AI gadgets, bendy phones, and more from MWC

There’s one thing you can count on at Mobile World Congress: a whole mess of Android smartphones. This year’s conference in Barcelona, Spain, delivered, with new devices from Xiaomi, Nothing, and others showing off the state of the art in the smartphone world.

But there was something else brewing at this year’s MWC: some new ideas about what a “mobile device” might really mean. As generative AI changes the way we interact with technology, devices like the Humane AI Pin are starting to chart a path past the slab of glass in your pocket. Some of those slabs of glass are becoming more than just bundles of apps.

MWC goers also saw a few new smartwatches, Samsung showed off its smart ring, and Lenovo asked the most important questions of all: what if your phone could wrap around your wrist like a snap bracelet, and what if you could see through your laptop screen to all the spectacular sights on the other side?

On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk all about MWC with The Verge’s Jon Porter and Allison Johnson, who were there to see and touch and chat with all the new gadgets. They tell us what’s cool, what’s vaporware, and whether they left Barcelona with any new ideas about the post-smartphone world.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are a few links to get you started:

• MWC 2024: all the phones, wearables, and gadgets announced in Barcelona
• The Humane AI Pin worked better than I expected — until it didn’t
• The OnePlus Watch 2 is a bid to redeem its smartwatch reputation
• Samsung has big ambitions for the Galaxy Ring
• Peering through Lenovo’s transparent laptop into a sci-fi future
• Lenovo worked with iFixit to make some ThinkPads easier to repair
• The bendy phone is back, baby
• The Xiaomi 14 and 14 Ultra are going global — minus the US
• Xiaomi’s new Watch S3 has a bezel you can swap as easily as a strap
• Now there’s a 28,000mAh battery with a phone in it
• What if phones actually bent to our needs?