Tech
The 6 most important phones from MWC 2022
A quieter year of announcements at MWC 2022 still produced some pretty interesting phones, from experiments with new materials to affordable flagship features.
MWC 2022 was a bit slower this year — understandable given the global circumstances — but that doesn’t mean that the mobile tech show didn’t launch a few interesting phones.
After Samsung got out of the way with its S22 launch (the S22+ is the new Android phone to get if you’re not a stylus freak), MWC 2022 was all about manufacturers experimenting with new materials and designs, while also trying to translate the flagship features customers love into more affordable phones.
In no specific order, below is a short list of some of MWC 2022’s best mobile treasures:
Color me not enthused over the Honor Magic 4 Pro’s curved 6.81-inch LTPO OLED screen (waterfall displays, I hate them!) but the rest of the former Huawei sub-brand’s new flagship is visually striking. The back of the Magic 4 Pro features a unique “cyclops-eye” circular camera array with a 50-megapixel wide, 50-megapixel ultrawide with a 122-degree field of view, and a 64-megapixel periscope telephoto with a 3.5x zoom.
Honor is also including wireless 100W fast charging to let the Magic 4 Pro’s 4,600 mAh battery charge to 50 percent in 15 minutes or reach a full charge in 30 minutes with 100W wired charging. If there was any major trend for phones at MWC 2022, it’s that phone makers are embracing faster and faster charging. Something Apple seems reluctant to follow.
Realme’s new GT2 Pro is the first smartphone to be (partially made) from a matte, fingerprint-resistant biopolymer material made from paper pulp (among other environmentally friendly ingredients). Realme claims this has reduced carbon emissions in the manufacturing of the GT2 Pro’s rear panel by 35.5 percent. Just look at that green color!
The rest of Realme’s new phone is equally premium. There’s a 6.7-inch LTPO OLED display (1440p), two 50-megapixel lenses (wide and ultrawide), one “micro-lens” (with 20x magnification), a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, and a 5,000 mAh battery.
Oppo’s Find X5 Pro seems like a great follow-up to the Find X3, with a new ceramic design — this phone is satisfyingly cool to the touch — and a great set of lenses (50-megapixel wide, 50-megapixel ultrawide, and 13-megapixel telephoto) and AI camera features.
Aside from a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the Find X5 series are Oppo’s first phones to use custom silicon in the form of a dedicated imaging neural processing unit called MariSilicon X. We’ve got the Find X5 Pro in hand for a deeper look, but it definitely seems like Oppo’s new flagship is up to snuff.
Input’s experience with Poco phones is a mixed bag, but hear me out: the Poco X4 Pro 5G seems like a great way to get features that are usually exclusive to flagship phones at a mid-range phone price.
The X4 Pro 5G has a colorful squared-off design with a 6.67-inch 120Hz AMOLED screen, 108-megapixel main lens, 8-megapixel ultrawide, 2-megapixel “micro camera,” and a 5,000 mAh battery. The X4 Pro 5G is using a Snapdragon 695 5G chip rather than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, but you get a lot of bang for your buck for less than $500.
OnePlus’ launch of its newest phone has been more than a little weird. But armed with the knowledge that the phone will be available at some point by the end of March, the OnePlus 10 Pro seems like it’s at least worth considering among this year’s camera stars.
Front and center is the (OnePlus 10 Pro’s Hasselblad co-development, which paired with the phone’s 8-megapixel wide (OIS), 50-megapixel ultr-wide (OIS), and 8-megapixel telephoto, should hopefully produce some stylish shots. The OnePlus 10 Pro is using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, and thanks to the adoption of Oppo’s 80W SuperVooC charging it can juice up to 100 percent battery in 32 minutes.
TCL unloaded several new phones at MWC, all variations on the TCL 30 series the company announced at CES 2022. Prices, designs, and specs vary, but in general, the company is focusing on integrating displays and camera features that might show up on a phone twice the price.
As an example of the kind of premium features TCL is trying to include, the TCL 30 5G has three 50-megapixel cameras, a 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, 5G support, and a 5010 mAh battery. Components that wouldn’t normally be combined on a phone that costs less than $500.
