One of the biggest events in the tech fan’s calendar is Mobile World Congress, and MWC 2026 this year was chock-full of phones as you’d hope. Over several days, I tested about 30 different mobiles, to see what’s new in the smartphone world and what might hit our list of the best smartphones in the future.
I’ve seen phones that fold, phones that flip, phones that turn and phones that survive a tumble. Many slipped straight from my mind, but to help you follow the comings and goings of the show, I’ve boiled down the dozens of devices I saw into six interesting picks.
These are all devices I spent time playing with (and would love more time playing with, as my normal day-to-day phone, instead of a test device). Two of these are models I’d definitely consider buying if I wasn’t a tech journalist, and the other four are still great devices that I could see many enjoying.
Just a note: to impose some order to this list, I’ve not allowed concept phones, or other devices that seem unlikely to release to the public. Devices that will only release in certain countries are fine, though we’ll start with an honorable mention list to address some pain points.
Honorable mentions
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There are loads of phones which deserve to be known about from MWC 2026, but couldn’t quite fit into this ‘best’ list for a few reasons.
Some don’t work because they already exist: Samsung gave a much better look at the online exclusive colors of its new phones like the Samsung Galaxy S26, so we finally know how its silver and pink models show up. Surprise surprise, they look quite nice, and you can see a silver model above. The Nubia Air Pro also caught my eye, but it actually debuted last year.
Others don’t make the cut because they weren’t really released at MWC at all. I’m looking at you, Nothing Phone (4a), which was teased with flash and pomp, but actually launched at a separate event simultaneous to MWC.
I’ve also chosen to exclude concept phones, because they’re not real phones, just models designed to show off ideas. So farewell, Tecno’s modular phone, and sayonara Honor Robot Phone.
Finally, I’ve excluded the Honor V6 and Nubia Fold simply because, while they were cool, their brands had more interesting releases that were more deserving of their time in the spotlight. I also cut the Vivo X300, because while it looked really cool, Vivo didn’t let me into their booth.
Honor Magic 8 Pro
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Technically, the Honor Magic 8 Pro came out prior to MWC, but the company rocked it out to accompany its robot phone (gimmicky) and V6 foldable, and it’s a more readily recommendable phone than the folding one. Given that Honor also had one of the biggest stands in the conference, I also felt I had to include it somewhere.
The Honor Magic 8 Pro is a speccy powerhouse with 350MP worth of cameras (50MP main, front and ultra-wide, with 200MP periscope module for 3.7x zoom), a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 6.71-inch OLED screen (a flagship without a too-giant screen: nice!), 7,100mAh battery, 100W wired charging and 80W wireless powering. I initially thought it had two front cameras, but one is just a time-of-flight module for better depth in selfies.
The software felt a little bloated, as is Honor’s way, but its seven years of promised Android updates may mean it’ll be worth the time it takes to delete all the bloatware I saw in the interface.
What would stop me buying the Honor Magic 8 Pro is the price; at £1,099 (about $1,500, AU$2,000) it’s not cheap, and I don’t see average buyers picking it over a Samsung or Apple phone when they’re more proven brands. But I still respect a manufacturer putting out a powerful phone that doesn’t get by on gimmicks but on specs, hence the Magic 8 Pro’s place on this list.
Nubia Z80 Ultra
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Despite spotty availability, I’ve long enjoyed Nubia’s phones for a key reason: they’re always pretty unique, and so make for a great salve for the tedium a tech writer can face.
On the surface, the Nubia Z80 Ultra looks like your standard top-end Android phone. It has a 6.85-inch AMOLED screen, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, three-camera set-up (50MP main, 50MP ultrawide, 64MP periscope telephoto at 2.7x zoom), 7,200mAh battery, and 80W wired and wireless charging. Solid hardware, with the addition of an under-display front camera, which is something you don’t see much anymore.
So what’s unique? Well, as well as white and black models, there’s a version emblazoned with a spiral design, akin to Van Gogh’s Starry Night (and named accordingly). It’s a wonderful antidote to how boring phones can look.
Bafflingly, the handset is priced at only $649 / £579 (about AU$1,100) for its entry model, and I’ll share a price table below with full availability details. That’s incredibly cheap for those specs, which makes me wonder what the catch is. But before we find out, let’s celebrate an impressive powerhouse at a reasonable price.
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Global official price (USD) |
UK official price (GBP) |
AU rough conversion (AUD) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
12GB / 256GB |
$649 |
£579 |
$1,100 |
|
16GB / 512GB |
$799 |
£709 |
$1,400 |
|
16GB / 512GB, Starry Night model |
$829 |
£729 |
$1,450 |
|
16GB / 1TB |
$899 |
£799 |
$1,600 |
Nubia Neo 5 GT
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Oh look: there’s Nubia again. The company made the strange decision to release a new gaming phone from its own name, not under its gaming sub-brand Red Magic, in the Nubia Neo 5 GT.
This has all the specs of a gaming phone made for budget buyers: Dimensity 7400 chipset, 12GB RAM, 6.8-inch AMOLED screen, 6,210mAh battery, 80W charging and haptic side pressures for gaming. In comparison to the brand’s pricey Red Magic 11 Pro, it feels restrained, and will likely cost less (pricing and availability unconfirmed).
But a key detail won me over to a phone that’d otherwise fall between the cracks. It doesn’t have a camera bump, with its lenses flush with the back of the phone. This means you can put it on a surface, or up against a wall, with no wobble or awkward angling: great if you’re using a Bluetooth controller.
The handset was also released alongside a Neo 5, which seems similar but doesn’t get the flush camera array or triggers. So, less useful for gaming. There’s a reason the GT model is listed!
Xiaomi 17 Ultra / Leica Leitzphone
At Xiaomi’s booth, my gaze was drawn to the compact yet powerful Xiaomi 17 Pro, though it’s not really new. So let’s turn our attention to the new ‘big dog’: the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, as well as a version with a physical rotating camera ring and Leica branding called the Leica Leitzphone.
This is a camera phone that turns everything up to 11. The main camera offers 50MP and a 1-inch sensor, while the 200MP periscope telephoto lens moves between 3.2x and 4.3x zoom, and a 50MP ultrawide camera joins the party too. That’s not to mention various photography modes and Leica-themed color effects; early testers of these phones have been singing their praises, and my tests at MWC echoed their sentiment, although the giant camera array had me wishing I hadn’t skipped arm day at the gym to attend the conference.
The Xiaomi 17 Ultra and its branded kin are premium in other ways too: they have 6,000mAh batteries, 90W wired and 50W wireless charging, 16GB RAM, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 6.9-inch AMOLED screen, and IP69 protection. There’s no expandable memory though, bafflingly, for phones that are supposed to be good for photographers.
The real catch is the price, however. As is the case with Xiaomi phones, they won’t go on sale in the US, and will start at £1,299 (about $1,700, AU$2,400) – the Leica model is the most premium model, selling for £1,699 (roughly $2,200, AU$3,200). So most people won’t even consider buying this phone, but it’s cool to see the real pinnacle of smartphone photography.
TCL NxtPaper 70 Pro
The NxtPaper 70 Pro’s unique selling point is the NxtPaper switch, under the power button: press this, and the phone turns into e-paper mode. Looking at things on screen is more comfortable, and some UI tweaks make it easy to access things like your book library.
This is great for battery life, fantastic for eye health. Two thumbs up. It’s not new – the ‘70’ gave that away – but tech doesn’t have to be novel to be great, if it works well and serves a purpose. I found this function to be quick and efficient.
Beyond that, the NxtPaper 70 Pro bears mid-range specs: a big 6.9-inch screen, Mediatek Dimensity 7300 chipset, two rear cameras (50MP main, 8MP ultrawide), 5,200mAh battery and 33W charging.
Exact pricing for the TCL NxtPaper 70 Pro hasn’t been confirmed in the US yet, but its Euro pricing converts to around $400 / £300 / AU$600, so it hopefully won’t cost too much. It’s confirmed for a US release, but TCL’s release strategy in the UK and Australia has been… spotty.
Tecno Camon 50 Pro
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Even if you’d heard of Tecno when it was mentioned honoraby, Camon may be a step too far; this is a mid-range family from the company. At MWC, it launched the new series, consisting of the main, Pro and Ultra models. There’s no availability as yet, but as before, don’t expect to see this in your Walmart or Tesco at any point.
But, the Camon 50 Pro looked so cool that I wish I could buy it. It has everything I used to love in smartphone design, that’s no longer present: a lovely curved-edge screen design which made it comfortable to hold, a range of vibrant color options that caught the eye, and a really curvy look that leisurely jettisons display area in favor of a more playful look. In a world of boring boxy smartphones, playing with the Camon 50 Pro was a treat (the Ultra looks the same, but in fewer fun colors).
Another great spec? The Camon 50 Pro is a budget phone with a telephoto lens. Beyond Nothing, that’s rare. The full array is a 50MP main, 50MP telephoto for 3x zoom, and 8MP ultrawide trio, with a 50MP snapper on the front. Want yet another great spec? The 6.78-inch screen uses AMOLED tech, so it’s bright and punchy, and has a 144Hz refresh rate. Yep, more than the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and the phone has military-grade MIL-STD-810 compliance and an IP69K protection, so it’s hardy. The battery is giant, at 6,150mAh, and charges at 45W.
Perhaps the issue here is the Helio G200 Ultimate chipset, which may not be too strong – I’m also not versed with Tecno’s HIOS Android fork, so can’t say how well it works, though the brand’s marketing material is full of random AI features.
It’s been literal years since I saw an Android phone I’d actually buy, and if Tecno Camon 50 Pro has a price that’s under $600 (converted, of course), it’d fit into this narrow category. It may not be as attention-grabbing or flashy as a robotic or folding phone, but it’s the kind of handset that you should actually consider buying.
TechRadar is on the show floor for this year’s MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona, Spain, and we’ll be covering the latest news from some of the biggest names in mobile, computing, fitness and more.
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