MWC 2026: all the phones, gadgets, and announcements from Barcelona

The Verge · Feb 27, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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The Verge is heading to Barcelona, Spain, for Mobile World Congress, the biggest phone show of the year.CES may dominate the headlines when it comes to TVs, computer components, and AI inanity, but for all things mobile MWC has it beat. Since it’s a global show, that includes all manner of announcements of phones, tablets, and wearables that won’t necessarily release in the US.Xiaomi has already teased a European launch for its 17 and 17 Ultra flagships, Honor is promising not only its Robot Phone but a full pivot to humanoid robotics, and Nothing is almost certain to drop more details on its Phone 4A ahead of a planned London launch on March 5th.The likes of Samsung and Google will be there too, but mostly to talk about the already-announced 10A and S26 models, while Apple is launching something during the same week as MWC, but not actually in Barcelona.We’ll also be looking out for oddities. Last year featured camera phone concepts with detachable lenses, a Lenovo laptop with a folding screen, and an Infinix handset with a solar panel in its back. We’ll be hoping this year gets just as weird.Keep this page bookmarked for all the news, commentary, and first looks from the show floor.Phones are going to get weird next weekWith rare exceptions, phones are pretty boring these days. The good news is, a boatload of those rare exceptions are about to show up at once, courtesy of Mobile World Congress.The tech industry’s biggest mobile show may not quite have the clout it once did, when the likes of Samsung, Sony, LG, and HTC showcased new flagships there each year, but it still attracts more phone launches than CES does two months earlier. It’s especially popular with the Chinese manufacturers who are still fighting for space in the global market, along with niche manufacturers who turn up with extra-durable “rugged” devices, or battery beasts that are more power bank than phone.Read Article >Xiaomi’s magnetic power bank is incredibly thinIt was originally teased to be announced at Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona, Spain, this weekend, but Xiaomi has already shared all the details for its new super slim wireless power bank on its Australian website. The Xiaomi UltraThin Magnetic Power Bank 5000 features a 5,000mAh battery, as the name implies, and is just 6mm thick. That’s thinner than the 7.9mm thick iPhone 17, and even thinner than the 7.6mm MagSafe battery Apple created for the iPhone Air.A 10,000mAh battery is typically a better investment for traveling as it guarantees you can fully recharge a dead smartphone with enough power left over to share with other devices like wireless earbuds. But the advantage of Xiaomi’s latest 5,000mAh offering (with a rated capacity of 3,000mAh) is that it doesn’t add an overwhelming amount of thickness to your smartphone for day-to-day use. You can still easily slip the two into a pocket, while the power bank only adds an extra 98 grams of weight.Read Article >Honor’s new MagicPad 4 is the world’s thinnest Android tabletHonor has announced a new version of its already slim MagicPad tablet that’s now even thinner. Last year’s MagicPad 3 was just 5.8mm thick, but the new MagicPad 4 squeezes that down to 4.8mm. That’s thinner than the 6.1mm thick iPad Air and 5.1mm iPad Pro, or the 5.1mm thick Samsung Galaxy Tab S11, and only bested by E Ink tablets like the reMarkable 2, at 4.7mm.The MagicPad 4 has a slightly smaller 12.3-inch screen than its 13.3-inch predecessor. But that’s a minor trade-off given the new tablet now uses a 165Hz OLED display instead of LCD. Its battery is, not surprisingly, also a bit smaller at 10,100mAh, and while Honor hasn’t shared battery life estimates, the new OLED screen could potentially help it outlast last year’s model. Thanks to everything being smaller and thinner, the new MagicPad 4 weighs about 145 grams lighter than the MagicPad 3.Read Article >Tecno is doing a modular phone (again).Every year someone invents the modular phone; this time it’s Tecno’s turn. The company will bring a modular magnetic concept device to next week’s MWC 2026, with options like a power bank, telephoto lens, or action camera to add on. We’ll only really believe it if Tecno actually lets me test the thing at the show.1/3Image: TecnoTaara Beam provides 25Gbps connectivity over invisible beams of lightLight-based internet provider Taara, which spun out of Alphabet’s “moonshot” incubator last year, just launched Taara Beam to provide 25Gbps connectivity within cities over invisible beams of light — line of sight permitting.Unlike last year’s Taara Lightbridge, which connects communities separated by water and mountains at distances up to 20km (over 12 miles), the shoebox-sized Beam can be mounted to street poles and roof tops for city-wide connectivity at distances up to 10km. The 8kg (less than 20 pounds) device typically consumes about 90W.Read Article >Honor is pivoting to robots.The Chinese smartphone company says it will reveal a humanoid robot at MWC this week, which I’m told will focus on domestic tasks. It’s a big change for the company, even with the Robot Phone also on the way, but makes more sense when you know it has an IPO in its future.