At MWC 2026, now we have — stunning no person — seen a ton of telephones.This yr’s Mobile World Congress is especially wealthy with telephones serving completely different functions and demographics, like Honor’s Robot Phone, which is a component handset and half digital camera gimbal. While Xiaomi predictably unveiled one other premium gadget, its photographic capabilities are next-level. Honor unveiled a foldable…with no crease. The manufacturers could also be anticipated, however the telephones aren’t.This yr’s MWC comes with its personal set of difficult circumstances. The Samsung Galaxy S26 telephones have arrived simply earlier than the present to set the stage for this yr’s premium Android telephones, and so they’ve include a $100 value hike for his or her primary and Galaxy S26 Plus fashions. This could possibly be the results of the RAM scarcity, which is predicted to strain phonemakers to lift costs on many telephones. How they select to stability new options and affordability could possibly be the largest hurdle of 2026 for the cellphone business.Amid all that uncertainty, producers have nonetheless graced the largest cellphone present of the yr to debut their new handsets. Here are all the most effective telephones we have seen at MWC. The Xiaomi Leitzphone. Andrew Lanxon/CNETXiaomi’s Leitzphone We’ve seen the Leica title hooked up to telephones for years, however Xiaomi’s Leica Leitzphone takes phone-and-camera-company partnerships to the subsequent degree. There’s a laundry checklist of nice photo-centric options: Leica’s well-known high-quality Summilux lenses, the brand new Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor picture sensor to allow higher dynamic vary and transferring parts within the telephoto lens that permit it to gracefully transition from 75- to 100-millimeter focal lengths. Plus, a big mechanical lens ring on the again of the cellphone that serves as a customizable management for zoom, publicity, or different settings.Best of all, as CNET Editor at Large Andrew Lanxon famous in his assessment, the Leitzphone has the very same colour profiles that you will discover on Leica’s precise cameras and movie — and the images he took appear like they got here from a professional digital camera, not a cellphone. In quick, Lanxon wrote, the Leitzphone is so superior it earns our Editors’ Choice award, and opponents like Samsung’s new Galaxy S26 Ultra must catch up. The Honor Magic V6’s 7.95 inch internal show appears vibrant and daring. Andrew Lanxon/CNETHonor Magic V6The Honor Magic V6 is a foldable that appears, at the very least at early look, to have largely mitigated one of many persisting issues of versatile shows: the crease over the fold line is just about gone. This alone would make the Magic V6 enticing for cutting-edge cellphone followers, but it surely has different pristine touches — it is solely 4.1mm thick, is among the first foldables to be IP68 and IP69 water and mud resistant (which means it ought to survive spilt drinks and mud), has a 6,600-mAh battery (bigger than the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s 4,400-mAh one) and has a triple-rear digital camera array with specs that appear higher than any rival: a 50-megapixel primary, 64-megapixel telephoto and 50-megapixel ultrawide.For all these refinements, anticipate to pay up. While the Honor Magic V6 would not have an official value but (and will not be bought within the US), its predecessor, the Honor Magic V5, was £1,699 (which converts to round $2,285). The Motorola Razr Fold is a smooth gadget that feels unimaginable well-built after I held it. Patrick Holland/CNETMotorola Razr FoldAfter years of sticking with clamshell-style small foldables within the Razr collection, Motorola is lastly bringing a bigger book-style foldable to tackle its rival Samsung and its Galaxy Z Fold 7. Motorola is continuous to differentiate its handsets with different supplies and textures like a wood end on the Razr Ultra, and the brand new Motorola Razr Fold has a “silk” textured again that provides a contact of luxurious.Motorola’s new book-style foldable has a triple-rear digital camera system (50-megapixel sensors with a trio of lenses: wide-angle, telephoto and ultrawide) in addition to some specs benefits over Samsung’s massive folding cellphone. The Razr Fold has a 6,000-mAh battery and 80-watt wired and 50-watt wi-fi charging, which simply outstrips the 4,400-mAh capability of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and its paltry 25-watt wired and 15-watt wi-fi charging. Look at that cheeky little digital camera poking out from the cellphone. It’s lovable, in a manner. Katie Collins/CNETHonor Robot Phone We first obtained a teasing take a look at the Honor cellphone with a discrete digital camera on the top of a robotic arm (suppose a type of DJI pocket-size cameras on a gimbal) throughout CES 2026, however lastly obtained to see it correctly at MWC 2026 simply a few months later. With its separate, stabilized digital camera, the Honor Robot Phone lives as much as its title, capturing footage that could possibly be far increased high quality than that from normal cellphone cameras on the finish of our (shaky human) arms. When it isn’t in use, the Honor cellphone’s gimbaled arm folds again in and tucks right into a notch at the back of the cellphone. It’s a neat return to, and even an enlargement upon, the neat pop-up cellphone cameras from yesteryear, stabilized with all the most effective trendy cell images tech. ZTE Neo 5 GT. Andrew Lanxon/CNETZTE Nubia Neo 5 GT The ZTE Nubia Neo 5 GT brings options from premium gaming telephones right down to a handset that is half the worth. At round 450 euros (about $525), the Neo 5 GT has a number of perks inherited from the round $1,000 CrimsonMagic 11 Pro: touch-sensitive shoulder triggers, a neat rear design and, neatest of all, an inside fan that mixes with a thermal-absorbing sheet to decrease the cellphone’s inside temperature by 4 levels Celsius, ZTE says. The Nubia Neo 5 line is a part of ZTE’s efforts to make telephones for cell players who do not have deep pockets. The different gadgets within the lineup are neat sufficient, with the round 350 euros (about $405) Neo 5 Max boasting a colossal 7.5-inch show, but it surely’s the Neo 5 GT that consolidates the most effective gaming options (and elegance) in much more reasonably priced handsets. The Galaxy S26. David Lumb/CNETHonorready mentions: The Samsung Galaxy S26 and the Apple iPhone 17EWhile Samsung and Apple weren’t at MWC 2026, they seemingly nonetheless needed to be in on the enjoyable, conveniently releasing smartphones simply earlier than and in the course of the present, respectively. They aren’t a part of the convention, however they deserve point out anyway.The Samsung Galaxy S26 is the corporate’s newest and biggest flagship, with a barely greater 4,300-mAh battery and extra AI options than its predecessor, but it surely feels largely the identical because the Galaxy S25 earlier than it. But this time round, it is $100 pricier, beginning at $900, and it is unclear whether or not that is because of final yr’s tariffs or this yr’s RAM scarcity — although the bottom configuration does bump storage to 256GB. Still, with the highly effective Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, a barely bigger 6.3-inch display screen, a still-slim 7.2mm thickness and extra AI methods, the Galaxy S26 is the Android cellphone to beat for different flagships coming later this yr. The iPhone 17E is available in three colours: Black, white and pink. Apple/CNETThe iPhone 17E is now essentially the most reasonably priced cellphone in Apple’s lineup. Despite preserving the identical $599 value as its predecessor, the iPhone 16E, the brand new handset has double the storage at 256GB and comes with assist for MagSafe charging and equipment (many critics did not like that the 16E did not have it). It as soon as once more cuts some corners to realize a lower cost than the iPhone 17 launched final fall, with a quad-core (relatively than a five-core) GPU, solely a single 48-megapixel rear digital camera, no Center Stage function on its selfie digital camera, no Dynamic Island, no Camera Control button and no always-on show. But its 6.1-inch display screen is extra scratch-resistant on the 17E than on its predecessor, which is one thing.
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