6 Hottest Gadgets From Mobile World Congress 2013 [PHOTOS]

As expected, Mobile World Congress 2013 has been busy with highly innovative products from the world’s best manufacturers including Samsung, Nokia, Huawei, HP, LG and Sony.

Here are our pick (in bold) of the 6 hottest gadgets from the MWC 2013, with highlights of the major product announcements, brought to you by Nokia.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0

Samsung announced the launch of its Galaxy Note 8.0, an eight-inch multimedia tablet that allows you to make calls, which is apparently a mini version of its 10.1 inch Galaxy tablet. The device would compete with the likes of Apple’s iPad mini and Google’s Nexus 7, although the company did not reveal the price of the tablet.

HP Slate 7

HP unveiled a new Android-based consumer tablet called Slate 7. While the company already has the ElitePad tablet built for enterprises and failed in its experiment with the TouchPad tablet a few years ago, Slate 7 appears to be the first of its kind from the technology giant. It would be interesting to see whether the company has learned its lessons well, this time.

Nokia Lumia 520

Nokia launched two new Windows 8-based smartphones — the Lumia 520 (priced at $180) and the Lumia 720 (for around $330) — as well as two budget phones, the Nokia 105 (priced cheaply at $20) and the Nokia 301 (for around $85). Interestingly, the Lumia 520 is the company’s most affordable phone in Windows Phone 8 range. The new additions are largely expected to cater the emerging markets, while Nokia’s 105 phone will specifically gain traction in the low-end regions of emerging markets.

LG Optimus G Pro

In a bid to fulfil its ambitions to sell 10 million smartphones each quarter, Korean manufacturer, LG showcased some exciting smartphones at the Mobile World Congress. The latest launches announced by the company includes the Optimus G, F and L series. The new launches in the Optimus series includes G Pro, F7, F5 and the L series includes L3II, L5II and L7II. The company is banking heavily on the Optimus G Pro, a quad-core 5.5 inch display product which runs on the Android OS. The device boasts a storage capacity of 32GB, that can be expandable up to 64GB. With these launches, the company further makes its ambitions known that it wants to play big in the smartphone segment.

Sony Xperia Tablet Z

Earlier in January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Sony had unveiled the Xperia Tablet Z, a 10.1-inch tablet that runs on Android and has 8-megapixel camera. At Mobile World Congress, it went further to announce that the waterproof tablet would be available from Q2 2013 globally with a starting price of around $500. The Xperia Tablet Z also supports NFC and LTE and could pose a challenge to Apple’s iPad 4.

Huawei Ascend p2

Huawei launched the Ascend P2, which claims to be the world’s fastest smartphone. The Ascend P2 features a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor and LTE category 4 technology, for ultra-fast web experience with download speeds of up to 150 Mbps. Running on Android 4.1 OS, it has optimal photo and video features including a 13 MP BSI rear-facing camera with HDR, and a 1.3 MP front-facing camera to support self-portrait and video shooting. The Ascend P2 is expected to be available globally around the second quarter of 2013.

Which of these gadgets would you buy?

[This post is brought to you by Nokia, the sponsor for our Mobile World Congress 2013 coverage.]