MWC 2023 Live Blog: Fresh mobile gadgets from Xiaomi, OnePlus, Honor, and more

While most of the gadget world celebrates New Year with the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, for the phone world there is Mobile World Congress (MWC), the huge show in Barcelona focused on mobile technology. We’re on the ground in Spain covering the latest phone launches and forward-looking technology news, including flashy new devices from Xiaomi and OnePlus, and a race to talk to satellites. 

We’ve already seen the newest phones from Xioami, the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro, plus the rebadged Xiaomi 13 Lite. These phones made a big splash in Xiaomi’s home market of China, and now that they are going global we’ve gotten a hands-on look. 

We’re also expecting news from OnePlus, which has been teasing its OnePlus 11 Concept phone for the MWC show. We should have all the details, including whether this is even a phone we’ll be able to buy, before the show is over. 

We’re expecting announcements from almost every major phone maker that isn’t Samsung, which launched its flagship Galaxy S23 earlier this month, or Apple. Honor and Oppo will both have events and keynote sessions here at the show, so we could hear more from those brands. 

We’re also on the lookout for any new surprises. We knew that Bullitt Group would have its satellite-capable Motorola Defy at the show, and the company had some other satellite surprises as well. We’ll keep on the lookouot out for any other new mobile phones with an eye on the sky. 

Keep checking back through the week as we update our Mobile World Congress Live Blog continually. We’ll have all the news from Spain and the entire mobile world. 

Welcome to Barcelona, mobile fans! We are on the ground at Mobile World Congress in Spain, the largest mobile technology trade show. We expect plenty of news, and Xiaomi has already kicked things off with a big global announcement. 

The Chinese company will finally be bringing its lauded Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro to global markets. That one inch camera sensor and Leica-branded lens on the Xiaomi 13 Pro will be available in the UK and plenty of markets beyond, though unfortunately it won’t find its way to US soil. 

We’ve gotten hands on with both of Xiaomi’s new phones,  as well as the rebadged Xiaomi 13 Lite, a bargain model also getting a global launch. We’ll have a more detailed Xiaomi 13 review soon, so keep checking back. 

Will Xiaomi’s big sensor challenge the Galaxy S23 Ultra? The new Xiaomi 13 Pro features the same one inch camera sensor found on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, the Sony IMX 989 sensor module. That phone was good enough that one of our writers called it the best camera phone he’d ever used. 

While Samsung’s latest ultra-premium phone far outclasses the Xiaomi 13 Pro in megapixel count, the size of the sensor matters more than the number of pixels. Samsung’s sensor measures around 3/4 of an inch diagonally. The Sony sensor on Xiaomi’s new phone is one inch, the same size as many professional DSLR cameras. 

Of course, photography is complicated and the sensor is only one part of the equation. Both phones also benefit from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform, which includes Qualcomm’s image signal processor. 

We’ll need to spend quality time with Xiaomi’s new 13 Pro before we declare it our favorite camera, but it certainly packs the right specs to take on the champion, and we’re please to see it more widely available than Xiaomi’s previous camera great. 

Xiaomi’s new phones aren’t the first big Mobile World Congress launch we’ve seen. I got a chance to preview satellite messaging on a Motorola Defy prototype earlier this year, and now Motorola and Bullitt Group have announced the Motorola Defy 2, as well as the Motorola Defy Satellite Link. 

Both the rugged, water proof Defy 2 as well as the satellite link can send messages via geostationary satellite. Unlike the iPhone 14 family of devices, which can use satellites for emergency messaging and SOS, the Moto Defy 2 and the satellite link are good to go for boring, mundane messaging that doesn’t require a helicopter rescue. 

The Defy Satellite Link is launching in the US and UK for $99 / £99, while the Motorola Defy 2 will sell for $599 / £549. The satellite messaging will be free for a period, then cost $4.99/€4.99 for 30 messages per month via satellite.  

One phone we’re expecting to see soon is the OnePlus 11 Concept phone. OnePlus told us last month that it would have a Concept device here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and it has since posted a preview on its web site showing what seems to be the back of the phone. 

The image looks like the sort of liquid cooling we’d expect on a gaming PC, so we think OnePlus might have its sites on some serious gaming cred with the new concept device. With its Concept title, it’s not clear whether this will be a OnePlus phone you can actually buy, or just a technology demonstration. We’re hoping to get hands-on with the new phone soon. 

OnePlus also teased a OnePlus Pad tablet, and we’re expecting to see the company’s first iPad competitor here at the MWC show. We’ll have hands-on details and a full look as soon as we get to spend time with the new devices. 

We’ve spent a bit of quality time with Xiaomi’s new camera phone in our Xiaomi 13 Pro review, but Xiaomi’s entry-level model is no slouch, either. While only the Pro model gets the big one inch camera sensor, both phones benefit from Leica tuning.

We’ll have to spend more quality time shooting photos with each phone to determine just how much they benefit from the preeminent  camera maker, but we’ve seen mixed results with these partnerships in the past. 

The recent OnePlus 11 features a partnership with Hasselblad, but that deal seems to cover color tuning and processing. With Leica, it seems that Xiaomi has also gotten help designing the lenses and components of the camera, which could make a difference. 

We knew that Bullitt Group would have a new Motorola Defy with satellite capabilities, but we were surprised to see the Motorola Defy Satellite Link. This accessory connects to your phone via Bluetooth and allows you to send text messages to anyone, using a satellite connection. 

It relies on a messaging app from Bullitt Group to decide if you need to use the satellite or not. When you send a message to someone who doesn’t have the app installed, the first message they get will be a link telling them to go download. Then they can communicate with you, no matter where you are. 

I wish there didn’t need to be an app middleman, but nonetheless this is the first real consumer-friendly satellite messaging device that we’ve seen. It’s available on the upcoming Motorola Defy 2 smartphone, as well as the intriguing new Satellite Link device. 

You may ask why Samsung, the biggest phone maker in the world, isn’t at Mobile World Congress, the biggest mobile trade show. Of course they are, we just don’t expect to see any new products this week. Samsung used to launch Galaxy S phones at MWC, then moved to its own event to ensure it could keep all of the headlines for itself. 

The mega-brand still keeps a presence in Barcelona, as the show is about mobile network technology, mobile components, as well as finished phone products, and Samsung is involved in every part of the mobile industry, from start to finish. We’ll be catching up with Samsung this week to make sure we don’t miss any surprise announcements from the brand. 

As for the other big name in phones, Apple has never bothered with major trade shows outside of its own events. The original iPhone was actually announced around CES, but not in Las Vegas at the official CES trade show. It was at an event in California. We don’t expect any Apple news this week, unless there is some rumor or leak to keep attention fresh.