MWC Wednesday roundup: HP, Cat and HTC bring the show to a close

BARCELONA: MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS (MWC) 2013 is drawing to a close, and Wednesday was The INQUIRER's last day on the show floor for this year.

Despite thinking that there couldn't possibly be any more products for us to try out, of course there were, and we started our day by taking a trip to the HTC stand.

HTC didn't announce anything new at this year's mobile technology show in Barcelona. Instead, the company announced its latest flagship smartphone, the HTC One, at a glitzy launch event in London prior to MWC, probably to prevent the launch from getting lost in the MWC buzz.

While we'd already had a hands-on look at the HTC One, we thought we'd put it up against one of its biggest rivals - the Apple iPhone 5.

In our HTC One vs iPhone 5 head to head video, we compare the handsets' design, interface and camera, and the HTC One certainly gave Apple's latest iOS smartphone a run for its money.

Our next stop was the Caterpillar (Cat) stand, where the tractor maker was showing off the Android powered B15 rugged smartphone.

Unlike Samsung with its Galaxy Xcover 2 handset, the firm was keen to show off just how rugged its Cat B15 smartphone was - letting us throw it at a wall and drop it in water. While it might not be the most attractive of phones, we had a great time trying to destroy it, and much to our amazement the phone came out completely unscathed. You can see this in our Cat B15 video demo.

During our last few hours, we also went the HP stand to check out the firm's first Android tablet, the $169 HP Slate 7 tablet. We also swung by to see Motorola and got our mitts on its Razr HD that it will soon release in the UK.

Check back to The INQUIRER soon for our full reviews of the HP Slate7 and Motorla Razr HD. µ