Trendy mobile technology in 2017

The exhibition MWC 2017, taking place in late winter in Barcelona, ​​has become the most notorious event of the week. Traditionally, it determines the global trends of the world of mobile technology, but in the last couple of years here and there there were rumors that MWC loses its influence, because the number of interesting announcements at the congress inexorably shrinking. However, in 2017 MWC once again managed to rivet everyone's attention thanks to the variety of notable events. We have summed up the results of the exhibition and invite you to find out what gadgets and technology we will be using in the near future.

The fifth generation of cellular networks

Not had time to finish a truly mass adoption of mobile networks fourth generation (LTE-Advanced), and high-tech companies are already saying that the process of preparation of 5G networks in commercial operation came to the finish line. Harbinger 5G steel LTE-A Pro network (the so-called 4, 5G), already deployed in several Russian cities. When you use this standard, together with a number of other instruments (aggregation of three frequency bands, MIMO 4x4 antenna configuration and modulation of 256-QAM) Samsung company managed to overclock speed wireless data transfer of up to 1 Gbit / s. This speed should be the minimum to support at the level of "hardware", and in the future Gigabit LTE Cat. 19 should provide a speed of 1, 6 Gbit / s. Remember that this is only the first step towards "real" 5G, which should speed will be up to 10 Gbit / s.

And Qualcomm, and Samsung confirm the seriousness of his intentions announcements. So, the South Korean company said it will soon offer the world modems, home routers, wireless base stations and the processor cores with 5G support - all of these products are being precommercial testing at home companies, as well as Japan and the United States. As for Qualcomm, the chip maker promises the emergence of full-5G-modem Snapdragon X50 only two years.

But the laurels of the first companies, which showed a smartphone prototype 5G support went to ZTE. Her gadget codenamed ZTE Gigabit Phone has a modem processor and Snapdragon X16 Snapdragon 835 from Qualcomm, as well as its own set of hardware and software solutions ZTE, which was named Pre5G Giga + MBB.

While manufacturers are testing prototypes of vengeance, the largest service providers and operators come together to deploy, test and implement the first 5G networks. The result of this cooperation will soon be launching the fifth generation of networks: the first field trials of the new standard is expected to carry out already in 2019.

Protected gadgets

Smartphones and other devices with dust and moisture protection already managed to gain popularity, and announcements at the MWC 2017 clearly showed that in the near future this trend will only increase. For example, its first flagship protected presented by LG - they became LG G6.

The emphasis on waterproof smartphones during the presentation made and the company Lenovo, showcased Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus. Interestingly, the first smartphone refers to the low-end segment, and the second - to the middle, but was used to waterproof "chips" primarily the top gadgets.

Here we note the company Energizer (better known as the manufacturer of the batteries), which introduced a smartphone Energy E550LTE shock resistant housing. Energizer smartphone was powerful enough "stuffing", although in the past most of these gadgets mated budget "iron". Obviously, the protected, including impact-resistant smartphones are becoming increasingly popular, if companies are increasingly hesitant to similar experiments.

However, this concerns not only smartphones, but also other devices such as tablets. It thus became the new hybrid HP Pro x2 612 G2, protected by the military standard MIL-STD 810G. For it offers several accessories, including - shock-resistant case.

The expansion of Chinese companies

Despite the fact that most of the electronics has long been produced in China, at the MWC level shows we used to see in the main European and Korean brands, and only a few first-tier Chinese enterprises like Huawei. Recently, however, everything is changing rapidly: in January at CES 2017 was first introduced to the company Xiaomi, and in continuation of the trend at the World Congress - AGM, Doogee, Vernee, UMIDIGI and Ulefone. Some of these brands you might not even know, but, rest assured, these companies are serious and quite probably bite their market share from larger corporations.

Yes, and the "old" Western companies have brands often is not the same as they were before. The best-known examples - the Moto brand, which is owned by Lenovo today and the BlackBerry, purchased by TCL (its smart phones are also known under the Alcatel brand).

Of course, the Asian giants like LG and the Samsung, if shaken, the more soon, but for many it becomes harder and harder to stay on the market American and European manufacturers of smartphones every year. One of the few exceptions - Apple company, which gives the advantage of their own software and hardware platform.

Boom wearable devices

To say that the fashion for hand-held devices specified name MWC 2017, it would be wrong: in this race had involved almost all the big companies. However, there is no doubt that this year we are waiting for a large-scale update rulers smart clock large manufacturers. Positively assesses the scope and analyst firm CCS Insight, which predicts an increase in wearable electronics market tripled in 2019. And, although the first signs of the second generation of "smart" watches steel announced in early February, LG Watch Sport and Style, are not far behind, Huawei, shown in Congress Huawei Watch 2. New products LG and Huawei will be "out of the box" to work on Android Wear operating system 2.0, and will soon upgrade to this version of the OS will receive and other gadgets. So, ASUS company during the MWC 2017 has promised to release an update for Zenwatch Zenwatch 2 and 3 in April.

Another segment of the wearable electronics, which is only going to win national recognition - goggles and helmets of virtual and augmented reality. Here, the focus was noticed by the company Samsung, which unveiled at the MWC 2017, several interesting concepts. One of them - AR-helmet Relúmĭno, designed for people experiencing vision problems. The gadget will be able to compensate for the various shortcomings of view, shown on the display in a special way the altered image - for the user, it will look like, looks like the real world for a healthy person.

The second development companies - service traVRer, which will allow to travel to different corners of the world without leaving home. A feature of the application will be that it will be full movies with sound, and can be moved, and in the same place it will be possible to look not only from different angles, but at different times of the day.

Technology VuildUs useful, first of all, designers are able to change the actual interior in virtual reality. To this end, in the center of the room is set a special camera that creates a model room. The resulting image will be transferred to the VR-helmet, using which you can easily see how the room will look with new furniture or wall decoration.

But for those who do not want to break away from work for a smartphone, but still can not do without it, the Samsung has prepared Monitorless. This VR-helmet with glass with variable transparency, which will move the gadget in augmented reality mode and run mobile applications, interface overlaid on the real world.

Despite this variety of completely new devices, not without the announcement of a new version of the classic helmet Gear VR virtual reality. Like the previous model, the new accessory has been designed in collaboration with Oculus, and its main feature is the wireless controller support.

Death tablets

A complete care tablets it does not go, but in recent years the market for these devices is continuously declining. A reflection of this was the MWC 2017 in which notable announcements Android-plates can remember except that the presentation of Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. However, the high price of $ 750, support S Pen and a proprietary docking station with a keyboard make it clear that it is rather a professional device.

But the Congress variety of manufacturers have shown a lot of tablets for Windows, and all as one - with a removable keyboard. This Lenovo Miix 320 and Alcatel Plus12, and premium Porsche Design Book One, and protected Panasonic Toughbook CF-33. As for Android - it, for the most part, got attention only in the budget segment.

Putting it all together, we can conclude that people are not willing to keep buying tablets solely for entertainment purposes. To keep selling, manufacturers have to take into account the needs of professional users by adding these or other "chips". Interestingly, the various devices are oriented at different work - office (keyboard dock, complete the Windows), creative (stylus) and even field (a secure version).

HDR-displays

The first smartphone, which has passed the certification HDR10, was the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, but his fate was unenviable. Flag smartpeda quickly picked up by other manufacturers, and already at the MWC 2017, almost every gadget was done noise display with a wide dynamic range. Among them - the flagship Sony Xperia XZ Premium, Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 and LG G6.

The main advantage HDR10 - support of at least 90% of the color space, DCI-P3, coverage of which a quarter more than the sRGB. Also screens certified HDR10, support the color depth of at least 10 bits. All this enables mobile gadgets display more saturated image over a wide dynamic range.

The increase ratio of the screen area to the frontal area of ​​the panel

Many abuse smartpedy too high resolution display, calling them "shovel", and does not notice that the trend has changed in recent years. Despite the fact that the screen sizes continue to increase, the body size is usually not too change compared with the previous generation, and sometimes - even reduced. A striking example of a congress - the new flagship of LG's. If LG G5 was equipped with a 5-inch display 3 which occupied 70, 1% of the front panel area, then 5-inch display 7 LG G6, the figure is already 78, 6%. And smartphone decreased dimensions: height at 0, 5 mm, and the width - right 2 mm. The thickness of the gadget, however, has increased, but very very small 0, 2 mm.

The ratio of the screen to the front surface area of ​​LG G6 - not the limit. According to rumors, Samsung Galaxy S8 due to a curved screen can boast the use of 83% of the useful area of ​​the front panel.

Go to Gorilla Glass 5

Fight with scratches on the display has long been one of the main priorities of the smartphone manufacturers, as even small attrition is "an eyesore" and spoil the experience of using the gadget. A major player on the user side in this fight - the company Corning, which works in close collaboration with Samsung. Not surprisingly, the first smartphone with the protective glass of the new generation of Gorilla Glass 5 has become exactly Samsung Galaxy Note 7. However, the cream with the technology will shoot other gadgets presented at MWC 2017. These include - Sony Xperia XZ Premium, Huawei P10 and LG G6.

Interestingly, the gadget LG G6 is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 just behind, while the front panel is used for the glass Corning third generation. It explained this decision by saying that the Gorilla Glass 3 is thinner and lighter, though less strange it from this ceases to be.

Conclusion

World Congress in Barcelona demonstrated that, despite fears of stagnation in the mobile world, the next year we will again see a lot of interesting gadgets and technologies. In addition, we can expect an active expansion of Chinese companies on the global market, which will increase its competitiveness. For us this is the only benefit: both old and new companies will have to compete for customers with a vengeance, for us, in the end, will result in the emergence of many low-cost but high-quality gadgets. And what do you remember MWC 2017 event and what do you consider most important? Tell us about it in the comments.

Lyricist: Vladimir Terekhov