Rather than check out the new products at MWC 2025, we’ve rounded ups half a dozen forays into near-future design, taking in solar-powered laptops, yet another attempt to make VR/AR happen, and a couple of camera concepts that point to the future of smartphone photography.
Samsung Flex Gaming concept
Xiaomi Modular Optical System
Xiaomi Modular Optical System
Smartphone photography is approaching a singularity, with highly processed and polished images, aided by AI, being squeezed out of the smallest of sensors across the board. As a result, the images we all take tend to be a little bit samey with that same computational sheen seen right across the board. What comes next could be along the lines of Xiaomi’s conceptual Modular Optical System.
Xiaomi Modular Optical System
The MOS magnetically clips to the back of company’s flagship Xiaomi 15 smartphone and is essentially a camera module contained within a lens, using the processing power and image handling of the phone but with a much larger sensor and focus abilities. Notably, the Xiaomi system doesn’t cover up the 15’s regular set of (Leica designed) lenses.
Lenovo Yoga Solar PC Concept
Lenovo Yoga Solar PC Concept
Lenovo regularly reveals a host of laptop concepts at MWC and this year was no different. Alongside folding and extending screens, we especially liked the Lenovo Yoga Solar PC Concept. The idea is simplicity itself: add a slimline solar cell to the rear of the laptop screen and harness free power.
The idea of never running out of battery again is an attractive one. The prototype panel is not only thin but has a conversion rate of 24% (24% of the solar energy hitting the panel becomes electrical energy), higher than a regular home unit. It’s a first look at a tech that’ll hopefully become ubiquitous.
Tecno Spark Slim phone
Tecno Spark Slim phone
Another extreme in phone design was showcased by Chinese manufacturer Tecno’s Spark Slim concept, said to be the world’s thinnest iteration of a standard modern smartphone. Somehow the 5.75mm thin device (excluding the camera ‘bump’) incorporates a regular 5,200-mAh battery, even though it’s a full 2mm thinner than an iPhone 16. Just do your best not to sit on it.
Tecno Spark Slim phone
Tecno-Mobile.com, @Tecnomobile
Samsung Flex Gaming concept
Samsung Flex Gaming concept
In amongst Samsung’s other concepts, which mostly focused on display technology, was this Flex Gaming device. Originally shown in 2022 (when it won a Red Dot design award), the company has now turned the folding, pocketable gaming machine into a working prototype. Clever positioning of the joysticks and buttons allow the entire device to fold flat and the colourful industrial design stands out from the gaming industry’s regulation white or grey.
Samsung Flex Gaming concept
Samsung Project Moohan
Samsung Project Moohan Android XR headset
Google’s forthcoming Android XR platform is the company’s augmented reality-based operating system, an overlay of information and assistant that uses special glasses – akin to the Apple Vision Pro to re-frame the world around you. Samsung is one of the tech partners, and it used MWC to showcase Project Moohan (‘infinity’ in Korean), its own version of an AR headset. Vision Pro was technically impressive but lacked the killer app to take it from curiosity to must-have. Will Google AR go the same way?
Samsung Project Moohan
realme interchangeable lens concept
realme interchangeable lens concept
realme’s interchangeable lens system is conceptually similar to Xiaomi’s MOS – attach a bigger lens and sensor to a smartphone ‘back – but it offers one major advantage. Thanks to the universal lens mount system, realme proposes that any full-frame mirrorless lens can be added to your phone, instantly opening up the field to high quality glass old and new and offering existing photographers a reason to get on board with the Shenzhen-based electronics company. There was no word of when such a product would make it to market.
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Nothing explodes its mid-range masterpiece to create the Nothing Phone (2a) PlusWe get our hands on the new Nothing Phone (2a) Plus, an upgraded and enhanced smartphone that promises a better photographic experience, smarter software and more
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Can HMD’s Better Phone Project shift the dial on excessive smartphone use?Human Mobile Devices wants to explore ways to diffuse the digital deluge affecting young people’s mental health, and it’s looking for everyone’s help
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Nothing's first limited edition smartphone is 'a story of colour'The Nothing Phone (2a) Special Edition gets back to basics with a simple primary colour scheme to accentuate Nothing’s different design approach
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The Google Pixel 8a is an AI-driven ‘beginner’s smartphone’ that eclipses its pricier rivalsWe get our hands on Google’s latest device, the mid-range Pixel 8a, a stripped-down smartphone that still packs an excellent camera, solid hardware and an AI-powered software punch
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Huawei exhibition celebrates the power of smartphone photographyHuawei XMAGE, the smartphone innovator’s mobile imaging arm, curates a photography exhibition that highlights the creative power of its technology
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Dial into the Boring Phone and more smartphone alternativesFrom the deliberately dull new Boring Phone to Honor’s latest hook-up with Porsche, a host of new devices that do the phone thing slightly differently
