The halls of the Fira Gran Via exhibition center in Barcelona are packed to the brim with every imaginable flavor of tech at MWC. After a few days of exploration, we’ve uncovered some of the gems in the mobile accessory scene. Some are available now, some will be hitting the market in the next few months, but all are worth keeping an eye on. These are the best mobile accessories of MWC 2017.
Kado Wallet
This incredibly svelte phone charger scooped our mobile accessory award this year and with good reason. It’s less than a fifth of an inch thick, and its other dimensions make it not much bigger than a credit card, so you can slip it into your wallet. The design features two squares that slot together. On one side, two prongs fold out, so you can plug it into a wall outlet, and on the other there’s a 2-foot cable to plug into your phone. When it’s not in use, the cable is coiled snugly in a groove to keep that slender profile. Slide the two halves apart and there’s a USB to plug into your laptop or desktop for data transfer. The Kado Wallet will be available this summer for around $40 to $50.
Read more about the Kado Wallet.
Tapdo
Here’s a little handy Bluetooth button with a fingerprint sensor built into it. Tapdo allows you to assign different apps and functions to specific fingerprints and even different parts of your finger. That means you can, for example, set it up so the tip of your index finger launches your music app, the middle turns the volume up, and the bottom part of your finger turns it down. There’s vibration feedback, so it’s easy to use without looking. It’s a smart alternative application for biometric technology. Tapdo launches on Kickstarter in March and will cost around $105.
Giroptic iO
If you want to capture video in 360 degrees, then the Giroptic iO camera for iPhone will interest you. Paired with the Giroptic app it enables you to shoot 360-degree videos, photos, and live streams. It has a Lightning connector built in and clips snugly onto the end of your iPhone. It features two 195-degree optics and an F/1.8 aperture. There are also stereo microphones built in to capture audio. Video is captured at 30 fps and a resolution of 1920 x 960 pixels. It won’t kill your iPhone battery because it also has its own 915mAh battery, which can be charged via the MicroUSB port. You can buy the Giroptic iO now for $250. Read more about the Giroptic iO camera here.
Timebox Mini
This is cute, eye-catching accessory packs in a unique blend of features and functions. It has 121 full RGB LEDs in the front that can be programmed with the companion app for Android or iOS to display your preferred pixel art or animations. It’s also a speaker that can be used to take calls or play music. There are some built-in games and a pixel chat function, as well as a stopwatch, scoreboard function, and a few other bits and pieces. There’s a 2,500Ah battery inside and you get a charging cable in the box with it. You can buy it now for $50.
Sandisk A1 256GB MicroSD Card
At first glance, a MicroSD card is hard to get excited about, but this card boasts a staggering 256GB of space. It’s also one of the first cards to score an A1 rating from the SD card association, which means that it’s ideal for Android 6 or 7 users looking to use it as adoptable storage. This A1 spec means it can manage random read input-output access per second (IOPS) of 1,500 and write IOPS of 500. In other words, it can open apps and games at lightning pace, much faster than standard class 10 cards. WE saw a side-by-side comparison at the show and it loaded a game several seconds faster than a standard class 10 card. It will be available from the end of March, but unfortunately it will cost $200.
