sentiment : Mobile World Congress and Apple compete for the tech newspaper headline this week . One was front page news program , the other was tomorrow ’s cow chip paper .
Mobile World Congress was a barnstorm event this year , despite the absence of some of the nomadic world ’s biggest players . Here ’s ourMWC 2025 Best in Show .
Xiaomi revealed a huge competition forcamera telephone set of the year with the Xiaomi 15 Ultra , while heap of other brilliant camera conception showed off a dead on target innovative spirit . Speaking of innovation , Lenovo arrived at MWC with a solar - power laptopthat’ll give you an spare time of day of succus by getting out of doors for 20 minutes . The TCLNxtpaper 11 lozenge was a huge hitwith our attendee in Barcelona too .
Away from the show floor , there were rumor that theSamsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 will move nearer to display flawlessness , while Google revealed some of itsmost exciting AI tools are ready to rock . Plus , if Gen AI is your thing , Google is preparing for acomplete search overhaul . Meanwhile , you could alsorent a PS5 in the UKfor less than the cost of Netflix .
Apple also attempt to share the limelight by launching some Cartesian product updates . There was a new Mac Studio bunk theM3 Ultra – its most powerful M - Series chip yet , theiPad Air M3and one more product we ’ll get to in a minute .
consider it or not , in this bumper workweek of tech word , the succeeder and failure are still to be let out …
Winner: Nothing Phone (3a)
Looking for a great phone at an affordable cost with the few compromise ? Nothing to see here . Cheap pun away , theNothing Phone ( 3a ) is that speech sound . uncover this workweek at MWC 2025 , the phone costs just £ 329 and combines solid bombardment life with a strong blueprint esthetical , a bully video display and first-class software system with ordered widgets .
Nothing has been a fixture in thebest mid - kitchen range smartphonesfor a while now , but the Nothing Phone 3a might just own the class . Our reviewer has complete his trial and the finding of fact is pretty conclusive : “ If you do n’t need to drop a circumstances on a phone , of all the phone on the market – it ’s the Nothing Phone 3a I ’d commend , reasonably much without any indisposition . ”
He praised the fun constituent too . When the mart feels so stagnant right now , Nothing ’s minuscule software touch and interesting excogitation choices wreak a bit of inflammation . So bravo , Nothing .
Considering Apple has been criticised for abandoning the mid - range with its £ 600 iPhone 16e ( over the £ 449 iPhone SE 3 ) , it ’s great to see a smartphone company depend out for consumer who want the best possible time value for money .
Loser: iPad 11
This iPad has lineage date all the fashion back to the original iPad in 2010 . So perhaps it ’s liable that the later iteration feel rooted in Apple ’s past tense rather than its future .
On newspaper publisher , theiPad 11it ’s a decent upgrade . There ’s more al-Qaeda storage and a chip that ’s a couple of generation newer , all for the same low - ish cost .
However , there ’s a immense unnaturally intelligent elephant in the room . The iPad 11 wo n’t support any of the Apple Intelligence features that have been part of iPadOS 18 , that ’ll be part of succeeding iPadOS 18 updates and will likely underpin iPadOS 19 , 20 and beyond .
If you corrupt this iPad you ’ll need to be comfy in the knowledge that it ’s expire to miss out on so many of the major software program feature Apple has planned for years to make out . You ’ll still get iPadOS update ( probably five or six year ’s worth ) but without the Apple Intelligence features , they ’re go to feel less and less substantial .
Apple could have used the M1 chip and still been capable to offer these feature . It could have offer up the A17 Pro buffalo chip within the iPhone 15 Pro and still been able to offer these features .
That might have pushed the price too high and , after the company has been profoundly criticised for desert the customers shop at at more affordable ends of the food market in recent workweek , perhaps we should n’t be too critical .
However , I do n’t think an iPad release has ever felt this outdated on Clarence Day one . If you ’re wait for thebest iPadat a salutary damage , I ’m keeping my eye out for a bargain on the iPad Air with M2 , considering it ’s not even a class old yet and has just been supervene upon as well .
