MWC round up: Samsung’s Galaxy expands, Sony Ericsson Xperia Play unveiled!
Mobile World Congess, the mobile industry’s biggest blow out, is underway right now in Barcelona and we’ll be bringing you the best of the show every day this week so you can see what smartphones and tablets could be coming your way during 2011.
Day one of MWC was pretty impressive already with new incarnations of the Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung Galaxy Tab, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play aka PlayStation Phone and news that Motorola’s iPad-fighter the Motorola Xoom is UK bound…
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play: the PlayStation phone lives!
O2 has already confirmed that it’ll be carrying the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play but Sony Ericsson has finally outted the device officially at MWC. The Xperia Play is an Android phone crossed with PlayStation DNA. It’ll arrive with Android Gingerbread onboard and has dedicated gaming controls that are revealed when you push up the screen to activate a spring-loaded mechanism. It sounds ace and there’ll be more news on it from O2 in the near future.
Motorola Xoom: watch out Apple
While the iPad 2 is rumoured to be breaking cover imminently, the Motorola Xoom is the most impressive of the Android rivals so far. The device runs Android Honeycomb (the first version of the OS built for tablets) and will arrive packing impressive hardware – a five-megapixel camera with 720p video capture plus a two-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats. You’ll also find a gyroscope, e-compass, barometer, accelerometer and a widesceeen HD display packed into the device. It’ll also rock Flash (which the iPad doesn’t) and Google Maps with 3D smarts. No news yet on when exactly it’ll launch in the UK.
Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1: the Galaxy gets bigger!
The Samsung Galaxy S2 is the follow up to the massively popular Samsung Galaxy S. The new phone comes packing NFC smarts (something O2 is pioneering with its O2 Wallet plans), a super-fast dual core processor and an eye-poppingly sharp Super AMOLED Plus screen that will rival the iPhone 4 Retina Display.
Meanwhlle, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is an astounding entry into the tablet wars. The 10.1in screen puts it into the same weight class as the iPad (it’s sibling the Samsung Galaxy Tab has a 7in screen) and it’s very responsive with an incredibly bright screen, dual cameras and a suped-up web browser. Like the Motorola Xoom, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will come with Android Honeycomb.
Google turns you into an Android
One of the most fun releases of the first day of MWC was the Google Androifify app which turns you into a version of the Android mascot. You take a snap of yourself and it then helps you craft your own custom avatar. It’s a bit pointless but good fun regardless. You can see it in action in the video below.
We’ll be trawling the halls over the next couple of days to bring you hands on reports of the key devices. Let us know in the comments which ones you’re most excited about.
