Top tablets, smartphones and other mobile gadgets on display
It's the end of February, which means that it's time for the world's leading mobile device manufacturers and mobile carriers to gather in sunny Barcelona for the annual Mobile World Congress tradeshow. As you'd expect, this show will feature new tablets, smartphones and other mobile gadgets from big-time vendors such as Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola, Nokia and more. In this slideshow we'll give you the lowdown on all the hot new devices.
Asus Padfone
Although Asus has been toting around its Padfone design for several months now, it looks like the smartphone-tablet hybrid will finally be ready for primetime at MWC. The Padfone is literally two devices in one: A 4.3-inch smartphone that can actually dock into a 10-inch tablet. The Padfone is expected to run on Android 4.0 'Ice Cream Sandwich'.
LG Optimus 4X HD
The Optimus 4X HD is the first "Holy cow!" smartphone announced at the show as it features the super-powerful 1.5GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and a 4.7in display screen with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. From a specs perspective alone, the Optimus 4X HD looks like a game changer.
AT&T Digital Life
This new remote platform is sure to be a popular item at MWC, as it allows users to remotely manage home wireless devices and sensors from a tablet or smartphone. Digital Life essentially lets you set up sensors on different devices, including your home heating system and surveillance cameras, and allows you to control them from your mobile device as long as it has access to the web.
The Acer Liquid Glow
Acer's rather oddly named new smartphone is intended to be a low-cost Android device that has many of the bells and whistles of other cutting-edge smartphones, including Android 4.0 'Ice Cream Sandwich', support for near field communications (NFC) and a 5MP camera.
Novera Solano
Although Novera isn't a well-known manufacturer, it has generated a fair amount of buzz so far with its Solano tablet-laptop hybrid. What makes this particular device neat is that it has a flip-rotating design that allows you to close up your laptop and still have your tablet facing upward. The device also runs both Windows 7 and Android, so you can get both an optimised PC and tablet experience.
ZTE Mimosa X
The Mimosa X promises to be just one of many handsets ZTE shows off at MWC. The smartphone runs on Android 4.0 and features a NVIDIA Tegra dual-core processor. ZTE also says it plans to debut some other multicore Android and Windows Phone devices during the show.
ViewSonic ViewPad G70
Well what do you know? It's another tablet running on Android 4.0! This one has front and rear cameras and features both WiFi and 3G connectivity, as well as a 7in display screen with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels.
Acer CloudMobile
Judging from its name, it's a fair bet that the CloudMobile will have a lot of cloud-based capabilities, most likely from Acer's AcerCloud platform. As with many of the other phones in this slideshow, the CloudMobile features Android 4.0, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and has a 4.3in display with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels.
LG Optimus 4X HD
The Optimus 4X HD is the first "Holy cow!" smartphone announced at the show as it features the super-powerful 1.5GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and a 4.7in display screen with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. From a specs perspective alone, the Optimus 4X HD looks like a game changer.
