It’s been a while since ZTE has unveiled a device with the “Grand” moniker. This week in Barcelona, the Chinese tech giant announced the Grand S3 at Mobile World Congress.

The phone sports a 5.5-inch Full HD display and is powered by a Snapdragon 801 chip with a 2.5GHz quad-core processor, an Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. It also comes with a 16MP rear camera with dual-LED flash and an 8MP selfie camera on the front.

The Grand S3 also comes with an Eyeprint ID biometric security service, which scans both your eyes to unlock your phone or authorize online payments. The system is much slower than the fingerprint sensors found on most flagship phones these days, but ZTE says it’s more secure.

The company hasn’t announced a shipping date yet nor pricing information, but if we can more details about it, we’ll let you know.

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Wearables, specifically smartwatches and smart bands have come a long way. And although manufacturers haven’t perfected the design of these devices, their functionality and design have greatly improved over the past 2 years. And in 2015, wearables are positioned to take the spotlight from smartphones as almost every major manufacturer has announced its own wrist-worn device.

HTC GRIP

Designed for mid-level and pro athletes, the HTC Grip comes in three sizes – small, medium and large, although there’s a metal extender that lets users adjust the band for a comfortable fit.

The band features a 1.8-inch PM-OLED display with a resolution of 32x160 pixels. It also comes with built-in GPS, a battery that can last up to 2 days (if the GPS is inactive), a soft-touch and contoured material and IP57 certification.

As with other smart devices, the HTC grip it shows various information to users including time, date, the weather, alarms and even music controls. HTC plans to sell the device sometime in Q2 2015 for around $199.

Pebble Time Steel

Pebble has made a surprise move this week by announcing a new version of its newest smartwatch at MWC. The new watch as the name suggest is made from steel (316L stainless steel to be specific) and can be partnered with either a leather or steel band.

The device will have almost identical specs as the basic Pebble Time except that the metal version will have a better battery that can last up to 10 days. The Pebble Time Steel is now available on Kickstarter for $250 (will be $300 upon retail). Moreover, early backers of the Pebble Time can choose to upgrade to the steel version.

Acer Liquid Leap+

Acer has decided it wants to upgrade the Liquid Leap fitness band that it announced last year at Computex by announcing the Liquid Leap+ at Mobile World Congress.

The fitness band comes with a 1-inch OLED display that is completely touch-operated. Acer has also equipped the new Liquid Leap+ with a new design that allows for interchangeable straps, and the company claims the device can last up to 5 days on a single charge.

Just like the original Liquid Leap, the device will serve various data to users including notifications and provide users with a remote control function for their phone’s music library.

Huawei Watch and TalkBand B2

Huawei on the other hand has announced two wearables at MWC this week. The first one was the TalkBand B2 which replaces the TalkBand B1 that the company announced last year. It features a 0.73-inch PMOLED touch screen that provides the usual bundle of notifications and fitness data.

Just like its predecessor, the TalkBand B2’s main unit can be detached from the band and converted into a wireless headset. Huawei claims the device can last up to 5 days on a single charge and will be available in three different color options: black, silver and champagne.

Then there’s the Huawei Watch, a round-faced Android Wear device that goes head to head with LG’s recently announced Watch Urbane. The device is made from cold-forge stainless steel and can come in different band options including leather, metal mesh and fabric, which are interchangeable.

The Watch sports a 1.4-inch AMOLED display with a 400 x 400 pixel resolution and covered by a layer of sapphire crystal. It also has a built-in heart rate monitor that works with the company’s own app, a 6-axis motion tracker, a barometer, a vibration motor and a 300mAh battery (that can last up to 2 days depending on usage).

There’s no word on availability yet for both devices, but price has been revealed for the TalkBand B2, which will retail for around $194.

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Remember the Blackphone handset that we saw last year that promised a fully encrypted way of communication through its PrivatOS? Well, the company behind this phone, Silent Circle is back with an updated version of the handset.

The Blackphone 2 is built around a 5.5-inch Full HD display and sports a 64-bit octa-core processor with 3GB of RAM and LTE connectivity. The phone also comes with Gorilla Glass 3, a 3060mAh battery and an updated version of PrivatOS.

The new version of the operating system will feature enhanced Spaces UI that compartmentalizes the Android OS allowing users to assign different logins for different areas of the device.

There’s no information yet on when the phone will be released into the market, but Silent Circle confirms that the Blackphone 2 will be priced at $649 (which is actually the same price point as the original Blackphone).

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As expected, Lenovo has officially announced the Vibe Shot that we saw a few days ago, this week at Mobile World Congress.

The official announcement of the handset brings with it confirmation of what we’ve already heard about its specs as well as any missing information about its features. Again, the device is built with a 5.0-inch display with Full HD resolution and Gorilla Glass both front and back.

Performance is delivered by a Snapdragon 615 chip with a 64-bit quad-core processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. There’s also a 16MP camera at the back with a six-piece modular lens and tri-color LED flash, while an 8MP snapper is placed on the front.  The sensor sports low-light back illumination, optical image stabilization and infrared focus feature.

The handset will be offered for sale in June for around $349.

Lenovo also introduced the A7000 in the event. The device is a mid-range smartphone that sports a 5.5-inch IPS HD display with Dolby ATMOS surround sound feature.

It also has a MediaTek chipset with a 1.5GHz octa-core CPU, 2GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage. In the camera and connectivity department, the A7000 sports an 8MP+5MP camera combo and an LTE radio. The phone will be available later this month for around $170.

Lastly, the tech giant also announced three new tablets during the event:  the Lenovo Tab 2 A10, Tab 2 A8 and the Ideapad MIIX 300.

The Tab 2 A10 and A8 are both running on Android and sport similar specs. For instance, both models come equipped with 64-bit quad-core processors, LTE radios and Dolby ATMOS technology. The A10 has a better screen at 10.1 inches and Full HD resolution while the A8 goes with an 8-incher with 720p resolution. The bigger model also gets a beefier 2GB of RAM and 7200mAh battery over the A8’s 1GB RAM and 4200mAh power pack.

Meanwhile, the Ideapad MIIX 300 is a Windows slate and sports a quad-core Intel Atom chip with 2GB of RAM and up to 64GB of expandable storage. It also has an 8-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels as well as a 5MP camera at the back.

The Lenovo Tab 2 A10, Tab 2 A8 and Ideapad MIIX 300 will hit the shelves in starting in April for $129 (Wi-Fi only), $199 (Wi-Fi only) and $149 respectively. For a few dollars more, users who want mobile connectivity can get the LTE version of the Android slates for $179 (A8) and $279 (A10).

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BlackBerry (yes, they’re still at it) has recently concluded its keynote at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where it announced its latest handset – the BlackBerry Leap.

The Leap has a 5-inch HD display with a screen density of 294ppi and goes with a Snapdragon S4 Plus chip with a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. There’s also an 8MP autofocus camera at the back with LED flash and is capable of recording Full HD videos at 30 frames per second.

The phone will be available starting next month for $275 off contract. The Canadian phone maker also announced several new color options for its Classic handset including blue, bronze and white on top of the base color black.

What a Surprise! Ron just pulled out a dual-curved, all-touch display with a Keyboard - yes a slider device! #MWC15 pic.twitter.com/8VaPUZHo3j
— BlackBerry (@BlackBerry) March 3, 2015

Now, before you dismiss the company’s efforts this year, the company did show one last model that actually made a lot of people interested. Dubbed as the “Slider”, the phone was shown at the last part of the keynote and serves as teaser for future generation BB devices.

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In our previous post, we saw the new OneTouch Hero 2+ and the two OneTouch Idol 3 smartphones from Alcatel which were showcased at this year’s MWC in Barcelona. Continuing with the announcements, we have six other devices, five of which run on Android while the last one runs on Firefox OS.

The first five devices run on Android and surprisingly were all named Pixies. First up, there are the Pixi 3 smartphones. There will be two models under this product group with similar specs and are differentiated by their connectivity radios.

The 3G version has a 5.5-inch display with a qHD display, a MediaTek MT6580 chipset, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of on-board storage, an 8MP+2MP camera combo, Bluetooth v4.0, a 2910mAh battery and the usual bunch of sensors.

Meanwhile, the 4G version has the same screen size but with a better resolution at 720p. It also has a better camera setup with an 8MP+5MP camera combo in some markets and the chipset is also different as the 4G variant uses a QCT 8909 SoC.

Alcatel has also got people who need bigger screens covered with three Pixi tablets. All models have 7-inch displays with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. As with the Pixi smartphones, the tablets are categorized based on the connectivity radio they possess.

There’s a Wi-Fi only model as well as a 3G and 4G variants. The Wi-Fi and 3G models comes with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of on-board storage, a 2MP rear camera, a VGA selfie camera and a 2820mAh battery. Meanwhile, the 4G model sports better specs than its siblings, namely an extra half gig of RAM and Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box.

Lastly, there’s the Alcatel Klif that runs on Firefox OS. As with other Firefox phones, the Klif gets specs meant for budget-conscious customers, to be specific it has a MediaTek chip with a dual-core processor, 256MB of RAM and 512MB of on-board storage.

Surprisingly, the Klif manages to squeeze in a 2MP camera with an LED flash as well as a 1300mAh battery. It also has 3G connectivity, an FM receiver, GPS and two SIM card slots. As with the rest of Alcatel’s announcement, pricing and availability for the Pixis and the Klif are yet to be disclosed.

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