The Best of MWC 2026: Phones, Robots, AI, and a Seriously…

After hands-on time with the hottest mobile tech in Barcelona, our experts select the next-gen foldables, wearables, chips, and other technologies that will drive the industry forward this year and beyond. BARCELONA—Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world’s la…

BARCELONA—Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world's largest mobile-focused trade show, continues to serve as a look-ahead for what's coming in phones, wearables, and related personal tech. Last year, the show attracted more than 100,000 attendees and 2,900 exhibitors, and GSMA, the organization behind the event, anticipates similar numbers this year once the final tally is in. We've been on the ground in Spain for several days, exploring these products and technologies firsthand, and we're here to show you what excites us the most.

But first, let's talk about what's not here. A notable trend this year is the absence of some industry heavyweights. Samsung largely stepped away from MWC to craft its own narrative at Galaxy Unpacked. And Apple, which has never participated in MWC, is going even further by hosting competing events in London, New York, and Shanghai, rolling out multiple new products over the week. Still, there was no shortage of innovation at MWC, and just like at CES earlier this year, AI is everywhere and in everything.

For us at PCMag, the most exciting elements remain the consumer tech like laptops, phones, tablets, smart glasses, robots, and other gadgets. Equally important, however, are the underlying technologies—processors, modems, and wireless network advancements—that make it all possible. With that in mind, we've collected our favorites and debated their merits to bring you the products, prototypes, and concepts most likely to set the course for mobile tech in the months ahead.

The best of what we saw at the show this year points to a future where technology doesn't just enhance our lives, it fundamentally reshapes how we live and interact with the world. The Moto Razr Fold offers plenty to admire. Despite being a book-style folding phone, it's impressively thin and lightweight, and its camera setup looks outstanding. Motorola reports that DXOMark rated the Razr Fold as the best camera on a foldable and the second-best camera system among all smartphones in North America.

Durability isn't overlooked either: With IP68 and IP69 ratings, the phone is protected against dust and high-pressure water jets, and the front screen features Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 for added resistance to scratches and damage. For those who enjoy writing directly on the screen, the Razr Fold supports the new Moto Pen Ultra on its expansive 8.1-inch inner display and 6.6-inch outer display.

Samsung, take note.—Iyaz Akhtar Qualcomm's Snapdragon X105 is a potent addition to the company's cellular modem lineup and will likely power the top Android phones starting later this year. Chiefly, it focuses on supporting Agentic AI. It's 15% smaller than its predecessor, 30% more efficient, handles 5G better, and supports satellite technology for emergency voice, data, and video services. Qualcomm will bundle it with other chips, including a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS package, as well as processors like its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.—Eric Zeman Xiaomi's latest smartwatch has three big selling points: battery life, built-in Google Gemini, and custom gesture controls.

The Watch 5 has a 930mAh cell that purportedly powers it for six days between charges. Running Wear OS 6, it features Google's AI assistant built in, so it can tackle complex commands right from your wrist. During a demo, a Google representative asked for directions to the Gothic Quarter and whether it would be fastest to take public transportation, a taxi, or walk there, based on current traffic conditions.

The AI consulted Google Maps and answered the multi-part question within seconds. In the settings menu, you can customize the actions for three gestures (Snap Fingers, Shake Wrist, and Rotate Wrist) to control the watch and access your favorite features with ease.—Angela Moscaritolo Smart glasses are everywhere at MWC this year, but the ones that truly impressed me were Alibaba’s Qwen S1. They feature a monochrome green in-lens display that's not only highly responsive but also incredibly easy to use.

Navigation is simple: taps and swipes on the right temple let you move through a menu packed with handy apps, including an AI camera that captures and describes your surroundings, a teleprompter for presentations, a music player, and a language translator. The Translate app is particularly striking. While wearing the glasses, I stood near two people speaking a foreign language—the glasses instantly detected it and began translating their conversation in real time, right in front of my eyes, giving me a genuine “spy-from-the-future” moment.

Alibaba showcased several frame styles, all lightweight and comfortable. The Qwen S1 glasses are already available in China for roughly $500, significantly undercutting Meta’s Ray-Ban Display by hundreds of dollars.—AM The MagicPad4 is Honor's flagship tablet, holding its own against top-tier models from Apple, Lenovo, and Samsung. It boasts a 12.3-inch display with 3K resolution and a silky-smooth 165Hz refresh rate.

Underneath, it’s powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor and is available in two configurations: 12GB RAM with 256GB storage or 16GB RAM with 512GB storage. A massive 10,100mAh battery keeps it running all day and supports ultra-fast 66W wired charging. Photographers and video callers will appreciate the 13MP rear camera and 9MP front camera, while audiophiles can enjoy immersive sound from its eight speakers.

With Bluetooth 6, Wi-Fi 7, and Android 16, the MagicPad4 is a versatile powerhouse for both productivity and entertainment.—EZ Lenovo snags this award not just because the T series is a reliable business-fleet workhorse—though that's true, too. This year, Lenovo is offering significant improvements in repairability and longevity across the model line, with an under-the-hood redesign that makes almost every major part user-replaceable.

The battery is easy to remove, now tool-free and cable-free; the ports are replaceable bits, separate from the mainboard. It's also easy to replace the keyboard, the touchpad, and other key components. Cleaner layouts and clearer labels make it easier to find your way around the laptop's internals. Lenovo has even adopted the new LPCAMM2 memory format on certain models to allow for both a low-profile memory design and module swappability.

On top of that, the new T14 models come in Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm flavors—a proper cornucopia of processing options.—Brian Westover AMD detailed Ryzen AI 400 mobile processors at CES in January, so we were a bit surprised to see the chip maker unveil desktop variants at MWC, a resolutely mobile-focused show. It's all about the "Pro," though: AMD is using the show as a launch pad for both desktop and laptop versions of the new AI Pro 400.

These CPUs, designed for business, feature the slate of AMD Pro enterprise security and management technologies. What makes the desktop variants special, though, is the inclusion of AMD's XDNA 2 NPU, introduced with the non-Pro Ryzen AI 400 and rated for 50 TOPS of AI processing. That will enable support for Copilot+ local AI application processing on desktops. These chips will be OEM-only—meaning they'll show up only in prebuilt PCs, not as boxed upgrades—but they stand out for bringing unprecedented NPU power to a "true" desktop chip.

(The top-end model will feature eight cores, support for 16 threads, a 5.1GHz peak boost clock, and Radeon 860M integrated graphics.)—John A. Burek Designed for commercial and entertainment applications, the AgiBot X2 robot can indeed do work and put on a show. Wide-eyed MWC attendees watched it do hip-hop dance moves, Tai Chi-inspired routines, and even a full split. This nimble humanoid stands 4'2" tall and can walk four miles per hour, similar to a living, breathing person.

It supports more than 30 facial expressions, and can even turn its head to meet your gaze when you talk to it, shake your hand, follow you around, and stand up on its own from a seated position. It's powered by a 500Wh battery that promises two hours of power on a charge, and can autonomously navigate to its docking station to juice up when it runs low.—AM Lenovo’s Modular AI Concept PC is the rare "out there" concept product that we could see having immediate potential as a retail product.

A laptop fitted with two screens—one fixed in the usual spot, and a second, removable display on the screen lid—this modular concept is the king of flexible laptop designs. You can remove the keyboard deck from its position and snap the second display in its place, creating a dual-screen laptop for productivity while using the keyboard and its touchpad wirelessly. Alternatively, you can attach the second display via a wired connection and use it as a portable monitor alongside your laptop.

Snap it back on the lid when you’re finished. Not enough? The laptop also has swappable port modules, a la Framework's laptops, that let you change around the locations and types of your USB and HDMI ports. A surprisingly polished design, this machine is something of a "greatest hits" of clever laptop advances.—Matthew Buzzi The Tecno Atom resembles an iPhone Air with its razor-thin profile, and it may even improve on the idea.

Thin phones usually mean small batteries, but the Atom supports magnetic modules: Snap on a 3,000mAh power bank for extra juice, add a 3x optical-zoom module for telephoto shots, or attach a larger zoom lens for serious reach. That kind of easy modularity could be the future of phones.—IA

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