It's finally MWC (Mobile World Congress), and the historically-massive trade show is promising to host loads of product launches and new gadget unveilings. This is an annual mobile phone show based in Barcelona which is one of the biggest days of the year for tech fans.
TechRadar is going to cover the event from the ground and remotely: you can find our MWC 2022 live blog for all the up-to-date information and coverage as it happens, but the entirety of TechRadar will be plastered with our reviews, news and analysis too.
Loads of huge tech companies have confirmed they'll have keynote speeches or launches at MWC including Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, Realme, Honor and more. So this is going to be an incredibly busy few days.
We haven't seen a 'true' MWC in a while: in 2021, thanks to the pandemic it was far smaller than normal and largely online, while in 2020 it didn’t happen at all. So this really is a return to normality for the event and tech launches as a whole.
Below, you'll find all the big companies that we know are exhibiting at MWC 2022, including when it'll happen.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The biggest mobile tradeshow of 2022
- When is it? February 28 - March 3
When are the MWC 2022 dates?
MWC 2022 takes place from February 28 to March 3. It’s being held in Barcelona as usual, though we’d expect there might be a heightened online presence again, as there was last year, with the physical show perhaps being smaller than in some previous years.
Sometimes, certain companies jump the gun a little bit, and the Sunday before (this year the 27th) often has some launches too.
What to expect at MWC 2022
Here are all the confirmed launches and keynotes at MWC 2022.
Samsung at MWC 2022
Samsung often unveils things at MWC, with it showing off its new smartwatch software (which you’ll find running on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4) at MWC 2021.
We know the company will be attending MWC 2022 thanks to a teaser the company put out. This is set to happen on February 27. We don't actually know what will be shown off at the event though.
Some years it shows off phones and other hardware too, but what we haven’t seen from it in recent years is the launch of new Galaxy S phones at MWC. Instead, it typically launches these at a separate event – though sometimes at a similar point in the year.
Indeed, the Samsung Galaxy S22 range landed ahead of MWC, as did the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 range, so we wouldn't expect any big announcements.
Still, we saw new Galaxy A series models at MWC 2019, so perhaps there will be a similar showing at MWC 2022.
Nokia at MWC 2022
HMD Global under the Nokia brand was one of the biggest presences at MWC 2019, unveiling the flagship Nokia 9 PureView, so could we see the long-rumored Nokia 10 at MWC 2022? It’s certainly possible.
We haven't heard any official plans from HMD Global on its MWC plans, but it's worth pointing out that Nokia is listed as an exhibitor on the show floor. So it's possible we'll see new tech, though that could be for other companies that operate under the Nokia name.
Huawei at MWC 2022
Huawei isn’t the force it once was in phones – at least outside China, but it’s still doing interesting things, and there’s a big chance some of those things could be shown off at MWC 2022, as the company has confirmed that it will be attending the event.
We wouldn’t expect to see the Huawei P60 there, since the Huawei P50 still isn’t available in the west yet, and since it hasn’t shown off its main flagships at MWC in recent years. But at MWC 2019 the brand did unveil the foldable Huawei Mate X, so it’s not out of the question that we could see a new foldable phone at MWC 2022 – perhaps the Huawei Mate X3.
In fact, given that the Huawei Mate X2 landed in late February of 2021, the timing would line up for that, though were that to be the case we’d think we’d have heard more about the X3 by now.
Honor at MWC 2022
We know what we'll be seeing from Honor at MWC, as the company has confirmed that it will be announcing the Honor Magic 4 range there.
These are its flagship phones, and we already know that at least one of them will have a top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. Based on the teaser above we're also expecting big things from their cameras. These phones will be announced on February 28 at 3am PT / 6am ET / 11am GMT / 9:30pm ACT.
Realme at MWC 2022
We also know what to expect from Realme, as the company has revealed that it will be globally launching the Realme GT 2 range at MWC 2022.
They'll be unveiled on February 28, but these phones have already been announced in China, so we have a good idea of the specs - it's details like pricing and availability that we're expecting here.
From what we know so far these are high-end handsets, with the Realme GT 2 Pro in particular rivalling big-name flagships, but at a likely lower price.
OnePlus at MWC 2022
We’re including OnePlus here simply because we're expecting the OnePlus 10 Pro to get a global launch soon (and perhaps the standard OnePlus 10 to get unveiled as well).
But OnePlus doesn’t tend to have much of a presence at these shows, so we’d be very surprised if it did announce any OnePlus 10 models there. For now, we wouldn’t count on seeing anything from OnePlus at MWC 2022.
Oppo at MWC 2022
Oppo is a weird one. We were expecting its new series of flagship phones to debut... but then they did a few days early, on February 24. We've already seen the Oppo Find X5 devices then, including a top-end Find X5 Pro.
However the company has confirmed it's hosting a separate event on February 28 for... something. Who knows what? We'll have to wait to find out.
Xiaomi at MWC 2022
Xiaomi has only become a major presence in the world of phones in the last few years, and before that it wasn’t much of a presence at MWC either. It did make an appearance at MWC 2019, but only to announce the western launch of the already-announced Xiaomi Mi 9.
We know that one of Xiaomi's sub-brands, Pocophone, is showing up at the event, so expect some affordable or mid-range Android phones to show up on February 28. But in terms of Xiaomi's main-series devices, we're not so sure.
Everything else
There are all sorts of other brands that might show up at MWC 2022, and some that almost certainly won’t. We’d be very surprised if Apple was there for example based on past form, and while Google might be present, we wouldn’t expect any significant announcements from it.
However, the likes of TCL, Alcatel, Vivo and ZTE are all companies that could announce something there.
In fact, TCL was one of the biggest presences at the otherwise very quiet MWC 2021, announcing the Alcatel 1, plus some smart glasses, and the TCL MoveTime Family Watch 2. So more launches along those lines are a possibility at MWC 2022.
- MWC 2022 could host some of the best smartphones
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