Hands On With The Top Phones and Tablets of MWC

The first official day at Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona saw the announcement of lots of high-profile products, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, the Nokia 808 PureView phone and the HTC One X phone. Join us for a hands-on look at these and other standout products from Day One of the world’s biggest mobile conference.

The Galaxy Note 10.1 comes with Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) and includes various software features that let it take full advantage of the pen and larger screen introduced in the smaller Note 5.3-inch “phablet.”

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1: First Look

The Note comes with pen-compatible versions of Adobe’s Photoshop Touch and Ideas apps.

Just .35 inches at its thickest point, the Note has a 1.4Ghz dual-core processor inside, and features dual cameras–a 3-megapixel camera on the back and a 2-megapixel camera on the front.

The Note 10.1-inch has a remarkable 1280-by-800-pixel display.

The Optimus 4X HD has a 4.7-inch display with a 1280-by-720-pixel display, and runs on a 1.5GHz quad-core processor from Nvidia.

Hands On: LG Optimus 4X HD

The headline-grabbing feature of the Nokia 808 is the 41-megapixel camera, which takes image data from seven neighboring pixels and consolidates them for higher image quality.

First Look: Nokia 808 PureView

The camera module makes the phone quite bulky.

The Nokia 808 includes a 4-inch display, a 1.3GHz single-core processor, 512MB of RAM, and runs Symbian Belle–the latest version of the soon-to-be defunct Symbian OS.

The MediaPad 10 FHD has a 10-inch, 1920-by-1200-pixel display, with a density of 226 pixels per inch (ppi), which is considerably higher than the 150ppi that a typical tablet has.

Hands On: MediaPad 10 FHD

The back is a mix of brushed aluminum, with off-white plastic accents, along with two speakers.

The tablet is just 0.35 inches thick and has a microSD card slot for adding more storage as needed.

The MediaPad will support LTE, and has a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera as well as a 1.3-megapixel one on the front. The tablet is equipped with Dolby Mobile 3.0 Plus 5.1-channel surround sound.

The Nokia Lumia 610 is a budget Windows Phone (around $250 dollars unlocked) and includes an 800Mhz processor, with 256Mb of RAM and a 5-megapixel camera.

First Look: Nokia Lumia 610

The Samsung Galaxy Beam is an Android 2.3 smartphone with a built-in projector that can display video, images, or PowerPoint presentations.

First Look at Samsung’s Galaxy Beam

The Galaxy Beam measures only 0.49 inches while packing a 15 lumens projector.

The Beam has a 4-inch display, a 1GHz dual-core processor, and a 5-megapixel camera.

Here, you can see a projection made with the Beam. The resolution of projected video is 640-by-360 pixels.

The One X is HTC’s flagship phone, with a 4.7-inch, 1280-by-720-pixel display. It runs Android 4.0 on a speedy Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor.

Hands On: HTC One X

When you dock the 4.3-inch Padfone phone in the PadFone Station, you’ll be able to use the device like a regular 10.1 tablet running Android 4.0.

The new PadFone introduces the concept of a Bluetooth stylus set.

The Asus PadFone is cleverly designed, but the phone weights 4.5 ounces and the station is another 25.5 ounces, so it was too hefty to hold in one hand for any extended period of time.

The Ascend D Quad uses an in-house designed 1.2GHz quad-core processor and has a 4.5-inch display with a 1280-by-720-pixel resolution.

Huawei Ascend D Phone: Hands On

The Ascend D is slim, measuring 3.1 by 2.5 by 5.07 inches, and the micro-USB port doubles as an MHL-HDMI connector.

The front-facing camera is 1.3 megapixels, while the rear camera is 8 megapixels and can record 1080p HD video.

The integrated Dolby Mobile 3.0 Plus produced pulsating audio in our hands-on tests.

The Xperia S flagship from Sony has a 4.3-inch screen, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, a 12-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording, and 32GB of internal memory.

More about the Xperia NXT family

At only .31 inches thick, the Era is ZTE’s first quad-core offering, running on a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. The phone comes with a 4.3-inch, 960-by-540 pixel display and ships with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

A Closer Look at the ZTE Era

The N910 LTE phone has a 4.3-inch display with a resolution of 480 by 800 pixels. It sports a 5-megapixel camera with a flash and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor.

A Closer Look at the ZTE N910

The Transformer Pad Infinity has a 10.1-inch, 1920-by-1200-pixel display that makes text look crisp and sharp. There’s an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with a F2.2 aperture and LED flash, while the front facing camera is 2 megapixels.

The Asus 300 series comes in several colors including blue, white, and red. The case is made of plastic-like materials, but still feels better constructed than the original Transformer TF101.