Whether its connected cleaning machines, smart kitchen gadgets, solar-powered speakers, or battery backup devices, IFA Berlin delivered tons of new innovations for your smart home.
BERLIN—IFA 2023 has garnered some exciting innovations for the smart home.
Now in its 99th year, the IFA consumer electronics and home appliances trade show occupies close to 140,000 square feet of floor space at the sprawling Messe Berlin exhibition hall. With more than 2,000 vendors from nearly 50 countries showing off their wares, including 350 startups, there’s quite a lot to see at this year’s show.
Minus Apple, which generally sits out trade shows like IFA and CES, almost all the big names in tech are in Berlin for IFA, including Samsung, LG, Hisense, Honor, TCL, as well as new exhibitors SpaceX and Tesla, just to name a few. The show opened to the general public on Friday, but we spent several days ahead of the show running around Berlin meeting with companies to learn about their latest gadgets as construction crews prepared the booths at the Messe.
If you’re not local to Berlin, no sweat—we’ve gathered together the best smart home gadgets for you. Our list features everything from connected cleaning machines and smart kitchen gadgets to solar-powered speakers and residential battery backup systems.
In no particular order, these are the most compelling smart home products we saw at IFA this year. Most of them aren’t available just yet (and some aren’t even launching in the US), but even prototypes offer a peek at a more connected and convenient future home.Shark Detect Pro Cuts Down on Manual Labor
Sick of inhaling a cloud of dust when emptying your cordless vacuum’s bin into the trash? The Shark Detect Pro is a cordless vacuum that can empty its own dustbin into a bagless 2-liter base that Shark says can hold up to 45 days’ worth of debris. In other words, it only needs to be manually emptied a few times per year.
The Detect Pro, which Shark calls its smartest vacuum yet, automatically adapts its suction level to different floor types and soil levels, doubles its power along edges, and features LED lights on the cleaning head to illuminate dark areas. The Detect Pro is available in the US now for $349.99. Yeelight Cube Smart Lamp With Real-Time Twitch Fan Counts
If you’re looking to elevate your live streams, the eye-catching Yeelight Cube Smart Lamp can now display real-time fan counts from YouTube and Twitch, announced the smart lighting brand at IFA. This user-requested feature rolled out this week as part of an update to the Yeelight Station app.
Meanwhile, Yeelight at IFA also announced two new products for its Fun line, the Beam RGBIC Light Bar for tabletops (pictured above), and the Obsid RGBIC Light Strip, a charcoal-color light strip. Both new Yeelight Fun products are expected to launch in November and will support the Matter smart home standard. Roborock Zeo One All-in-One Laundry Machine Delivers New Drying Innovation
Robot vacuum maker Roborock at IFA introduced its first laundry machine, the Zeo One, which can both wash and dry your clothes in one sleek unit. The machine boasts an innovative moderate-temperature drying system, which Roborock says allows it to safely handle delicate fabrics like silk or wool that might otherwise be damaged in a traditional condenser dryer.
Cutting down on your manual labor, the Zeo One also features a self-cleaning system that automatically removes lint buildup. It works with a companion app that lets you select the detergent and dryness levels, set cleaning start and end times, and opt for real-time cleaning notifications.
The Zeo One won’t be available in the US (at least not in the near future), but it marks the Roborock brand’s first step into the large home appliance space. Roborock plans to launch the product in Germany, where it’s the market leader for robot vacuums, for €1,299. EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra Whole-Home Battery Backup System Takes on the Tesla Powerwall
The Tesla Powerwall will soon have new competition from energy solutions provider EcoFlow’s Delta Pro Ultra, a modular portable power station that will serve as the basis for a residential whole-home backup solution.
