AR Glasses, Rollable Phones and Other Futuristic Devices at MWC 2023

Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 concluded on Thursday, bringing the world’s largest smartphone-centric event to an end. Many noteworthy handsets from companies like Xiaomi, Nokia and Tecno, were launched at the event, while other firms showed off prototypes of smartphones with miniaturised liquid cooling technology, as well as rollable displays that retract and extend at the push of a button. MWC 2023 also saw companies like Xiaomi and Oppo show off prototypes of AR glasses featuring compact designs.

On this week’s episode of of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, guest host Jamshed Avari and Senior Reviewer Sheldon Pinto talk to Reviewer Pranav Hegde who attended MWC 2023 in Barcelona. While MWC was cancelled in 2020 and was a hybrid event last year, Hegde describes MWC 2023 as a “lively” event.

At MWC 2023, Xiaomi announced the global launch of the Xiaomi 13 series, along with the debut of the Xiaomi 13 Pro in India. This smartphone is equipped with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, and features Leica tuned cameras. The handset is the most expensive model from the company to arrive in India, and places the device in the same price range as the Vivo X80 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S23.

The Motorola Rizr, a new “rolling” phone that features a display that rolls out from the bottom of the handset to extend from 5.4 inches to 6.5 inches at the touch of a button, was unveiled at MWC 2023. While it has Rizr branding at the back, it’s worth keeping in mind that this is a prototype that will likely need to be developed before it is commercially available.

While a lot of people expected to see a OnePlus foldable at MWC, the company unveiled the OnePlus 11 Concept phone instead. This handset is equipped with a miniaturised liquid cooling mechanism that isn’t as effective as the company’s 45W cooler that can reduce temperatures by up to 20 degrees Celsius.

The Nokia G22 was announced by the company at MWC 2023, a phone that is completely repairable by users. Customers in the US and Europe can repair their own handset, using parts and a guide that is provided by iFixit. Nokia has launched a few G series phones in India last year, but there’s no word on whether this phone will debut in India, or whether it will allow customers to repair their own phone. 

Xiaomi and Oppo also unveiled new AR glasses powered by Qualcomm’s latest push into wearable technology. These devices aren’t ready for public use, but Xiaomi showed off a new pair of glasses that feature both AR and VR modes, while Oppo revealed new AR glasses with minimal functionality. The companies haven’t revealed a lot of details about the sort of apps and features that will be supported on these wearables. Apple is also expected to unveil its first wearable VR headset later this year.

You can listen to all of that in detail and more in our episode by hitting the play button on the Spotify player embedded above.

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