BARCELONA, Spain ― A fresh and diversified lineup of smartphones caught the eye of many at the world’s biggest mobile trade show.

If it was a smartphone, it was there ― from high-tier premium models such as LG Electronics’ Optimus G Pro to Nokia’s Lumia 520, a budget smartphone that costs about $180.

Ahead of the game was the 4.7-inch display HTC One, which was shown before a bigger audience than at its launch just ahead of the Mobile World Congress.

Other to-be-watched smartphones included Huawei’s new 4.7-inch Ascend P2, ZTE’s 5.7-inch Grand Memo and new flagship Grand S LTE and Sony’s Xperia Z.

Competition over 4G LTE smartphones seems to be getting tougher in the global smartphone industry as Chinese rising stars like Huawei and ZTE, as well as once-strong names like HTC, Nokia and Sony, gear up to get back in the game.

“Mobile is a vibrant and evolving industry at the heart of everyday life for billions of people around the world,” said Anne Bouverot, director general of MWC organizer GSMA. “Mobile has gone beyond being a mere communications tool to one that proves life-enhancing.”

Taiwan-based HTC’s One features a full aluminum body and is equipped with a quad-core 1.7 gigahertz mobile processor and front-view speakers.

HTC also introduced its Zoe camera technology, which allows users to remove objects from pictures after they are taken, according to one of its officials.

“You can also mash up your favorites on the main screen,” he said. The gadget is planned to be shipped to the U.K. on March 15.

LG’s recently-introduced flagship Optimus G Pro has a 5.5-inch True High Definition IPS display and claims to include the strongest hardware put together with the help of its affiliates such as LG Innotek, LG Display and LG Chem.

LG’s mobile chief Park Jong-seok presented an aggressive target to sell more than 40 million smartphones in 2013 as it widened its lineup of handsets ahead of the global event.

Meanwhile, Huawei’s 4G smartphone named Ascend P2 was touted by the company to be the “fastest smartphone ever.”

Equipped with a 1.5 gigahertz quad-core processor, the P2 also features a 13 megapixel camera.

Ascend Mate, another “phablet” with a quad-core processor running on Google’s Android mobile platform, has a 6.1-inch display.

“It has not been an easy shift from an OEM to our own branded phones; from the low-end to the high-end,” said Huawei’s branding director Amy Lou. “The goal is to make Huawei one of the world’s top 100 most recognizable brands in the coming years.”

The firm is the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, according to recent data from market researcher Gartner.

ZTE’s 5-inch Grand S LTE is the firm’s high-end smartphone that will be launching in China in the first half of this year and Nokia’s Lumia 520 and 720 are 4-inch and 4.3-inch models running on Microsoft’s Windows 8 mobile OS that are low-priced compared to its rivals.

“We’re bringing elements of our high-end Lumia flagship devices to more price points and therefore more people,” said the company’s chief executive Stephen Elop. “We’re doing this by introducing affordable devices that are themselves also aspirational.”

By Cho Ji-hyun, Korea Herald correspondent
(sharon@heraldcorp.com)