7 days in mobile phones: Squeezing a Wii into a mobile phone

These days, when you're buying a mobile phone, many things come to mind: is it a phone? Can I use it to make calls on the go? Is it made by Apple?

Well, that's the simplistic view some people have. Not you though probably, you love all things shiny, gadgety and mobile. Well, after spending an exhausting week in Barcelona (seriously, three beers and one meal at a restaurant... that's how hard TechRadar works for you special people) we saw some ace things. That's right, ace.

We'll give you a quick run down of the best phones in order of preference, then you can go and look at our articles on the ones that tickle your fancy:

- The Sony Ericsson Idou: a fantastic looking phone that could be the iPhone for the person that wants it all in a handset.

- The Samsung Omnia HD: and this one's actually high definition, being able to record in 720p. We almost cast this off the list because we disliked the original Omnia... but that's probably a bit petty.

- HTC Magic: Having problems with a keyboard is one thing, but the rest of this phone, is pure ma... illusion (thank you thesaurus for saving us from falling into a PR trap).

- Sony Ericsson w995: As part of the Walkman brand, this is probably one of the best music mobiles on the market. The metallic chassis is simply awesome... this would be Robocop's phone of choice.

- Nokia N86: Have you ever used an 8MP camera on a phone? No? May we ask why? Oh, that's a fairly good reason... you probably won't want to look at the N86 with its frankly awesome screen then.

The 'what on earth is THAT??' award

Here's a secret... I've been having nightmares since Barcelona, thanks to this sort-of real person from a company called Tessera. They do something to do with photography in mobiles, improving the face detection etc... at least that's the excuse they give for putting this monster next to the press room.

Day after day I had to walk past her on the way to file the plethora of frankly excellent stories that lit up the web, and every time I had to control my breathing and avert my gaze, lest she rise up and try and kill me in a Terminator-style hit.

It didn't help that she also had a severed head of her twin sitting next to her, just out of shot. No, that certainly, certainly didn't help... MAKE IT STOP!

Though it should be said photo software from Tessera seemed pretty good. But it's hard to care anymore after the sleepless nights.

The 'squeeze a Wii into a phone'

There's a company called GestureTek that have done some clever algorithmic work with phone cameras, turning them into pseudo-motion sensors.

While this might be OK for juggling balls on a screen, the cool thing came when the chap at the stand showed me how the fitness software worked with the front facing camera. By setting the phone down in front of you and doing squats, boxing or weird tennis movements, it could track you.

The screen might be tiny, but just imagine doing this on the tube or a bus... the more crowded the better. Seeing how long you could get away with it would be a waaaaaay better game than just trying to beat how many you could do it in a minute.

Mobile World Congress fountain of the week

It's this one.

Featured phone of the week - The Hyundai Dolphin

We so wanted to like this phone for the following reasons:

It's meant to look a bit like a dolphin.

You see what Hyundai is trying to do there? Put a curved back on the phone and a button that looks like an eye?

Sadly, for a phone that's going to cost around £125 when launched later this year, it doesn't come with any bundled storage, isn't 3G and has a small touchscreen with no slide out keypad.

But it feels like the company has tried so hard that it's hard not to want to love it... even if it isn't likely to set the mobile world alight.

Transparent phone of the week

LG GD900

A clear winner... geddit? No? Why not? It's comedy gold...

Not much else to say really, though the pedantic among you might say it's only the keyboard that's transparent and not the phone... but we ignore such people as they're never pleased.