PC Supporter

Sony Xperia U

Mobile World congress was all about big screens and even bigger handsets this year, which makes the compact 3.5in Sony Xperia U a breath of fresh air. Equipped with Sony’s xLoud volume enhancement engine, 3d surround sound and the ability to wirelessly stream music to DLNA equipped speakers, the Xperia U is aimed squarely at tiny-handed musos. It’s powered by a 1GHx dual-core processor and will run on Gingerbread at launch. An Android 4.0 upgrade is expected in the second half of 2012. It’s finished with a transparent Xperia stripe which changes color to match the photo you’re viewing.

Samsung Galaxy Beam

There was no shortage of eccentric phones at this year’s Mobile World Congress 2012. (Nokia 41-megapixel PureView with Symbian Belle OS, anyone?) Falling into this quirky category is the Samsung Galaxy Beam, an Android 2.3 smartphone with an inbuilt projector. The Galaxy Beam comes with its own 15 lumens projector which allows you to ‘beam’ your phone’s media onto a nearby flat surface. It sounds like a gimmick (and it is) but the ability to project 50-inch movies has us intrigued nonetheless.

HTC One X

A biggest standout of the year 2012 at Mobile World Congress, the HTC One X highlights include a 1.5GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 4.7-in Gorilla Glass display, 1GB RAM and a robust 32GB of inbuilt storage running on Android 4.0. The OS has also been given an extra spit-and-polish courtesy of HTC’s Sense UI. Measuring 9.3mm at its thickest point and finished in durable polycarbonate, it looks as premium as you’d expect.

Asus Padfone

Asus has evolved its Transformer concept into the Padfone, an intriguing phone/tablet/netbook hybrid that attempts to combine three devices in one. The smartphone which powers the rest of the devices, comes with a 4.3-in Super AMOLED display and 1.5GHz Snapdragon CPU running on Android 4.0. With its UX laptop styling.

Huawei Ascend D Quad

Chinese manufacturer Huawei has exploded out of the budget mobile space with a suite of high-end offerings. The Huawei Ascend D quad is its new flagship with a 4.2-in Android 4.2 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone equipped with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 5.1 Dolby surround sound, an 8MP camera and Full HD video recording. The Ascend D quad eschews Tegra 3 silicon in favour of a custom-built K3V2 quad-core chip for a purported 30% energy saving. An XL version is also in the pipeline, which adds a beefier 2500mAh battery.