MediaTek announces an industry first with the Helio X20, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) for smartphone and tablet use packing 10 cores on a single die, all connected with the so-called MediaTek Coherent System Interconnect (MCSI).

The 10 cores are arranged in 3 clusters-- two Cortex-A725 cores clocked at 2.5GHz, four Cortex-A53s clocked at 2GHz and four Cortex-A53s clocked at 1.4GHz. The arrangement is compared to a car with 3 gears allowing for fuel efficiency across different terrains, since the low-power cores can handle non-demanding tasks while the 2.5GHz cluster takes care of bigger jobs.

The company also says the grouping allows for power savings of up to 30% off a standard ARM "big.little" implementation.

Chinese smartphone maker ZTE announces the flagship Nubia Z9-- a 5.5-inch smartphone featuring a "borderless" design (with a bezel less than 1mm thick) and an interesting grip-sensitive frame.

The smartphone features what the company calls "Frame interactive Technology" (FiT) to allow grip- and gesture-based control on the mid-frame. For example, one can turn on the camera by holding the phone horizontally with 4 fingertips, or switch between apps by flicking up or down the frame.

Such functionality is currently limited to pre-installed apps, but ZTE says 3rd party developers will be able to use the technology in their apps.

LG reveals the successor to the flagship G3 smartphone-- the G4, a handset promising to be the company's "most ambitious" yet featuring an IPS Quantum Display, F1.8 aperture lens camera and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor.

The 5.5-inch display handles 2560x1440 resolution, while further specifications include 3GB RAM, 32GB storage (expandable via microSD slot), 3000mAh removable battery and 16MP rear-facing camera. It runs on Android 5.1, as tweaked with LG's "human-centric" UX 4.0.

However what LG really puts emphasis on is the device's looks-- the subtly curved casing is available in "handcrafted, genuine full grain leather" (in 6 different colours) or ceramic.

They say the flap of a butterfly's wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world, but the wings of a particular species of butterfly might actually be key to the glare-free displays of the future.

The butterfly in question is the glasswing butterfly, a Central American species famous for having transparent, glass-like (thus the name) wings. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) researchers say these wings have very low reflection (around 2-5%) of visible, infrared and ultraviolet light-- a survival adaptation for the insect, but an inspiration for the creation of low-reflection surfaces.

For the curious, a flat glass plane has a reflection of anything from 8% to 100%.

LG is so proud of the display in the upcoming G4 it is launching it before the actual smartphone, claiming the 5.5-inch QHD LCD panel is nothing less than a "quantum leap" in mobile device displays.

The 1440x2560 resolution, 538 PPI panel handles 120% colour gamut, exceeding the 100% gamut offered by other mobile displays. It does so through the use of blue LED chip with red and green phosphors instead of the traditional yellow found in other LEDs.

LG also boasts of a contrast ratio 50% higher than conventional QHD LCD panels, while brightness is up by 30% without demanding more power consumption. Further improving image quality is "photo-alignment" technology, a means to increase contrast ratio by evenly aligning liquid crystals in order to reduce light leakage.

Samsung announces a solution for low- and mid-market mobile devices wanting for more built-in storage-- a "high-performance mobile memory storage" based on 128B 3-bit Embedded MultiMediaCard (EMMC) 5.0 NAND flash.

Similar technology (based on either UFS 2.0 or eMMC 5.1) is already in use in flagship devices, but as Samsung puts it now mid-market devices can also get 128GB of built-in storage through its highest density eMMC 5.0 solution yet.

Performance-wise the technology delivers 260MB/s for sequential reading (the same as eMMC 5.1) and read/write speeds of up to 6000 and 5000 IOPS respectively, sufficient for HD video processing and multi-tasking features.

Neptune, the company behind the ungainly Neptune Pine smartwatch, has ambitions to centre users' computing lives on the wrist-- the Neptune Suite, 6 pieces of hardware revolving around a wrist-worn device.

The heart of the Neptune Suite is the Hub, a wrap-around water-resistant smartwatch the company describes as "the world's first true personal computer." It features a 2.4-inch capacitive touchscreen, 3G/LTE(via nano-SIM card), NFC, wifi and Bluetooth connectivity and a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, and uses short-range 802.11ad WiGig to connect with the other Suite devices at up to 7Gbps with "non-perceptible latency."

As such, the smartphone and tablet components of the Neptune Suite-- dubbed "Pocket Screen" and "Tab Screen"-- are essentially dumb devices providing  larger (either 5- or 10-inch) displays for the Hub. For further usability one can also attach the Tab Screen to a self-explanatory "Keys" wireless keyboard.

One of the more unusual mobile phones at Mobile World Congress 2015 looks nothing like a mobile phone-- the Runcible is a circular device modeled after the pocketwatch or compass of years ago.

"Runcible is designed to help you create a more civilized relationship with your digital life," creator Monohm claims, before describing it as nothing less than "the premier device for the post-smartphone era." It runs on Firefox OS and promises a "quieter" hybrid of smartphone and wearable, combining the connectivity demanded by modern life (including LTE, wifi, Bluetooth and NFC) with simple notifications, camera, a contact list limited to 12 individuals and, perhaps aptly, a virtual compass handling GPS duties.