Tecno came to MWC 2026 in Barcelona with a vision for their future, showing off a whole suite of concept devices and mobile features they’ve been working on. While a lot of what we’re seeing builds on the increased use of AI in smartphones, they’re also showing off a few new hardware concepts for the world to check out at this year’s show. Taken together, the Tecno MWC 2026 concepts make up a suite of technologies that make smartphones more handy for specific use cases like gaming or photography, rather than being the same old rectangle in your hand 24/7.
Modular Magnetic Interconnection Technology
The clearest example of that idea is being expressed in Tecno’s Modular Magnetic Interconnection Technology, in the form of a suite of modular accessories that could be mixed and matched with a smartphone. Those accessories would hitch onto the phone magnetically depending on the situation.
The small external battery packs would always be useful, but during photography, you could add a whole action camera module complete with external zoom lens to the back of a compatible smartphone. Or, during gaming, you could snap on a small module with a physical D-pad and buttons, if you love mobile gaming but don’t love finicky touchscreen controls.
Other accessories we saw included clips, an external antenna, and a webcam optimized for video conferencing. So, there’s a little for work and a little for play. Tecno showed off the accessories in a couple different color palettes, so if Tecno does go in this direction, we could see suites of accessories made to match the colorways of a compatible smartphone.
Pova Ecosystem
Tecno also gave us a look at a series of accessories for their Pova line of smartphones, which tends to be more gamer-focused. The highlight here is the Pova Controller Slide, an external gamepad case that a smartphone can slot into, giving the whole kit a retro handheld gaming look. Unlike the more simple controller on the modular accessory we mentioned previously, the Pova Controller Slide is a full gaming controller, including two joysticks, a D-pad, and A/B/X/Y buttons. The viewing angle can be adjusted up to 25 degrees, too. As part of the Pova ecosystem, Tecno also had a small set of headphones to give a little boost to audio, if you’re used to just using smaller in-ear headphones with a smartphone.
On-device AI-generated content preview
One source of frustration in the early days of AI-generated images or video was the wait time — making a query to a server and waiting for your request to be processed and sent back could take minutes. Hence the drive towards on-device processing, thanks to phones that have chipsets enabling AI models to be run on individual devices — no need to send anything off to the servers of Google or OpenAI.
On-device AI is much faster, and enables Tecno’s AI-generated content preview. Taking a photo and telling a model to turn it into a Van Gogh-style painting is familiar territory now. With Tecno’s preview feature, you could actually see on your phone how that transformed picture would look in the camera app before you even take the picture. Of course, that relies on preset styles — Tecno had a few historical art styles as examples — but it’s a neat feature if you’re into playing around with pictures and videos using AI.
Styling your smartphone
Tecno also had a couple ideas on how to shake up smartphone style. One idea involved using color-changing e-ink on the backplate. Sensors could pick up on ambient lighting and change the smartphone’s color dynamically, or allow users to set the color in a companion app. Meanwhile, the concept Pova Neon — you guessed it — would be a smartphone that actually uses neon gas just like a classic neon sign.
None of these concepts are guaranteed to hit the market, but it’s a good bet that at least some of these ideas will find their way into Tecno devices in the months and years to come.