MWC 2025 live — all the biggest tech and gadget news

Welcome to MWC 2025

Welcome to our Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 live blog! Jeff here — reporting on the build-up from London in advance of the show itself.

MWC officially gets underway on Monday, March 3 but much of the early looks happen over the preceding weekend. Media — including several members of our team from Tom's Guide — are already on their way to Barcelona to spend the next two days getting some early access to the vendors and their exhibits.

Some of the speakers booked for this year's conference include Yuanqing Yang, the CEO of Lenovo and Mensch, founder and CEO of French AI company Mistral. Of course, the best part about any tech trade show is the diamonds in the rough found outside the established keynote presentations. And we'll be doing our best to find the coolest tech on show in Spain and tell you about it right here.

Nothing to get excited about

Here's what I'm most looking forward to seeing at MWC this year: the Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro. Most of the details on these budget Android handsets have already been spilled, but I'm excited to hear them confirmed at the official launch of these phones on March 4.

Coming so fast on the heels of the iPhone 16e — a supposedly budget phone costing $599 / £599 / AU$999 — Nothing could really step into the limelight. It's suggested the phones will arrive with a sub-$500/£500/AU$800 price and pack in tentpole specs like a 120Hz OLED screen, 5,000mAh battery and an IP64 waterproof rating.

The price saving could come through the rumored Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor that Nothing is believed to be using.

What is MWC anyway?

Mobile World Congress doesn't get the same billing as its big brother in the States, but Europe's version of CES has had a few notable moments in the past. Historically, it's been a venue for brands like Nokia, Huawei, LG, Sony and Samsung to show off new devices. These days many of those companies host their own showcases, which is opening up MWC to some newer and younger brands to raise awareness of their products.

Historically a mobile/telecoms show, it's grown to include all areas of consumer technology. The event has been hosted each year in Barcelona, Spain since 2006 and last year saw over 101,000 attendees come through the gates.

Anything from Samsung?

Samsung's already had one big smartphone reveal in 2025, stealing a march on MWC with the Galaxy S25 unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked in January. But the company used that event to give us a sneak peek at the Galaxy S25 Edge — a super slim device (pictured above) that'll compete with the iPhone 17 Air.

Details were thin on the ground at Unpacked, so MWC 2025 would be the perfect opportunity for Samsung to swoop in and reveal more about this phone. In the meantime, you can find everything we know about it over on our Galaxy S25 Edge hub.

Lenovo leaks...

A company we're expecting to have a big presence at MWC this year — the Chinese company's CEO is even listed as a keynote speaker for the conference.

We got a good idea of what Lenovo could unveil thanks to leaker Evan Blass, who spilled the details earlier this month on what to expect from the company at MWC 2025:

• An “AI Display:” an external monitor with its own NPU, which I’m assuming could help with AI-driven tech like webcam effects and directional microphones, alongside monitoring your presence in front of the screen.
• A concept 3D laptop with directional backlight and a related AI ring: this is a quirky one that I’m excited to see more of! 3D may be a gimmick, but maybe the ring gives you spatial haptics similar to what I felt in the Afference Ring to give you a feel of the 3D objects you see.
• A 2nd screen concept for Magic Bay: we’ve been waiting to see how Lenovo uses that proprietary Magic Bay port, and this is arguably one of the coolest ideas — a second panel for notifications and widgets.
• An “AI Stick:” no idea on this one. But hey! It’s a stick with AI in it…whatever that means
• Yoga Solar Powerbank: giving users a whole solar panel to charge your power bank is a pretty great idea for any happy campers out there.

Read the full story: Lenovo leak reveals wild new foldable laptop with two screens — is it genius or just gimmicky?

Not the first time Lenovo's shown a wild concept at MWC!

Flashback to last year, and we got a chance to go hands on with another bonkers concept — the Lenovo ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop. As the name suggests, this is basically what would happen if you made the laptop display completely see-through?

The 1,000-nit brightness overcame any difficult lighting circumstances, and the imaginative AI-driven use cases of a transparent screen did ponder about the future — though someone seeing what you're working on/seeing could lead to some embarrassing moments!

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If the leaks are true, the foldable display laptop seems like a more refined "I could see myself buying this" kind of concept for MWC 2025. It's got Asus Zenbook Duo vibes but with the bottom deck attached to the laptop rather than detachable.

But questions aside of whether this would make it a bit top-heavy and prime to toppling over, definitely excited to see more of it!

Last year's winners

If you need a little reminder of what MWC has to offer, then check out our Best of MWC 2024 Awards list.

Top pick for the best phone went to the Xiaomi 14 which impressed us with its cameras, chipset and 90W charging option.

Other tech we really liked was the OnePlus Watch 2 (which has this month been usurped by the OnePlus Watch 3) and the TCL Rayneo X2 AR glasses — loaded with ChatGPT for that all-important AI integration.

Honor's "Alpha Plan"

Honor is a brand that we traditionally see quite a lot of at MWC and the company has announced a keynote event called the Honor "Alpha Plan" for this year's show. The point of which is to launch a "new corporate vision." Cryptic.

The event is set to take place on Sunday, March 2 at 4:30pm CET/ 10:30am ET/ 7:30am PT/ 3:30pm GMT and Honor currently has a giant countdown timer live on its website.

It's unlikely we'll see new flagship hardware — the Honor Magic 7 Pro arrived in January, after all. But I'm pretty sure we can expect AI to be a big part of whatever this plan turns out to be...

Slim is in

We're expect a lot of thin phones later this year, staring with the Galaxy S25 Edge and culminating in the likely release of the rumored iPhone 17 Air. But a Chinese phone maker is showing off a thin phone of its own, with a concept design slated to appear at MWC 2025.

The phone make is Tecno, and the device is called the Spark Slim. The phone is reportedly just 5.75mm thin — for context, that's nearly as thin as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 when that device is unfolded. Even with that limited amount of internal space, Tecno says its still managed to equip the Spark Slim with a 5,200 mAh battery and a pair of 50MP rear cameras.

You can find out more about the Tecno Spark Slim concept in our report on the device..

AI at MWC

So far, we've been focusing on potential hardware coming out of MWC 2025, be it phones or laptops. But we're guessing software is going to be a big topic of discussion, too, particularly when it comes to the role of AI on mobile devices.

There's no telling what specific announcements might come out of MWC in terms of new AI-powered features on your favorite devices, but it might help to review some of the recent moves made by big players in the smartphone world. Samsung's Galaxy S25 launch in January ushered in a bunch of new Galaxy AI capabilities, and Apple continues to roll out Apple Intelligence updates. In fact, for the iPhone 16e launch, we've highlighted some of those Apple Intelligence tools that people should take a look at.

Something to flip over from HMD?

Phone maker HMD is dropping hints hints on X about its MWC 2025 plans, and you don't need to be an expert code-breaker to figure out what's coming.

"Flip like never before," the post reads, which seems to suggest to us that a foldable flip phone is on its way from HMD.

Given that HMD phones tend to compete in the midrange to budget portion of the market, we imagine that whatever the phone maker has in store will like compete with the Motorola Razr, which is the stripped-down version of the higher-end Razr Plus. Reportedly, Samsung's working on a cheaper version of its Galaxy Z Flip device, so HMD would be getting out ahead of that potential product release with a flip phone of its own.

We won't have to wait long. The teaser video accompany the HMD post lists a date of March 2 — this Sunday, when a lot of new product announcements take place ahead of MWC.

Phone launches to watch out for

What's MWC without a few new phone launches? The Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro are expected to launch at this year's March 4 event. The rumor mill has already revealed a lot about what to expect, though it's still likely to draw crowds with its unique design.

Another phone maker, Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, is expected to reveal the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. The latest iteration is rumored to pack cameras even more impressive than the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, which the company debuted at last year's show.

Meanwhile, HMD has been teasing a new flip phone these past few weeks that's also rumored to debut this week.

Meet the Galaxy A56

Mobile World Congress hasn't started yet, but we've already got some new phones to discuss. Samsung has shown off its new midrange Galaxy A models, highlighted by the Galaxy A56.

The focus with the Galaxy A56 — and the other phones Samsung just announced — is the arrival of more AI features on lower-cost phones. Last year, the Galaxy A55 and Galaxy A35 offered Circle to Search support, but that was about it. The Galaxy A56 has more extensive AI-powered tools, as you can read bout in Richard Priday's Galaxy A56 hands-on.

Phone shoppers in Australia and the U.K. will get a chance to buy the Galaxy A56 later this month. Samsung hasn't set a U.S. release date, but the phone maker tells us it's coming later in 2025 — unlike the Galaxy A55, which never made it to U.S.

Up close with the Galaxy A36

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The Galaxy A36 is Samsung's $399 midrange phone, and unlike the Galaxy A56, it's coming to the US later this year. Enjoy our video look at the new Samsung model.

More Samsung Galaxy A details

While U.S. phone shoppers will have to wait for the Galaxy A56, the same can't be said for the other Samsung midrange phones introduced today. The Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 hit stores at the end of the month for $399 and $299, respectively.

As with the Galaxy A56, the story with these other two midrange phones is the arrival of more AI features at an affordable price point. They've also got longer software support — up to six years now, along with brighter displays and various camera enhancements.

Our report on the Galaxy S36 and Galaxy S26 specs has more details.

Belkin comes to MWC 2025 with a bunch of cool stuff

Belkin is no stranger to shows like MWC, so it's not at all surprising that the company has a bunch of new accessories at this year's show. There's quite the variety of products here as well, and it goes beyond the chargers and battery packs that Belkin is probably best known for making.

The company has announced new versions of both those things, naturally, but it's also offering a weighty 11-in-1 150W USB-C hub, a set of over-ear headphones, and even a special bag to keep all your tech safely stored away while travelling.

Considering the amount of tech those of us on the ground in Barcelona needed to bring with us, a stylish bag to keep it all organized is exactly what we need. Especially considering it looks a lot sturdier, not to mention better looking, than the dirt-cheap options that are readily available online.

Samsung's next big things come to Barcelona

We've known for a while that Samsung is working on its own XR headset, seemingly inspired by Apple's Vision Pro headset. But we've also just found out that the headset will be "unveiled" at MWC 2025.

This is quite a surprise for us, because Samsung hasn't launched any major products at MWC for a long time. And yet, the company's official preview of the show promises that it "will unveil its first Android XR headset, Project Moohan, offering a glimpse into the future of AI-powered extended reality."

Hopefully this also means we'll get concrete information on pricing, and when we'll be able to buy the headset for ourselves.

The preview also promises "an exclusive look at Galaxy S25 Edge." However it's not clear whether this will involve more official announcements, or if Samsung will simply have the device on display — similar to what happened Galaxy Unpacked.

MWC will have at least one more super-slim phone

The Galaxy S25 Edge might be the only super-skinny phone on show at MWC. Tecno has teased the Spark Slim ahead of MWC 2025, promising that the phone will be just 5.75mm (0.22-inches) thick.

We don't know how thin the Galaxy S25 Edge will be, but rumors suggest that it may be 6.4mm (0.25-inches). While that may not seem like a lot, that is 11% more than what Techno is offering.

Tecno says that the Spark Slim will have a 5,200 mAh battery, a 6.78-inch curbed display and two 50MP cameras on the back. I'm not such a big fan of that design, but it beats those strange iPhone 17 Air renders we saw late last year.

Samsung does what iPhone 16e apparently couldn't

While not officially an MWC announcement, it probably isn't a coincidence that Samsung chose this weekend to unveil its newest cheap phones: The Galaxy A56, Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26. Arguably phones that could be strong contenders for the title of best cheap phone.

The Galaxy A56, in particular, offers a lot of impressive features. A 6.7-inch display, 120Hz refresh rate, a triple-lens rear camera, 45W wired charging and a 5,000 mAh battery to name a few. All for the same $499 price tag as previous A50-series Galaxy phones.

The A36 and A26 aren't quite so impressive, but with prices starting at $399 and $299, respectively. Both phones have large Full HD displays with 120Hz refresh rates, as well as A56-matching 5,000 mAh batteries and 50MP main cameras.

You can read more about these phones, and our thoughts about them, in our Samsung Galaxy A56, Samsung Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 hands-ons

HMD's new wireless earbuds have power

MWC isn't just about phones. It's also a place for companies to announce a bunch of cool new gear, and for HMD that includes a pair of Amped wireless earbuds that double as a power bank for your phone. Better still, it also had Qi2 wireless charging.

Like other wireless earbuds, Amped comes with a specialised charging case to keep you connected to music, podcasts or whatever else you'll listen to. The difference is this battery stores 1,900 mAh of power.

That's not a lot by smartphone standards, but it's enough to get your phone powered up for a few more hours. And yes, the Qi2 means they can snap into the back of your Qi2 or Magsafe-enabled phone to recharge it wirelessly. Which is actually pretty darn cool.

Honor catches up with Google and Samsung

Honor's keynote presentation for MWC just ended, and one thing we loved hearing during the presentation was that Honor flagship phones, including the Magic7 Pro (pictured above) will now get seven years of full updates.

Only Google and Samsung offer equally-long software support, so seeing another company join them is very welcome. The only issue with Honor phones is that they can be hard to buy in the U.S., as the brand has no official presence there.

A smart smartwatch

Honor announced some products today along with its big new AI plans, and the Honor Watch 5 Ultra has proven excellent in our pre-announcement testing.

Earning a 4.5-star rating, the Watch 5 Ultra provides comprehensive tracking, a good-looking design and a 15-day battery life that's miles ahead of competitors. And it works with both iOS and Android phones too, making it a potentially excellent smartwatch for almost anyone.

One of the best phones you can't buy

Xiaomi 15 Ultra is officially at MWC 2025, and it'll be released on March 4. Unfortunately, like it's predecessors, it won't be coming to the U.S. Which is a huge shame, considering how good of a phone it actually is.

As we wrote in our Xiaomi 15 Ultra review, this could easily be one of the best-designed phones ever made. Amazingly Xiaomi has used the giant puck-sized camera bump to its advantage, using it as the basis to mimic a retro camera design that you just don't see anymore. In fact, it would be a shame to hide that look inside a case.

On top of that you have strong battery life, excellent cameras, solid performance from the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and a display that is just gorgeous. Even browsing Google Play is a treat, which is pretty miraculous.

A laptop for bargain hunters?

Our colleague Jason England has been looking at laptops, and it sounds as if he likes what he sees with the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x. Starting at $649, it could appeal to budget-minded shoppers looking for a laptop with decent battery life, AI features and a nice array of ports that brings some versatility.

This new laptop "isn’t just a great cheap system — it could be one of the best laptops period," Jason writes in his hands-on with the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x.

Working together better

If you want a good example of practical uses of AI, pay attention to the Smart Connect improvements Motorola and Lenovo are showing off at MWC 2025. Smart Connect already lets you take the apps on your Motorola phone and run them on a Windows machine and swap files between devices. Now there's some new tricks to check out.

• Moto AI now lets you cast files or videos to another screen via voice commands.
• AI Search brings natural language search to help you more easily find saved files on the Yoga Tab Plus. (And yes, it does sound like the feature is limited to this particular device.)
• A new dashboard on the Smart Connect mobile app lists all Moto AI-enabled devices — not just phones and laptops, but also Moto Tag trackers or Moto Buds earbuds.

Laptops go 3D

If you've been waiting for Lenovo's MWC concept for this year, the wait is over. Lenovo has shown off the ThinkBook 3D Laptop Concept, and it's really something to behold.

The laptop lets you see 3D objects on its hybrid display that boasts a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage for clear color accuracy. Lenovo designed the concept with creative professionals, designers and engineers in mind.

Another highlight with the ThinkBook 3D Laptop Concept is an AI ring to support gesture-based controls. Get the full story in our look at the ThinkBook 3D Laptop Concept.

TCL  RayNeo X3 Pro takes a big step forward

We were big fans of the TCL RayNeo X2 Pro when we saw the augmented reality glasses at last year's MWC. So we're happy to see that MWC 2025 has brought an improvement in the form of the TCL RayNeo X3.

TCL has slimmed down its glasses for the new version — they're just under 3 ounces now and look a lot less conspicuous on your face. You also get full-color micro-LED projectors on the glasses, which proved to be very bright when our correspondents put them on in Barcelona.

Read our TCL RayNeo X3 hands-on for more details on how TCL is moving things forward in the smart glasses space.

The slimmest phone in the world?

You'd be forgiven for never having heard of Techno's Spark Slim but this is, apparently, the slimmest phone in the world at just 5.75mm (0.23 inches) thickness.

We've been hands on with the phone on the show floor to see how it compares to the upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge tipped to be about 6mm (0.24 inches) thick, and the iPhone 17 Air at a rumored 5.5mm (0.22) thick.

My colleague Richard Priday said the phone "basically melts into your hand like an open foldable phone, but without the huge palm-spanning area of those devices' inner screens."

• Read the full story: I just went hands-on with the world's slimmest smartphone at MWC

A solar-powered phone

From a slim phone, to one that's powered by the sun — this is a concept phone by a company called Infinix that basically has a solar panel built into the back of it.

To set expectations here, you only get a 2W charging speed from that giant ball of fire in the sky, but Infinix says the tech is all about collecting the energy to extend its own standby time, or as a “practical backup” in the event that more traditional forms of power are out of commission.

It won't replace your USB-C cable or wireless charging pad anytime soon, but it's a cool look at where charging tech is going.

• Read the full story: I just saw a solar-powered phone at MWC 2025 — and I love the idea

Opera unveils Browser Operator

The era of agentic AI is just around the corner and browser company Opera has just unveiled a fascinating step towards it. It's called Browser Operator and it's basically the world's first agentic AI inside a web browser.

Instead of having to run the browsing session virtually in its own desktop space, this operator takes control for you directly in the browser which means a much faster response time. Expect to get responses to your orders in under five seconds and given it’s all happening within the browser, this agentic navigation can be interrupted at any point if you want to amend a prompt — or give an entirely new one.

Browser Operator is currently available as a preview, but expect it to appear as part of an AI feature drop in the near future.

• Read the full story: Move over, OpenAI — Opera's AI Browser Operator takes agentic AI to the next level

A first look at Nothing

We're pretty excited for the official unveiling of the Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro that's slated for tomorrow (10am GMT/ 5am ET/ 2am PT) but the phones themselves have already been on display at the show.

Tucked inside a glass display case, we got a look at them in the flesh — confirming the return of the Glyph interface, the additional hardware button and the new camera modules. The phones are rumored to be packing a 50MP main and 8MP ultrawide alongside a 2x telephoto camera for the regular Phone 3a, and a 50MP telephoto for the Pro.

We'll need to wait for tomorrow for the full specs and pricing reveal, but these look like tempting entries for our list of the best cheap phones.

• Read the full story: Nothing Phone 3a first look — the most exciting budget phone of MWC

The tri-fold-flip phone

Why settle for just one hinge when you can have two? That's the idea behind a tri-fold flip phone concept from Infinix which it calls: The Infinix Zero Mini Tri-Fold Concept Device.

By throwing an extra hinge into the mix, you could theoretically get a standard flip phone like the Motorola Razr+ down into something the size of a large credit card.

This is just a concept device for now (with concept accessories, like a bag strap, too) so we don't have any fixed specs or even pricing to wonder about. It's just cool to get a glimpse of the kind of future devices that phone manufacturers are clearly thinking about. And, if you're interested, here's our picks for of the best foldable phones you actually can buy.

• Read the full story: Tri-fold flip phones are coming and this concept device shows how they could work

Day 1 recap

It's been a busy first day at Mobile World Congress, so we've pulled together a Day 1 recap on the 7 amazing gadgets you need to see.

Things like Lenovo's staggering "Codename Flip" extendable notebook and Infinix's intriguing solar-powered phone are exactly the sort of mad gadgets we love to see at this event. There have also been some solid consumer options unveiled too, like Samsung's budget-focused A-series of phones or the Honor Watch 5 Ultra which we've already reviewed and — spoiler alert — it's good.

Check out the full story for the entire list of the best day 1 announcements from MWC 2025.

• Read the full story: MWC 2025 Day 1 — here’s 7 amazing new gadgets you need to see

Check us out on TikTok

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We had to interrupt the flow of mobile tech news for a little bit because of all the cool things we also saw at the New York Toy Fair 2025 — but we'll be right back to the best that Barcelona has to offer very soon.

Best of MWC 2025 Awards

We're calling time on Mobile World Congress for another year, but 2025 gave us a great deal of cool tech and new gadgets to chew over. Here we've rounded up our best of MWC 2025 awards picks — with the 10 gadgets from the show you need to know about.

It'll be a whole year until we're back in Barcelona for 2026 and a lot can happen in that time. But over the coming twelve months we're hoping to get closer looks and in-depth reviews at some of the new gear we saw at the show, so make sure you keep checking back in with Tom's Guide for the latest expert opinion on all this new tech.

• Read the full story: Best of MWC 2025 — these are the 10 top mobile gadgets you need to see