All the interesting facts from MWC 2025

As soon as I entered the fairgrounds, I, like everyone else, headed straight for the Xiaomi booth. They were introducing two new phones, the Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Ultra, and a bunch of other devices, but it was clear that the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra electric car would attract the most attention, even if it won't be available in Europe until 2027 or even later.

The first Xiaomi car, launched in China at the end of 2023, was the Xiaomi SU7. It has now surpassed the sales of the Tesla Model 3. The Ultra is, of course, their flagship model, which they show off to the world. And they have quite a few reasons to brag.

The SU7 Ultra's powertrain consists of three motors that produce a combined 1,527 horsepower. Xiaomi claims that this is enough to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 1.98 seconds. The top speed is 350 km/h, which was especially helpful when it set a new record for a four-door car at the Nürburgring in Germany (6 minutes, 46 seconds, 874 hundredths).

The battery in the SU7 Ultra is a CATL Qilin 2.0 with a capacity of 93.7 kWh, which, according to Xiaomi, can be charged in just 11 minutes with the appropriate DC 10-80 % fast charger.

Clearly, this is not the car for me or most Slovenians. The price in China is around 70,000 US dollars, and here it will definitely be at least 20 thousand or more higher.

Other Xiaomi products are more “earthly” than space-based. I described the Xiaomi 15 Ultra as a camera phone. What they managed to do in collaboration with Leica is truly admirable. It reminds me of the times when Huawei collaborated with Leica and made good use of the company’s century-old know-how. Then there’s this year’s marvel from Qualcomm, where they delivered even more than I expected with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. All Xiaomi needed to add was a nice design, good cooling, a screen, and optimization. And they did it.

The Xiaomi 15, however, is just a more compact version of its better brother. It doesn't have access to a 1-inch camera, but that doesn't stop it from taking photos, where I was particularly surprised by how good it is at zooming in. You can read more about it in the test on our website.

They also introduced the new Watch S4, the Band 9 Pro bracelet in a new color, the Scooter 5 Max scooter, the Pad 7 and Pad 7 Pro tablets, and two pairs of Buds 5 Pro wireless headphones. More interesting is the Wi-Fi version, which looks down on all Bluetooth headphones. Why Wi-Fi and not Bluetooth? Wi-Fi provides access to faster data transfer and lower latency, which essentially means that the sound will be even more crystal clear and rich. In fact, it is a Wi-Fi Direct connection, as we are used to, for example, with the Android Auto function.

Among other things, I walked through their smart home and stopped at the concept of a phone that allows you to connect an additional external lens. This concept was presented years ago, but so far there has been no major movement towards launching production, but it is still encouraging that companies are thinking boldly.

HONOR showed off all its latest devices

HONOR already presented its main assets (Magic7 series) in Bled at the beginning of the year, so this time they focused more on their vision for the future, which they called Alpha Plan. In short, these are three steps with which HONOR wants to enter a new, intelligent world with the help of artificial intelligence agents and technology from long-standing partners. They plan to invest 10 billion dollars in this.

Importantly, this strategy also includes 7-year support for the latest phones, including the Magic7 series. This puts them on par with Samsung, Apple, and Google. Every year, the gap between HONOR and the rest is narrowing, and their phones are truly becoming a fully competitive choice.

I was more interested in seeing how their other devices look and work in person than the Alpha Plan. The HONOR Earbuds Open (around €150), HONOR Watch 5 Ultra (around €280), HONOR Pad V9 (€250) and the MagicBook Pro 14 laptop were on display at the fairgrounds, and at least from first impressions, they look very promising. I don't have any official information yet on which of these devices are coming to our market, but I hope at least the headphones and the laptop. The latest watch reminds me too much of Huawei's design to be really excited about it.

Samsung: Galaxy S25 Edge, S25 Ultra and many foldable display concepts

Samsung has already unveiled its magnum opus for 2025. The S25 series arrived in January and met, but did not exceed, expectations. They will still be among the best phones of the year, but it is noticeable that they are now looking behind their rivals in many areas. Samsung traditionally did not have any special presentation at the MWC fair, which did not prevent me from stopping by and taking a peek behind the scenes.

In the middle of the stage hung the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, which has not yet been officially introduced and as far as I know will not be available in Slovenia. I did not notice any major differences in appearance, maybe it really did seem a little thinner than the rest of the series. I was not allowed to touch it, so I can not say for sure. But it is said to have a 200 MP main camera and a 12 MP ultra-wide camera and all the other goodies available in the S25 series.

More interesting than the phones were the displays that their Samsung Display division brought to Barcelona. I had the opportunity to see firsthand all the concepts of foldable screens that Samsung had imagined. From the classic ones that we already know and use, to the more bizarre ones that will probably remain just concepts forever. Some rolled up, others stretched (up/down, left/right), but more than that, I was interested in what could be done on such a small surface area as a phone screen.

Huawei – triple-folding phone, bold new look for Huawei Watch Ultimate

The largest group of people gathered in front of the Huawei pavilion, which, like every year, also had the largest rented space for the presentation of its devices and infrastructure solutions. The fight to handle the new triple-folding phone Huawei Mate XT Ultimate, which I had also briefly seen in Slovenia, was fierce. Instead of one, it has two hinges, which allow it to be used as a classic phone, as a folding phone or as a tablet. It stretches from 6.4 inches to 10.1 inches. The only compromise on the otherwise impressive OLED panel is the 90 Hz refresh rate.

This phone defies all established guidelines, it wants and knows how to exaggerate. And even though it has two folding hinges, it works very reliably in the hands. I folded it like an accordion and it didn't give. It's a shame it's not available here, and it costs €4,000.

More "accessible" is their new classic foldable phone, the Mate X6, which can also be purchased in Slovenia for around €1,900. What I like most about it is the cameras, because otherwise they are always the weak point of foldable phones. The other components are also at a high level, there is no doubt about that, but the cameras, at least after a short test, are such that I could easily use them in any premium phone.

I've looked at endless shelves of smartwatches and watches, including the Huawei Watch Ultimate in its new blue-and-gold guise. But I'd like to emphasize once again that you should check out the Huawei Watch D2, which is one of the few that fully fulfills the original promise of smartwatches - to be our health and fitness companions.

Nubia, Redmagic, ZTE, Tecno, OPPO, OnePlus...

Many people know them, there are even heroes who have bought their phones, but there are many who have never heard of them. There is no obvious culprit for this, we can only hope that our market will expand in the coming years and welcome these biggest names in telephony. Consumers will immediately be better off, because they make great phones.

Nubia, which falls under the umbrella of ZTE, has introduced the Nubia Neo 3 series, which embraces all the gaming clichés. There is RGB lighting on the back, and physical triggers on the shoulders of the phone for playing games, especially shooters like Call of Duty or PUBG. Since they are created for games, the cooling system is also adapted, which is the only one that can prepare such phones for longer sessions. The Neo 3 GT is the flagship model with 12 GB of RAM, but what surprises me is that they chose the UNISOC T9100 5G as the chip. I know UNISOC better for those really cheap chips, so at least for now I'm not quite sure what the performance of this new processor is. Considering that the phone (and the entire series) are advertised for gamers, I assume it is solid, although I can immediately say that emulation on such a chip is out of the question.

Even before the start of the fair, they also introduced the Nubia Flip2 foldable phone, which is said to be the cheapest among its peers. You can get it for €699, which is actually less than what Samsung and others are asking for. Last year's Flip had a more rounded screen on the front, this year they installed a 3-inch rectangular OLED, which should be able to run all the applications as on the main screen. The latter is a 6.9-inch AMOLED with a 120-Hz refresh rate. It is also extremely light (193 g), especially for a foldable phone, and it is also said to be more durable than the others, if we can take their word for it. It is powered by the MediaTek 7300x chip (hence the lower price), and many UI features are also built in, including Gemini.

RedMagic is one of the few, besides ASUS, that insists on pure-blooded gaming phones. There is not a huge demand for such phones on the market, although, at least in my opinion, these are the most special and daring phones. They pay homage to the classics and usually push what is possible and acceptable for users. RedMagic did not have any new models ready, except for the gold-plated RedMagic 10 Pro Golden Saga, which is available for a good €1,500. Of course, it has the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite, but its special feature is the gold and silver carbon fibers that you can see on the case and cooling system, and the back, which is made of sapphire glass. We can only dream of something like this with classic phones. For this price, you get 24 GB of RAM and 1 TB of space. The standard RedMagic 10 Pro model (same configuration) is available for around €1,000 without graphic features.

The only comparable competitor is ASUS's ROG Phone 9 Pro. A single example was inside the Qualcomm booth. It also costs around €1,500, but at least it's not as graphically special as the RedMagic. It does have an additional LED screen on the back, which we can play basic games on.

OPPO was also hiding at Qualcomm, or on the shelf where all the phones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip were on display. Elsewhere on the exhibition floor, he was lecturing partners about artificial intelligence, while I preferred to play with the current thinnest foldable phone, the OPPO Find N5. It measures only 8.93 mm, yet it has a 5600 mAh battery with 80-W charging and the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. When you unfold it, it has an 8.12-inch screen and is one of the largest phones that open like a book. I want to see such phones in our country too. It is true that the price is around €2,000, but that is similar to all other foldable phones.

Tecno is a phone brand that has been rumored to be coming to the Slovenian market. At the fair, we received confirmation that it is coming to Serbia, but unfortunately we do not have any information for Slovenia yet. Which of their phones can we look forward to if they ever cross our border?

They showed off the world's thinnest phone. It's just a concept, so it doesn't officially deserve the title yet. It's called the Tecno Slim Spark and measures just 5.75 mm at the waist, and weighs 146 grams, which is by far the lightest of its kind. However, it's equipped with a 6.78-inch AMOLED (144 Hz), a 5200-mAh battery, dual 50 MP cameras, and a 13 MP selfie camera. They didn't want to reveal the chip, and as long as it's just a concept, it doesn't matter. Tecno and Samsung clearly wanted to compete to see who had the thinnest phone at the show, even though neither has an official release yet.

They also revealed their concept for a triple-folding phone (Tecno Phantom Ultimate 2), just like Huawei's Mate XT phone, which is selling quite well in China and there is already talk of a possible successor for 2026. In addition, they introduced the new flagship series Camon 40 and, like everyone else, they also presented their concept for artificial intelligence, which they want to implement in their devices.

I also took a quick look at the OnePlus 13, which took the world by storm a little over a month ago. The reason? A very competitive price with premium performance from the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Xiaomi 15, and Magic7 Pro. It's just a shame that we have to admire it from afar because it's not officially sold in Slovenia.

What was the outcome of the MWC 2025 fair?

A large part of the fairgrounds is dedicated to business partners and B2B sales. When you eliminate these exhibitors and filter through all those who want to tempt you with a hundred and one AI features, you are left with only a few dozen interesting ones where you can find devices or solutions aimed at consumers. Although I expected more, I am still satisfied with what I managed to find in Barcelona.