Welcome to Stuff’s MWC 2024 Awards — our hand-picked collection of the very best products from the cavernous halls of Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona. From formidable smartphone cameras and transparent laptops, to wearable smartphone concepts and smart rings, it’s been a heck of a show.
And while we’ve only selected the cream of the crop below, there have been plenty of other announcements worthy of your attention, and you’re welcome to peruse them all at our MWC 2024 Hub. With that said (and in no particular order), here are our MWC 2024 awards:
OnePlus Watch 2
The original OnePlus Watch left plenty of reviewers wanting for more, but the company’s second attempt is shaping up to be very exciting indeed. The OnePlus Watch 2, to give it its full (if not unsurprising) name, is a fitness-focused smartwatch with a premium, albeit safe, design. But it’s the impressive battery life that’s the real headline grabber. It somehow manages to pack in a whopping 100 hours of juice on a single charge, making it a great option for power users. That battery life is rated for full smart features too, which means you’re not limiting yourself with some ultra battery-saving mode that kills GPS and screen-on time. The watch is packed with health, sleep, and fitness tracking smarts, including GPS and heart rate monitoring. At $299 (UK priced TBC), the OnePlus Watch 2 is shaping up to be a compelling option for those looking for a feature-rich smartwatch that won’t leave them stranded without a charge.
Honor Magic 6 Pro
Available in black and a rather fetching epi green, the Magic Pro 6 turned quite a few heads at the MWC show floor. Packed with the power of a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and sporting a striking 2.5K 6.8in LPTO display for 120Hz refresh rate goodness, it also lands with a smattering of AI tricks. These arrive in the form of Magic Portal, which has a slew of useful features including more intuitive sharing, while detecting addresses in text and automatically directing you to Google Maps, for example. Overall, it should mean fewer steps to carry out everyday tasks, which is no bad thing if executed properly. On the photography front, there’s a 180MP OIS periscope telephoto lens with 2.5x optical zoom, and up to 100x digital zoom. There’s also a 50MP ultrawide camera, along with a 50MP main camera sensor for sharpshooting photographers.
Xiaomi 14 Ultra
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is, simply put, one of the most exciting smartphones we’ve seen this year, from a photography standpoint at least. The main camera has a formidable 1in sensor, paired with a stepless f/1.63-f/4.0 variable aperture for immersive bokeh, or razor-sharp shots depending on your mood. There’s also a 12mm ultrawide camera with an f/1.8 aperture and 5cm focusing distance for macro snaps, along with two telephoto lenses: a 75mm, f/1.8 floating lens and a 120mm, f/2.5 one. In-sensor cropping and zoom also throw 46mm and 240mm focal lengths to the mix, and you can supercharge the entire experience with an optional camera kit, which provides extra grip with a built-in battery, a dedicated video recording button, a zoom dial, and a two-phase shutter button. That’s all without mentioning its premium build, beautiful screen, powerful innards, and fast charging. Seriously impressive stuff, and we can’t wait to put it through its paces.
Lenovo Transparent Laptop
Do we need a transparent laptop? Probably not. And yet, it appeals to our love of all things tech, and the concept see-through laptop at Lenovo’s booth suitably and simultaneously impressed and boggled our minds in equal measure. With a transparent keyboard to match its translucent Micro-LED screen, it looks like it’s been plucked straight out of a Cyberpunk future, and we love its bold, mad design. We’re sure there are some useful applications beyond the cool factor, and we could likely see some of the same design elements trickle their way into notebooks in the near future. For now though, it’s given us a dopamine rush that only bonkers concept tech can provide, and we salute Lenovo for it.
Xiaomi AI Portrait
Xiaomi’s AI Portrait feature was unveiled at MWC 2024, and the functionality is rather impressive, to say the least. In essence, if you have around 20 photos of yourself or another subject, you can instantly create photo-realistic versions of them. Whether you want to stand in front of an active volcano, or skydive towards a swimming pool of sharks, the AI Portrait mode should, in theory, let you do all of that without risking a single hair on your precious head. Naturally, there will be strict limitations in place to keep things respectable. Debuting on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, the feature is sure to roll out to more handsets in future, and opens up a whole new world of WhatsApp group meme possibilities.
Samsung Galaxy Ring
After a few teasers earlier this year, we finally got to see a version of Samsung’s Galaxy Ring in the flesh. A smart ring that wants to bring the fight straight to the likes of Oura, it promises to deliver lightweight health and sleep tracking, with a trio of attractive finishes and multiple sizes to choose from. There’s no official price or release date yet (and it’ll only work with Samsung Galaxy devices upon launch), but it could be the first smart ring to propel the wearable format into the mainstream. We look forward to our full review, whenever it happens to land on our desks at Stuff HQ.
Moto Cuff
More than a decade ago, we found ourselves trawling through concept phones that were bendable and wearable. They were all very much in 2D form though, but Motorola has finally forged something tangible that pretty much delivers on those early visions in every way. Dubbed the Moto Cuff, it’s the real-life concept of a handset that the company showed off late last year. In the flesh, it’s a rather attractive bendable screen, secured in place by a fabric-covered back that hides a whole host of hinges within, allowing it to bend and retain various shapes, including one that hugs your wrist. It’s not exactly solving any practical problems, but it’s eye-catching, different, and reminds us of the Wild West handset days when Nokia ruled, and smartphones came in all sorts of crazy formats.
TCL Nxtpaper 14 Pro
At first glance, the TCL Nxtpaper 14 Pro appears to be just another tablet, but turn it on, and its screen will strike you as unique. Featuring xtpaper 3.0 technology, it’s a rare matte display which promises to filter harmful blue light by up to 61%, while removing pesky reflections and glare. In person, the effect is similar to that of a paper-like e-ink screen, but with the benefit of full colour, deep contrast, and much faster refresh rates. Featuring a MediaTek Dimensity 8020 CPU and a hefty 12GB of RAM (with a substantial 12,000mAh battery, 33W fast charging, and 256GB storage), it’s a respectable tablet in every other way too, and we’re looking forward to it expanding beyond the Asian market later this year.
