With Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS coming later this year, all eyes will be on MWC 2012 to see what we'll be treated to in the next wave of upcoming smartphones for 2012. So with anticipation running high for a slew of new Android ‘superphones’ and even talk of quad-core smartphones, we've rounded up the best rumours ahead of the Barcelona-based mobile phone bonanza.

Mobile World Congress has always had a history for outing the biggest upcoming smartphones and hottests new handsets, with the Samsung Galaxy S2 being a prime example. That turned out to be one of the best phones of the year for 2011 and is still taking some beating despite the arrival of the iPhone 4S.
 

This Christmas however sees some major developments afoot with Android Ice Cream Sandwich making its appearance with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as well as Nvidia unveiling the first consumer quad-core processor, the Tegra 3 ‘Kal EL’. With these combined it has the potential to bring a whole range of new handset launches all ready to take on 2012.

Samsung Galaxy S3

At the moment the existence of the Samsung Galaxy S3 is still very much at the ‘hushed whispers’ stage with only a few pieces of information to go on. We now have reports from Android and Me that the Galaxy S3 will feature a Exynos 4412 quad-core chip running at 1.5GHz, this was discovered via some serious code hunting which pointed towards Samsung testing the chip as we speak.
 

Elsewhere, unconfirmed sources have suggested this handset will boast incredible specs with a 1.8GHz Dual-core processor being at the top of the list, followed swiftly by 2GB of RAM a 12MP snapper and will contain both NFC and LTE tech.

How likely? Considering the scarcity of the information at the moment it’s definitely too early to make call, however that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t love to see a handset with these specs appear.

Nokia to launch ‘flagship’ handset?

Earlier this year Nokia reportedly made the promise that they would not only be at MWC 2012 but would be putting on a big show, in fact it’s confirmed that they have indeed rented out a huge part of the conference.
 

While it would appear as though their main focus for MWC is the ‘App Planet’ area, there have been talks that in fact they will announce another Windows Phone 7 handset, a ‘flagship’ handset that will sit above the Nokia Lumia 800.
 

How likely? Well Nokia were pretty adamant that the Lumia 800 is their top-end Windows Phone 7 handset but stranger things have happened so who knows.

HTC Ville

While all the talk surrounding HTC's new phones has included 'quad-core this' and 'quad-core that' the HTC Ville looks set to win your heart and not your brain, or at least if the images from Pocket Now are anything to go by.

Despite the fact it's sporting the same alluminium form-factor found on both the HTC Edge and HTC Zeta, the HTC Ville is rumoured to be less than 8mm thick making it not only the slimmest HTC phone ever but also one of the slimmest around. Combine that with a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and a 4.3inch Super AMOLED screen and you've got one very pretty package.
 

How likely? If not at Mobile World Congress then soon, while HTC has capitalised on making big-screen phones it hasn't yet entered the market of making super-slim handsets and this could well be their entry into that market.

HTC Edge

With leaked images already all over the Internet this absolute behemoth of a smartphone is almost certain to make an appearance at some point next year. The HTC Edge will reportedly have the new Nvidia Tegra 3 processor on board, 1GB of RAM, 8MP snapper and a 1280x720p screen.

On top of those ridiculous specs you can also expect that it’ll be running Android Ice Cream Sandwich right out of the box.
 

How likely? This is looking like certain, with the leaked images already making the rounds and the specs matching up with what we’d expect. It certainly fits the description of a phone that should be at MWC 2012.