At Mobile World Congress, every booth promises the future. If you believed everything on display, we’d all be driving wild hypercar concepts and watching humanoid robots do backflips. In an event packed with exciting gadgets and cool concepts, it’s easy to forget that most of what glitters on the show floor isn’t worth your time — and won’t survive contact with your wallet. 

With the show quieting down, CNET’s on-the-ground editorial team put their heads together to work out which products really matter. It’s not easy to separate genuine innovation from very expensive daydreams.

The products listed below all deserve a spotlight, either by offering something unique or by pushing the boundaries of what we expect from a device. Let’s dive in, but first, a few honorable mentions that we felt deserved your attention.

Honorable mentions

MWC served up some serious concept tech this year, and while these gadgets won’t be hitting shelves tomorrow, they’re a thrilling glimpse into a future we can’t wait to touch.

First up is Xiaomi’s Vision GT hypercar. Designed to be a drivable vehicle in the racing game Gran Turismo, Xiaomi actually built a model for its stage. Needless to say, it looks wild. 

We also loved the Tecno modular phone concept, with one module adding a large image sensor and a massive zoom lens, essentially turning it into a fully fledged camera.

Finally, the Lenovo Legion Go concept. This hand-held gaming device features a Nintendo Switch-style set of grips and, amazingly, a whopping 11.6-inch display in the middle. So, sure, you can game while holding onto an enormous display for fully immersive playtime, or you can fold the display back on itself and play with a more reasonable 7.7-inch display size. It’s fun, quirky, and I’ll be gobsmacked if it ever goes on sale. 

ZTE iMoochi

It might be odd to start off with a cutesy ball of AI-enabled fluff, but this companion robot pet stole our hearts. 

“I was greeted by a display with tiny, cuddly, big-eyed furry creatures called iMoochi,” CNET’s Patrick Holland explains. “But this isn’t your typical Labubu (or ripoff). It’s an AI smart pet that responds to people with movements, sounds and expressions.” 

These kinds of smart pets are increasingly used for wellness and therapy, as well as for being a friendly, cuddly friend around the house. The iMoochi can listen to you as you talk to it, using AI to “understand” what you mean, though it won’t chat back. Still, its expressions and movements are similar to what happens when you talk to your cat. I mean, your pet definitely knows what you mean and loves you just as much, right? 

Perhaps the best part, though, is the various clothes ZTE has produced for the creatures, including little dresses and suits. The wardrobe is unquestionably adorable. Sad for us, the iMoochi will only be available in Japan. 

Honor Robot Phone

Honor’s Robot Phone essentially combines two existing devices: an Android phone and a DJI Osmo Pocket 3. In doing so, it becomes greater than the sum of its parts. 

Packing a powerful gimbal-stabilized camera unit into the space of a phone offers mobile creators a way to shoot pro-level video on the go without carrying heavy bags of gear. 

Partnering with cinema company Arri on the camera, Honor says the Robot Phone will “bring a true cinematic aesthetic to smartphone imaging.” As a YouTube creator, I’m excited about how this could help me produce better content more efficiently. I’ll definitely be putting it to real use when it goes into production later this year. 

Motorola Razr Fold

Motorola hasn’t launched its new book-style foldable at MWC, but it did use the show as an opportunity to give the press an early look ahead of its launch in North America this summer. 

CNET’s Abrar Al-Heeti went hands-on and was impressed, commenting that “the Razr Fold strikes me as the Goldilocks of foldables; it’s slightly thicker than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Honor Magic V6, but thinner than the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold.”

We’re all eager to see what the finished Razr Fold looks like, but what we’ve seen so far seems promising. With specs including a large 6,000-mAh battery, a 6.8-inch outer display and an 8.1-inch inner display, it’s almost certainly going to be up there with some of the best foldable phones around when it goes on sale. 

Leica Leitzphone by Xiaomi

If you’ve been reading my reviews, you probably could have guessed my personal pick from the show. It adds up to being the best camera phone I’ve ever used.

Leica and Xiaomi’s Leitzphone has truly blown me away, particularly the quality of its rear cameras. I’ve taken thousands of photos with it during my testing so far. It’s incredible how close I’ve been able to get to the kinds of shots I’d expect from my $8,000 point-and-shoot Leica Q3 43. 

This phone packs some amazing photography tech, including a large LOFIC image sensor that enables better dynamic range in a single image. There are stunning Leica color profiles you can use when taking images. There’s also a physical wheel around the cameras you can turn to control settings like zoom, exposure, or even manual focus. 

At £1,700 (around $2,300), this gem is far from cheap. But it pushes the boundaries of what a phone camera can do in ways that no other phone has. 

Honor Magic V6

What immediately stood out to me about the Magic V6 was just how incredibly slim it is. With a girth of just 8.75mm when closed, it’s roughly the profile of an iPhone 17 Pro Max. It becomes a mere 4.1mm when you unfold it and expose its enormous inner display. It’s a masterclass in engineering, proving just how rapidly foldables are shedding bulk to finally achieve a pocket-friendly profile.

Beyond the slim ergonomics, the aesthetics are equally striking. The deep red vegan leather finish is as premium to the touch as it is to the eye. Under the hood, it’s a verified powerhouse, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite to deliver flagship performance. Coupled with a massive 6,000-mAh silicon-carbon battery, Honor is positioning this as a marathon runner in a category typically known for endurance compromises. 

It’s a rare fusion of cutting-edge tech and an impossibly thin chassis.

Clicks Communicator

The Clicks Communicator was shown off first at CES earlier this year, but the company boasted a fully working version at MWC this year. If it reminds you of an old-school BlackBerry phone, that’s no coincidence — the Communicator was designed by BlackBerry’s former designer. 

“It’s not about trying to be nostalgic,” CNET’s Patrick Holland explains, “but instead reimagine what a BlackBerry or Palm Pre might be like if they were made today.” He describes it as “a straightforward-to-use Android smartphone with seemingly every popular feature that companies have removed over the past decade.” 

Tap into your throwback machine and imagine a compact design, a physical keyboard with numerous buttons, a notification alert light, a headphone jack, a physical SIM card tray and support for a microSD card.

I loved BlackBerry phones of years past: The Priv was a surprise favorite of mine, though the Passport was weird and more difficult to love. While many of today’s smartphones aim to cram in as much hypermodern tech as possible, it’s refreshing to see a company be bold enough to take a more retro approach.