MWC Barcelona 2026: All the New Tech, Phones, Wearables and AI We Expect to See

Every year, as we see the first signs of spring, CNET takes over and decamps to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress.

It is the world’s largest mobile show and one of the most exciting events on the technology calendar. This year, we are sending a larger team to bring you all the news from the show as it happens.

This should be a bonanza of new phones and wearables, with a weird robot thrown in for good measure. Sure, some of the fun tech we see at MWC never makes it out to the world, but we’ve also seen some of our most beloved tech debuts at the show over the years – so expect a little of both.

Big themes are expected to include AI and 6G, and with talks from SpaceX and Qualcomm, we’ll no doubt get a good look at the future of mobile. With Gemini in everything and satellite dominance on the horizon, it’s an exciting time for the industry.

Here’s more of what we expect to see.

What are the key dates for MWC?

MWC 2026 is scheduled to take place March 2-5, although we’ll be in town a few days before to report on some of the big launch events planned for this weekend. Don’t miss the Xiaomi launch event on February 28 and the Honor event on March 1.

How to watch

No matter how far you live from Spain, you don’t need to feel like you’re missing out. The best place for all the latest MWC news is on our CNET live blog.

We’ve been attending this show for decades (in fact, it’s the 20th anniversary of MWC in Barcelona) and we have a team of experienced journalists and reviewers on the ground.

We’ll show you everything we think is interesting and important, and we don’t just admire new products from afar. We touch them, tinker with them and try not to let them fall, so be sure to also follow us on Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube.

What phones to expect at MWC 2026

Over the past few years, Chinese phone makers have dominated MWC, and 2026 looks to be no different.

The first big phone launch event is scheduled for Saturday, February 28 at 6 a.m., when we expect Xiaomi to unveil its latest camera-focused flagship. We loved the Xiaomi 15 Ultraand the 14 Ultra before it, so we can’t wait to see what the company has in store for us. A teaser image hints at its partnership with high-end camera brand Leica and promises a “new wave of images.”

Next, we have Honor on Sunday, March 1, when the company announced that it would unveil its Magic V6 phone, alongside the MagicPad 4 and MagicBook Pro 14. Perhaps more excitingly, Honor announced that it would give us a first look at a working version of its Robot Phone and also unveil a humanoid robot at its event.

For other phone makers, MWC will likely be more of a victory lap for its existing devices, particularly Samsung, which held its own event in San Francisco this week to unveil the flagship S26 series. Motorola will be in town, probably to show off its Razrwhich, just like the Samsung Galaxy TriFoldstill remains little visible in Europe.

Overall, MWC 2026 will likely be a big show for foldable phones, which Ben Wood, marketing director and chief analyst at CCS Insight, says is “becoming a pretty mature category.”

Another major trend in the phone industry will likely be a focus on batteries, particularly silicon-carbon technologies, Wood said during an MWC presentation session. “We expect to see phones with some of the biggest batteries we’ve seen in a long time, [with] fast charging – maybe 300 watt charging – being introduced,” he added.

What other technologies to expect at MWC 2026

After the early failures of the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1, we are seeing more and more companies jumping on the wearable AI bandwagon. We expect to see a number of devices and demos appear at MWC — perhaps to try and beat OpenAI and Jony Ive to the punch.

This will include AI and AR-based glasses, CCS Insight analyst Ben Hatton said during the company’s briefing. “We expect to see a large number of glasses on display this year, not only from Meta, but also from smaller players, [like] TCL and Oppo are looking to take a piece of the pie,” he said.

One of the main challenges for these companies will be differentiation, Hatton said. “Ultimately, there’s still a long way to go before these products become mass-market products,” he added, noting that at this point, compelling use cases are still a bit rare in the field.

It’s been two years since Samsung launched the Galaxy Ring at MWC, and smart rings have been pretty thin on the ground ever since – although Oura CEO Tom Hale should speak at the show. We don’t necessarily expect to see any new rings this year, but there’s always an outside chance.

A host of new laptops and tablets are much more likely to appear. They rarely headline at MWC, but we’ll keep an eye out for the most exciting launches. It’s also likely that some intriguing concepts will be presented by Lenovo and Samsung Display, which are responsible for the technology behind the scene-stealing privacy screen of the new Galaxy S26 Ultra.

The big themes: AI, 6G and beyond

It’s no surprise that AI is, of course, a major theme at MWC. For the past few years, Google has dominated the AI ​​conversation at the event by showcasing Gemini’s capabilities and its widespread integration. Will this year be different? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean the AI ​​conversation has stalled.

We expect to see more sophisticated AI agents, more deeply integrated into wearable devices, offering live translation, more actionable health insights, and more personalized experiences. Some of the biggest players in the AI ​​game will be there, including Nvidia and Qualcomm on the hardware side. They’ll probably have some juicy announcements recorded for the series and hopefully have some exciting demos for us to try out.

Wind the clock back a decade and everyone was talking about 5G and the radical difference it was going to make to our lives. Now that 5G is old news, we’re looking forward to 6G. Most discussions about 6G so far have focused on its impact on the industry, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something to get excited about.

At Web Summit in November, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told me that 6G would make our phones faster than ever and connect us to an “always-sensing network.” This could include wearables, smart devices, cars and even robots. There is no doubt that Amon will develop this subject further during his opening speech at MWC, dedicated to 6G and AI.

Another theme likely to be dominant at the show is the role of satellites in improving network connectivity. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell will be on stage to talk about Starlink, and all the world’s biggest operators will have their own booth where they’ll show us what they’re doing to harness the latest network technologies.