The annual culture clash of currywurst and consumer tech is almost upon us.
We’re coming to the mid-section of the show, which means one thing: nearly everything has been announced.
We’ve had an absolute smorgasbord of new stuff show up this year, although we’re struggling to see anything truly groundbreaking – 8K TV seems to be the star of the show, but that’s setting the scene for the future, meaning it’ll be least 2022 until you’ll need to think about upgrading.
The show kicked off on August 29 in the German capital and will keep rolling for a week, so the public can get its eyes on the latest televisions, wearables and laptops.
Stay tuned to this page to read about everything launched a the show (as well as a generous smattering of hands on pieces where we experience the tech).
The TechRadar editorial team has convened following the onslaught of IFA 2018 announcements and has decided upon the most impressive bits of tech from the show. We even whipped up fancy trophies to give to the winners! Our IFA 2018 awards this year covered the gamut, from TVs to smart home gadgets and everything in between. Here are some of the highlights:
Click here to see which product won Best in Show and all the other winners
We’re deep into the IFA show now, and the launches are starting to calm down – although there’s still a lot to get through, so check out our run-down below to see what’s been arriving this week and whether any of it will make it onto your Christmas list.
As we’ve mentioned, the name of the game here is 8K – the next generation resolution that all the TV manufacturers hope will force you to buy a new set in the future.
Will you really need to? The jury’s still out. But there are more short term updates we’re more excited about:
We’ve peered into the future, and it’s glorious. Well, if you like a big ol‘ TV and lots of lovely pictures to look at, that is.
We all know we’re supposed to look for things to be HDR-capable, but the new HDR10+ standard is the one to watch – and it was unveiled in a rather colorful way earlier in the day. It’s going to fight against Dolby Vision as the dominant standard – it’s hard to really explain it, so please have a click through to our eyes-on for some visual entertainment.
If you’re after something a little more jaw-dropping than just the standard TVs these days, how about this massive thing from Samsung, which not only offers massive 8K pictures but also upscales your boring 4K footage? Thought so.
Read our hands on Samsung Q900R 8 QLED TV review to see just how impressed we were.
Philips didn’t wow us with its stuff this year, but the new TV looks great and comes with some really pumping sound thanks to the new tie-in with the audio experts at Bowers & Wilkins.
It still offers amazing 4K visuals and decent upscaling to HDR of ’normal‘ content – our Henry St Ledger was impressed by the image quality in our hands on: Philips OLED+ 903 review .
Tosh’s new TVs have inbuilt far-field microphones, like many of the top smart speakers around at the moment, so you’ll be able to chat to Alexa through them.
As well as that, you’ll be able to take advantage of Alexa’s capabilities, including playing music, reading the news, launching apps, and any number of third-party ‘skills’.
Want to find out a little more about them? Step right up.
This TV is just a bit crazy – it’s 88-inches of pixel madness, all placed on top of impressive OLED technology, which gives deep blacks, rich colors… all the things you’d expect from a TV that might cost more than most cars on the road.
You’re getting 7680 x 4320 from the huge display, so you’ll definitely need a large room to house this one – but it’s worth checking out, if only to see what sort of TV you’ll be deciding about buying in 2022.
We’ve also had a look at the TV first-hand – it’s goshdarn impressive.
More TV news:
Many would argue that audio is the biggest part of IFA – it’s certainly been a strong part of the makeup for many years and, let’s face it, the wireless predates the television, right?
Whichever way around you prefer it, these are the top bits of audio tech that caught our eye this week:
Our favorite headphones of the show, these were already strong cans and the noise cancelling has been cranked up a notch .
Comfortable to wear, hugely capable of keeping the world out, and looking stylish too – you can see why we liked them in our hands on Sony WH-1000MX3 review .
Want to access one of the world’s biggest search engines without having to lift a finger? These are the headphones you’ll need to do it. Coming in at around $300 (£230 / $400) they’re not the cheapest out there, but you do get 24 hours‘ battery life.
See what we thought in our hands on: JBL Everest 710GA review
Wireless earbuds are just awesome, right? No wires anywhere in sight, the connection to myriad devices some futuristic stuff… we love them.
There are cheaper options out there as these are £259/$299 (about AU$400) for the pair, but Sennheiser’s offering may emerge as the best argument yet for cutting the cord.
Read on for more thoughts on how we found these new buds in our hands on: Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless earbuds review .
Rolling out in November, this speaker from B&O is shaped like a coin, but “sits on the edge of consumer electronics and gallery-worthy sculpture”.
You actually roll the speaker back and forth to decrease the volume – it’ll be interesting to see if that really works, although the speaker will roll back to the original position when done, apparently.
It won’t be cheap though… we’ll leave you to read more to find out the exact cost.
These headphones are impressive – they’ve got switchable hear-through functions, noise reduction, Bluetooth connection and touch controls.
Oh, and did we forget to mention? The ATH-SR30BT’s have a massive 70 (that’s SEVENTY) hours of battery life. The ATH-SR50BTs boast an impressive 25 hour battery life, a fold-flat design for easy storage too, so these headphones are definitely worth looking at for the regular commuter.
It’s not often our Global EIC gets interested in amps, so when he calls out the new Sonos Amp (you can see how the naming came about) it must be something worth looking at.
This is an amp for the connected age, as at home on a table as in a rack, capable of streaming music, connecting nicely to a turntable or listening to commands from an iPhone – it’s got twice the power of the old Sonos Connect Amp, so if you’re into sound and connectivity, give this a look.
More audio news:
IFA isn’t traditionally a time when people are looking for a smartphone launch – gone are the days when Samsung would launch the new Galaxy Note at the event – but we did see a few phones either launched or teased this year.
Another show, another flagship Sony phone. It’s remarkably similar to the Xperia XZ2 in some ways… except that screen, which is now larger, higher-res and uses the lovely OLED technology that the best handsets are using .
We’ve had a good old play with it, and you can see what we think in our hands on: Sony Xperia XZ3 review .
It’s been a while since we’ve got hot under the collar about an HTC phone, and if we’re honest, this isn’t the handset to rekindle that feeling .
However, it does offer a solid spec sheet with a lower price, so if you’re still a fan of the brand then you’ll like the decent build quality that’s on offer here. See more in our hands on: HTC U12 Life review.
The Honor Play was already announced this year, so when there was a teaser at the end of the launch it was intriguing – and we’re still a little in dark about the new Honor Magic 2, which will be coming in December.
We know it has a slide-out camera and a notch-less front, as well as superfast charging, but we’ll have to wait a few months to find out more.
The LG G7 One and LG G7 Fit are LG doing what LG does well – bringing flagship features to a lower price point.
