Mobile World Congress 2018 is now over. This year’s event was either exciting, more of the same, or boring, depending on your viewpoint. There weren’t as many devices announced this year as there have been at past events, but there were major device announcements from the likes of Samsung, Nokia, Sony, and Asus.
The stars of the show were the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+. After skipping MWC in 2017, Samsung attended the event this year and announced their 2018 flagship phones on February 25th. We went hands-on with the phones, and our preliminary impression is that the faster processors in the phones and the better cameras look promising.
In terms of development, the Galaxy S9 phones are special as they are the first Samsung phones to launch with Android Oreo out of the box, which means they have support for Project Treble. The Exynos variants of the S9 and the S9+ are expected to have unlockable bootloaders, which means that they will potentially be able to boot a Generic System Image (GSI) of AOSP Android Oreo. If you’re interested in this, make sure you stay tuned to our Galaxy S9 and S9+ forums, which have now gone live.
Samsung Galaxy S9 ForumSamsung Galaxy S9+ Forum
HMD Global is the second major manufacturer of note. The company launched the Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 6 (2018), and the Nokia 1 at the event. The Nokia 8 Sirocco, specifically, looks like an excellent device with stock Android Oreo. Our forums for all these devices have gone live.
Nokia 8 Sirocco ForumNokia 7 Plus ForumNokia 6 (2018) ForumNokia 1 Forum
Sony launched the Xperia XZ2 and the Xperia XZ2 Compact with 18:9 displays and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC at the event. The new phones have a different design, premium specifications, and in a controversial move, opted to ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack. Our forums for both of Sony’s new flagship phones are now live. Also, the previously announced Xperia XA2 Ultra gets its own XDA forum.
Sony Xperia XZ2 ForumSony Xperia XZ2 Compact ForumSony Xperia XA2 Ultra Forum
XDA forums for the Asus ZenFone 5Z have also gone live. Although it won’t launch until June, the phone shows a lot of promise at its $499 price point with specifications such as a 6.2-inch display (with notch), Snapdragon 845, dual cameras, and more.
Asus ZenFone 5Z ForumThe LG V30S ThinQ is an upgraded version of the V30 with 6GB of RAM and new AI features. Here’s the link for its XDA forum.
LG V30S ForumThe Alcatel 5 is a lower mid-range phone with an 18:9 display and small bezels, while its competitor the ZTE Blade V9 has a higher-end Snapdragon 450 SoC. Finally, Huawei launched the MediaPad M5 high-end Android tablet series at MWC. Forums for all these devices are live.
Alcatel 5 ForumZTE Blade V9 ForumHuawei MediaPad M5 Forum
You can now ask questions, read guides, and keep up to date on the latest development news for all these devices. We hope you have enjoy checking out the forums.