BARCELONA -- The biggest tech event of the year, the Mobile World Congress 2017, kicked off Monday in Barcelona, Spain. With the theme of “The Next Element,” around 2,200 tech firms are showcasing their new devices and technologies to the estimated 100,000 visitors during the four-day event. 

With Apple not joining the MWC as in previous years and Samsung delaying the launch of the Galaxy S8, this year’s event started off with less hype, though it also offered more opportunities for rivals to steal the show.

On Sunday, a day before the tech congress began, the two tech giants LG Electronics and Huawei unveiled new devices, hogging the limelight.

LG showcased its premium smartphone G6, which has adopted a 5.7-inch (14.5-centimeter) 18:9 ratio display, which it called a “Full Vision.” The ratio displays a greater amount of information at once on the screen and enhances immersion in video content. It is the first smartphone in the world to have the 18:9 ratio display.

Chinese tech giant Huawei also launched its latest high-end smartphone P10, featuring a camera on its front that counts how many people are in shot. The handset’s rear cameras uses 3-D depth-sensing technology to help take better portraits.

More tech firms, including Chinese tech firm Oppo, Sony and Blackberry, are also ready to showcase their new handsets during the event.

Oppo will unveil its new smartphone Find 9 with a 5x zooming ability while Sony and Blackberry are slated to release the new Xperia and KEYone, respectively.

Telecom carriers are also ready to grab attention with their latest artificial intelligence and 5G technologies. 

KT set up a booth for users to experience a winter sports game luge in virtual reality, utilizing 5G technology at its Innovation City. A user can feel as if they are riding a luge when they put on a VR headset and lie on a sled, the company said.

SK Telecom plans to showcase its first AI-powered robots, which are run by voice and video commands. It will also unveil a newer version of its voice recognition assistant speaker NUGU, in which an English conversation function has been added.

Alongside exhibitions, the congress provides over 40 sessions covering the latest trends, challenges and growth strategies in the global mobile industry. Around 40 global leaders are slated to make speeches during each session.

On Monday, KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings are slated to make keynote speeches. 

By Shin Ji-hye, Korea Herald correspondent (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)