Long ago, IFA was a European home-goods trade show. Now it's basically Fall CES: the big moment before the holidays when large electronics companies get their product lines in order for later in the year. While the Berlin-based show still has a strong European focus, plenty of U.S. products appear at IFA as well.
IFA has an odd cadence to it. Because the show floor is open to the public, most of the press and trade announcements happen before the show formally begins. We'll start to see major announcements rolling out on Tuesday, Sept. 1 and they'll largely be done by Friday, Sept. 4, the first day the show floor is open. Still, the huge IFA floor is full of all sorts of amazing technology, so we'll be cruising around looking for the best innovations.
We'll have two people on the ground at IFA this year, Sascha Segan and Will Greenwald, but our whole staff has been in touch with major electronics vendors trying to suss out what will happen in Berlin this year. Here's what we've turned up so far, category by category.
Cameras
With PhotoPlus, a huge photography industry trade show, coming in October, it looks like most camera vendors are keeping things low-key at IFA. The most notable invitation we've seen is from Ricoh, which is announcing an "exciting, new addition to its Ricoh Theta family of 360-degree spherical imaging cameras." Major drone maker DJI is also holding a press conference, but we're not expecting anything dramatic.
Chips
Intel has a major press conference on Sept. 2, where it's expected to announce Skylake, its sixth-generation Core family and its newest mainstream desktop/laptop set of chips. Because they're designed to operate at a range of wattages from 4.5 watts to 45 watts, Skylake chips can work in devices from tablets up to desktops (but not in phones.) Skylake chips also use less power (even when driving displays supporting high resolutions, such as 4K) and integrate next-generation imaging, audio, and memory technologies.
At Intel's developer forum in August, the company went into details about the Skylake architecture, but the only chips it's actually launched so far were some super-fast gaming versions. If Skylake chips are coming, we should expect to see some Skylake-powered desktops and laptops as well.
Home Entertainment
For HDTVs in North America, don't expect much news out of IFA; the big announcements always come from CES in January. However, we can still see some interesting trends and concepts in home entertainment come out of Berlin, the most important one being the UHD Alliance further fleshing out Ultra HD Blu-ray technology.
Ultra high-definition (UHD, or 4K) video has been technologically possible for a few years, and 4K HDTVs have become more and more affordable. However, besides streaming content through services like Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Instant Video, actual things to watch haven't been very common. This could change with Ultra HD Blu-rays, a new Blu-ray standard that allows much more data to be stored on the discs, thanks to both multi-layer media and compression systems. Besides 4K video, Ultra HD Blu-ray discs will support advanced features like high dynamic range (HDR) content and Dolby Atmos object-based surround sound. This will require you to get a new Blu-ray player that supports it, and in the case of HDR and Dolby Atmos, new HDTVs that support 4K and HDR, as well as Atmos-compatible sound systems.
Expect to see some new audio products, including headphones, earphones, and headsets from major manufacturers, along with soundbars and other sound systems. Dolby Atmos uses height and audio reflection to produce a much more accurate and all-encompassing surround sound, but has previously been only for commercial theaters and expensive custom home theaters. We'll likely see some more accessible Atmos sound systems at IFA.
Outside of home entertainment, expect to see new digital home products, with lots of home automation and smart lighting, locking, and monitoring systems on display. They might use very different plugs in Germany, but the technology that lets you control your home through your smartphone will be the same when it comes here.
Laptops and Desktops
Acer, Asus, and Lenovo will all be refreshing their desktop and laptop lineups at IFA. Asus's teaser video shows an all-in-one desktop, while Acer's event invite showed a photo of part of its Predator Gaming series of high-end desktops. We don't have any details on what Lenovo is doing specifically.
In terms of storage, SSDs are going to (finally) approach HDD capacities (500GB-1TB) at an affordable price point. Large capacity (6-8TB+) hard drives are going to move focus to NAS and server applications, since everyone is connected to the cloud for streaming video and music.
Along with Windows 10 machines, we're expecting to see several new Chromebooks, the new low-end laptops.
Mobile Phones and Tablets
The flagship phone at IFA may come from Sony on Sept. 2. Leakmaster Evan Blass says Sony will have three new phones: the Xperia Z5 Compact, the Xperia Z5, and the Xperia Z5 Premium. With a 4.6-inch, 720p screen, the Compact may address the lack of high-quality smaller Android phones in the market, while the 5.5-inch Premium may have a super-high-resolution 2160p screen.
Just as Sony is announcing those phones, Huawei is expected to roll out the Mate 8, with a 6-inch quad-HD screen, 20.7-megapixel camera, and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. It will run Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 950 processor and will presumably be the hardware template for Google's new Nexus phone, arriving later this fall.
The CEO of Asus said we'll see the ZenFone Zoom and ZenFone Max at IFA at about the same time. According to him, the Zoom has a 3x optical zoom, while the Max has a 5,000mAh battery. We saw and handled a version of the ZenFone Zoom at CES this year, but it hasn't hit the market yet.
Not to be left behind, Acer is bringing some phones, too. GSMArena picked up a leak of the Acer Liquid Z630 and Liquid Z530, both midrange (and not all that exciting) Android devices. Previous rumors said Acer may announce some Windows Phones at IFA, but that announcement will probably be held for the official Windows 10 Mobile launch in October.
Is Archos still a thing? I guess so. The company just announced that it will be showing off three new smartphones, the Diamond S, the 50e Helium and the 50 Cesium. The Diamond S has a 5-inch, 720p screen and an octo-core MediaTek processor; it's shiny, and costs around $250 unlocked. The Helium and Cesium are low-end phones in Android and Windows flavors. All three will be on show at IFA.
LG already announced its G Pad II, and we'll get the first real look at this Android tablet during IFA.
The G Pad II has a 10.1-inch, 1,920-by-1,200 display and a 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. Yes, that's a two-year-old processor, but we're expecting a thoroughly midrange price for this tablet.
Motorola isn't announcing any phones, but it looks like its parent company Lenovo will announce phones and tablets. There have been several rumors about new phones in Lenovo's Vibe series as well as a Yoga Tablet 3 with a swiveling camera.
Wearables
There's going to be a flood of Android Wear watches at IFA. We're likely to see a new Android Wear watch from Motorola, one from Acer, the Huawei Watch which we first saw at MWC earlier this year and new Asus ZenWatches, at the very least.
Against this trend flies Samsung's Gear S2, which will probably run Samsung's proprietary Tizen OS. Samsung already has a video out about this watch, but its formal launch, and the first hands-ons, will come in the IFA time frame.
For more information visit: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2490212,00.asp
Source: pcmag.com
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