MWC 2023 live blog: All the big news as it’s announced

Xiaomi’s picked MWC as the spot to reveal its latest flagship phones, the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro, as well as a new pair of true wireless earbuds, the Buds 4 Pro and a Watch S1 Pro smartwatch.

The new phones both feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and 50MP main cameras with Leica tuning, as well as speedy charging (50W in the basic phone’s case, 120W for the Pro).  The Pro goes even further though with a 1-inch main sensor and 50MP sensors for both its ultrawide and telephoto cameras too.

Meanwhile, the Buds 4 Pro cover the key premium earbuds features of adjustable ear tips, active noise canceling, LDAC and Hi-Res Audio Wireless support and “Dimensional” spatial audio. Finally, the Watch S1 Pro offers a two-week battery life, a 1.47-inch AMOLED display protected with sapphire glass and a wealth of health and sports features like exercise tracking, SpO2 monitoring and more.

Flagship phones tend to get the majority of the attention, but the low cost phones still keep coming. HMD, the company that makes Nokia phones, has three brand new low cost devices coming this Spring — the Nokia G22, Nokia C32 and the Nokia C22.

The G22 has been built with repairability in mind, thanks to a partnership with iFixit. The idea here is that ordinary people can switch out the battery and screen without having to pay a professional for the privilege. U.S. pricing hasn’t been announced, but it’ll be available in the U.K. from March 8 for £150.

The Nokia C32 is designed to bring better photography to low budget phones, packing in a 50MP camera. Both it and the C22 will also maintain the same durability and long battery life modern Nokias are known for. In fact HMD claims that both phones offer a 3 day battery life, toughened glass and elegant designs you wouldn’t normally associate with cheap handsets.

U.S. pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but the Nokia G22 goes on sale in the U.K. for £150 on March 8. The C32 and C22 will go on sale this spring, priced at £130 and £110 respectively.

Our favorite among the products we’ve seen so far on Sunday is the Motorola Defy Satellite Link. While the likes of the iPhone 14 may have an emergency satellite SOS system built in, this gadget can add this feature to any smartphone via a Bluetooth connection. And it costs just $99, plus a subscription that starts at $5 a month.

If that wasn’t enough, downloading the Bullitt Satellite Messenger App offers a two-way satellite messaging. That allows you send messages to the satellite, and have them passed on to a recipient as a standard SMS text message. If your recipient has the same app, the system will reverse to let them respond – and at no cost to them. 

Frankly, it’s going to be hard to top that, and the show has only just begun. Of course MWC 2023 will have plenty more cool stuff to offer, so be sure to check back later for our ongoing live coverage direct from the show floor.