The Mobile World Congress 2025 is about to close its doors in Barcelona. Present on site, the Journal du Geek was able to discover new smartphones, laptops and other innovative concepts. Some announcements really stood out to us and here are our top five new features for this 2025 edition.
The Xiaomi 15 Ultra camera phone
Already available in China, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is now arriving in Europe. It becomes Xiaomi's flagship model and the symbol of the brand's ambitions in the premium segment. This smartphone seeks to offer an experience close to cameras with its imposing photo block. A new rival to the iPhone 16 and Samsung Galaxy S25, it benefits from a partnership with Leica for its four lenses.
In France, this smartphone is displayed at 1503 euros and Xiaomi provides a Legend Edition photo kit worth 199 euros. This one turns the phone into a camera, adding a shell with shutter buttons, a battery, and a multifunctional adapter ring.
The Samsung Flex Gaming Folding Console
The MWC is an opportunity for manufacturers to present their vision through concepts that could one day end up in our hands. In addition to its stand with devices already available (or to come), Samsung presents many prototypes via its display subsidiary. Folding screens occupy an important place and it is a portable console that caught our attention.
The Flex Gaming is inspired by the Nintendo Switch and integrates a hinge in the center. It can be folded in two to become more easily transportable than a classic console.
The Lenovo computer that charges in the sun
Lenovo is presenting itself at MWC 2025 with many concepts, including a solar-powered laptop. Under its appearance of a classic laptop, the Yoga Solar PC Concept is equipped with solar panels on its cover. The goal is to provide cleaner power by absorbing light and converting it into energy. As it stands, Lenovo is claiming a conversion rate of 24%, which allows you to recover one hour of battery life (in video playback) after 20 minutes of exposure to the sun.
For mobile users, these minutes recovered without plugging in your PC can make a difference. In addition, the Yoga Solar PC Concept remains transportable with its 15 mm thickness and a weight of 1.22 kg.
Camera smartphones
With ultra-thin smartphones, this is one of the themes of this 2025 edition of MWC. Smartphones are – once again – taking themselves for cameras and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is far from being the only example. The Chinese giant surprised us by placing a real photo lens on a smartphone, via a magnetic solution. The prototype can then switch to its new lens with a simple click from the smartphone's photo interface, accessing a 100-megapixel Light Fusion X Micro Four Thirds sensor. This 35 mm lens is much larger than the sensors present on Xiaomi smartphones. It offers a manual focus ring and a variable aperture from f/1.4 to f/11.
Its rival Realme also surprised by unveiling the Ultra concept. This smartphone, equipped with a 1-inch photo sensor, can add a real lens to improve shooting. The system is comparable to that of a classic interchangeable lens camera since you just have to screw in the lens. The manufacturer has unveiled two lenses: a 73 mm (f/1.4) for portraits and a 234 mm (f/1.5) telephoto lens offering a 10x zoom.
3D screens without glasses
Lenovo is very active in the field with the ThinkBook 3D laptop and a glasses-free 3D curved display capable of displaying 2D and 3D at the same time.
At the same time, RedMagic also unveiled a 3D gaming laptop. Like Lenovo, this machine's 16-inch display offers glasses-free 3D effects in PC games thanks to eye-tracking cameras. These are just concepts for now, but the demonstrations are already impressive.
What should we remember from this show?
Like every year, the Mobile World Congress allows us to discover current and future trends. This 2025 edition, placed under the sign of AI, did not allow us to discover any real surprises at the show, as was the case in the past. Nevertheless, we were able to discover many projects in diverse and varied fields.
This show confirms the craze of smartphone manufacturers for ultra-thin design, as evidenced by the Tecno Spark Slim. They also demonstrate that AI is still in its infancy and is limited, for the time being, to specific functionalities on smartphones. Photography remains a major theme, especially for Chinese manufacturers, and MWC 2025 is reviving interest in cameras... that make calls. We have not seen such efforts from brands for about ten years, but the format could come back into fashion under the impetus of Xiaomi.
In terms of connectivity, 5G continues its development and this 2025 edition was also placed under the sign of the deployment of private 5G. Although these networks are primarily designed for businesses and industries, they can have an indirect impact on the general public. Private 5G networks improve services such as public services, healthcare and will help develop smart cities.
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