Phones, Concepts, And One Acrobatic Robot

Today marks the first day of MWC 2026 in Barcelona, Spain, but I’ve already been scurrying all over the city, finding the coolest tech at the world’s largest mobile show. I’m already exhausted, but that’s because I’ve been seeing some mind-blowing concepts along with products you can already buy or will be able to very soon. Not surprisingly, many of the first products I saw were phones and those designed to enhance phones. 

It’s not quite as difficult to sort out what will one day be a real product as it can be at CES. Most of the companies here are showcasing products that are available now or will be very soon. There are still some that aren’t quite ready for prime time, and some others that are more of a proof of concept. I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on which is which.

All the same, everything I saw in the hours leading up to the show opening has been very cool in one way or another. So, without further ado, here are the most notable products I’ve seen in Barcelona so far.

One of the things I always look forward to around MWC time is Lenovo showing off its latest concepts. Yes, the company rolls out new editions of its laptops, but it’s the concepts that steal the show. This year, there’s one really interesting concept and another one that’s just plain fun.

The interesting concept is the Lenovo modular PC. This laptop seems to answer the question, “How can we use the Magic Bay?” with a resounding “Yes.” The laptop has two Magic Bays — one on the back, as usual, and the second under the keyboard. The keyboard is detachable and can function as a Bluetooth keyboard. Meanwhile, the Magic Bay on the back has a second screen attached to it that comes off. From there, this screen can be attached to the Magic Bay in the keyboard space, turning it into a dual-screen laptop. You could also attach a Magic Bay-to-USB-C cable to turn the screen into a portable monitor. There’s also a stand that detaches from the bottom of the laptop to prop up the second screen. It’s pretty wild, but that’s not all.

One port on either side of the laptop can also be swapped out for a different connector, depending on your needs. You can have any combination of USB-A, USB-C, or HDMI ports, swapping them in and out as you see fit. This basically allows you to build the laptop of your dreams on the fly. I love it, and I hope it makes it to production at some point.

Lenovo’s other wild concept that is just fun is the Yoga Book Pro 3D. This is a dual-screen laptop, similar to the Yoga Book 9i 9th Gen we reviewed, but with dual 16-inch displays. As for where the 3D part comes in, the top screen has eye-tracking cameras that can generate a 3D image (using AI, of course) that pops off the screen.

From there, you can manipulate the render using the mouse and keyboard, but you can also use hand gestures to rotate the image and even zoom in and out. The hand gestures are… fine, but they still need a bit of work. The predominant gesture you use is a closed fist; as you twist your wrist, the image spins in the same direction. That’s cool, but my wrist only spins so far.

Lenovo also has these magnetic snap-on pads that you can place on the lower screen. When you do, the screen detects which one you placed and brings up an accompanying tool. You can use these tools to change colors, manipulate the object, or change lighting effects. The tools appear anywhere you place the pad. Overall, this laptop is fun, but I’m not sure how useful it will be. But hey, that’s why these are concepts and not actual products.

Not to be outdone by its sibling, Motorola is on site showing off the complete specifications of the Motorola Razr Fold and a new branding opportunity at the same time. First are the specs, and they’re pretty nice. The Razr Fold is 4.6 mm thick when open and sports a 6.6-inch display on the front and an 8.1-inch display on the inside, which will make it the largest inside screen available in the U.S. It can run up to three apps at once. Speaking of three, you’ll also get three 50-megapixel cameras on the back.

It will run on a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, along with 512 GB of storage and 16 GB of RAM. Powering it will be a 6,000 mAh silicon-carbon battery capable of up to 80W wired charging and 50W wireless charging — it seems Moto is the new OnePlus. Both the inside display and the 6.6-inch outer display support the Moto Stylus Ultra, which will be sold separately. The software interface is very clean, as we’ve come to expect from Motorola. The phone will get seven years of operating system and security updates.

You may recall the Moto Razr FIFA edition that came out at CES. Well, the Motorola Razr Fold is getting in on the action, too. The FIFA edition colorway is pretty great, and it’s exciting to see Motorola extend that partnership. There’s still no word on pricing or availability, but the hype continues to build.

TCL’s latest smartphone, the Nxtpaper 70 Pro, is coming soon. If you’re not familiar with Nxtpaper, it’s really the halo feature of most of TCL’s mobile lineup. It uses a combination of screen display tech and a screen coating to give its mobile devices a paper-like quality, as seen on devices like the Nxtpaper 14 Pro from CES 2024. The technology is remarkable: One demo that TCL had running showed a full-color comic book page that you would swear was an actual comic book. It’s absolutely beautiful.

Unfortunately, TCL phones still land squarely in the midrange space in every other respect. The screen is a 6.9-inch FHD display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7300, which is not even the latest flagship processor from the company. It has a 5,200 mAh battery and a historically not-amazing 50-megapixel rear camera along with an 8-megapixel ultrawide sensor, seemingly just so TCL can say, “Hey, look, we have two cameras too!”

As much as I love Nxtpaper, I would love to see TCL start to flex its flagship phone muscles again. TCL made some very compelling offerings a few years ago that could compete with anything Samsung or Motorola had to offer, and adding Nxtpaper to a phone like that would be wonderful. Sadly, the beauty of these phones is just skin deep. TCL also showed off an AMOLED version of Nxtpaper, coming later this year. That’s nice, but it doesn’t resolve the problem of the hardware that’s powering the screen.

We’ve heard talk about Honor’s upcoming robot phone, which I saw this past CES, but I didn’t expect to see a full-sized robot on stage at the Honor event. At MWC, the company held a press conference to introduce its new hardware, including a tablet, a laptop, the robot phone, and a whole lot of AI ambitions — complete with a healthy dose of canned applause over the speakers. Then, as Imagine Dragons’ “Believer” rocked the stage’s speakers and dancers showed off their moves, a humanoid robot came strutting out onto the stage to join the dancers.

Do you remember when Elon Musk introduced a so-called humanoid robot that was obviously a human in a costume? That was absolutely not the case here. This robot danced with the humans, moonwalked, and even performed a backflip on stage. Yes, this routine was almost certainly programmed, but it didn’t make it any less impressive.

The Honor humanoid robot isn’t coming to your living room any time soon, to be fair, but seeing it on stage moving very smoothly and acrobatically was quite the sight. It also made me wonder how much longer humans have before we get wiped out.

Whenever I travel abroad, I connect to T-Mobile’s International plan, which is far and away the best plan of the big three carriers in the U.S. It’s $35 for 10 days and includes unlimited calls, texts, and 5 GB of data. But I carry two phones, so I always take the opportunity to test out an eSIM vendor as well. They’re typically less expensive than T-Mobile, but I don’t get my own phone number, so it’s a tradeoff.

This time around, Airalo offered me the chance to check out its data plans. Since I’ll be in Barcelona and the U.K. on this trip, I picked up a 7-day unlimited data plan for around $25. That also includes unlimited hotspot, which could be pretty important as the week shakes out. I’ve been using Airalo for a day and a half in Barcelona with somewhat mixed results so far.

The main issue is that I often drop to 3G speeds when I’m deep inside a building. By today’s standards, that means I might as well be disconnected. Meanwhile, my T-Mobile International plan has remained steady the entire time. I’m not saying that’s a definitive take on Airalo’s offerings; I’m just reporting what I’ve run into thus far. For the most part, both phones have worked great when I’ve been out and about. I believe the real test will come when I hit the show floor with 100,000 of my closest friends; we’ll see what’s what then.