This year, GSMA is celebrating its 20th year in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress or MWC. And it’s shaping up to be a pretty big show. In recent years, MWC has sort of taken a backseat to the other big trade shows in the tech industry, like CES, Computex, and IFA. But this year, there’s a lot to look forward to.
Let’s preview what we can expect from the world’s largest mobile show in 2026.
HONOR
HONOR is once again sponsoring our travel to MWC. And in the effort to be as transparent as possible, none of our coverage of HONOR is sponsored. But they are covering our travel and part of our hotel costs while in Barcelona.
Last year, HONOR changed things up. Having a major launch event the day before MWC as usual, but spent very little time on new hardware. Instead, they were focused on the “ALPHA PLAN,” which we’ve since heard almost nothing about.
This year, we do know that HONOR will be announcing the Magic V6, likely in hopes of beating the OPPO Find N6 to market. However, we wouldn’t expect the global launch to be that soon. HONOR will also likely announce a tablet, watch, and PC, as they typically do at MWC and IFA every year. So HONOR might be one of the more hardware-heavy brands at MWC this year.
Samsung
Samsung always has a huge presence in Barcelona, and we expect this year to be no different. However, this year they will likely be focusing more on the Galaxy S26 series, which we expect to be announced the week before. Typically, Samsung focuses more on the Galaxy A series, as the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S25 were both announced in mid-January. But this year, Samsung has moved that back to what we believe will be the week of February 23.
Of course, Samsung is more than just mobile. So there are other booths at the show for Samsung’s other divisions. The other notable one is going to be Samsung Display, which typically shows off different concepts of displays they’re working on. Last year, they spent the week showing off how durable their foldable displays are, ahead of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 release in July.
TCL
TCL usually uses CES as a way to tease their mobile products that will be announced at MWC a month later (or almost two months later this year). TCL is gaining traction with their mid-range phones and tablets; they also sell a number of 5G hotspots and other mobile products.
At MWC, we’d expect to hear more about their mobile products that we first saw at CES in January. Like the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro and others.
TCL also has its CSOT arm there, which is similar to Samsung Display. This is their Display division that makes a lot of really incredible displays that we’ll see in other products, too.
Lenovo and Motorola
Lenovo tends to come to every show with a ton of new laptops, desktops, and concepts. And we expect that MWC will be no different. They’re one of the few laptop makers that actually attend MWC every year. Last year, they announced their show-stopping Solar PC Concept, which we awarded Best of MWC 2025 last year.
So this year, we’re expecting more PCs from Lenovo and more concepts. They seem to do more and more every year at these big trade shows, and we absolutely love seeing these concepts because they typically do make it to real products.
Now flipping over to Motorola, we will likely see a few Europe-specific phone announcements. Keep in mind, MWC does take place in Spain, so this makes plenty of sense. We are also hoping to learn more about the Razr Fold, but we are not expecting a full announcement here. As Motorola said at Tech World, it would be announced in the Summer. So we still have a few more months to wait.
OPPO
OPPO doesn’t generally have a booth at MWC. In fact, in all the years that I’ve been going to Mobile World Congress, I don’t think they’ve ever had a booth at Fira. But the past two years, they did have events in Barcelona in the evening of day one of MWC. And we’re expecting that to happen again this year.
Last year, OPPO was coming off the high of the Find N5 launch, which we still believe is one of the best foldables ever made. And they talked a lot about the company and their move into AI at this AI Summit last year, along with a party afterwards.
So I guess what I’m saying here is, don’t expect any major announcements from OPPO at MWC. Don’t expect the Find N6 or the Find X9 Ultra to be announced here – especially since the Find X9 Ultra is likely going to be a China-only release.
Now, as for OPPO’s sister brands, realme and OnePlus, don’t expect much from them either. Last year, realme had a physical booth at Fira, but they do not have one this year, unfortunately. And OnePlus typically has an announcement or two for MWC or around MWC, usually it’s their new smartwatch. But we’ve seen virtually no leaks of a OnePlus Watch 4, so that might not be happening either.
vivo
If you take a look at the floor plan for MWC, which is open to the public, you’ll notice that vivo does have a booth this year in Hall 2. So could Vivo announce the X300 Ultra at MWC? Unlikely. It is rumored to be announced later in March, but it could be teased there.
There have been rumors that the X300 Ultra would be a global release this year, unlike the Find X9 Ultra, which is still going to be China only. Keep in mind that companies do sometimes show off devices to media and partners behind closed doors at these events. Otherwise, it is good to see vivo taking Europe a bit more seriously, after taking the number one spot in India.
Xiaomi
Xiaomi takes MWC very seriously, and this year we’re expecting that the 17 series will make its global debut in Barcelona. Over six months after it was announced right after Snapdragon Summit. This would include the entire Xiaomi 17 series, we hope, including the new Ultra model with Leica.
The company also typically announces other products here, like tablets and watches, and they love to show off their EVs. Last year, their booth had the SU7 on display, which got a lot of attention. So did their Xiaomi 15 concept with a MagSafe camera lens.
TECNO
TECNO usually arrives in Barcelona with all sorts of amazing products. From their Camon series to concepts like a trifold last year. Now that we look back at it, the TECNO trifold that was shown off behind glass last year at MWC looked a lot like the Galaxy Z TriFold, which is now on sale.
TECNO is a big up-and-coming brand that has taken a different approach to the smartphone market compared to its competitors. Focusing more on lower-end devices and focusing more on emerging markets like the Middle East and Africa. So there’s a good bet that you haven’t heard of them. But they are a name you’ll want to pay attention to.
Huawei
Huawei has a huge presence at MWC every year. In fact, if you take a look at the MWC Floor Plan, they take up more than half of Hall 1, and have various other booths and meeting rooms around Fira. Their booth is also always packed, no matter what time of day you head to their booth in Hall 1. This is because Huawei does way more than just smartphones. Think of Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Samsung all under one brand; that’s essentially what Huawei is.
At MWC, Huawei used to announce a lot of new devices, but these days, that’s less likely. Especially since the Huawei Mate X7 was just announced at the end of last year. And it is already available globally – or as global as Huawei can be.
As far as announcements go, we likely won’t see all that much that’s new. But Huawei does like to talk to the press and catch us up on what’s going on with Huawei, despite their “challenges,” which we all know what those are.
ZTE
ZTE and its sub-brands, nubia and RedMagic, always come to MWC with a boatload of new products. In fact, last year, I believe ZTE had over 20 new phones across all of its brands. Which just shows how seriously they take MWC. This year, we don’t have a whole lot of ideas on what specifically ZTE will have to show off, but they did just launch the RedMagic 11 Air.
ZTE does have some really interesting devices that they show off at MWC every year. Last year, they put a Bluetooth speaker on the back of a phone, and they also launched a low-end range of gaming phones under the Nubia brand. So who knows what they have up their sleeves this year?
Qualcomm
Qualcomm is another brand that is always at MWC, and typically has some mobile announcements as well. Typically, Qualcomm will announce a new 5G modem or two, and this year we might see some news on 6G as that is expected to be coming real soon. In fact, Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon said at Snapdragon Summit last September that we could see pre-commercial 6G devices before the end of 2028.
At Qualcomm’s booth, we also typically get to see a range of devices using Qualcomm’s products. From products using the Snapdragon processors, to those earbuds using Snapdragon Sound, and many more. You really don’t realize just how many products Qualcomm has their hands in until you stop by their booth.
MediaTek
MediaTek is pretty similar to Qualcomm, where they’ll be showing off devices that are using MediaTek products, from the Dimensity lineup to the Kompanio lineup for Chromebooks.
At MWC 2025, MediaTek showed off a new 5G modem, next-generation 6G hybrid computing, and more. It was a very interesting setup, and we got a chance to check out some phones that we otherwise would have never seen.
Are you excited for MWC?
Mobile World Congress has changed a lot over the years. I was just comparing my MWC 2017 schedule to last year’s schedule at MWC, and it’s really changed quite a bit in 8 years. We used to have many, many, many flagships launching the day before MWC (on a Sunday!) from HTC, LG, Sony, Samsung, and more. Now, we basically have HONOR, and that’s it.
MWC isn’t as big as it used to be, but still a very exciting show for those who are in the mobile industry. This is more of a meeting show versus a trade show where companies are showing stuff off.
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