BlackBerry, Nokia among past names trying to recapture Mobile World Congress glory

BARCELONA — Everyone loves an underdog. And underdogs were pretty much writing the script as the Mobile World Congress trade show began this weekend in Barcelona.

Apple never exhibits at MWC, while Samsung chose to wait until March 29 before launching the Galaxy S8 smartphone that for once and for all is meant to put its ill-fated Note 7 phablet in the rear-view mirror. It teased the phone in a brief video during a press conference Sunday.

Samsung to unveil Galaxy S8 on March 29

The absence of it in Barcelona, however, meant the understudies of mobile — including Huawei, BlackBerry, Motorola and Nokia — got to assume starring roles.

“Samsung not coming (adds an) interesting dimension because it’s given all of the other brands a window of opportunity to make a splash. Take LG for example. Last year they had four hours of glory and then the Samsung (Galaxy S7) product was announced,” says Ben Wood, the chief of research at CCS Insight in the UK

LG Electronics isn’t exactly a bit player globally, but its phone business pales next to Samsung and Apple.

As expected, LG unveiled its water-resistant G6 flagship at MWC, but it remains to be seen if one of its chief selling points — the fact that it has a novel 18:9 "aspect ratio" 5.7-inch display compared to the more conventional 16:9 screen — will resonate with consumers.

One potentially interesting use of the unusual screen is a Square Camera feature which divides the 18:9 ratio display into two identical squares. That lets you take perfectly square photos for Instagram, Snapchat and other social media apps, or you might take pictures in ratio in one window, while checking, editing and uploading pictures in another window.

The G6 also incorporates the Google Assistant, which Google is spreading across numerous devices.

Google Assistant expands beyond Pixel to other phones

China’s Huawei, with an assist on the cameras side from Leica, launched the P10 and P10 Plus phones in numerous colors.

Lenovo took the budget approach for the most part with improved versions of its Moto G family phones. And it added a new Moto Mod add-on accessory for its Z-series phones that adds a speaker that can be controlled via voice by Amazon’s Alexa.

Of course, there may be no bigger long-shots than Nokia and BlackBerry, which like aging starlets are looking for that one last moment in the spotlight.

BlackBerry, under its new licensing partner TCL Communication, brought out a secure Android device called the BlackBerry KeyOne, which arrives in the U.S. in April for $549. It comes with a smart keyboard that reminds you of the keyboards of BlackBerry’s heyday, only with such modern tricks as programmable keys that let you create up to 52 shortcuts (press the “I” key for your inbox, for instance.)

Nokia phones, now under Finish company HMD Global, also reached out to the past for inspiration. Its signature product at the show brings a retro version of the 3310, an iconic device that predates the iPhone. And, yes, it resurrects the popular Snake game from back in the day. It’s due out in the second quarter of the year, but will not be coming to the U.S., at least not right away. Snake will also be available via Facebook Messenger though.

The mobile game Snake is making a comeback

Nokia in general is embracing Android in a big way — it will be on the new Nokia 6 (which got an early start in China), Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 devices and including regular Android updates, and, like the LG phone and the newly-announced Moto phones, the Google Assistant. (In fact, Google announced that the Assistant will be coming on phones running the Nougat and Marshmallow versions of Android.)

“I do think it’s a damning indictment of the state of the modern smartphone market that we’re coming to a show like this, and everybody is writing headlines about the BlackBerry and Nokia products,” Wood says. But he also said it would be foolhardy to dismiss such efforts.

Nokia still has 9% of the so-called "feature phone" market globally, according to Strategy Analytics, second only to Samsung with a 13% share. Such phones represent about one in five of all mobile phones bought worldwide, so the market is larger than most people think.

Ken Hyers, director of emerging device strategies at Strategy Analytics believes “Nokia has an opportunity to make a comeback by leveraging its brand, which still resonates in certain markets like Europe and in India.

In an odd way, Samsung is also something of an underdog at this MWC, and not just because it is still working to earn back trust following the Note 7 debacle. It’s that Samsung is trying to gain traction in, of all areas, the slow-moving tablet category.

Samsung did launch a commercial 5G network and talked up VR. But on the product front, it showcased two new tablet models: the Android based Galaxy Tab S3, which has a 9.7-inch display, and the Windows 10-based Galaxy Book 2-in-1s, which come in two versions (10.-6 and 12-inch displays) and feature a keyboard that seemed reasonably comfortable to type on in a brief test. The tablets can take advantage of a refined version of Samsung’s smart productivity-oriented S Pen. The Tab S3 is more entertainment oriented, with, among other features, 4K video playback and AKG-tuned quad stereo speakers. The Galaxy Books have more of a work bent to them.

On the surface, the new tablets appear to be fine products. But in a mobile conference heavy on handsets, the Galaxy S8 was missed.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter.