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The new phones and trends from Mobile World Congress 2018

Samsung released the new Galaxy S9

The biggest release of MWC 2018 is Samsung’s new Galaxy S9. It’s not wildly different from the S8 that came before it, but it has an improved camera with a wider aperture for better low-light shooting, as well as improved digital assistant performance from its proprietary Bixby platform. If you want all the details, check out our announcement post.

Huawei made a pop-up webcam in its MateBook X Pro computer

Sony updated its flagship phone

The Sony ZX2 isn’t a giant leap from its predecessor, but it is a new flagship for the brand. It has some impressive stats, including an 18-megapixel camera, which is considerably higher than most other flagships, including the iPhone X. Sony has made good phones in the past, but the problem seems to be convincing people to buy them.

A bunch of phones had stupid notches in their screens

This is all part of an effort to cut down on the amount of bezel that phones have around the screen itself. Personally, I hate this trend, but only time will tell if it endures or we can go back to a sane world where a little bit of bezel is OK if we don’t cut into the screen.

There were even fewer headphone jacks

Samsung is very proud of the fact that its Galaxy S9 phone still has a tiny jack to plug in regular wired headphones. If that’s an important feature for you, MWC was probably a very depressing place, with some of the other key phones like the Sony XZ2 and the Nokia 8 Sirocco lacking in the old-school audio-jack department.

Phone screens still have ridiculous rounded corners

One of the most hyped phones at the show was the Vivo Apex, which took the all-screen phone to the next level. It doesn’t have a notch or a home button because there’s a fingerprint sensor underneath the OLED screen itself. There isn’t even a speaker. Instead, the whole phone vibrates to conduct sound during a call or media playback. The front-facing camera actually pops up out of the top of the phone when you want to use the phone to keep the face clean. It’s an interesting concept, but we’ll see how much traction it can get in a field crowded with big names.

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