expensive gaming-orientated phones a run for their money.
It also sports an exciting design with mini LEDs you can set to different patterns, and a build suited to sitting comfortably in the palm of your hands for extended PUBG Mobile sessions. We’ll have a full review of this device in the coming weeks, so watch out for that.
Best rugged phone – IIIF150 Air2 Ultra
They might not attract as much hype as the foldable and flagship devices from other brands, but MWC 2024 had plenty of rugged phones, and the IIIF150 Air2 Ultra was our favorite of the bunch. It’s remarkably thin at just 8.5mm thick, packs a 108MP camera, and is even 5G capable, which is more of a rarity than you might think in the world of durable devices.
Still, our favorite part of the Air2 Ultra is its design, with the camera bump on the back resembling the thruster engines of a fighter jet. This thing means business and is a real statement of intent from one of the brands fighting for dominance in the rugged phone arena.
Best concept – Motorola adaptive display concept
It’s hard to look past the Motorola adaptive display concept as the best concept phone at MWC this year purely due to its originality. This flexible phone can snap around your wrist, form an arch perfect for playing a game of Connect Four with a friend, or just function as a regular old smartphone.
Motorola was keen to point out that this is just a proof of concept, but in a world of folding and flip phones, it wouldn’t be a big surprise to see something similar arrive on the market eventually. We’re hoping so, anyway.
Best portable gaming console – Ayaneo Pocket S
We weren’t expecting a glut of handheld gaming devices at MWC 2024, and there wasn’t one, but of those we saw, the Ayaneo Pocket S takes the cake. It’s a compact thing that has a lot of performance horsepower thanks to its Snapdragon Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 processor, and its form factor is ideal for playing games on the go without taking up too much space in your backpack. When it arrives, we’re almost sure this one is going to end up on our list of the best portable gaming consoles.
Best AR/VR gaming console – TECNO Pocket Go
While there wasn’t a mass of contenders for this section, the TECNO Pocket Go is a worthy winner, with the brand’s innovative take on portable AR gaming delivering on all fronts. With just a regular-sized controller and an unassuming pair of AR glasses, this thing offers console-level gaming with a headset that never feels disorientating or irritating to the eyes.
I played ten minutes of Cyberpunk 2077 on the Pocket Go at the TECNO booth, and were it not for the queue of others waiting for a go, I could have easily sat there all day engaged in the world of Night City.
Best smartwatch – Xiaomi Watch 2
This award was another hotly contested field, but the Xiaomi Watch 2 marries fantastic usability with an affordable price point in a smartwatch that we can’t help but recommend. It looks the part, with a sleek design and vibrant 1.43-inch AMOLED display while providing all the health and usability perks of a smartwatch, made better still by the implementation of Google’s WearOS operating system.
The smartwatch market might be getting more crowded by the year, but with this device, Xiaomi is proving once again that it’s one of the best in the game.
The best of MWC 2024 has us excited for the year ahead. For more tech featuring at this year’s event, be sure to check out our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review and Poco X6 Pro review. Or, if you’re looking for a new phone yourself, see our guides to the best Google Pixel phones, the best Xiaomi phones, and the best Samsung phones.