Top 10 highlights from Mobile World Congress 2011

Another Mobile World Congress (MWC) has come to and end, and V3.co.uk takes a look back at the past four days to see what this year's event revealed about the world's mobile landscape.

From yet more tablets and smartphones, through the growing push to get Android into enterprises, to MeeGo's unexpected good looks, here's our take on the best and worst of this year's MWC in no particular order.

1. 4G networks are coming
Throughout this year's show there was a lot of talk about 4G networks, which seemed to suggest that they are moving beyond theory to reality.

Nokia Siemens Networks talked of planned rollouts this year across the world, while devices like the Samsung Galaxy S II are equipped for HSPA+ speeds, and the GSM Association has been touting the growing number of HSPA connections.

This seems to be a major difference in tone. Where once it was 'We will be introducing 4G networks', it is now 'We are introducing 4G networks'. This could mean that, by next year's event, it will be 'We have introduced 4G networks', so mobile users can enjoy speeds of up to 14.4Mbit/s on improved HPSA connections and up to 160Mbit/s on LTE. Hopefully the UK will be involved in all this too.

2. Samsung could have an iPhone killer with its Galaxy S II
While the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S II was the most nauseating two hours in memory, with endless 'characters' explaining how the device had made their lives better, the firm managed to salvage the situation by producing a smartphone that really does stand out.

The phone has an incredibly sharp display, is as light as a feather, and has several next-generation features such as near-field communications. It runs the latest version of Android, Gingerbread 2.3, and has an 8-megapixel camera.

All this means that the Galaxy S II could well turn the heads of many people looking to upgrade or switch devices, even iPhone 4 users. And what's more, Samsung is taking on the enterprise space too.