MWC 2022: Samsung Galaxy Book2 Business launched for enterprise users. This year companies including Samsung, Oppo, OnePlus and Qualcomm, and others had a lot of new announcements at the Mobile World Congress 2022 event in Barcelona. We saw Oppo showing off its new Air Glass wearables, while Nokia announced some new C-series phones. Qualcomm announced the X70 modem, its successor to the X65 5G modem.
Meanwhile, Lenovo announced the new ThinkPad X13s, while Oppo introduced its 240W SuperVOOC flash charge technology and OnePlus and Realme announced that 150W charging is coming to some phones in the near future. Catch all the highlights as they happened below.
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HMD Global has launched the Nokia C2 2nd Edition, C21, and C21 Plus smartphones as part of this year's MWC serving as their latest budget models. The Nokia C2 2nd Edition starts at EUR 79 (about Rs 6700), featuring a 5.7-inch FWVGA display and a 5MP single rear camera setup. The device is powered by a quad-core MediaTek processor with 1GB and 2GB RAM options, and will go on sale from April.
The Nokia C21 starts at EUR 99 (about Rs 8,400), and features a 6.5-inch HD display. The phone is powered by an octa-core Unisoc SC9863A chipset, and comes in 2GB and 3GB RAM variants. It also features a rear single-camera setup, sporting an 8MP lens, and has support for AI face unlock and fingerprint scanning. Nokia C21 will be available for sale in March.
The Nokia C21 Plus is listed at EUR 119 (about Rs 10,100), and similar to the base variant, has a 6.5-inch HD display. Both phones are powered by the same chip and come with two different battery sizes - 4000mAh and 5050mAh. The C21 Plus is the only model in this lineup that is equipped with a rear dual-camera setup, sporting a 13MP main lens and 2MP depth. In terms of storage, the C21 Plus lets you pick between 32GB and 64 GBs, and includes a micro-USB slot for good measure.
With Oppo announcing a new 150W SuperVOOC fast-charging standard, its upmarket sub-brand OnePlus said it will bring the tech to an unnamed smartphone in the second quarter of this year. OnePlus didn't reveal whether that phone will be a flagship device or a part of the mid-range Nord series. Realme is also announcing a 150W UltraDart tech at MWC. Oppo, OnePlus and Realme are all part of BBK Electronics. To know more about the story, read here.
Oppo has announced its new 150W SuperVooc with Battery Health Engine (BHE) and the 240W SuperVooc flash charge technology at the ongoing MWC in Barcelona, Spain. The new 150W charging will be capable of bringing a refill 4500mAh battery pack from empty to full in 15 minutes. The charge to 50 per cent will take just 5 minutes, claims Oppo. Meanwhile, the 240W SuperVooc flash charge technology is efficient enough to power a 4,500mAh battery from 1 per cent to 100 in just about 9 minutes. You can read the entire story here.
At MWC 2022, Qualcomm announced a bunch of new technologies at the world's biggest mobile-focused tech show. Its Snapdragon Sound, for instance, wireless earbud support for 16-bit “CD-quality” lossless audio over Bluetooth. Qualcomm also announced that it will be using Snapdragon Connect branding to ensure that customers can easily identify devices that will offer the best connectivity. Devices carrying the Snapdragon Connect badge will offer the best 5G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity that Qualcomm offers. Meanwhile, the new Snapdragon X70 5G modem-RF system aims to improve your phone’s 5G connection with the help of an AI processor.
Realme has introduced its GT 2 Pro and GT smartphones, the company's most premium phones till date. The GT 2 Pro is taking a stab at the $800 price segment, though it starts at around Eur 649, which puts it at $730 price mark. It comes with dual 50MP cameras at the back, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, a 150-degree wide angle camera, as well. The vanilla GT 2 runs the Snapdragon 888 processor. Read more details here.
Lenovo has announced a series of laptops as part of this year’s MWC presentation, in the ThinkPad and IdeaPad range. The new ThinkPad X13 is powered by the premium Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor, and comes in an ultra-slim, fan-less design that delivers next-level silence. Weighing at just 1.06kgs, the company boasts of multi-day battery life of up to 28 hours, an enhanced 5G connection, and a 5MP webcam with auto-framing and intelligent noise suppression for conference calls. The display measures 13.6-inches and comes with touch control and Eyesafe low blue light options.
Lenovo has also launched the ThinkPad Extreme X1 Gen 5, which is a powerhouse gaming laptop, packed with the latest Core i9 processor and 64GBs of RAM. The ThinkVision M14d is a 14-inch USB-C monitor that connects to any system at less power, via an elegant one-cable solution. The new IdeaPad Flex 5 2-in-1 series is a convertible laptop that can be turned into a tent, a tablet, or a laptop. The Flex 5i comes installed with a 12th Gen Core i7 processor, while the Flex 5 is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 processor.
TCL has been regular at MWC, and this year it is showing off some crazy concept devices. Its "roll and fold" concept is a folding phone which looks a lot like the Galaxy Z Fold 3, but when unfolded, it can stretch on further and have more screen real estate. Another concept has a 360-degree design, which unfolds completely flat. The Chinese company, best known for its TVs, has been experimenting with foldable phones but is yet to ship an actual device yet.
Samsung has introduced its Galaxy Book2 Business at the MWC 2022. This is a new PC built on the Intel vPro platform of processors designed for businesses. The laptops comes with tools to help keep them secure for enterprise users, especially in the hybrid environment when some employees might be doing work from home and working on non-enterprise networks. Samsung claims these come with the company’s own “defense-grade security technology,” Intel Hardware Shield Technology, and secure embedded processor to protect BIOS.
They are “equipped with a Tamper Alert function that detects and tracks malicious attempts to interfere with security-critical data and stop PC attacks before the operating system is infiltrated,” according to the company.
Further, if the laptop does come under attack, Samsung claims that the “valuable data is secured with BIOS auto-recovery, which can detect threats during the PC’s boot process and automatically restore the BIOS to a backup copy before corruption strikes.”
The laptops are built on Intel vPro processors an Intel Hardware Shield that protects against hardware and OS attacks and reduces the chances of malware exploiting the OS, states the company.
“By monitoring both BIOS and OS levels, Galaxy Book2 Business helps enterprises evade attacks and keep sensitive data safe. Plus, Microsoft Secured-Core PC (SCPC) protects each device from kernel and firmware attacks, so malicious codes can’t corrupt the system,” adds the release.
The laptop also come with an auto framing feature to keep the camera focused on the faces on-screen while Background Effects like blurred background and virtual office settings minimise distractions. Each laptop in the segment “automatically filters static and background sounds, so voices come through clearly and every word is heard and understood,” during video calls.
The laptop has a Business IR Camera, and only authorised users can log in with facial detection for easy access that saves time.
Specifications include 14-inch FHD display, Intel vPro with 12th Gen Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processors. Non vPro versions will also come in markets such as India. Only Europe will get versions with 4G LTE connectivity. RAM offered is 8GB, though it can be increased to 64GB. Storage is 256GB which can be increased to 1TB.
Samsung will live stream the Galaxy MWC 2022 event through the company's YouTube and social media channels and we have embedded the link for your convenience. While no details are available as to what exactly Samsung will launch, it's likely thin-and-light Windows-based Galaxy Books running either Intel or Snapdragon chips.
Will OnePlus 10 Pro ever come to India? OnePlus has already unveiled the OnePlus 10 Pro, but the company hasn't confirmed the global launch yet. Although we are not expecting any new announcements, we would expect OnePlus to confirm the debut of the OnePlus 10 Pro outside of mainland China.
Realme has confirmed that it will launch its high-end Realme GT2 at this year's MWC, featuring a 150-degree ultra-wide camera and a bio-polymer based back cover, which serves as an eco-friendly alternative to plastic. The company was first to include 65W charging support on its X50 Pro, and this year will unveil a new charging technology.
With the Galaxy S22 lineup already announced and the next Galaxy Z Fold smartphone won't be coming before August, Samsung might use this year's MWC to announce new Galaxy laptops and updated Galaxy A-series. Not to forget, Samsung did launch Galaxy A-series devices at MWC in past, so there’s a chance we will see the next-generation mid-premium Android smartphones at the world's biggest mobile-focused tech show.