Happy 100 years to IFA, Europe’s largest consumer electronics and home appliances trade show, which takes place every September in Berlin, Germany. IFA started life as an International Radio Exhibition and over the decades has grown into the massive global showcase of tech innovations it is today.
While walking the show’s 26 exhibition halls (and clocking more than 12,000 steps a day!) is a bit daunting, I got to meet with some of the biggest names in consumer tech, including LG, Lenovo, Roborock and many, many more. I got hands-on with everything from smart kitchen devices to home robots to a cool proof-of-concept laptop that can twist and open its own lid. And yes, AI was everywhere, clearly a huge part of what’s driving the next generation of technology.
Here’s a look at some of the innovative and sometimes quirky products and trends that caught my eye this year.
If you travel or bring your laptop to different work locations and worry about leaving the charger behind, Twelve South has you covered. The PlugBug With Find My is the first USB-C wall charger with support for Find My built in, so iPhone users can track their charger just as they do an iPhone, iPad or AirTag.
This handy gadget is available as a two-port 50W model for $70 or a four-port 120W version for $120. Power Delivery technology ensures each device gets the right amount of power.
I’m not saying this scenario actually happened to me as I checked out of my hotel, but let’s just say if I was using the new PlugBug and had it set to alert me as I walked out of the room, I might have known where it was before looking for it in a panic later on.
TCL’s 50 Pro Nxtpaper 5G Smartphone is designed to be easier on your eyes — and your attention span — than a typical smartphone. If you do a lot of reading on your phone, toggling on the “Nxtpaper key” button turns the display into a soothing monochrome or an E Ink format designed to minimize eye strain, the type of display you normally see on an e-reader. Activating what it calls “Max Ink Mode” brings up both the reader-friendly display and quiets app notifications so you can focus better, saving battery life (TCL claims seven days’ worth of reading) along with your eyesight.
This thinner and even lighter version of my favorite laptop, the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 has the best of the best, running Intel’s newest Core Ultra 7 processor with increased performance and Microsoft’s Copilot+ AI capabilities. And now it has Aura (announced in several new Lenovo laptops), Lenovo’s AI-boosted set of tools that makes it easier to find and use settings you may not have known existed. As Techspotential consumer tech analyst Avi Greengart says, this feature helps with “exposing some of the things that were otherwise buried in menus, like your performance profiles. People don't change their performance profiles because that's nerdy, but it does affect how much battery life you get, and so if you can give the user quick and easy access to that, that's a plus.”
Acer showed off its first handheld gaming PC, which looks like it might give the Steam Deck OLED some serious competition. The Nitro Blaze 7 is running Windows 11 with a powerful AMD Ryzen 8040 processor, a chip we typically see in gaming laptops. Its 1080p display has a 144Hz refresh rate for extra-smooth gaming, all in a compact and comfortable form factor. No pricing or availability just yet.
Honor has worked its magic once again with the Honor Magic V3, building the thinnest and lightest foldable phone out there right now. At just 9.2 millimeters thick when folded (it opens to a gorgeous, bright, 7.92-inch display), it’s not that much larger than my iPhone 15 Pro. Inside, this flagship phone packs a speedy Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 50W wireless charging and a bright dual-screen design that make this a multitasking monster.
In addition to using Google’s Cloud AI, it has new AI features that change the display to ease eye strain and on-device AI Deepfake Detection to authenticate the faces of users during video calls. While it won’t be coming to the US, the combination of design and power makes this a smartphone we want to see much more of.
This year’s crop of robot floor cleaners reaches new heights — literally. Roborock made our top pick for best robot vacuum even better by giving it the ability to lift itself even higher to get up and over mid- to high-pile carpeting. The Roborock Qrevo Curv can lift its chassis 10 millimeters so the carpeting doesn’t block the suction ports. Even better, it can lift itself 4 centimeters to go over thresholds and obstacles.
It also got a huge boost in suction power (18,500Pa), a FlexiArm side brush for reaching into corners and a new anti-tangle brush roll. The self-emptying dock that cleans the mop heads with hot water has been completely redesigned with a more modern and sleeker curved look, so it won’t look quite so big and cumbersome in your home.
Roborock isn’t the only brand taking its robots to new heights. Shark showed off a robot that lifts the rear of the chassis up to 20 millimeters to make sure it doesn’t get stuck on obstacles or accidentally mop your carpets while cleaning. The Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Pro with “NeverStuck” technology promises to never get stuck, and we can’t wait to find out if that’s true.
The Narwal Freo Z Ultra is a huge improvement over the Freo X Ultra we previously reviewed in our best robot mop testing, adding an attachable duster to the side of the robot so the baseboards get cleaned along with the floors. Two new cameras help the robot identify objects and decide how to clean so it will get closer to a table leg while still giving a wide berth to yucky messes like pet poop.
DJI’s Neo selfie drone brings high-quality drone video to the rest of us. At $199, the 5-ounce Neo is the company’s smallest and most affordable drone on the market — and the easiest to use. It takes off and lands in the palm of your hand, and it can be set to hover, follow, zoom in and out or track your movements while keeping you front and center. It shoots 4K videos and takes 12-megapixel stills, perfect for social media.
LG has the home covered with ThinQ On, a dedicated smart home hub that controls and monitors your connected devices through the ThinQ app. But what caught my attention at the LG booth was the LG PuriCare air purifier built for homes with cats. While cats aren’t known for being easy to control, LG put a cat bed on top of the air purifier, which makes it really useful. A sensor knows when the cat is curled up on top and turns the machine off so the cat can snooze. When it leaves for a nap elsewhere, the machine turns back on to purify the air. Tucked away under the bed is a scale that checks and monitors your cat’s weight, alerting you through the ThinQ app if there’s a potential health issue.
Qi wireless charging has become the standard for wirelessly charging your phone and other small electronics, and now the Ki protocol (pronounced Kee) is hoping to become the wireless standard for powering items in your kitchen.
The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) finalized specs for a new protocol for powering small kitchen appliances with electric induction. The induction capability (up to 2,200 watts of power) is built into any countertop material (except steel), which will then power a Ki-enabled toaster, kettle or blender without it being plugged in. No messy countertop wires or batteries to charge.
While this isn’t available now, a WPC spokesman says home builders are already putting the technology into new construction and appliance makers will be able to apply for Ki certification within the year. Greengart says that "you’ll have more efficient, safer power and a more pleasing look” in your kitchen once the tech is more widely adopted.
A PC that opens and closes to the sound of your voice? Yes, please! Lenovo says it’s just a proof of concept, but the Auto Twist AI PC, in addition to being incredibly cool, has real-world benefits. The lid has a motorized hinge that rotates to track your movements as you walk around it, pivoting the screen left and right or up and down to follow your face. A verbal command — "Hi Twist, open lid" — opens and closes the lid, making this a concept with major benefits for users with limited hand mobility or accessibility issues. Plus, it’s just fun!