10 things to look forward to at Mobile World Congress 2010

LG promoting its social networking handsets

LG has kind of ruined things a little bit in terms of surprises - not only will it not be at the main MWC event (with it taking a venue nearby, forcing all the journalists to trip-trap on a little journey to go and find it) but it's already told us what's going to be there.

The LG Mini GD880, the LG GW990 and the LG GT450 will all be present and correct - we're particularly excited to see the latter, as it's going to be LG's newest Android phone - we loved the Intouch Max GW620, so it's nice to see that we're getting the next instalment already.

Nokia announcing C series and a 12MP Symbian^3 phone

We were annoyed that Nokia refused to have its press conferences at the MWC venue last year, preferring to shuttle journalists miles away to show off its new E-Series handsets.

The Finnish firm has gone one better this year, as it's not even taking a stand at the event (as in a large booth, not a political stance).

Nokia c5

But that doesn't mean there aren't strong rumours of a raft of new devices coming from the firm, ranging from the basic to the frankly ludicrously powerful.

The C-Series, which we first heard word of last year, seems like it will finally be making its debut, with a couple of spy pictures already leaked. And while this will be more about servicing the budget end of the spectrum, Nokia apparently also has plans for a 12MP device too - the N8.

This little wonder will not only pack the best specs, but also be running the next generation of Symbian (version^3) - but there's a decent chance that something this good would be announced by Nokia itself at its Nokia World shindig - sadly this isn't going to be until much later in the year.

Nokia does have a press conference with Intel lined up though before its main 'phone release' event - so perhaps we're in for more of a treat than previously thought?

Qualcomm debuting the 1.3GHz Snapdragon chip

On a more positive note, Qualcomm is getting all excited about the future of mobile connectivity, and its new mobile chip is hopefully going to be shown off at this year's event.

The 1.3GHz Snapdragon is apparently 'in the pipeline', so we're hoping we may even get wind of which devices will be using it this year at MWC 2010.

Given that Qualcomm has heavily talked up the prowess of its 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon (which will allow your mobile device to pump out 1080p content to a larger screen) we'd hope the next gen chip might be shown off at MWC.

Sony Ericsson to show off Xperia X10 and Vivaz

Sony Ericsson had something of an annus horribilis in 2009, what with the under performing Xperia X1, the lack of UK release for the X2 and the problems with the much-vaunted Satio and Aino.

But with every new year, comes a new dawn, and 2010 holds much promise for the Japanese Swedish alliance - the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is tipped to be one of the best Android phones of the year, with a Snapdragon processor and a cool overlay to sync your life into one place.

Xperia x10

We had a hands-on with it earlier in 2009, but it was very much a work in progress then - we want to know if the real thing lives up to the early promise, so look forward to a detailed hands on.

We're also going to be nabbing some time with the new Vivaz (HD video recording and an 8MP camera) as well as whatever else Sony Ericsson releases from its 14 February press conference (our significant others were THRILLED to hear about that event).

Motorola announcing the Zeppelin, unveiling BackFlip UK release date

Motorola - it saw the Android bandwagon HTC was riding on into the sunset, and it thought 'we want some of that!'

Not content with the Dext, the Milestone, the Devour and the Backflip, Moto is apparently working on another Android device - the Zeppelin.

However, this one is going to be more of a budget phone, with all the power of the Dext (MotoBlur overlay with social networking capabilities) but no QWERTY keyboard and a slightly smaller screen, according to the leaks.

We've also heard this might be a Latin America only version of an Android device, but we're hopeful of a European release.

And there's a lot more we're waiting for from Motorola in terms of European information - such as when we're getting our hands on the Devour, the Motoroi and the Backflip, three devices we're pretty keen to get our hands on.

Nothing from Palm... nothing at all

You remember the Palm Pre? The phone that got everyone all excited in 2009? Well, its release in January was apparently the high point.

After taking 10 months to bring the Pre to the UK, the company released the Pixi to the US - and, well, that's it.

Palm isn't even going to have a booth at this year's event, nor will it be staging a press conference - we're sad to hear that from a company we had high hopes would create a range of phones to rival the likes of the HTC Hero and the iPhone.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.