Gadgetory

hi everybody it's michael fisher with pocket now and this is an sunday night we are here on the last day of coverage at mwc 2013 in barcelona we thought we've taken you for a quick tour of everything we like and everything with it not like out on the show floor so let's check it out let's do it when it comes to devices this year's MWC wasn't as big a disappointment as CES there was a bounty of smartphones and tablets for us to feast our eyes and hands on however when you compare this year's MWC to last year's you cannot overlook the sliding trend of trade shows in general especially with HTC now joining Samsung and moving away from the Barcelona show for its big product on feelings we're set to see this happen but it's just a normal evolution of brent onto the hands and we were big fans of the devices sony brought to the table back at CES and that held true at this year's MWC with the beautiful slim light and waterproof Xperia tablet Z handling this android tablet was truly amazing especially for someone like me who doesn't get much quality time with sony hardware and it made me excited for the future of the Xperia line for the first time and ever really the line between phones and tablets keeps getting thinner and thinner LG brought the optimus g pro phablet to try and offer this until tentative to the note 2 and they have succeeded up to a point that said samsung will probably bring the note 3 at this year's Aoife so these competitors have no time to rest on their laurels until then the g pro is at least in our book something to consider and the optimus g pro wasn't the only phablet we got hands-on time with ZTE was on hand with its smartphone tablet offering the grand memo but that me to device didn't capture nearly as much attention as the ax seuss fonepad essentially a modernized Nexus 7 with a metal back Intel Inside and yes an earpiece so you can use it like a phone if you want it's not something I'd ever use but I know my esteemed co-host definitely has different feelings on the matter yes I do real earpiece phone functionality was something I wanted on smaller tablets for a long time as an alternative to Bluetooth accessories and speakerphone the fonepad brings that and so does the samsung galaxy note 8.0 the South Korean device also brings another heavy way to the table the s-pen this time would edit functionality for air view and capacitive buttons another notable tablet though not for its good points was the HP slate7 a low-cost Android device with an odd screen resolution and unremarkable specs about the most exciting thing about this device was its Beats Audio integration and its baked in print functionality which should tell you all you need to know about HPS current position in the tablet market amazing how much can change in two years fortunately there were more interesting things to see in the uncommon form factor 33 asus has brought the third iteration of its unique phone and tablet offering with the padfone infinity there's no middle road here you either love the concept or stay away from and of course even if you are in the first category you have to squeeze that wallet because thirteen hundred dollars is something you could easily spend on two different devices we were quite disappointed though not necessarily surprised to find that Nokia didn't have a true PureView Windows Phone device waiting in the wings at mwc once we got over the letdown we found the Lumia 520 and 720 devices that aren't going to say she ate those hungry for a spec heavy meal but with them nokia and microsoft are driving the Lumia lines price down and driving higher end features like great camera performance lower in the lineup that's a winning story for everyone rooting for Windows Phone even if it's not the most bombastic news we ever heard the big guys weren't the only ones playing the field we got to see one of the most promising new offerings from the startup sector at mwc yola sailfish OS we got a tour of the OS and we would lie if we said we were not impressed the entire concept both visually and functionally is different than all the new offerings out there there's still a long way to go but if you come to think of it that third spot in the ecosystem war is only a couple of percentage points away and something else caught our eye while we were in the far reaches of the trade floor yotaphone didn't just have a fancy booth it a fancy phone the self-titled smartphone is all business up front with Android jelly bean but it's a full-on party in the back with identically sized I ink display protected by Gorilla Glass you can throw text images Maps notifications whatever you want on the back and use that screen when it's appropriate it's not for everyone but it's this kind of innovation we were hungry for and a show dominated by iterative improvements and we're excited to see where it goes Oh little mwc was fun as usual but left us with that slight bitter taste that it too has started it's doubtful of course the new venue accommodates more companies and visitors but with the key players slowly moving away for more buzz and exposure we can't help but wonder what will happen next year and who will be joining the list of the missing along with Samsung HTC and Google although mwc appears to be undergoing the same transformation at CES and the rest of the trade shows the optimistic part of us tends to think it's okay because the gaps are being filled by smaller younger companies showing products that are almost as if not more interesting than those of the big guys we're excited to cover mwc again next year so that's it about the mwc 2013 be sure and stay tuned for our next major event which is March 14 for the samsung galaxy s4 launch and then of course the August for September Ethan Berlin and another CES after that it never really stops does so this was an something odd this was michael fisher it's been a pleasure it's been a pleasure without on my end as well sir and we will see you next time fight