But as the show's banners fluttered in the wind along with the Catalan and Spanish flags on the eve of the show, business and politics got a little too close for comfort for a brief, uneasy moment. King Felipe of Spain was in town, but not everyone was happy about it. The king comes every year for the show, but following the failed referendum in October , his presence was more contentious than usual.
I saw it firsthand in the protest that sprung up in the heart of the city. Suited executives from around the world landing in Barcelona on Sunday evening were greeted by traffic jams and the clanging sounds of people all over the city standing on their balconies beating their pots and pans in unison. If only anything at the show could leave a similar impression.
Wandering from to meeting to meeting, I encountered many executives with little to show and even less to say. Samsung's big unveiling of the Galaxy S9 scared off some of its rivals and eclipsed the efforts of others. And even the Galaxy S9, which offered the same camera in a similar body, wasn't blowing anyone away. A few companies tried to make a splash.
But the startup was hoping recapture the lightning in the bottle it enjoyed with last year's similarly nostalgia-inducing , and the novelty was starting to wear thin. Then there was the Asus Zenfone 5 , which was essentially a cheaper iPhone X, complete with the notch.
The company happily took some of the wind out of its own sails back at CES, when it announced that its next big thing would be arriving this month, offering up teasers all along the way. A few days in, few major competitors have emerged for the title. As promised, most of the big upgrades are camera relate d, bringing improved low light through a dual-aperture camera and some really neat real-time translation tricks with Bixby vision. Samsung also upgraded DeX and continued kicking the ball forward with the promise of a new version of Bixby around the corner.
The devices will more than likely run up against the same sort of problems that have plagued the Xperia for as long as anyone can remember, never really becoming the kind of smartphone competitor the company is truly capable of. But the devices do mark a step toward Sony taking these devices more serious as consumer products, rather than simple showcases for its camera tech. In , the growing theme is AI, with almost every major manufacturer promising to sprinkle machine-learning magic onto their devices.
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John joined TechRadar a decade ago as Staff Writer for Phones, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry.
Originally specializing in phones, tablets and wearables, John is now TechRadar's resident automotive expert, reviewing the latest and greatest EVs and PHEVs on the market.
John also looks after the day-to-day running of the site. North America. Update: MWC is over, drawing to a close another huge show for the smartphone world. Samsung's Bixby smart speaker is coming for Apple's HomePod. Nokia 4G was so nearly a spring-loaded Matrix phone. Energizer smartphones have batteries that just keep going. McAfee is keeping your WiFi network safe with an Alexa skill.
Moto G6 is a no show at MWC but it's 'coming soon'. Ericsson tells operators: 5G is ready. This phone of the future has a pop-up selfie camera and a half-screen fingerprint scanner. Blackberry is here for you, whether you like it or not. It's too easy to say the Samsung Galaxy S9 is boring. Image 1 of 2. Image 2 of 2. Image 1 of 3. Image 2 of 3. Image 3 of 3. Image 1 of 5. Image 2 of 5. Image 3 of 5. Image 4 of 5. Image 5 of 5. Image 1 of 4. Image 2 of 4.
Image 3 of 4. Image 4 of 4. John McCann. See more Mobile phones news.
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