BlackBerry, HTC, Acer Smartphones Debut Ahead of MWC

Before the crush of media attention surrounding the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) convention in Barcelona, Spain (Feb. 25-28), smartphone manufacturers are looking to get a jump on some of their major handset releases of 2013. Notable among them is HTC, which has been unable to capitalize on high-end design—unlike Samsung—and BlackBerry, which is staking the company's future on two devices and an overhauled operating system. Others such as Acer and LG are looking to lure customers interested in fully functional smartphones that fit within their budgets. While many handset manufacturers are also focusing on the burgeoning entry-level smartphone market for users in countries like China and Brazil, others are going the opposite way. Vertu, the luxury brand that Nokia sold 90 percent of in 2012, has introduced a new smartphone, the Android-running TI, which retails for more than $10,000. No, that's not a typo; each TI is handmade and signed by a single craftsman—with real gems. Here, eWEEK flips through key features of these new smartphones.