HTC One wins GSMA’s top smartphone of the year at Mobile World Congress

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LG honored for its innovation, AT&T lauded as well

Mobile World Congress

We’re all patiently awaiting HTC’s March 25 events in London and New York, where it’s all but official that we’ll get a new version of one of our favorite smartphones of the past year. (We did get a smaller announcement this week, with the Desire 816.) But today, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, HTC’s current (and very much still relevant) flagship is receiving a pretty major accolade by the GSMA, the group that puts on this little show that we call MWC.

The HTC One wins “Best Smartphone,” breaking Samsung’s two-year winning streak (for the Galaxy S2 and Galaxy S3).

For HTC and the smartphone industry, from the folks in the suits to the boots on the ground, this is a pretty big deal. 

We all have our favorites, of course. And while some of us here at Android Central were leaning in other directions toward the end of the year (hello, Moto), nobody — and I do mean nobody — would not recommend the HTC One. That’s a pretty strong statement by us, and validated today by the GSMA, we believe.

And it’s also worth another mention that the HTC One is one of the first carrier-branded phones (this really goes for us in the U.S.) to be updated to Android 4.4 KitKat. That’s not a small thing, either.

Other winners of note:

AT&T and Filip Technologies Inc. for FiLIP, and AT&T for Digital Life

A wearable for children that gives them emergency contact capability and parents a little more piece of mind. We’ve got one in to review, by the way, which will happen once we’re home from Spain. Here’s a very short preview.

AT&T also was honored for best consumer mobile service with its Digital Life offerings, which tie your home into your smartphone.

LG, most innovative device manufacturer of the year

LG G2 buttons

LG moved the volume and power buttons to the back of the phone starting with the G2 and taught us all to knock-on to wake our devices — and it worked!

Not a bad showing at all from the Android manufacturers.