A cellphone that begins fires? 21 wild MWC 2026 award winners

We simply flew 3,800 miles* from NYC to Barcelona, Spain, for Mobile World Congress 2026 – and we bought a glimpse at the way forward for tech and a lesson on Spanish wine and tapas. 🍷

MWC 2026 gave us an opportunity to see wild gadget ideas, the most recent in foldable telephones, and a glimpse of our 6G + AI future that’s going to be like “FaceTime on steroids,” as foretold by Qualcomm CMO Don McGuire in our unique interview. Curious concerning the next-generation of cell know-how and the cutting-edge firms on the forefront of advancing it? Well, The Shortcut has you lined.

It’s time to interrupt out the trophies and break down The Shortcut’s MWC 2026 award winners, identical to we did for CES 2026, IFA 2025, and Computex 2025.

*One of us flew 6,420 miles from San Francisco for Samsung Unpacked… however who’s counting?

Your Nintendo Switch 2 certain can’t do that! As one of the crucial attention-grabbing ideas on the present, Lenovo’s foldable model of the Legion Go 2 is perhaps the good handheld gaming console of all time. The show portion measures 7.7 inches when folded, and the controls on both facet make it feel and look acquainted. But unfold its display screen, and also you get an almost 12-inch canvas for taking part in video games. What’s extra, Lenovo designed a keyboard for it, turning it right into a mini Windows 11 laptop computer. It’s versatility at its most interesting.

🎮 See the Lenovo Legion Go Fold Concept

Also see: Lenovo’s AI Workmate Concept

Talk about turning heads! Robots and AI have been the focus of what Honor needed to showcase at MWC, and the Robot Phone was the one factor that merely couldn’t be ignored. It has an auto-collapsing gimbal on the again that brings its 200MP digital camera to life, each for taking footage and movies in addition to interacting with the cellphone. It can pan for cinematic movies, observe your face throughout video calls, and reply to voice instructions with head nods and shakes. It brings the cellphone to life in a means no different cellphone has finished earlier than, which may very well be an indication that Honor needs your cellphone to be extra reactive sooner or later.

🤖 See the Honor Robot Phone Concept

Hello Hola, Moto! We lastly bought to go hands-on with the Motorola Razr Fold at MWC, and we left our briefing very impressed. The cellphone has a wonderful design that is available in two colours, and Motorola says it centered so much on guaranteeing it was lots sturdy. It additionally has the most effective digital camera system on any folding cellphone, based on Moto, which is a daring declare we’re excited to place to the check. Motorola is perhaps late to the sport for large-screen foldables, nevertheless it’s clear it needs to compete with the large canines.

📖 See our Moto Razr Fold hands-on

An actual trailblazer! This isn’t your common burner cellphone. The Oukitel WP63 is the proper rugged cellphone that may be actually something. It has an especially beefy design, a humongous 20,000mAh battery, and one characteristic we’ve by no means seen on a smartphone earlier than: an electrical igniter. Yes, you can begin fires with this cellphone – not like different notable telephones which have finished it accidentally. Reps from the corporate demoed the characteristic to us by lighting a cigarette, and it certainly labored. It’s solely going to be priced at $399, too, so it would make sense to select this up as your emergency cellphone for tenting journeys.

I Leica-it! I Leica-it so much! Xiaomi is taking smartphone images to a brand new degree with its Leica Leitzphone. It’s a variation of the 17 Ultra with a bodily rotating ring round its digital camera system for zoom. It comes outfitted with a powerful digital camera system with a major 1-inch sensor, an expert digital camera app with completely different lighting and shade profiles, and Leica’s skilled picture processing magic.

See the Xiaomi Leica Leitzphone

Wear intelligence meets class! Qualcomm’s new chip for wearable gadgets is without doubt one of the largest upgrades we’ve seen from them in years. The new Snapdragon Wear Elite is designed for something you may put on – suppose watches, glasses, pendants, and extra – and transforms them from strange devices to full-on AI gadgets. It’s a lot sooner than the earlier Snapdragon W5 chipsets, it has its personal NPU for processing AI, and it’s gonna begin popping up so much in new gadgets.

⚙️ Snapdragon Wear Elite defined

Cotton Candy pink & blue? That’s a daring technique, Cotton. We discovered the most effective colours in a cellphone come from Nothing’s Phone 4a, and it’s underneath $500. This clear cellphone is the model’s newest handset with a fashion-focused look, but stable specs. There are loads of causes to love the Phone (4a), even in case you simply wanna obsess over its design.

🎨 See the enjoyable Nothing 4a colours

Folds completely, washes simply! The Magic V6 has pulled off what no different folding cellphone has finished earlier than: an IP69 ranking. That means the machine is as secure in opposition to water and filth as a traditional smartphone, and it could actually even face up to water jets (y’know, in case you ever wanna throw your cellphone within the dishwasher). Combined with a premium design and flagship specs, it had no problem standing out on the MWC present flooring.

See the Honor Magic V6

The Apple AirTag we actually needed! Xiaomi’s tackle an AirTag has so much going for it. The largest perk? A built-in clip so you may simply connect it to your stuff, which is without doubt one of the largest annoyances of Apple’s trackers. What’s extra, it really works with Find My and Google’s Find Hub on Android, it’s IP67 rated, and it lasts for over a 12 months on a full battery.

🔍 See the Xiaomi Tag tracker

A sequel price a hear! Anker’s Soundcore Space 2 headphones make some key upgrades for these purchasing on a finances. These over-ear cans include as much as 70 hours of battery life, which is sort of double what you may get from higher-end headphones like Sony’s WH-1000XM6. They additionally include a extra superior noise cancellation system to maintain extra of the give attention to the music you play. Plus, you may get them in a wide range of enjoyable colours, all for $130.

See the Soundcore Space 2 headphones

The final part-y trick! If you’ve ever needed to swap out elements in your laptop computer at your leisure, certainly one of Lenovo’s latest idea laptops is perhaps up your alley. The ThinkBook Modular AI PC Concept enables you to take away nearly every thing from the laptop computer – we’re speaking ports, the keyboard, and even the show. You can swap the keyboard for a second display screen, HDMIs for USB-Cs, and customise it precisely to your liking. While nonetheless an idea, it’s not far off from what we’ve seen from firms like Framework, so possibly there’s a shot this disassembly-friendly ThinkBook will ship sooner or later.

🪛 See Lenovo’s ThinkBook Modular AI PC

Also see: Yoga 9i 2-in-1 laptop computer uprade

Throw some shade as The Batman! One of essentially the most enjoyable devices we noticed at MWC was a particular version of TCL’s standard RayNeo Air 4 Pro good glasses. The firm unveiled a brand new Limited Justice Edition that comes with a lens shade designed to resemble Batman’s masks. There’s additionally a model that appears just like the Joker. The shade is mild sufficient to not crush the glasses in any respect, and also you’ll slot in completely in Gotham City subsequent time you go to.

See us mug as 🦇 Batman & 🤡 Joker

Pure magic out of skinny air! Honor introduced a brand new pill referred to as the MagicPad 4, and it set a brand new document as one of many thinnest tablets of all time. At simply 4.8mm thick, it’s thinner than Apple’s iPad Pro, which measures 5.1mm. The better part? Honor didn’t skimp out on the specs. There’s a giant 12.3-inch OLED show, eight audio system, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, and a giant 10,100mAh battery.

See the Honor MagicPad 4

Driven by creativeness! Concept automobiles are an entire lot of enjoyable to discover at exhibits like MWC, and Xiaomi introduced some warmth. Its Vision Gran Turismo idea automobile is ripped proper from Gran Turismo 7, sporting a futuristic design that’s meant to be as aerodynamic as attainable. There’s a ton of engineering poured into this automobile, with options just like the Active Wake Control System, Accretion Rims, and its “Sofa Racer” inside meant to ship the thrills of a supercar from a online game, however in actual life. That’s precisely what we bought from the corporate, and despite the fact that it’s not going to ship, it’s nonetheless a marvel to behold.

See the Xiaomi Vision GT EV supercar

Smart sufficient in your little genius! Keeping a watch in your new child has change into so much simpler with the entire good child displays available on the market, and Motorola had an attention-grabbing one on show at MWC. Its PIP1710 Connect contains a 1080p digital camera that may pan round to examine in your baby by way of the Motorola Nursery app. It helps two-way speaking, room temperature monitoring, and built-in encryption to maintain the feed non-public. It additionally makes use of its distinctive BeyondCry AI characteristic to establish when your baby is hungry, sleeping, irritated, uncomfortable, and may have to belch.

Attractive in each means! Tecno’s coolest idea cellphone at MWC was the Modular Magnetic Phone. It’s an impressively skinny cellphone you could stack magnetic modules on high of, together with varied digital camera lenses, battery packs, wi-fi microphones, wallets, and extra. It means that you can customise your cellphone’s {hardware} to the best way you need and add new performance, form of how LG’s G5 did years in the past. The Modular Magnetic Phone appeared much more intuitive and helpful in Tecno’s demo, so we’re crossing our fingers that one thing like this ships sooner or later.

See Tecno’s magnetic modular cellphone

No glare, all flare! There’s one thing about having a tiny pill in your bag that may be handy for journey, and we needed to take Huawei’s MatePad Mini on our flight again to New York City for that motive. The pill has a slim design that weighs simply 255 grams, an 8.8-inch display screen with tiny bezels, and assist for Huawei’s M-Pencil Pro 2. It diffuses reflections due to a particular coating on the show, there’s 256GB of storage, and it even has a rear 50MP digital camera.

Privacy on the push of a killswitch! Oukitel WP500 Ultra isn’t only a rugged cellphone; it’s a professional-grade software that includes the world’s first AI-powered thermal imaging system on a cell machine. Using a high-res 640×512 sensor, it could actually truly “see” warmth to search out leaks or overheating tech.

Perhaps even cooler is the bodily “Privacy Kill Switch” on the facet. With one click on, you narrow all energy to the GPS, microphones, and cameras on the {hardware} degree – one thing software program alone simply can’t do. Throw in an enormous 10,000mAh battery, a robust Dimensity 8300 chip, and a 108MP digital camera, and you’ve got a $399 survival cellphone that’s as good as it’s powerful.

Ready for any mess-ion! Eufy got here to MWC with a brand-new robotic vacuum cleaner that looks as if an ideal worth. The C28 Omni is a step-up over the model’s C20 collection with a brand new HydroJet self-cleaning curler mop to clean away stains, a extra highly effective vacuum cleaner, a completely automated docking station, and AI impediment avoidance. Eufy additionally optimized the vacuum cleaner to carry out higher in low mild and underneath your furnishings. It’s priced at $799.99.

The final lens-setter! Vivo went massive on the digital camera for its X300 Ultra smartphone at MWC. Not solely does it include options like a 200MP telephoto sensor, nevertheless it’s additionally appropriate with equipment like Vivos’ Zeiss Telephoto Extender Gen 2 Ultra, which will get you a 400mm equal lens for the again of your cellphone. This primarily turns the digital camera right into a DSLR, full with “gimbal-grade” picture stabilization. It’s additionally appropriate with a particular digital camera cage for completely framing your picture earlier than you’re taking it. It’s an formidable smartphone that generated plenty of hype.

Paper-thin energy for days! TCL makes plenty of smartphones that may final for a number of days on a cost, all due to its NXTPAPER know-how that offers the show an E Ink-like look. The firm introduced the brand new NXTPAPER 70 Pro at MWC, and certainly one of its largest perks is lasting for every week on a cost when utilizing Ink Paper mode. We bought to take a look at the machine on the present, and we have been impressed with how clear the show seems and all of the completely different modes you need to use it in. It’s a singular machine that’s good for anybody who reads so much on their cellphone (or simply needs their cellphone to final a very long time).