MWC 2018: what we want to see

MWC (or Mobile World Congress to give it its full name) is one of the biggest events on the mobile calendar, with 2017’s Barcelona show bringing us the LG G6, Sony Xperia XZ Premium and Huawei P10 among dozens of other devices.

With the next show not happening until February 26 2018 we’re a long way from MWC 2018, but as we get closer and news and rumors about what we’re likely to see start to emerge we’ll add them all to this article, and in the meantime we’ve come up with a wish list of what we want to see.

So have a read, see if you agree, and let us know in the comments if there’s anything else you’re really hoping for at MWC 2018.

Cut to the chase

What is it? The biggest phone show of 2018
When is it? It all kicks off on February 26, 2018

MWC 2018 news

There's no MWC 2018 news yet, but with the LG G6, Huawei P10 and Sony Xperia XZ Premium announced at MWC 2017 there's a good chance we'll see the LG G7, Huawei P11 and a new Sony flagship at the 2018 show, as well as numerous other phones and probably some tablets and wearables too.

Previous shows have also seen the likes of Samsung and HTC use the Barcelona event as a platform to launch handsets, but both opted to launch the Samsung Galaxy S8 and HTC U11 away from the bright lights of MWC in 2017.

The dates of the event have already been confirmed, with MWC 2018 taking place between February 26 and March 1 2018 in Barcelona. We'll be reporting live from the show to bring you all the latest phone launches.

What we want to see

With nothing yet announced, or even rumored, for MWC 2018 we’re free to dream of all the things we might see, or at least hope to see. The following are among our most wanted.

1. Samsung Galaxy S9

Samsung didn’t entirely skip MWC 2017, in fact it even held a press conference, but instead of the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus (which arrived later) we got the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3.

It’s understandable that Samsung would want a separate event away from the madness of MWC to launch its biggest phone, but then the S8 is big enough that it would easily be the most popular launch of the show, so a separate announcement isn’t really needed.

We hope Samsung will make MWC 2018 one to remember by using it to launch the Samsung Galaxy S9.

2. A folding phone

It’s felt like folding phones have been just over the horizon for years now, but there’s growing evidence that late 2017 or early 2018 could be when we’ll finally see one, and MWC 2018 would be the ideal place for it to launch.

Hopefully when it does launch it will be more than just a gimmick, and won’t cost so much we need to sell our kidneys to buy it.

3. A smartwatch renaissance

MWC 2017 gave us the Huawei Watch 2 and Huawei Watch 2 Classic, but not much else in the way of wearables, despite the fact that Android Wear 2.0 launched shortly before the show.

We were hoping that the first major Android Wear update would be accompanied by a shower of new smartwatches, but it wasn’t to be.

More are set to land over the course of 2017, but seemingly only from a few manufacturers, so hopefully MWC 2018 will be used as an opportunity for companies to get back into the Android Wear game in big numbers.

But we don’t just want new watches, they also need to do genuinely new things and improve on the existing models to make them more desirable.

Better battery life tops our list of wants from them, since a watch we need to charge every day is not the future we envisioned.

4. More from Nokia

The bug success story from MWC 2017 wasn't a flagship smartphone that costs hundreds - it was the reboot of the iconic Nokia 3310.

Launched to whip up interest in the Nokia brand again, the new 3310 was used to draw attention to the return of the famous name to the mobile market. It arrived alongside a trio of Android phones - which we're still waiting to go on sale - but we're hungry for more.

We'd love to see HMD Global (the firm that's licencing the Nokia name) produce a Samsung and Apple rivaling handset at MWC 2018.

5. A real iPad rival

There hasn’t been much of interest in the world of Android tablets lately, other than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, which itself was announced at MWC 2017.

At 2018’s show we’d like to see a larger number of slates, and for at least some of them to genuinely match up to the newly announced iPad Pro 2 duo.

6. Innovation

MWC 2017 saw the launch of numerous bigger and better phones across the low, mid and high-end, but the improvements were usually the expected ones – sharper screens, faster chipsets and so on.

Innovation wasn’t absent, but it was in short supply, so while we certainly wouldn’t say no to all the usual improvements next year, we hope they’re accompanied by more truly new, different and interesting things.

7. Big phones from small companies

While smaller companies weren’t absent from MWC 2017, they generally failed to grab much attention, and that’s not just because they’re not household names, but also because – in many cases at least - their announcements were genuinely less interesting.

We’d like to see more lesser known brands grab headlines with exciting announcements at MWC 2018.

That might be tough for small companies, but there’s potential for huge – but little known in the west – companies like Xiaomi to do it.

8. The next generation of fitness trackers

As well as an absence of smartwatches there wasn’t much for fitness fans to see at MWC 2017 either, so we’d like to see an influx of sporty wearables at MWC 2018.

And as with smartwatches these need to be significant improvements on what’s gone before – perhaps somehow automatically tracking a wider range of workouts than most of the current selection, like weights and yoga.