AI phones dominate MWC26: Honor and Nubia are "all-powerful", while only Transsion is the most down-to-earth.
In the sunny Barcelona, MWC 2026 has been in full swing for two days.
As one of the most anticipated electronics exhibitions for consumer electronics enthusiasts and the world's largest and most influential annual exhibition of mobile communication electronic technology, MWC brings together products, technologies, and concepts from around the world, showing us the possibilities and directions of smartphones and consumer brands in the next few years.
After traveling to CES 2026 at the beginning of this year, Leikeji (Lei Technology) sent a reporting team led by senior editor Dingxi and anchor A Lei to Barcelona, Spain. They walked their legs off in the exhibition hall covering an area of over 240,000 square meters, just to observe, experience, and record these new things.
(Image source: Lei Technology)
If you thought that AI in the past two years was just limited to writing poems, drawing pictures, or summarizing long articles, then this year's MWC will definitely subvert your perception. Major mobile phone manufacturers are no longer satisfied with letting AI stay in the background. Instead, they let it actively observe, operate, and interact with the world.
Now, let Xiaolei (Lei, a writer) take you to take stock of the eye - catching AI phones at MWC 2026.
Nubia M153: Understand the screen, understand you better
As soon as Xiaolei entered the core area of Hall 3, the crowd in front of ZTE's joint booth squeezed him hard. Everyone was gathered around the first AI - native mobile phone jointly developed by Nubia and Doubao - Nubia M153.
(Image source: Lei Technology)
In the past, when we used a voice assistant to send a WeChat message, it could only help us open the chat dialog box at most, and we still had to do the rest ourselves.
But this phone is different.
Nubia M153 introduces the graphical user interface agent technology. It doesn't require any third - party apps to open APIs. Instead, it is completely handled by the Doubao large - model for thinking and the Nebula - GUI on the device side for execution. It can not only see the content displayed on the phone but also operate the phone by simulating clicks through the background virtual machine. It can understand and execute complex user commands in natural language and achieve cross - application task execution.
In simple terms, it's like implanting AI into the lowest layer of the system, giving the phone a pair of eyes and a pair of hands.
From the demonstration, through seamless execution of multi - step workflows, Nubia M153 provides a highly natural and intuitive interaction experience. Whether it's booking a restaurant or comparing prices across platforms, it can be completed with just one voice command. The phone will automatically start the necessary apps, directly simulate human finger clicks, swipes, and inputs, and complete the entire process from searching, comparing, booking to route planning.
(Image source: Lei Technology)
The advantage of this is, of course, in terms of the universality of functions. Users can use the full functions of the phone without each manufacturer having to make individual adaptations.
The drawback... Since this proxy mechanism touches the ecological barriers of some apps, I think you may have heard that this product has encountered many difficulties in the domestic market.
In addition to this smart customized phone, the Nubia Neo 5 GT on display at the same booth is also quite interesting.
(Image source: Lei Technology)
This gaming phone targeting the overseas market may be the first and only device in its class with a built - in real active cooling fan at present. With the Dimensity 7400 processor and LPDDR Max 6400Mbps memory, it is sufficient to meet the gaming needs of overseas users.
It's just not known whether this mid - to - low - end gaming phone has the possibility of entering the domestic market.
By the way, at today's MWC exhibition, Jiang Chao, the general manager of the RedMagic gaming phone product, announced that the RedMagic gaming tablet 5 Pro is about to make its official debut.
(Image source: ZTE)
Currently, no parameters of this product have been leaked. Lei Technology will continue to follow up on the specific information.
Honor Robot Phone: The phone grows a mechanical arm
Walking along the main exhibition hall, Honor's exhibition area was also crowded. What attracted everyone's attention was not the regular folding screen but a dancing machine - Honor Robot Phone.
(Image source: Lei Technology)
In terms of the design of this product, you can say it's the most eye - catching and peculiar thing at the exhibition.
Instead of using a traditional fixed camera module on its back, it is equipped with a miniature three - axis mechanical anti - shake gimbal and a motor system, paired with a 200 - megapixel main camera sensor.
In the staff's demonstration, even when facing dancers who were constantly moving, the Honor Robot Phone could automatically follow the people and keep them in the center of the frame all the time. The intense hand movements and the dancers' free - style dancing did not affect its tracking effect at all.
(Image source: Lei Technology)
When you are having a video call with a friend or recording a video while walking around in the kitchen, this camera module will automatically rotate like a human neck. Wherever you go, the camera will look up or turn, always keeping you locked in the center of the frame.
Combined with the local AI visual tracking algorithm, when dynamic music is played on - site, this camera will even slightly rhythm with the beat, giving the cold electronic product a wonderful sense of life.
(Image source: Lei Technology)
In today's mobile phone market, everyone says they have AI phones, but there are very few truly eye - catching products. At least in terms of form, the Robot Phone has been bold enough.
In Honor's view, the value of the Robot Phone lies not in being cool but in pushing the imaging competition from stacking specifications to a new direction: a new selling point composed of a stable gimbal, automatic subject following, camera movement rotation, and AI scene understanding.
Such bold innovation is indeed a new way to break the current homogenization of imaging flagships.
Samsung Galaxy S26 series: Referred to as the Gemini Phone
As a regular at every technology exhibition, Samsung is focusing on artificial intelligence with real agency capabilities this year and aims to show off its strength with the new generation of Galaxy S26 series.
(Image source: Lei Technology)
The specific manifestation of the so - called agency capabilities is being smarter and being able to actively intervene in your actions -
According to PYMNTS reports, Google Gemini now supports task automation functions and can even open and use apps in the background window when the user is on another screen.
In a demonstration at the MWC site, Gemini scanned a busy family group chat, detected that family members were discussing a pizza order, then launched DoorDash (a food delivery platform) in the background according to the conversation, put the corresponding products into the shopping cart, and paused before checkout for the user to manually confirm.
(Image source: Lei Technology)
If it encounters options during the execution process, it will stop and let the user take over. The overall operation experience is similar to that of the Nubia M153.
Different from the Nubia M153, currently, the task automation of the Galaxy S26 series is limited to a few apps, including Uber, DoorDash, and Grubhub, and will be provided as an early preview version for the S26 series, as well as the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, and Pixel 10 Pro XL in the United States and South Korea.
As for the domestic market, although Gemini cannot be used, the domestic version of the Samsung S26 series can still use the Bixby assistant to order takeaways, call taxis, etc. Judging from the new multi - modal question - answering and AI podcast functions, Samsung China should have increased its cooperation with Doubao.
In a sense, is this also a new - generation Doubao phone?
Transsion CAMON 50 series: Pragmatic small - language support
Tired of the cutting - edge concepts, Xiaolei turned to Transsion's booth in Hall 7.
If you think the functions of big manufacturers are a bit out of reach, Transsion will definitely let you feel the down - to - earth temperature of technology.
(Image source: Lei Technology)
The CAMON 50 series of mobile phones they brought do not focus on the benchmark scores that only geeks care about. Instead, they focus on practical imaging and localized voice interaction.
With the 50 - megapixel 1/1.56" Sony sensor and a deeply optimized shutter algorithm, this phone can pre - shoot before pressing the shutter and performs excellently in capturing moving objects with high clarity.
This is a photo of seagulls in Barcelona taken by the foreign media gadgetmatch. It's not hard to see that the capture effect is really good.
(Image source: gadgetmatch)
But what really touched Xiaolei is the hard work Transsion has put into the localized on - device large model. According to Transsion's official introduction, for the African and Middle Eastern markets, the CAMON 50 series supports offline voice recognition and real - time translation of Hausa and a variety of complex Middle Eastern dialects for the first time.
You know, in African regions with poor network conditions, relying on cloud servers for translation is almost impossible.
Through cooperation with Google, Transsion has directly compressed the model to the local phone, removing communication barriers for users of small languages who have been forgotten by the mainstream technology circle. This pragmatic innovation dedicated to eliminating the digital divide deserves great respect.
Judging from foreign media reviews... these functions are only available on the CAMON 50 Ultra/Pro+. This is a bit strange.
Motorola: Lenovo Qira is here
Finally, let's take a look at the exhibition areas of Lenovo and Motorola.
In an era when folding screens are everywhere, Motorola has finally broken the tradition of only making small folding screens and launched the first large - scale horizontal folding phone