MWC 2013: what you need to know

That said, it's a "surprisingly capable budget smartphone", found John. "Out of the three new L-Series 2 handsets the LG Optimus L7 2 is our favourite and we reckon it will offer consumers pretty decent value for money when it lands later this year."

LG Optimus L7 2

The LG Optimus L7 2

Stepping up a little, we have the LG Optimus F7, a mid-range 4G handset with a 4.7-inch 720p display, dual-core 1.5GHz CPU and an 8MP camera.

In our Hands on: LG Optimus F7 review, James Rivington found that while the phone looks and feels like a lower-tier handset, "the F7 throws Jelly Bean around easily enough and there wasn't much sign of that 'just OK' CPU holding it back."

LG Optimus F7

The LG Optimus F7

The king of LG's phone lineup is the Optimus G Pro, which takes over from the LG Optimus G, and was officially announced back in January. This is the first chance we've had to get hands-on with the new flagship device.

So what did TechRadar's John McCann make of it? "The Optimus G Pro is an impressive handset offering up super slick Android Jelly Bean and a top notch range of features," reckons John.

Read our Hands on: LG Optimus G Pro review for an up close look at LG's rising star.

LG Optimus G Pro

The Optimus G Pro is top of LG's smartphone tree

It's tricky to remember how the LG range pans out from mid- to high-end given that the company has chosen not to arrange them alphabetically. So next time you're in Phones4U struggling to remember which range is which, as you're being bombarded with offers of cashback and free extra minutes, simply remember the phrase "L Freakin' G" to put the three handset ranges in order.

But LG hadn't finished there. It also brought the LG Optimus Vu 2 to MWC, a strangely wide handset with a 4:3 screen.

It's a premium device, but as John McCann writes in our hands on, "we can't help but think the handset is just a bit too impractical."

Find out why in our Hands on: LG Optimus Vu 2 review.

Motorola at MWC 2013

The Motorola Razr HD came out in the US at the end of last year (where it was known as the Droid Razr HD) and now it's apparently headed to the UK. It's rather late to the party and as such the specs aren't anything to write home about but it's a capable handset which promises a decent battery life.

Tempted? Then hit our Hands on: Motorola Razr HD review for our early verdict.

Motorola Razr HD

Oh, Moto, where have you been?

Mozilla at MWC 2013

Mozilla has given a preview of the first devices to run its HTML5-based Firefox OS. The phones shown include the ZTE Open and the Alcatel One Touch Fire, both powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips. LG and Huawei handsets will follow.

Designed for developing markets, the first Firefox OS devices will be available to consumers in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela.

ZTO Open

The Open runs Mozilla's HTML5-based Firefox OS

We got some alone time with the rather uninspiringly named ZTE Open, which Dan Grabham described as "a colourful, cheap option" that's "hardly iOS or Android-beating in terms of feature set". It's not an OS that we're likely to see on a high-end handset any time soon, then.

More thoughts and photos are in our Hands on: ZTE Open review.

Sony has also thrown its weight behind Firefox OS, promising its first device in 2014. Samsung, though, is sticking with Android and its own Tizen OS.

Nokia at MWC 2013

Nokia brought a couple of cheap and cheerful phones to Barcelona, namely the 105 and 301, which feature, well, not much really. The 105 can be picked up for about the same price as a takeaway pizza and will apparently last a month on one charge, while the Nokia 301 builds on the 105's lowly specs by upping the screen size to 2.4-inches and chucking in a 3.2MP camera.

Global Editor-in-Chief

After watching War Games and Tron more times that is healthy, Paul (Twitter, Google+) took his first steps online via a BBC Micro and acoustic coupler back in 1985, and has been finding excuses to spend the day online ever since. This includes roles editing .net magazine, launching the Official Windows Magazine, and now as Global EiC of TechRadar.