MWC Day 1: Sony has triplets, LG goes modular, Google and Lenovo team up

The sun has set on day one at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and despite a flurry of pre-show announcements, there was still plenty to see.

You can forget the Xperia Z, because Sony’s back with a litter of three Xperia X phones at Mobile World Congress … but you’ll be hard pressed to tell them apart. The elegant, 5-inch Android phones all look nearly identical. The difference is mainly inside: Two have fingerprints sensors and are water resistant, plus all three have different chips. The exciting performance model is powered by a Snapdragon 820. They’re all gorgeous, but unfortunately we have no idea when or even if they’ll make it to the U.S.

LG has gone modular with the new G5. One of the first plug-in accessories is something many music-loving smartphone owners have been waiting for. It’s called the Hi-Fi with B&O Play, and it’s a powerful snap-in DAC and amplifier, designed with trusted high-end audio company Bang & Olufsen’s help. It can play back high-res audio files the way they were really meant to be heard.

Google and Lenovo continue to show off their exciting work together on Project Tango, this time taking us on an augmented reality tour through a Barcelona museum. We really got a feel for the potential behind this cool new technology, which completely maps out indoor spaces in 3D, while the augmented reality aspect informed us about the artwork and artifacts we were looking at. Expect to hear plenty more from these two companies regarding Project Tango throughout the year.