Best of MWC 2026: We found the biggest news from Lenovo, Xiaomi, Honor, more

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Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 has kicked off, and it's shaping up to be a landmark event. Coming quickly after the latest flagship reveals from Samsung and Google, the Barcelona showcase is pivoting the conversation toward the breakthrough trends and hardware innovations that will define the rest of the year, and ZDNET is on the ground with front-row seats.

Also: I tried Honor's ultra-thin foldable phone at MWC 2026, and it's almost too powerful

As is tradition, industry giants like Xiaomi and Honor are set to dominate the exhibition floor, with their own keynotes already have taken place over the weekend. While Google and Samsung will maintain their own presence, the focus will likely be on ecosystem integration rather than major new hardware.

Of course, the real magic of MWC lies in the "showstopper" -- that unexpected, boundary-pushing reveal that catches the entire industry off guard. We'll be on the lookout for that over the coming days, as the showfloor officially opens today and runs through the rest of the week.

This year's MWC will run from March 2 to March 5, but manufacturers have already announced products over the weekend. While the trade show was built around members of the press, analysts, business partners, and brands, anyone can access the show floor by purchasing a ticket for about $1,028.

By Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Mar. 3

Motorola announced a partnership with the GrapheneOS Foundation, and this will bring the private and open-source operating system to Motorola phones by 2027. As ZDNET expert Steven Vaughan-Nichols writes, this partnership could create one of the first viable, independent, and open-source smartphones. 

Also: I can't wait for Motorola's GrapheneOS phones: Why they're a win for privacy and open source

GrapheneOS builds on an open-source mobile operating system with privacy enhancements baked in. It runs most Google play apps. While the partnership between Motorola and GrapheneOS Foundation steers the phone company in the open-source direction, it's worth noting that Motorola won't be replacing its Android operating system with GrapheneOS. 

By Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Mar. 3

Oukitel's rugged lineup of phones continues with its WP63 smartphone -- and this one is hot. Seriously. 

The phone, which Oukitel describes as an "outdoor power beast" comes with a built-in igniter, which could be used for starting fires in the woods or lighting a cigarette. I wonder just how safe a phone that can ignite a fire can possibly be, given the fact that it also has a powerful battery, and, well, fire and batteries don't always mesh well together.

But that's not the only highlight. It also has a USB-C cable for charging other devices, alongside a 20,000 mAh battery. It's a seriously chunky phone built for outdoor explorers. 

By Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Mar. 3

Unihertz just unveiled its Titan 2 Elite, and if you squint, it looks like a Blackberry of yore. The device boosts a 4.05 OLED screen and a QWERTY keyboard, if you've been missing tactile buttons on your iPhone. And like the iPhone, the Titan 2 Elite also mimics iPhone 17's burnt orange with a rusty orange finish of its own. The retro-looking smartphone has some modern touches, like the keyboard that functions as a trackpad and program shortcuts for keys. The Kickstarter for the device opens this month.

By Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Mar. 3

T-Mobile wants AI to handle your calls in a more substantial way, and it's not waiting for phone makers to create a feature for it. The company unveiled the Magenta AI Call Assistant at Mobile World Congress. The assistant will perform live translations, summarize calls, and ask questions on behalf of the phone user. In the future, Telekom will add more integrations and functions into the AI-assisted phone calls. This could be performing bookings, filling out forms on a user's behalf or asking questions for scheduling appointments. 

The feature arrives first for Deutsche Telekom users in Germany. However, the feature could give us a few hints of what T-Mobile could unveil in US markets after its European rollout. 

If you've been following Lenovo's flashy rollable laptop concepts, you won't be surprised that the latest gadget to receive the technology is the new Legion Go Fold -- a gaming handheld proof of concept with a POLED touchscreen expanding from 7.7 inches to 11.6 inches. 

It's similar to a foldable phone, with a display that opens like a book (and features that inevitable crease in the middle). But there are some interesting use cases here that I've yet to see on a gaming handheld.

Also: Lenovo's new PCs offer a glimpse of the future - and it's modular

You've got the standard handheld mode, a vertical split mode where you hold the device in portrait configuration and split the display, or a horizontal mode in full-screen where you can game on the entire 11.6-inch display. That's fully into gaming tablet territory.

Similar to the Legion Go, the controllers on either side are detachable and can be configured separately in any of the mentioned modes. Inside, it's powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor and 32GB of RAM and can connect to its own portable keyboard to work like a laptop (similar to a Surface Pro).

Note that it's still a proof of concept so there's no release date yet, but since it's utilizing lots of existing technology here I've got my fingers crossed we'll see some developments later this year. 

By Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Mar. 2

It's never too early to begin talking about the latest communication standard, and there's no better a time to begin this conversation than during MWC. 

On Sunday, telecommunications company Ericsson announced that it successfully completed the world's first 6G pre-standard over-the-air session. These sessions are benchmarks for the standard's readiness. The new platform could further support satellite connectivity and create AI native networks, according to The Verge. 

AI giant Nvidia is already game for 6G, and leading the charge. It's partnering with telecom providers like Cisco, Nokia, T-Mobile, and Ericsson to accelerate the connectivity's build."Unlike 5G, 6G is being born in the AI era, and the networks of today simply aren't ready for the use cases of tomorrow," said Ronnie Vasishta, senior vice president of telecommunications at Nvidia. 

Demos could arrive as early as 2028 during the Olympics, and we could start seeing 6G in action as early as 2030. 

Remember how good the physical keyboards were on the Blackberry and the Sidekick? It's not just nostalgia -- a well-optimized physical QWERTY keyboard is a satisfying user experience.

I won't say they're fully back yet, but we're seeing interesting iterations, such as the Clicks Power Keyboard -- a MagSafe device that debuted at CES that mounts onto your phone to add physical keys. 

Clicks isn't stopping there, though, its new Android phone -- the Communicator -- was designed around the physical keyboard and resembles what a Blackberry might look like in 2026. Besides the keyboard, it has a customizable LED that changes colors based on which app is pushing notifications. 

The Communicator will run Android 16, support Bluetooth, NFC, both NanoSIM and eSIM, and is currently on pre-order until March 15th for $399.

By Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Mar. 2

We're two days away from Apple's "Special Apple Experience" taking place in New York, London, and Shang Hai on Wednesday. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped the tech giant from drumming up some hype ahead of time with the release of its affordable iPhone 17e and the M4 iPad Air, Apple announced on Monday. The affordable iPhone gets Apple's A19 chip (the same chip that's in the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air), more storage (at 256GB, the base gets 128 more GB than the iPhone 16e), and MagSafe capabilities. Apple says this phone is more durable, too. It comes in white, black, and soft pink, and its starting price is $599. 

Within the deeper halls of MWC, I came across a modular smartphone design concept by a lesser-known company, Tecno. But, man, is the product ambitious. On its own, the Tecno phone measures 4.9mm thin (compared to the iPhone Air's 5.6mm).

That leaves room for the company's plethora of modules for the device -- I counted ten in total -- including an enhanced telephoto lens, portable battery packs, and clip-on straps. 

While this is merely a concept, meaning we may not actually see this on the market any time soon, it shows that the ultrathin phone form factor shouldn't be limited in functionality.

Ahead of its March 5 event, Nothing today unveiled two more colors for its upcoming Phone 4a: Blue and Black. The former is easily the more interesting of the two, as it has a turquoise-like appearance, layered with components, wiring, and glowing indicators throughout the back cover.

Also: How Nothing plans to crash Apple's March launch party

The company gave media members at MWC a sneak preview of the colors, alongside the Pink and White variants that were announced earlier, this afternoon. We'll learn more about the phone on Thursday, including pricing and availability.

By building Nxtpaper over AMOLED, TCL says its phones can now achieve more vivid visuals while retaining the level of eye comfort we've come to expect. In a warm, naturally-lit room, I picked up a working model and saw the difference myself.

Since the beginning, TCL Nxtpaper has been rooted in LCD panels, partly for the ease of light management (to create that natural e-paper appearance) and cost. The downside of LCD backlighting, however, is reduced contrast and color accuracy. That's where AMOLED comes in. 

Also: TCL showed me its Nxtpaper AMOLED phone at MWC, and my eyes couldn't believe it

With a paper-like image sample set, the AMOLED unit and an LCD one (albeit an older TCL model), the former was noticeably more color accurate, portraying the brownish tones no matter if it was dimmer or brighter. 

In fact, the brightness of the AMOLED unit was just a little past the 50% mark when it matched the LCD one's max. That's another big draw of the panel upgrade.

If you're based in the US, Lenovo sneakily released a host of new laptops and concepts overnight, including ThinkPad, Yoga, and Legion models. Let's focus on some of the concepts here.

It's debatable which one of the many concepts is the most bizarre, but my vote goes to the Modular AI PC, which has a detachable secondary display that can be mounted onto the back cover of the laptop, the base of the laptop (by removing the keyboard), or set on a kickstand. 

You can freely configure your workflow's setup. The ports, including USB-C, USB-A, and HDMI, are hot-swappable, too.

Also: Is Microsoft really spying on you with Windows telemetry?

Then there's the Legion Go Fold, featuring a 7.7-inch display that can expand to 11.6 inches and can be connected to detachable controllers in vertical or horizontal orientation. When not used as a gaming tablet, the Legion Go Fold can be mounted onto a keyboard case, becoming an ultraportable, 2-in-1 computing device.

Lenovo also showed off the AI Workmate Concept here in Barcelona, a desk robot with an articulating head that can converse with you and project images and documents as requested. It won't be the quietest workmate, nor can it travel with you as you navigate a hybrid workflow, but Lenovo believes it's a potential avenue for future spatial capabilities.

Honor also unveiled the Magic V6 foldable phone, which ZDNET's Jason Howell tested ahead of the launch and says is the thinnest yet powerful of its kind. 

The Magic V6 measures 8.75mm thin when closed, is rated IP68 and IP69 for water and dust resistance, and somehow packs a 6,660mAh battery thanks to its silicon-carbon material. That's compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7's 4,400mAh. It's not even close.

Also: I held the thinnest foldable phone at MWC 2026, and it sets a satisfying new standard

But there's more: Honor says the Magic V6 outer and inner displays can reach a peak brightness of 6,000 and 5,000 nits, respectively. That only applies to HDR content, but is still a number we've yet to see on foldables, raising the bar for media consumption.

Powering the phone is Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, the same one found in the recently released Samsung Galaxy S26 series.

We're officially on Day 2 of what I'll call "MWC Preview Weekend," and Honor is leading the news wave today with its AI Vision keynote. There, the company announced several new hardware products, including some fresh information on its wild Robot Phone, which debuted at CES.

The Robot Phone may be the richest embodiment of AI in a handset that we've seen thus far, for better or worse. It's shaped like a traditional phone, with a slab-like design, but features a rotating camera gimbal that extends from the back of the device.

CNET: A Phone With a Robot Arm? I Got a First Glimpse at Honor's Quirky Camera Phone

There are some creative use cases with such a feature, like body-tracking during video calls and more stabilized recording. Then, there are some more questionable use cases, like its playful nods and head shakes (and Honor says it can even dance to music), that give it more personality. Because we all want our phones to have a little more character, no?

Honor hasn't shared a definitive release date for the Robot Phone yet, but it positions the brand well in an AI hardware space that's constantly seeking out what's next.

I just got out of Xiaomi's Saturday launch event, where the Chinese electronics maker announced a barrage of products, ranging from flagship phones and Gemini-supported wearables to a next-generation Gran Turismo hypercar. 

Judging by the audience reaction, one product was clearly the star of the show -- the Leica Leitzphone. While built on the framework of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, meaning most of its general specs are the same, the ultra-premium handset features three key differences: 

I have more to say about the device in an upcoming story, but it's up there for one of the most fun camera phones I've tested lately. Not everyone should buy one, though, as the Leica Leitzphone won't launch here in the US, and even if you are based in a region with availability, Xiaomi says it'll cost 1999 euros (roughly converting to $2.362).

By Nina Raemont, Wearables and Health Editor / Feb. 28

Will any phone at MWC be as pretty and pink as Nothing's Phone 4a? Ahead of the company's March 5 phone launch, it unveiled a pastel pink colorway that I can't help but be absolutely obsessed with. 

It'll be even better if that's just one of many pastel hues Nothing plans to offer the Phone 4a in, as the expected midrange device will need any bit of charm to appeal to the masses.

I just touched down in Barcelona and was not prepared for the immigration line to extend all the way to the walking belts. Either MWC is more bustling than ever, or the BCN airport is severely short-staffed. It might be a bit of both.