On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

ZTE offshoot Nubia shows up at MWC 2019 to present the Alpha, a smartphone with a long and thin flexible OLED display allowing one to wrap it around the wrist, like a smartwatch.

First seen back at IFA 2018, the Alpha remains a curious device. Described by the company as a "wearable smartphone" directly inspired by science fiction props, it promises to put all smartphone functionality on the wrist through a custom Android-based OS. Users navigate menus by scrolling through simplified icon menus, and the device even supports gesture control in the shape of waving a finger over the device, without touching the display.

It takes a lot to impress at the crowded halls of MWC 2019, but HMD Global might have managed to do exactly that with the Nokia 9 PureView-- a smartphone with 5 cameras in the back, arguably the most put in a phone yet.

The 5 cameras share the same specifications, since each features a 12MP sensor and an f/1.8 lens. Two of the cameras shoot in colour, while the other three are in monochrome. To snap a photo, the cameras shoot at different exposures at the same time, before the phone merges all the image data into a single, ultra-detailed shot. Nokia even claims the individual cameras can shoot multiple exposures on their own, adding even more data to the final image.

The two next big things in smartphones are foldable displays and 5G connectivity, and Huawei combines the two with the Mate X-- a handset the company claims is nothing less than the fastest 5G folding phone.

Launched at MWC 2019, the Mate X has an 8-inch wraparound flexible OLED display and a folded thickness of 11mm. As such it is slimmer than the most prominent rival, the Samsung Galaxy Fold, and offers a dual-screen experience when folded. For instance, one can snap a selfie with the main camera or display the same image on both front and rear of the device.

Qualcomm uses MWC 2019 to announce the Snapdragon 8cx platform-- the chip designed by the company to power the "always on, always connected" laptops of the near future-- will feature 5G connectivity.

Announced back in December 2018, the now imaginatively titled Snapdragon 8cx 5G Compute Platform promises to do nothing less than "lead the PC ecosystem into the 5G era." To do so the chip integrates the Snapdragon X55 5G modem, and will allow enterprises to build private 5G small-cell networks providing a more secure and high-performance data link for next generation connected applications.