Phones are going to get weird next week

With rare exceptions, phones are pretty boring these days. The good news is that a slew of those rare exceptions are about to appear right away, thanks to Mobile World Congress.

The tech industry’s biggest mobile phone show may not have the clout it once did, when the likes of Samsung, Sony, LG and HTC showed off new flagship phones there every year, but it still attracted more phone launches than CES did two months ago. They’re particularly popular with Chinese manufacturers that are still fighting for space in the global market, along with niche manufacturers that produce ultra-rugged “rugged” devices, or battery monsters that are more power bank than phone.

The biggest event of the year is expected to be Xiaomi’s launch on Saturday. Eclectic as ever, she teased tablets, Ultra-slim power banksEarbuds and smart trackers are in the MWC lineup, but all eyes will be on the Leitzphone. This collaboration between Xiaomi and Leica takes the first collaboration Xiaomi 17 Ultra – Follow someone The absolute best cameras in any phone last year It places a rotating camera ring on the back, allowing you to virtually scroll through the continuous optical zoom the phone’s telephoto provides. It’s a double whammy for the new camera hardware that may be on the edge of “gimmick” territory, but it’s at least a variation on the same old stuff.

Honor will be on display next, with the event scheduled for Sunday. The company has already revealed Magic Pad 4 – apparently the thinnest full-featured tablet – and teased its next-generation foldable phone, which is also expected to be the world’s thinnest. But more exciting than either of them is what the company promised: a proper look at the so-called Robot Phone, which was first announced late last year in Concept video and It appears as a static prototype At CES last month.

From what we’ve seen, it’s definitely more of a phone than a robot, but the gimbal-mounted camera arm that unfolds from the back of the phone is undeniably new. It’s like a cross between a smartphone and DJI Osmo Pocketwith teasers hinting at AI features and a colorful WALL-E-style character feel. With Honor also teasing the reveal The first foray into fully human roboticsexpect it to rely heavily on its robot credentials.

And those are just the two big ones. We expect to see more from Nothing, which is launching its 4A series and a new pair of phones Over-ear headphones At its own event on March 5, but more details about both will almost certainly be revealed over the next few days. Tecno promised a magnetic modular smartphone with attachable lenses and an action camera. Vivo has announced some sort of reveal of its camera-focused flagship phone, the X300 Ultra; And Lenovo, which simply He loves To bring a strange and bizarre concept device to the show, he teases his own ads.

For MWC, none of this is entirely new. We announced Last year’s show “All About Odds and Ends” with Standard smartphone camera lens accessories, Color changing designsand Large speakers for smartphones. The previous year gave us what we had A proper first look at the Samsung Galaxy RingWe have to try a Motorola concept phone That curved around your wrist into a bracelet, and I saw some unusual ones Samsung Display privacy technology Which was launched in the Galaxy S26 Ultra this week, two years later. The products we know are coming probably only scratch the surface of how weird and wonderful MWC 2026 will be, as the mobile industry is subjected to the whims of a few days in the name of securing a little of your precious attention.

And you can’t blame them, especially when Apple got involved He promised his own week of announcements Starting on Monday, the same day the MWC officially starts. In true Apple fashion, we don’t know for sure what’s coming, but both the affordable MacBooks and the mid-range iPhone 17E have been heavily nominated. When you’re competing with Apple for attention, playing it safe won’t get you very far.

I’m at least half a cynic when it comes to these weird gadget ads. The ones you can actually buy are often little more than gimmicks, and the ones you can’t usually feel like they’re little more than marketing stunts. But in the last 10 days, we have Pixel 10a and Galaxy S26 In quick succession, both minor upgrades that rely on partial spec bumps and AI additions to justify their existence. I won’t hold my breath for next week iPhone 17e To cause a great revolution either. As Alison Johnson said in it S26 Ultra preview This week, “Excitement is hard to come by in the hardware space these days.” MWC has them in spades.