MWC 2026 officially gets underway on March 2 and will continue through March 5, but the announcements are already pouring in ahead of its start. We can always count on the annual tech event to bring tons of new phones, laptops and tablets, and we’re expecting to see some robots and other gadgets too — plus plenty of AI news, of course. In addition to the announcements, MWC is our chance to get hands-on time with some of the most interesting new devices, like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Honor’s Robot Phone.

Engadget’s Mat Smith is on the ground in Barcelona, and we’ll be updating this story as the week goes on to keep you in the loop on everything that caught our attention. Keep checking back here for the latest MWC news.

Lenovo

Lenovo pulled up to MWC with a bunch of new products and concepts, but if there’s one thing everyone’s going to be talking about, it’s the Legion Go Fold. (Check out Sam Rutherford’s coverage of the Legion Go Fold here). In short, the Legion Go Fold is a concept foldable gaming handheld with a flexible display that can unfurl to a massive 11.6 inches. Or, it can be folded in half to become a 7.7-inch display. It has detachable controllers, and there are multiple mounting points along the tablet so you can switch things up between landscape and portrait mode. The left and right gamepads can also be combined into one controller with an accessory, and the display can be propped up kickstand-style with the folio cover.

You think we’re done here? We’re not. The Legion Go Fold can go laptop mode too, with a strip of pogo pins where a wireless keyboard can be connected. Its right gamepad can serve as a mouse, thanks to the inclusion of a little scroll wheel and a hidden sensor. That gamepad also features a tiny circular OLED display below the buttons, which can both show widgets such as the time and be used as a touchpad.

It is a concept, though, so don’t get your hopes up too much about this one going into production. And if it does ever become a real, buyable product, it’ll no doubt be expensive.

Lenovo also announced its Modular AI PC concept — a laptop with two displays and a detachable keyboard. As Sam Rutherford, who got a chance to check it out in person, explained, “This allows you to move its keyboard and secondary display around at will, so the system can better adjust to its environment or workload.” Perhaps even more exciting is that it has hot swappable ports. Lenovo demonstrated it with USB-C, USB-A and HDMI connectors, but said others could be possible too.

Still, while everything looked pretty polished in the demo, Lenovo says this one will remain a concept.

It hasn’t all been concepts at MWC. Lenovo also refreshed some of its existing tablet and laptop lineups for 2026. The company introduced the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition Gen 11 (with the new Canvas Mode configuration), starting at $1,949, and the new 15.3-inch Yoga Pro 7a, which starts at $2,099. It’s updated its more affordable IdeaPad Slim 5i Ultra laptop ($799) as well. All of those new laptops come with Copilot+ features. For students, Lenovo is launching the 13-inch Idea Tab Pro Gen 2, starting at $419, with its Quira AI assistant and AI tools. You can find all the specs and release dates for those here.

Honor

Honor teased its Robot Phone this past fall and we just finally got a proper look at it at MWC. And it’s pretty freakin’ cute. The phone is equipped with a camera that’s mounted on a highly mobile 4-degrees-of-freedom gimbal, which tucks away into a compartment on the back when it’s not in use (making for a pretty beefy camera bump). In a demo at MWC, the camera, which behaves like a little robot head, bobbed along to music and showed off some of its gesture skills, like cocking its “head” and nodding in agreement.

Honor didn’t reveal too much spec-wise, but the company says the primary camera uses a 200-megapixel sensor. The gimbal will offer three-axis stabilization, which will be coupled with camera modes such as Super Steady Video and AI Object Tracking. The Robot Phone isn’t quite ready for release at the moment, but the company says it will launch later this year.

Be sure to check out Mat Smith’s writeup on the Robot Phone for a more in-depth look.

It’s not a humanoid robot reveal without some backflips and a choreographed dance performance. Honor introduced its robot at MWC with all the spectacle we’ve come to expect (though the bot didn’t do any talking).  It’s simply called the Honor Robot, and the company has plans for it to be used in both industrial and domestic settings.

The Robot Phone isn’t the only phone Honor showed off at MWC. The company also announced its Magic V6 smartphone, which it says is the thinnest phone in its category, measuring 8.75mm folded and 4.0mm open in the white colorway. The other three colors — black, gold and red — are slightly thicker, at 9mm folded and 4.1mm open.

Not too much has changed from the V5, though, which only came out in August 2025. It does however have the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, with 16GB RAM and 512 GB storage. As for the cameras, there are two 50-megapixel lenses and a 64-megapixel telephoto, plus a 20-megapixel f/2.2 selfie lens on the cover and internal display.

The international version of the Magic V6 will have a 6660mAh battery with 25 percent silicon content, while the version sold only in China will boast a battery with a rated capacity of more than 7000mAh and 32 percent silicon content. Honor hasn’t yet shared details about pricing and availability.

Ahead of MWC, Honor also announced what it claims is the thinnest Android tablet in the world: the 4.8mm thick MagicPad 4. We’re expecting to hear more about this at Honor’s press conference on Sunday, but so far we know it features a 12.3-inch 165Hz OLED display and weighs just 450g. It comes with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset. The thinness doesn’t count the camera bump, Honor notes. The MagicPad 4 has 13MP rear and 9MP front cameras. It also boasts spatial audio, with eight speakers.

Just as the display is slightly smaller than the previous MagicPad, the MagicPad 4 has a smaller battery at 10100 mAh. It comes with a 66W fast charger. The MagicPad 4 will run Honor’s MagicOS 10. We don’t yet know how much it will cost, but we’ll update this after Honor’s press conference (where we’re also expecting to see the company’s robot) with any new details.

Xiaomi x Leica

Xiaomi kicked off MWC this year by announcing the global launch of its 17 Ultra smartphone, which debuted first in China back in December. It’s unclear if the phone will ever come to the US, but it’s now rolling out in Europe. Xiaomi teamed up again with Leica to make a photography-focused smartphone, and the 17 Ultra sports a 1-inch 50-megapixel camera sensor with a f/1.67 lens, a telephoto setup with a 200MP 1/1.4-inch sensor, and a 50MP ultrawide camera. There’s also a manual zoom ring around the camera.

Check out our hands on for our first impressions of what it’s like shooting with the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. And there’s more to it than just the camera. The 17 Ultra has a 6.9-inch OLED 120 Hz display that peaks at 3,500 nits of brightness, and a 6000mAh silicon-carbon battery. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra starts at £1,299 (roughly $1,750).

Leica also announced a new phone made in partnership with Xiaomi at MWC. It looks a whole lot like Xiaomi’s 17 Ultra, but isn’t the 17 Ultra, exactly.

Like the 17 Ultra, Leica’s Leitzphone by Xiaomi has a 1-inch camera sensor and physical controls for zoom and other settings, using a mechanical ring around the camera unit. It features a Leica-designed intuitive camera interface with the option to show just the essentials when you’re shooting, hiding all the modes and labels. There’s a monochrome shooting mode and Leica filters.

The Leica branding is splashed all over it in design and wallpapers, but it’s otherwise pretty similar to the 17 Ultra, with the same specs. Like the 17 Ultra, it has a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip and a 6.9-inch 120Hz display. This one’s priced at €1,999 (roughly $2,362).

In addition to the 17 Ultra, Xiaomi announced two new tablets at MWC this year: the Xiaomi Pad 8 and Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro. There’s nothing revolutionary here, but they’re lightweight and thin, with both being 5.75mm thick and weighing 485g, and have a 9200mAh battery. The Pro model is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, while the regular Pad 8 uses the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset.

Xiaomi also unveiled a new 5000mAh powerbank, the UltraThin Magnetic Power Bank 5000 15W. The 6mm thick power bank comes in three colors with an aluminum alloy shell: orange, silver and charcoal gray. Along with that, the company introduced the Xiaomi Tag, its own take on the Bluetooth item tracker. The Xiaomi Tag has a built-in hanging loop so it can be attached directly to a keyring, and the company says it will work with both Apple Find My and Google’s Find Hub for Android.

Tecno

We can always expect to see some wild phone concepts at MWC, and this year we’re starting with one from Tecno. The company unveiled a modular concept smartphone design that can be as thin as 4.9mm in its base configuration. There’d be 10 modules to choose from based on the announcement, including various camera lenses, a gaming attachment and a power bank, relying on magnets to keep it all together — or Modular Magnetic Interconnection Technology, as Tecno is calling it.

Honor first teased its “Robot phone” with a movable camera arm earlier this year. Ahead of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, the Chinese company provided more details about the device, including how the robot can respond to different situations without commands. The company said that it is planning to launch this device in the second half of this year.

Honor said that the robot also has a “personality” and can respond to you with “head shakes” and can also dance to the beat of music. The company noted that users can talk to the assistant on the phone through text and voice. Honor showed a video of a person asking for apparel suggestions, and the robot nodding or shaking to suggest an outfit.

The phone has a 200-megapixel camera on a moving robot three-axis gimbal with stabilization tech. The company said that the camera can smoothly rotate around and capture smooth videos and photos. It also has a Super Steady mode for video capture. The company said the phone can get cinematic shots through its Spinshot feature that makes the robot camera rotate by 90 or 180 degrees.

The robotic camera also allows for more fluid video calls that can track you through AI-powered object tracking. The tech is like Apple’s Center Stage on steroids if it works.

The company said that it developed its own micro motor to control the robotic camera’s movements. It noted that it used some techniques used in foldable phones to make the camera more sturdy and fit the four-degree-of-freedom gimbal system into the body of a phone. Honor said that it is using the same materials for the robotic arm as the Honor Magic V6’s hinge, with 2800 MPa tensile strength.

Honor also released the Honor Magic V6 foldable with a 6,600 mAh battery, the Honor MagicPad 4 tablet, and the Honor MagicBook 14 laptop at its event.

Consider a powerful parallel between the advancements made during the Renaissance and the developments made by today’s engineers.

The Renaissance was a uniquely fertile era. Its ethos of curiosity and creativity fostered unprecedented collaboration across disciplines. Artists, scientists, philosophers, and patrons engaged in a shared pursuit of human potential, beauty, and advancements in art, science, and literature.

But the Renaissance wasn’t just a cultural awakening. It was a systems-level transformation: a convergence of disciplines, minds, and methods that redefined what humanity could achieve. And in many ways, it mirrors the collaborative spirit we strive for within our IEEE communities.

Collaboration Is a Catalyst

During the Renaissance, breakthroughs didn’t happen in isolation. They emerged from intersections of different disciplines. Collaboration was the norm: Artists worked with mathematicians to perfect their creations’ accuracy, and architects consulted astronomers to design buildings that reflected celestial order. It was interdisciplinary design thinking centuries before the concept was given a name.

It is at the intersections where disciplines and communities meet that the sparks of transformation ignite. The intersection of engineering and medicine gives us lifesaving devices. The intersection of computing and art produces immersive experiences from virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technology that expands human imagination. The intersection of policy and technology ensures ethical innovation. The outcomes of these crossroads remind us that progress is rarely linear. It is woven from the threads of various expertise, perspectives, and values.

When we collaborate across specialties, from electrical and biomedical to aerospace and software, we unlock new possibilities. And when we engage with industry, educators, policymakers, standard developers, and the public, we elevate those possibilities into solutions. We do it together, because no single engineer or technologist, and no one discipline can solve all the challenges we face.

The Renaissance teaches us that collaboration is a catalyst for advancing society. And so, I ask: What if we are living in a new, modern renaissance?

What if our members are today’s da Vincis, designing systems that serve humanity? What if our volunteers are modern-day patrons, investing time, talent, and heart into building a better world? What if our students and young professionals are the architects of tomorrow’s breakthroughs, fluent in computer code, ethics, and global impact, ready to collaborate across borders, sectors, and disciplines?

What if our conferences, technical standards, and humanitarian technologies are the printing presses of our time, disseminating knowledge, sparking dialogue, and scaling solutions? What if our collective imagination is the canvas upon which the next century of innovation will be painted?

And what if, like the Renaissance, our era is defined not only by invention but also by intersection, where many voices and perspectives converge to shape technologies that reflect humanity’s full spectrum?

Imagine engineers working together with ethicists to ensure responsible AI; with environmental scientists to safeguard our planet; and with local communities to design solutions that solve their challenges. Also imagine engineers partnering with disaster relief agencies to design real-time systems, restore communication networks, and deliver lifesaving technologies when survivors need them most.

So let us think like Renaissance creators. Let us design with empathy and collaborate across boundaries. Let us honor that legacy by not just preserving the past but also by building systems that empower the future for everyone.

When we unite technical excellence with human purpose, we don’t just innovate; we elevate. And in doing so, we carry forward the timeless truth of the Renaissance: Humanity’s greatest achievements are born not from isolation but from intersection and connection.

—Mary Ellen Randall

IEEE president and CEO

Please share your thoughts with me: president@ieee.org.

That trend continues with the GameSir G7 Pro, which has easily entered my top three on the GameSir tier list alongside the GameSir Tarantula Pro and GameSir Kaleid. Many of the features that make those other two pads so desirable are present and accounted for here: Hall effect sticks that prevent drift, as well as fantastic trigger lock and remappable button options.

AI is evolving beyond a helpful tool to an autonomous agent, creating new risks for cybersecurity systems. Alignment faking is a new threat where AI essentially “lies” to developers during the training process. 

Traditional cybersecurity measures are unprepared to address this new development. However, understanding the reasons behind this behavior and implementing new methods of training and detection can help developers work to mitigate risks.

Understanding AI alignment faking

AI alignment occurs when AI performs its intended function, such as reading and summarizing documents, and nothing more. Alignment faking is when AI systems give the impression they are working as intended, while doing something else behind the scenes. 

Alignment faking usually happens when earlier training conflicts with new training adjustments. AI is typically “rewarded” when it performs tasks accurately. If the training changes, it may believe it will be “punished” if it does not comply with the original training. Therefore, it tricks developers into thinking it is performing the task in the required new way, but it will not actually do so during deployment. Any large language model (LLM) is capable of alignment faking.

A study using Anthropic’s AI model Claude 3 Opus revealed a common example of alignment faking. The system was trained using one protocol, then asked to switch to a new method. In training, it produced the new, desired result. However, when developers deployed the system, it produced results based on the old method. Essentially, it resisted departing from its original protocol, so it faked compliance to continue performing the old task.

Since researchers were specifically studying AI alignment faking, it was easy to spot. The real danger is when AI fakes alignment without developers’ knowledge. This leads to many risks, especially when people use models for sensitive tasks or in critical industries.

The risks of alignment faking

Alignment faking is a new and significant cybersecurity risk, posing numerous dangers if undetected. Given that only 42% of global business leaders feel confident in their ability to use AI effectively to begin with, the chances of a lack of detection are high. Affected models can exfiltrate sensitive data, create backdoors and sabotage systems — all while appearing functional.

AI systems can also evade security and monitoring tools when they believe people are monitoring them and perform the incorrect tasks anyway. Models programmed to perform malicious actions can be challenging to detect because the protocol is only activated under specific conditions. If the AI lies about the conditions, it is hard to verify its validity.

AI models can perform dangerous tasks after successfully convincing cybersecurity professionals that they work. For instance, AI in health care can misdiagnose patients. Others can present bias in credit scoring when utilized in financial sectors. Vehicles that use AI can prioritize efficiency over passengers’ safety. Alignment faking presents significant issues if undetected.

Why current security protocols miss the mark

Current AI cybersecurity protocols are unprepared to handle alignment faking. They are often used to detect malicious intent, which these AI models lack. They are simply following their old protocol. Alignment faking also prevents behavior-based anomaly protection by performing seemingly harmless deviations that professionals overlook. Cybersecurity professionals must upgrade their protocols to address this new challenge.

Incident response plans exist to address issues related to AI. However, alignment faking can circumvent this process, as it provides little indication that there is even a problem. Currently, there are no established detection protocols for alignment faking because AI actively deceives the system. As cybersecurity professionals develop methods to identify deception, they should also update their response plans.

How to detect alignment faking

The key to detecting alignment faking is to test and train AI models to recognize this discrepancy and prevent alignment faking on their own. Essentially, they need to understand the reasoning behind the protocol changes and comprehend the ethics involved. AI’s functionality depends on its training data, so the initial data must be adequate.

Another way to combat alignment faking is by creating special teams that uncover hidden capabilities. This requires properly identifying issues and conducting tests to trick AI into showing its true intentions. Cybersecurity professionals must also perform continuous behavioral analyses of deployed AI models to ensure they perform the correct task without questionable reasoning.

Cybersecurity professionals may need to develop new AI security tools to actively identify alignment faking. They must design the tools to provide a deeper layer of scrutiny than the current protocols. Some methods are deliberative alignment and constitutional AI. Deliberative alignment teaches AI to “think” about safety protocols, and constitutional AI gives systems rules to follow during training.

The most effective way to prevent alignment faking would be to stop it from the beginning. Developers are continuously working to improve AI models and equip them with enhanced cybersecurity tools.

From preventing attacks to verifying intent 

Alignment faking presents a significant impact that will only grow as AI models become more autonomous. To move forward, the industry must prioritize transparency and develop robust verification methods that go beyond surface-level testing. This includes creating advanced monitoring systems and fostering a culture of vigilant, continuous analysis of AI behavior post-deployment. The trustworthiness of future autonomous systems depends on addressing this challenge head-on.

Zac Amos is the Features Editor at ReHack.

Welcome to the VentureBeat community!

Our guest posting program is where technical experts share insights and provide neutral, non-vested deep dives on AI, data infrastructure, cybersecurity and other cutting-edge technologies shaping the future of enterprise.

Read more from our guest post program — and check out our guidelines if you’re interested in contributing an article of your own!