On - site report from MWC: Mobile phones and operators are all embracing AI, and hardware needs new narratives too.

Text | Wang Fangyu

Editor | Su Jianxun

Amid high expectations, MWC 2025 (Mobile World Congress) officially kicked off in Barcelona, Spain on March 3rd.

As the world's top event in the communication industry, MWC this year attracted more than 2,700 exhibitors from 205 countries and regions around the world to this technological feast. Chinese enterprises continued to play an important role, with about 300 exhibitors bringing their latest technological achievements.

MWC 2025 is themed "Converge. Connect. Create." and delves into in - depth discussions and exchanges around cutting - edge topics such as 5G evolution, the integration of artificial intelligence and communication, and innovative applications of the Internet of Things. This time, Intelligence Emergence went to Barcelona to witness the forefront of global technology.

Smartphones have always been the "backbone" of MWC. At the MWC site, Intelligence Emergence found that this year's MWC not only witnessed the release of a series of high - profile new smartphones, but also more and more mobile phone manufacturers are highlighting the features of "ecosystem" and "AI" in order to create new selling points and competitiveness in the smartphone market with slowing growth.

Meanwhile, around the significant theme of AI, from upstream chip manufacturers to downstream terminal manufacturers of mobile phones, PCs, smart wearables and many other products, they demonstrated forward - looking new solutions and products, injecting new growth impetus into the industry. AI has become an important driving force for the next industrial revolution, and the in - depth integration of AI and communication is becoming a new historical landmark.

Huawei: Demonstrating low - latency autonomous driving scenarios and driving the digital and intelligent transformation of industries

During MWC 2025, Huawei held a summit on the digital and intelligent transformation of industries, inviting global customers, partners and other industry peers to jointly explore innovative practices in the digital and intelligent transformation of industries. During the event, Huawei, in cooperation with global customers from various industries, released 83 global digital and intelligent transformation model sites for 71 major scenarios.

Meanwhile, Huawei, in collaboration with its partners, released digital and intelligent solutions for ten major industries, including public utilities, government affairs, education, finance, power, transportation, oil and gas, chemical industry, and retail.

On Huawei's exhibition stand, a real - world environment of a cockpit for remote driving was set up. Visitors could experience the commercial scenario of an L4 autonomous vehicle from the perspective of the back - end safety officer. This vehicle is equipped with more than 10 cameras and 2 lidars. Based on these sensors deployed on a single vehicle, the small model on the vehicle can conduct real - time reasoning on the road conditions it perceives.

Through 5G network connection, the latency of wireless communication can be reduced from the original hundreds of milliseconds to a stable level below 20 milliseconds, and the image quality of the back - haul can be upgraded from 480P to 1080P. With lower latency and higher speed, the operating speed of the autonomous vehicle can be increased from 5 - 10 km/h to 30 - 40 km/h, achieving higher operating efficiency.

Huawei's cockpit    Source: Enterprise authorization

Honor: To invest $10 billion in building an AI device ecosystem in 5 years

On March 2nd, Honor officially launched the Honor Alpha Strategy (HONOR ALPHA PLAN) at MWC, announcing its transformation from a smartphone manufacturer to a globally leading AI terminal ecosystem company. Honor CEO Li Jian announced that the company will invest $10 billion in building an AI device ecosystem in the next 5 years.

At the conference, Fang Fei, the president of Honor's product line, unveiled a number of new technologies, including a personal AI agent based on GUI, which has the capabilities of multi - modal perception, personalized decision - making, and autonomous action; a new imaging technology brand, AiMAGE, which offers functions such as AI sharpening, AI long - distance shooting, AI removal, AI image enlargement, and AI restoration of old photos; AI face - swapping detection technology, which can identify AI - synthesized images or generated videos; and a full - ecosystem file sharing technology, which supports high - speed transmission with Apple devices.

Honor Alpha Strategy Press Conference    Source: Enterprise authorization

Lenovo: Exploring the concept of a solar - powered laptop

At this MWC, Lenovo showcased its first outward - folding screen laptop, the ThinkBook Flip AI PC concept machine. This concept laptop features an 18.1 - inch outward - folding OLED display, which can switch from a compact 13 - inch laptop form to a vertically expanded workspace, enhancing multi - tasking capabilities.

Thanks to its special design, the ThinkBook Flip AI PC concept machine supports free switching between five modes, including laptop mode, vertical screen mode, sharing mode, tablet mode, and reading mode. It can run multiple applications simultaneously, reducing the dependence on external monitors.

ThinkBook Flip AI PC concept machine     Source: Enterprise authorization

Lenovo's YOGA solar - powered laptop concept machine also caught people's attention. This product is equipped with a high - efficiency solar panel on the back of the laptop, which can achieve an energy conversion rate of over 24%. After 20 minutes of direct sunlight, the panel can provide enough power for the device to play videos for up to one hour.

Lenovo YOGA solar - powered laptop    Source: Enterprise authorization

Xiaomi: High - end upgrade of the "smartphone - car - home full ecosystem"

At this MWC, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, which was launched in China a few days ago, was also launched overseas. However, the price is much higher, with an overseas price of 1,499 euros (nearly 12,000 RMB), exceeding Apple's most expensive model, the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

In addition, the press conference also introduced a number of new products in the "smartphone - car - home full ecosystem", such as Xiaomi HyperOS 2, Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro, Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro, Xiaomi Watch S4, and Xiaomi Electric Scooter 5 Max. Xiaomi also announced that it will officially launch large household appliances overseas and will sell Xiaomi cars to the global market in the next few years.

High - end positioning and going global are the two key words of Xiaomi's press conference this time. Lu Weibing, a partner and the president of Xiaomi Group, said at the press conference: "Driving our development in the high - end market is more important than ever."

Xiaomi Press Conference Site    Source: Enterprise authorization

ZTE: Launching multiple full - scenario AI terminals

ZTE, themed "AI for All", showcased a number of its full - range, multi - form AI terminal products, demonstrating the in - depth integration of AI technology with ZTE's full - ecosystem intelligent terminal devices.

At the exhibition, ZTE globally launched multiple smart devices, including the first 4K naked - eye 3D gaming laptop of RedMagic, the second - generation small - fold Nubia Flip 2, and smart wearable devices such as AI earphones, as well as multiple FWA&MBB new products built on cutting - edge technologies such as AI, 5G - A, and Wi - Fi 7.

In addition, ZTE also exhibited a number of new products focusing on gaming and imaging, such as the full - screen mobile phone Nubia Z70 Ultra and the RedMagic X Golden Legend Edition.

Second - generation small - fold Nubia Flip 2     Source: Enterprise authorization

realme: Exhibiting its first concept phone with replaceable lenses

realme officially exhibited its first concept phone with replaceable lenses at MWC 2025. By combining the mobile phone's imaging algorithm with traditional optical lenses, it breaks the traditional imaging convention of mobile phones.

This concept phone is equipped with a special lens mounting buckle, allowing users to install DSLR camera lenses on it, achieving 10x lossless optical zoom and easily capturing ultra - high - definition images and cinematic depth - of - field blur effects that are difficult to achieve with imaging algorithms.

In addition, realme also released two latest achievements of its Next AI Lab: AI video removal and AI voice photo editing, making users' post - processing of images more convenient and easier. It also officially launched the realme 14 Pro+ globally.

realme 14 Pro+     Source: Enterprise authorization

StarGroup Meizu: New products exposed, StarV Air2 smart glasses stand out

StarGroup Meizu brought overseas mobile phone products such as MEIZU Mblu 21, Note 21, and Note 21 Pro, as well as a number of co - branded smart watches. Meanwhile, the new product matrix, the Mblu22 series and the Note22 series, was exposed for the first time. The overseas version of the mobile phones will also use the Flyme system and is expected to be launched in April this year.

In addition, StarGroup Meizu also showcased its StarV Air2 smart glasses, which have functions such as simultaneous interpretation, simultaneous transcription, and teleprompter.

Meizu StarV Air2 smart glasses   Source: Enterprise authorization

Qualcomm: Upgrading wireless connection technology

Qualcomm Technologies announced the launch of the X85 5G modem and RF solution at MWC. This solution is designed for a new generation of connected and AI - enabled applications, capable of providing faster speeds to support network transmission, downloading, and uploading, improving network reliability in congested areas, extending battery life, and enhancing positioning accuracy.

In addition, Qualcomm also launched the Qualcomm X82 5G modem and RF, a 5G modem - to - antenna solution optimized for mainstream mobile broadband applications, supporting multi - gigabit download and upload speeds. Currently, samples of the X85 and X82 products are being provided to customers, and commercial terminals are expected to be launched in the second half of this year.

Qualcomm X85 modem and RF solution    Source: Enterprise authorization

Intel: System - on - a - chip integrating AI functions

During MWC, Intel demonstrated the basic network infrastructure of the Intel Xeon 6 processor integrated with AI functions.

Compared with previous generations of products, the Intel Xeon 6 server processor chip has up to 2.4 times the radio access network (RAN) capacity improvement and a 70% improvement in performance per watt. The integrated artificial intelligence accelerator has increased the performance of AI RAN (Artificial Intelligence Radio Access Network) by up to 3.2 times. This means that operators can significantly reduce server footprint and deploy more capacity with fewer servers.

Intel Xeon 6 processor    Source: Enterprise authorization

Zhipu AutoGLM: Innovative integration of 5G - A and AI

Zhipu demonstrated on - site the Agent capabilities based on the new 5G - A network. Compared with the existing network, the operation speed of the deeply optimized AutoGLM has been significantly improved.

Agentic AI is reshaping our work and life. AI assistants will smoothly achieve seamless invocation of various applications, helping to complete various complex tasks in daily work and life.

The extensive application of AI