Mobile World Congress (MWC), the largest trade fair for mobile technologies, has started in Barcelona, Spain, and this year, according to the organizers, around 95,000 visitors from 200 countries will participate. More than 2,700 exhibitors will show them their latest innovations. They have time for this from Monday to Thursday. But some premiered already at the weekend during the so-called press days. The editors of SZ Tech present a selection of the most interesting.
One of the most important premieres was the launch of two new Chinese smartphones – Xiaomi 14 and 14 Ultra. Those with a larger storage capacity of 512 GB will cost 24,499 crowns and 34,999 crowns respectively. According to the manufacturer, they will raise the bar a bit higher in practically all respects. Despite lower consumption by about a third, the quality of the display and cameras has improved.
“In fact, it’s 17% more powerful than our previous generation, unlocking the ability to watch the incredibly immersive screen for even longer… The Xiaomi 14 has a peak brightness of 3000 nits, which is a huge advantage,” senior product manager TJ introduces the display and features of the new product in the video below Walton.
“It also has Leica’s triple professional lens system and spans over four different focal lengths for greater versatility and creativity when shooting. But there is more to it. It also has a new generation of lens for Summilux mobile phones and will have a new range of lenses that we helped produce for smartphones,” he adds.
New Xiaomi 14 and 14 Ultra smartphone models were presented at MWC 2024. Video: Jan Marek, AP
New software and tools with AI
Both smartphones use the Android operating system. The Chinese company also introduced the new HyperOS at the fair, i.e. a superstructure that, in addition to a more intuitive user environment and faster response, also boasts a number of artificial intelligence (AI) elements. And not only for rewriting texts or editing photos.
“It is my great pleasure to introduce Xiaomi HyperOS to the international market for the first time. It’s a human-centric operating system designed to connect personal devices, cars and smart home products into a single, integrated ecosystem,” company president William Lu added in Barcelona.
The same new operating system will be used – and therefore belong to the same extended ecosystem – also the new tablet from the Chinese brand, which is supposed to be a reaction to the latest models from Apple and Samsung.
“One of the eye-catching extensions is AI Art. It helps you effortlessly visualize your ideas and bring them to life with AI generated images. It is already built directly into the Mi Canvas application on the device. AI Art transforms your quick and simple sketches into finished, polished graphics. I can confidently say that the Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro 12.4 is our best tablet yet. To quickly recap what makes it so special – it has a 12-inch display with 3K resolution and a frequency of 144 Hz. It’s powered by a Snapdragon processor, has a giant battery and incredibly fast 120-watt charging. And it also has HyperOS on it, so it greatly expands the connectivity options,” adds Walton in another video from the trade show.
Xiaomi also showed a new tablet in Barcelona. Video: Jan Marek
Controlling mobile phones (and also cars) with the eyes
And as far as smartphones are concerned, another new Chinese model Honor Magic6 Pro was presented to the public before the start of the Mobile World Congress. It is also powered by Qualcomm’s extremely powerful yet very energy-efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, just like the new Xiaomi. In addition, it has a maximum display brightness of 2000 nits, so the price tag of 30,990 crowns with the same storage of 512 GB is probably not too surprising. But what is already surprising is how Honor presented its involvement of artificial intelligence in the capabilities of the mobile.
“We have developed a fun concept combining eye tracking technology and artificial intelligence in mobile. And we use it to remote control the car as you can see behind me. The user looks at the phone, it recognizes the stare and enters the command that he wants to communicate to the car,” James Brighton, who helped develop the project, describes how the new product works in the next video below.
The new Honor Magic6 Pro boasted that it could control the car using only its eyes. Video: Jan Marek, AP
“In fact, the 3D ToF lens on the phone’s front camera, which can detect faces and eyes, is to blame. And then with the help of an AI algorithm and our artificial intelligence technology, it recognizes eye movement, so we can recognize where you’re looking and then interact with it,” adds product expert Thomas Bai.
The Chinese smartphone maker has no plans to bring this feature to actual road use. It just demonstrates a new technology aimed at better sensing and faster execution of what the user intends to do. However, the system can be used when receiving phone calls or even shopping.
A laptop that works even with what’s behind it
And the fourth selected news from the press days in Barcelona is also from China and also contains AI. The largest computer manufacturer in the world, Lenovo unveiled a prototype of its laptop with a transparent screen. Similar to the consumer electronics fair CES in Las Vegas, the South Korean company LG presented its transparent TVs.
“We present the innovation in transparent devices. It’s a display that lets you interact with the real world rather than just staring at a screen. We can bring things in the background to the fore. And the exciting thing is that it opens up new user possibilities. Especially when you consider artificial intelligence and its capabilities and how we work with these devices, it’s groundbreaking. We want to enable augmented reality to digitally overlay the real world. And the transparent display makes it possible,” explains Tom Butler, Lenovo’s director of marketing, in the last video from the press days of the trade fair prepared by SZ Tech.
And just as there were transparent televisions at CES 2024, there was also a transparent laptop at MWC 2024. Video: Jan Marek, AP
The unique ThinkPad works on the basis of Micro LED, the display has a diagonal of 17.3 inches, i.e. almost 44 centimeters, and it is touch-sensitive. For now, however, this is only a concept, i.e. a prototype, not a serial production product. However, according to the Chinese manufacturer, one day it could find application in various fields – for example in the construction industry.
“Let’s say I’m an architect who wants to design a new bridge over a river, so I can go into the field, really say look at it and sketch it on the screen. This device also supports a pen. So you can take a digital stylus and interact at a 1:1 scale and design really physically in a real environment,” Butler adds in the video.
The editorial staff of SZ Tech will further inform you about other news from the Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona.
2024-02-27 09:30:31
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