mwc

BARCELONA, Spain--Yeah, we know that Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play is the smartphone for which you've really been waiting, but the company had other new handsets to show at Mobile World Congress, too. At its press conference Sunday night, Sony Ericsson also unveiled the Android (Gingerbread)-powered Xperia Neo and Xperia Pro.

Both handsets show the hallmarks of Sony Ericsson's Xperia line. Like the Xperia X10 and the Xperia Arc, you'll see trim designs and brilliant 16.7 million-color displays. Sony Ericsson has been on quite a roll with hardware lately and these handsets are no exception. … Read more

BARCELONA - Nokia CEO Stephen Elop used the company's Mobile World Congress press conference here to pitch Nokia's new partnership with Microsoft.

Nokia, which typically launches a bevy of products at Mobile World Congress every year, had no new products to announce. Instead, Elop took the stage here this evening to highlight the benefits of Nokia's new strategy to make Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 its predominant mobile platform. The company announced the new strategy two days ago at its investor conference in London.

Elop explained how Nokia is using its huge market share to "swing&… Read more

When it comes to conferences, the preshow is often just as important as the opening day, if not more so. Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, is no exception.

Day 0 has already proven Android's virility with five Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone announcements and two Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets, with much more to come.

Even before a trio of press conferences from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Nokia got under way, LG announced its 9-inch, dual-core Optimus Pad tablet and spilled more beans on the Optimus 3D smartphone, a lens-less way to view 3D media.

A few hours … Read more

I bought a PSP Go a year ago. Why? Because I believed the PSP could transform, become something more than it's been. Perhaps, even, achieve the promise I first felt when I held the very first PSP in my hands back in 2005. It was a magical device back then. It drew crowds, turned heads. Waiters and subway riders wanted to know what it was that I was holding, how they could buy one. My parents were fascinated. Friends wanted to hold it. A Sony portable device hasn't achieved that original PSP magic since--certainly not once the iPhone … Read more

BARCELONA--Sony Ericsson wants to be the No. 1 Google Android handset maker in the world. And it needs a strong foothold in the U.S. market to make that goal a reality, said company CEO Bert Nordberg.

Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between Japanese consumer electronics maker Sony and Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson, has been on the mobile phone scene for about a decade. The company has mostly concentrated on delivering high-end phones to the European and Asian markets. But it's never had a strong presence in the U.S., which has helped keep its overall market share … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Sony Ericsson's Xperia Play wasn't the only new cell phone that the company released at Mobile World Congress. The slim and media-centric Xperia Neo and Xperia Pro also had their official coming out party in Spain.

The candy bar smartphones look very much like the handset that we caught a glimpse of last week. The only physical difference between the Neo and the Pro is that the former has a virtual keyboard while the latter adds a physical keyboard.

On both handsets, the 3.7-inch touch screen supports 16.7 million colors and a 854x480-pixel resolution. Three … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--After months of rumors, a slew of leaks, and one creepy commercial, Sony Ericsson's worst-kept secret is now a reality. On Sunday, the day before Mobile World Congress officially opens, Sony Ericsson finally took the wraps off of the Xperia Play.

Long billed as the "PlayStation phone," the Xperia Play is very much the handset that Sony Ericsson highlighted last week during the Super Bowl. In the United States, it will arrive as a Verizon Wireless exclusive later this spring.

The 4-inch (854x480-pixel resolution; 16.7 million colors) display is up to usual Sony Ericsson standards. Colors were bright and vibrant, and graphics showed up well. From our brief hands-on experience, the display also appears to do the gaming features justice. Below the display are four physical controls for the usual Android functions (back, menu, home, and search). On the left spine you'll find a 3.5mm headset jack and a Micro-USB port; the power control, a volume rocker, and shoulder gaming controls sit on the right spine. … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--As promised, Samsung unveiled its next-generation Galaxy S smartphone at Mobile World Congress 2011 today.

Dubbed the Samsung Galaxy S II, the handset improves on its predecessor in a number of ways. First, you've got the addition of a dual-core processor. We were originally told by the company that it was using Nvidia's Tegra 2 chipset but were later informed that it was Samsung's own chip; unfortunately, further details were not provided at the event but generally speaking you should see faster performance and graphics.

It also runs the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but unlike … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Along with the Galaxy S II, Samsung introduced its second Android tablet today on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2011.

Joining the 7-inch Galaxy Tab, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 features a larger 10.1-inch WXGA (1,280x800-pixel resolution) TFT touch screen, and runs the latest Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system. In addition, it's a Google Experience device, so the tablet will feature the stock Android user interface instead of Samsung's custom UI, TouchWiz. This should, hopefully, prevent any delays with future OS updates.

In other good news, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will … Read more