Hottest new phones on display at MWC 2009

Wrapping up Thursday in Barcelona, the annual Mobile World Congress serves as a massive coming-out party for the latest and greatest cell phones. Making waves this year: Solar-powered handsets, a new Android phone, a touchscreen phone that records HD video, and more.

A couple of quick notes before we get started: While Mobile World Congress is primarily a showcase for European phones, many of the handsets on display will eventually make landfall in the States in one form or another—although exactly when (and for how much) is, for the most part, still up in the air. Stay tuned for exact release dates and pricing. Also: The phones I've listed below are just a few of the highlights from the show; for an exhaustive report, check out PhoneScoop's multi-part round-up.

Samsung OmniaHD
High-resolution displays are all the rage this year, and the OmniaHD's 3.7-inch, active-matrix OLED screen is, from all reports, quite an eye-opener—we're talking QHD (360 by 640-pixel) resolution, and even the jaded bloggers at Gizmodo raved, calling it "simply mindblowing … no matter how much you turn it, the color and contrast remain the same." And get this: the OmniaHD also records up to 720p (24 frames/second) video, a first (as far as I know, at least) for cell phones. That said, Gizmodo was bummed by the "lousy response" of the OmniaHD's interface.

Sony Ericsson "concept" phone: The Idou
Still in the conceptual stage (natch), the Idou garnered a truckload of buzz thanks to its gorgeous touchscreen and snazzy interface, but as Wired points out, it's the Idou's 12-megapixel camera that got the most attention. Twelve megapixels … heck, that's more than most still digital cameras, much less a camera phone. That said, megapixels aren't everything when it comes to image quality, and as one MWC griped to Wired, "It's crazy, a megapixel frenzy … how good can the optics be in a phone that size?" How good, indeed?

Here comes the sun: Solar-powered phones
Solar power is in when it comes to cell phones, and both Samsung and LG had a pair of sun-powered handsets on the show floor—although both manufacturers were light on the details. Samsung had its upcoming Blue Earth (which I blogged about last week) secured behind a pane of glass, while LG's unnamed solar handset looks like more of a concept than anything else. While I like the idea of solar-powered phones, it remains to be seen whether they'll actually be practical.

HTC Magic
The second handset running on Google's Android platform finally made its debut in Barcelona, and from all accounts it's a welcome, if not revolutionary improvement over T-Mobile's impressive but clunky G1 (which is also made by HTC). Engadget liked the smooth curves and thinner shell, as well as the new on-screen keypad (the Magic jettisons the G1's slide-out keypad). Still no word on when the Europe-bound handset will arrive in the U.S., unfortunately.

HTC Diamond2 and Touch Pro2
Also on hand from HTC: Updates to its touchscreen Diamond and Touch Pro handsets, including a tweaked interface that lets you quickly browse all your text, e-mail, and voice communications with a specific contact. CNET's Bonnie Cha liked the revamped, brushed-metal shells, as well as the Touch Pro2's new keypad (now with more space between the keys). That said, both phones are powered by the tricky-to-use Windows Mobile 6.1; Cha reports that HTC is promised upgrades for the upcoming WM 6.5 in the coming months.

More camera phones from Nokia and Samsung
Both Samsung and Nokia had a couple of hot new 8-megapixel cameras on hand: The Memoir, which I blogged about earlier this month (my review unit is in the mail, supposedly), and Nokia's N86, a dual-slider that (according to PhoneScoop) boasts Carl Zeiss optics, and OLED display, GPS, 8GB of on-board storage, Wi-Fi, and 3G.

Multi-core mobile processors
Not a phone, per se, but an exciting mobile technology that could be coming to a smartphone near you. VentureBeat reports that component makers ARM and ST-Ericsson was set to trot out its Cortex-A9 processor, a multi-core update to the ARM processors in such handsets as the iPhone and iPod Touch. What's so special about multi-core processors, you ask? Well, think two engines instead of one, which means more processing power, less overheating, and longer battery life. I like the sound of that.