MWC 2013: Top 5 Coolest Tablet and Smartphones

Mobile World Congress serves as a way for companies to show off the newest smart phones and tablets that will be hitting shelves in the months to come. 2013 MWC drew millions of people to Barcelona, Spain, to see the latest and greatest mobile devices. But what were the MWC 2013 stars in this big event? After plenty of deliberation, we think we have the top 5 tabs or smartphones. Now take a closer look at the top five tablets and samrtphones that stand out.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 looks to find the middle ground between full-sized tablets and smartphones as a boardroom and living room companion. The Note 8.0 is all about multitasking, note taking, drawing, and everything else S Pen-related, but it's also an aesthetically pleasing product with a spectacularly thin girth of just 7.6mm. It comes with standard HD, 1,280 x 800 pixel display, quad-core 1.6GHz Exynos chipset, runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and features a 5-megapixel camera at the back and 1.3-megapixel in the front. Other key specifications include 2GB of RAM, a (fixed) 4,600 mAh battery, 16GB or 32GB of on-board storage, and a microSD card slot to expand this capacity. Unfortunately, there is no confirmation on the pricing and the availability of the tablet on the market.

                            

LG Optimus G Pro

The LG Optimus G Pro is a powerhouse phablet with an incredible 5.5-inch display. The shining star of the LG booth at Mobile World Congress was clearly the Optimus G Pro. The G Pro is a massive smartphone that is clearly a shot across the bow of Samsung's Galaxy Note II. The defining characteristic of the Optimus G Pro is its 5.5-inch 1080p display which provides soft visual enjoyment for you to watch movies, and it includes a 1.7-GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Processor, which is paired with 2 GB of RAM. Other features of this impressive smartphone include a 13-megapixel camera, 32 GB of storage, microSD support and a huge 3,140 mAh battery. The G Pro runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and includes many of LG's user interface customizations.

                    

Huawei Ascend P2

The Ascend P2 announced this week in Barcelona shows promising progress from the Chinese phone maker. It packed the P2 with as many class-leading features as it could. The phone features an elegant and pixel-rich 4.7-inch display with 1280 x 720 pixels. Under the hood, a 1.5-GHz quad-core processor with 1 GB of RAM provides the P2 with power. Other key features include a 13-megapixel camera, 16 GB of built-in storage, microSD card support and LTE Category 4. The device has a 2,420 mAh battery that is governed by custom software to maximize battery life.

                                                                 

Nokia Lumia 720

The Lumia 720 from Nokia really caught our attention thanks to its impressive features. It is intended to sit snugly between the relatively high-end Lumia 820 and the more budget Lumia 620. Based on what we learned at MWC, it features a 4.3-inch curved laminated display for better readability and wider viewing angles. Its rear-facing 6.7-megapixel camera is paired with Carl Zeiss optics with a bright F1.9 aperture. Similar to the HTC Windows Phone 8X, the 720's front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera has a wide-angle lens to squeeze more friends in your self-shots. In short, the Lumia 720 is a very well priced mid-range product that will no doubt turn a few heads when it descends in Q2.

                         

Kyocera Torque

Kyocera Torque has a 4-inch display and includes 800 x 480 pixels, runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and will be available from Sprint in early March. It is an extremely durable Android smartphone that can withstand shock, vibration and immersion in water. It uses Sprint's CDMA-EVDO network to pass walkie-talkie conversations back and forth. The really interesting feature is Kyocera's tissue-conduction technology. Kyocera knows a device like this is going to be used by people working in noisy environments, who are perhaps wearing helmets or ear protection. The ultra-rugged 4G LTE Android-based Kyocera Torque will hit Sprint shelves on March 8, with a $99.99 price tag and Bear Grylls's approval.

                         

Sony Xperia Tablet Z Globally Launched at MWC 2013: Release Price Confirmed

Earlier this year, the company launched the Sony Xperia Tablet Z in Japan itself. Now, at Mobile World Congress, Sony announced its world debut. Priced at upwards of $499 in USA, it will have to face a bigger fight with Apple iPad and Microsoft's Surface RT.

                         

Stuffed with a 10-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 display, 2GB of RAM, 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4 Pro Quad Core processor, an 8-mega pixel rear camera and 2.2-mega pixel camera on the rear, 16GB/32GB of internal storage, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (confirmed by the manufacturer), and lastly ability to play around in harsh conditions as the device comes with waterproof and dust resistant capabilities. When you put DVD movies to Xperia Tablet Z, every image is crisp and vivid, thus it would not let you down performing like a multimedia entertainment tool.

In order to have the spotlight on an already-crowded 10-inch tablet market, Sony is betting on a case that it’s only 6.9 mm thin, making Xperia Tablet Z in the thinnest tablet in the world. Sony Xperia Tablet Z is also light, weighing only 495 grams, while being dust proof and capable of resisting in 1 meter-deep waters for up to 30 minutes.

The new tablet also comes with an infrared port and with the help of the TV SideView app the Xperia Tablet Z can be used as a remote control, but I don’t know how many of the customers will be attracted by this features, especially because the “remote control” will be a bit too big.

                           

In terms of connectivity, Sony Xperia Tablet Z comes with WiFi and NFC, but Sony’s press release is not mentioning anything about 3G or 4G connections, which is a sign that the international model will be WiFi-only, even though the Japanese variant has LTE support.

Promoted as a premium tablet, Sony Xperia Tablet Z will have a price tag matching Apple’s iPad 4: $499 for the 16 GB model, and $599 for the 32 GB variant. Sony has announced some good news in that the Sony Xperia Tablet Z will be coming to the global market in the second quarter of this year. The second quarter of course encompasses April, May and June which means we will see a release by the end of June. As an impressive tablet alone, the Xperia Tablet Z is definitely worth a good hard look.