MWC 2022: all the phones and announcements coming out of Barcelona

Huawei has announced its first ever e-reader, the MatePad Paper. But this is a little different from a typical Kindle. For starters, it’s compatible with Huawei’s M-Pencil stylus, so it can be used for taking notes in addition to just reading like the reMarkable 2 or Onyx Boox Note Air 2, and there’s also a built-in microphone for voice recording. It also has a larger 10.3-inch E Ink display compared to the roughly 7-inch screens found on most Kindles.

These specs mean that the MatePad Paper has the potential to be a productivity device, in addition to a device aimed purely at consumption. It’s almost more like an Android tablet that happens to be equipped with an E Ink screen, right down to the fact that it’s running Huawei’s HarmonyOS software and comes pre-installed with the company’s App Gallery. 

Samsung is officially killing off the Galaxy Note... brand name. The news was confirmed by Samsung’s smartphone chief Roh Tae-moon, who told reporters at Mobile World Congress 2022 that “Galaxy Note will come out as Ultra” going forward, referring to Samsung’s recently released Galaxy S22 Ultra, via Dailian.

The news isn’t exactly a surprise. Samsung hasn’t released a Galaxy Note device since the Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra were released in 2020. And this year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, which featured the return of an integrated stylus, is a Galaxy Note device in everything but name.

Lenovo has announced a new Chrome OS tablet at Mobile World Congress 2022 that seems like a stellar value, along with a wave of other promising Chromebooks in its IdeaPad productivity lineup. The IdeaPad Duet 3 tablet seems to deliver more of what we liked about the 13-inch Duet 5 tablet, but smaller. It’s an 11-inch tablet, which should make it easier to lug around, and to hold in your hands. Lenovo says it’s the successor to the well-liked 10.1-inch Duet from 2020.

Compared to the larger Duet 5, the Duet 3 bumps the screen’s resolution from 1080p to 2K, while providing a slightly taller aspect ratio at 5:3 compared to 16:9 in the Duet 5. This should make the Duet 3 feel a little more natural to hold and view in portrait mode. The most notable difference between the two, apart from size, is that the Duet 3 has an LCD instead of an OLED — one of the Duet 5’s most alluring features.

Oppo has announced a new 150W SuperVOOC fast-charging standard today which it claims will be able to charge a 4,500mAh battery from 1 percent to 50 percent charge in just five minutes, and to 100 percent in just 15. It’s going to appear first in an unnamed smartphone from sub-brand OnePlus in the second quarter of this year. OnePlus has also offered an update on the global launch of the OnePlus 10 Pro, which came to China earlier this year.

OnePlus didn’t offer any more details on the first phone to feature this technology, such as whether it will be a flagship phone or a part of the company’s midrange Nord lineup, but it said the technology will be on display at its booth during this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

Honor’s latest flagship smartphone, the Magic 4 Pro, can be fast-charged wirelessly at 100W, allowing it to be charged to 50 percent in just 15 minutes, the former Huawei sub-brand announced today. As well as 100W wireless charging, the phone is also equipped with 100W wired charging, which Honor says can fully charge the device’s 4,600mAh battery in 30 minutes. 

The Magic 4 Pro has been announced alongside the lower-specced Magic 4, which tops out at 66W wired fast charging and doesn’t support 100W wireless charging. The Magic 4 Pro will start at €1099, while the Magic 4 will start at €899. Both will be available in the coming months, though Honor is yet to share exact release dates or markets.

Lenovo has made some hefty updates to its mid-range IdeaPad Gaming 3 lineup for 2022, which includes two Intel 12th Gen- and two AMD Ryzen 6000-series-equipped models, each with a 15.6-inch and 16-inch option. Notably, the 16-inch option for either CPU you opt for has a 16:10 aspect ratio display with the option to go up to 2560 x 1600, like the Legion 5 Pro, which is more desirable because it offers more vertical space for browsing, gaming, or anything else you want to do on a PC. The only thing they’re not particularly great for is watching movies or TV shows, which are traditionally presented in 16:9 aspect ratio.

Despite each of these IdeaPad Gaming 3 laptops looking the same across CPU options, the specs differ in some ways internally. Starting with the Intel-based options, which are known as IdeaPad Gaming 3i, each supports up to Intel’s Core i7-12700H processor and up to Nvidia’s RTX 3060 (105W total graphics power) or Intel’s new Arc discrete graphics.

TCL, the Chinese manufacturer best known for its lineup of smart TVs, has announced five new affordable Android smartphones as part of its 30 Series. Unlike the TCL 30 XE 5G and TCL 30 V 5G announced earlier this year for the US market, the five new handsets are focused on Europe, and their starting prices range from €139 to €249. 

At the top of the new lineup is the TCL 30 5G, the only one of the new phones to support 5G. It’s got a 6.7-inch 1080p OLED display with a 13-megapixel selfie camera in a small teardrop notch, and around back it has a trio of cameras including a 50-megapixel main camera, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro camera. It’s powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset with a 5,010mAh battery, and will be priced starting at €249 when it goes on sale in Europe in April.

Mobile World Congress is happening in Barcelona from Monday, February 28th, through Thursday, March 3rd. It’s typically the world’s largest mobile technology show, where some of the biggest smartphone brands announce their latest devices and new technologies.

In recent years, the show’s big focus has been on the transition to 5G as well as the emergence of foldable smartphones. But there’s always space for a handful of non-smartphone announcements, whether it’s new laptops or smartwatch updates.

Acer has announced updates to its Swift consumer line. The big news is that the Swift 5, its consumer flagship, has finally moved from a 16:9 aspect ratio screen to the taller and roomier 16:10. It’s the latest of many premium flagship products to take this jump.

Apart from the aspect ratio, the new 14-inch Swift 5 looks fairly similar to previous Swift 5 models we know and love. It’s gotten a bit heavier (2.65 pounds, to the previous 2.31). It now comes with a 2560 x 1600 display, whereas last year’s model was only available in 1920 x 1080.

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

In today’s episode, Nilay and Dieter, along with managing editor Alex Cranz and reviewer Monica Chin, discuss all the phones, laptops, and GPUs announced and reviewed this week — including Monica’s review of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and some previews of Mobile World Congress 2022.