I can’t decide if MWC’s quirky new arrivals are great or gimmicks

Trekking through the halls at this year’s Mobile World Congress, it was impossible to ignore how many weird and wacky models were doing the rounds. I know a quirky concept can be a good way to stand out when competing for coverage, but 2025 had its fair share of production-ready curiosities as well. And I’m all for it. With one or two exceptions, our upcoming phones list is stuffed with by-the-numbers sequels.

Styling has gotten increasingly samey (flat sides, flat screen, huge camera island) and annual upgrades aren’t worth shouting about as much as they once were. AI is the new hot topic, not hardware innovation.

In Barcelona, though? Brands you might not be familiar with are proving phones can still be fun as well as functional. The following are just a few of my highlights:

ZTE Nubia Music 2: pump up the volume

ZTE’s first-gen Nubia Music proved so successful with music lovers it got a sequel. The built-in speaker shouts 600% louder than most phones, so you’re sure to be the life of the party (or the bane of any bus ride). It’s entry-level everywhere else, with a Unisoc chipset, LCD screen and single 50MP camera, but the 5000mAh battery should mean you can keep the tunes playing into the early hours.

Loud sound doesn’t necessarily mean good sound, of course – but if it means I an hear podcasts over a stove-full of bubbling pans and a family-sized air fryer when cooking dinner, then sign me up.

Tecno’s coconut coir and coffee covers

No, these aren’t phone cases – Tecno’s eco-friendly design concept will eventually form the back panels of the handsets themselves. They’re an eco-friendly alternative to the usual plastic or glass, using natural coconut coir and the reconstituted bark of coffee trees. They’re undeniably eye-catching, and add a unique texture that also provides plenty of grip.

The coffee version even smells like a cup of joe, which is something I didn’t know I needed until now. Keeping it clean might be more of a challenge than polycarbonate or glass, though. One of my sartorially-minded colleagues also wondered if it would leave your trouser pockets smelling of cappuccino.

Infinix solar and e-ink

A solar-powered smartphone doesn’t make much sense for those of us living in dreary northern Europe. But for Infinix’s African, Middle Eastern and Asian user base, they could be a game changer. In those countries, where the sun is almost always shining, it wouldn’t matter if access to mains power couldn’t be guaranteed.

A 2W trickle charge doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’d be enough to extend standby power when the phone isn’t in use. I like that Infinix also has a solar case concept that could bring the tech to a wider range of phones, so you don’t just have to buy the handset with the solar cells built in.

The firm’s other MWC offering is a lot more visual, swapping a static rear panel for an animated colour e-ink one. This second-gen model is way more advanced than the first, which could only change colour when plugged in; it can customise palettes and patterns on the fly. You can use your own photos, match the current weather, or use (sigh) AI to generate animated designs.

Realme Ultra camera concept

Overkill doesn’t begin to describe Realme’s outlandish cameraphone concept. Rather than compromise on lens optics in order to stay palm-friendly, it leaves its one inch main sensor exposed; you bolt on an adapter plate, and then attach a full-on system camera lens instead.

A Leica M-mount CSC lens costing many thousands of pounds is going to absolutely trounce any smartphone’s basic optics, although admittedly you’re going to have a much harder time slipping it in your pocket.

A sign of things to come?

As much as I’d like to see tech get weird again, it seems pretty unlikely. The likes of Infinix and Tecno have to be quirky in order to get the attention of European phone fans, who would otherwise shrug at devices only sold in Asia and Africa. Foldables are about as exotic as the Western phone world gets these days, with brands being too afraid of failure to try to be different.

The ones that did – think the LG Wing, Sony Xperia Play and Amazon Fire Phone – either got out of the mobile industry sharpish, or are seemingly now doing the quiet quitting thing. Seriously, where’s my Xperia 1 VII? Refreshingly, though, there was one big brand willing to mix it up.

Xiaomi brought out the big guns at MWC, with a £1300 flagship packing some of the best snappers ever squeezed into a smartphone. Hardly mainstream, but still pretty sensible. The bolt-on camera module concept, on the other hand…

Why make room inside your phone for camera kit at all, when you can pop a 100MP Micro Four Thirds sensor and system camera-grade optics on the rear whenever you fancy it? Magnets keep it locked in place, so you don’t need a special case or adapter. Oh, and it uses frickin’ lasers to send shots to your phone at 40 gigabits a second.

If this is having your cake and eating it too, I hope rival brands are paying attention to Xiaomi’s recipe.

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