Mobile World Congress Preview

5th February 2008

Coming up next week is the 2008 Mobile World Congress (formerly 3GSM World Congress), the single biggest event in the industry. As with previous years, there will be dozens of new announcements over the space of a couple of days.

Most big manufacturers keep their products tightly under wraps, but one open secret within the industry is that Nokia will be showing some new N-Series phones, including a multimedia device with GPS, HSDPA, 8 GB of memory and an FM transmitter. We've seen some pictures of this and we can tell you that it looks very, very nice. We should get a first glimpse of a Symbian S60 touchscreen device too.

LG have several new handsets coming up. A GSM version of the LG Venus VX8800 is expected - a dual screen slider, with the smaller screen being touch sensitive - think of a cross between the Nintendo DS and the LG Chocolate and you'll get the idea.

Also, coming up from LG is another slider, the LG KF510 (pictured right). This is a glossy slider phone finished in metal and glass, with touch-sensitive keys. Again, there are hints of the LG Chocolate here, perhaps interbred with the Nokia 6300.

Samsung is rumoured to have a new Symbian slider in the works - the Samsung G810 looks like a Nokia N95 class device. Whether or not the device actually exists or not is a different matter. Samsung are also understood to have an Adidas branded device with some built-in personal fitness applications for release in the spring.

Sony Ericsson will hopefully flesh out its P-series range of smartphones with the Sony Ericsson P3i or P5i - we don't know the model number for sure, but there definitely seems to be something in the works. There are no guarantees, however. Another GPS phone is a possibility.

There will be an unusual amount of interest in Motorola this year. With rumours flying that Motorola might actually sell off the handset business, it will be interesting to see if they have anything new for this year's Congress. One handset that is likely to be announced is the Motorola Z9 (pictured left). This is a 3G slider phone, but that's really all we know at present.

Some smaller manufacturers like to get their announcments out earlier, and E-Ten have announced their Glofiish V900 and M810 (pictured right) devices a few days early. The V900 comes with a VGA screen and integrated digital TV receiver - what's more interesting is that it can receive standard DVB-T signals, as used in domestic TV sets, as well as DVB-H, DAB and TDMB. The M810 is a smooth looking smartphone with GPS and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Android was big news last year, so expect to see someone somewhere with a prototype. GPS is all the rage at the moment, so expect to see a whole bunch of phones with built-in satellite navigation. FM transmitters should also start to make an appearance.

We will be following the Mobile World Congress next week - you can subscribe to our email newsletter or RSS feed to keep up with events. And if you have a neat upcoming device that you'd like us to know about, then contact us.