Live Updates From IFA 2026 in Berlin 🔴

Early flights are like a cold bath. I still have no idea why anybody would immerse themselves in such a heinous activity. We’re shoveling food before we get our cab to the airport. We would like to thank you, dear reader, for joining us on our German adventure. What did we learn? Perhaps that IFA doesn’t necessarily stand “Innovation for All.” Maybe it’s “I Found Automatons” for all the wheel-based and progressively bipedal robots squirming around the floor at the Messe Berlin. I for one obey my robovac overlords.

See you next year, Berlin. —Kyle Barr

RayNeo’s new IO smart glasses may be better for most people who want to avoid the stigma associated with camera glasses (you know, the whole becoming a creep thing). The IO don’t have a camera nor speakers. They instead rely on a waveguide display on the inside lens to act as a companion device or a means to talk to an AI assistant. I walked through a few features, like live translation (it was relatively accurate and quick, though still not instantaneous), and used it to talk to AI. RayNeo promised this device will take in context based on your ramblings to give you a daily summary, though I’m still not sure why I would need that. At least the internal screen is bright and legible, even though it’s the usual green HUD. The main reason you buy these is so most people wouldn’t even know you’re wearing smart glasses. —Kyle Barr

The Morpho desktop UV printer is much like Anker’s EufyMake E1 UV Printer except for a few key things. One, Morpho the printer can blast your designs on almost any object at 2,400 DPI (dots per inch) compared to the E1’s 1,440. It has a larger internal printing space. Most importantly, it promises to use an open model of UV ink that won’t restrict you to one brand only. Even better, Morpho’s promising to let you use refillable UV ink cartridges to avoid creating so much waste. It all sounds great on paper, though this is where I have to warn you the printer is currently on Kickstarter. We normally don’t report on crowdfunding campaigns since there’s no guarantee you’ll receive the products you pay for. Still, considering the advantages over the EufyMake E1, the Morpho may be one to watch. —Kyle Barr

Listen, you will not look cool wearing an exoskeleton. You won’t run around like a super soldier, either. Still, the hiking exoskeletons are getting progressively better at helping people with limited mobility. Hypershell’s new exoskeleton, the Hypershell Halo, finally adds lower-limb support with the addition of new motors sitting just beside each knee. I wore the new model around for about 15 minutes, hiking up boxes, ramps, and stairs, and it certainly provides more support than earlier versions I’ve used extensively. I can’t tell you whether it will actually aid your bad knees, and Hypershell isn’t claiming this robo suit is a medical device by any standard. Still, the exoskeleton may be better for more people. And here’s where I have to give you the bad news: the Hypershell Halo costs $2,300. —Kyle Barr

Beige plastic is one of those aesthetics I thought would escape the inevitable gravity of nostalgia, but I’ve been proven wrong time and time again. Epomaker’s latest RT keyboards include the RT75, a 75% TKL keyboard that felt thin in hand. However, the main reason they caught my eye was for their TFT LCD screens stuffed into the corner of each keyboard. Designs from earlier this year sported removable screens that looked like CRT monitors, though the modern designs let you remove the screen and instead replace the empty slots with more keyboard switches.

The keyboard further supports per-key RGB with support for Epomaker’s Creamy Jade linear switches or Crystal Tactile Silent switches. If you want, you can even run a GIF on that screen while you play. I just want somebody to put a chip inside to get Doom running natively right on the keyboard. —Kyle Barr

Just look at this utterly petite e-reader. This is the Boox Picco, an upcoming E Ink e-reader that’s even smaller than Boox’s previously popular Boox Palma phone-sized tablets. This device is meant to be pocketable, but you don’t understand how small and thin it is until you see it in person.

It’s running with a 3.97-inch display, which in my hands doesn’t even eclipse the size of my palm to the ends of my digits. The company didn’t let me do much with it, since it’s still a very early beta product, but it may be one of the more compact ways you can take your books with you. —Kyle Barr

AMD seems to be letting Nvidia’s RTX Spark PCs have their moment, even though it has a chip it thinks can compete in terms of graphical and AI performance. Team Red already showed off its Ryzen AI Max+ 400 series chips earlier this year, and we are starting to see a few business- and enterprise-minded mini PCs hit the scene. There is the Acer Aspire G AGB110 mini-PC alongside the Lenovo ThinkCentre X Ultra, but those don’t exactly spark joy, do they?

At IFA 2026, smaller PC makers like Minisforum showed off its N5 Max NAS (Network-Attached Storage) machine powered either by the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 or a Ryze AI Max+ Pro 495. But as for laptops, AMD seems to be saving that for HP’s “Sundae” ZBook coming… eventually. I’m left assuming AMD will wait until next year to show off its actually new CPU and GPU architecture that we may see in more than a paltry few new computers. —Kyle Barr

All the upcoming Nvidia RTX Spark PCs aren’t technically gaming-only machines. They’re supposed to be gaming-capable, but they’re not promising performance on par with laptops that contain a discrete GPU. Considering that, most of these laptops aren’t opting for any of the usual gamer aesthetics. Well, all except one. MSI’s Prestige N16 Flip AI+ contains the unicorn puke delights of an RGB keyboard. Like the Lenovo Yoga 9n 2-in-1, the new Prestige is also a convertible with a nested pen that MSI promised me won’t have the same problems that the Prestige 14 Flip AI+ did. —Kyle Barr

The regular, $1,300 version of the upcoming Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 comes in a regular ol’ box, but if you’re thinking of procuring the $2,500 bundle, you may get it in the kind of packaging usually reserved for hot-ticket items. Asus showed me that the massive Pelican case-like packaging includes a slot for the ROG XReal R1 Edition 20 AR glasses, power cables, and your OLED handheld. Asus also told me they may sell it with Dbrand’s Killswitch case, which now sports a golden grate in the back to match the X20’s aesthetics. I don’t know why you would want to cover up your handheld considering how good it looks with the translucent plastic. —Kyle Barr

One of the biggest surprises of IFA 2026 is probably Dyson’s decision to get into your mouth. Toothbrushes, I mean—get your mind out of the gutter.

The $500 CameraJet is Dyson’s first foray into the world of electric toothbrushes and separates itself from the pack by cramming an AI camera and a water flosser into a seemingly normal form factor.

Using the AI camera, the CameraJet automatically disperses mouthrinse like a water flosser, allowing you to brush and floss with one device. The camera ensures that the water jets are deployed when you move over a gap in your teeth—it’s not just popping out randomly.

There’s even a feature that lets you use the camera to peer into your own mouth with a live feed in the Dyson app. Beats watching reality TV, in my opinion. —James Pero

Feast your eyes on the foldable iPhone. Oops, I meant Xiaomi 18 Fold. Having spent the past year staring at 3D CADs and leaked cases and dummy models of Apple’s first foldable iPhone, Xiaomi’s next foldable sure looks similar.

Yes, there are some small differences and a third (presumably telephoto) lens, but it’s so clear where Xiaomi got its inspiration from. We won’t get official details until Sept. 7, though. —Raymond Wong

SwitchBot’s laundry-doing robot, the Onero H1, was on display once again at IFA. So were a pair of hands and a headset-mounted camera that can be used to train the H1 on a business space. SwitchBot let me try them on (I didn’t actually do any robot training, though.) —Wes Davis

This not-at-all-terrifying wheeled quadruped robot—called the Pudu D5, from Chinese industrial robotics firm Pudu Robotics—is intended for use in places like warehouses and coal mines. It was quick and very agile in demos at the booth, easily climbing and going back down the short staircase pictured.

A Pudu representative tells me the D5 is already in use checking coal mine safety conditions and, somewhere in Japan, in a parking lot where the robot uses a camera-equipped arm attachment to check cars to see if anyone has left children or pets in them. It also supports many other modules, like a fire extinguisher or water hose attachment, and has sensors that can detect things like gas leaks. —Wes Davis

I got to the Unix AI booth too late to see its Panther robot make what appeared to be a toasted ketchup sandwich (mmmm, insufficient nutrition!). But I did get to watch it, over the course of like five minutes, slowly open a miniature dishwasher and load a plate in. I did not stick around to see how long it would take to make the sandwich when the demo started over. —Wes Davis

Like many of us, I’m a sucker for magnetic levitation toys, so naturally, this booth caught my eye. A company called Gravity makes what you see above, the Universe Time, a device that tells you the time (very vaguely) via an always-spinning metal ball that floats above its surface. The rep at the booth showed me an app that controls it—you can set it to revolve around the center on second, minute, and hour time scales. You can also have it show you the time on the other planets in our solar system, and they say the ball’s spin matches that of the planet you’ve chosen. (There’s no way to make the ball match the planet’s position in the solar system, which feels like an obvious feature to me?) The Universe Time is available now… for $630.

In December, Gravity plans to also release the Aura, a lamp with a separate, round LED light that floats in front of it. This one isn’t just using magnetic levitation—the rep told me it also gets wireless power from the main post. The company hasn’t settled on a price. —Wes Davis

First, the good news. RTX Spark PCs are coming this October. Nvidia confirmed with me that there are actually two variants of the Nvidia N1X chip—the codename for the Nvidia and MediaTek-made processor found in RTX Spark PCs. There’s a version of the chip built for mini PCs, like Acer’s just-announced SFF RTX Spark, that will have the full 20-core Grace CPU and 6,144-core Blackwell GPU.

Many laptops coming this October will fit a lower-end N1X. That chip will contain an 18-core CPU and 5,120 Blackwell GPU CUDA cores. Some of those laptops will also be limited in unified memory, though we’ve already seen Microsoft Surface Ultra PCs running the full 128GB of shared memory pool. Nvidia has not offered a single iota of information about expected performance across either of these chip variants. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out. —Kyle Barr

It’s the first official day of IFA for the public, though my first stop is a closed-door RTX Spark showcase with Nvidia. But first, just look at this view of the wider Berlin skyline. — Kyle Barr

Lenovo is leaning hard into its IdeaPad Vibe laptops and IdeaCentre all-in-one PCs’ vibrant palette. Beyond specs, I thought I’d give you a taste of the rainbow with every single colorway available right now. The PCs come with color-matched keyboards and mice. However, the coolest part of the new ecosystem is that the IdeaPad Vibe includes removable and swappable keycaps. These keycap packs are sold separately, and they come with a specialized key removal tool. You can either color match your laptop or add contrasting colors for your own preferred unique look. I only wish I could order a special kit for myself detailing which color keys I want across the entire typeface.

The IdeaCentre AIO PCs are running on an Intel Core Series 3 (aka Wildcat Lake) chip, while both the 14- and 15-inch IdeaPad Vibe models are starting with either Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips or AMD Ryzen AI 400 series processors, with no Intel version in sight. Lenovo told me there may be more Vibes that come later with Intel Inside (TM).

So go ahead, pick your favorite. —Kyle Barr

Back in July, I started writing about the changes happening to OLED screen manufacturing, starting with TCL CSOT, which developed a so-called “InkJet printing” method for creating OLED displays. Well, the good news is it’s not just some vague notion. Lenovo is getting ready to sell its first monitor created using InkJet printing, the ThinkVision P27UL-40 monitor made for business folks who also enjoy pretty visuals. The screen is as nice to look at as most organic light-emitting diode displays, but both Lenovo and TCL have promised the screen type is more efficient and lasts longer than older-style OLEDs. —Kyle Barr

DJI’s Osmo 360 II is the kind of sequel that only really means to fix a few of the first iteration’s issues. Case in point: the new swappable lenses in case one of them breaks. The camera is still using the same size 1/1.1-inch sensors, but now it promises better low-light shooting plus better contrast in video with more dynamic range. It may not be enough to truly compete with the leading Insta360 X6 360 camera, but DJI has one thing the competition doesn’t have: 60 fps shooting at 8K resolution. —Kyle Barr

But instead, it’s the PrimeBot. Or, rather, these are PrimeBots. And believe it or not, it’s actually two models of them. According to the PrimeBot representative that was on hand tonight, the always-upright, humanoid Q1 will have a customizable 3D-printed outer shell that customers will be able to design by vibe coding it when they order. It probably won’t go on sale in the U.S. anytime soon, but hey, that’s life in the states these days.

You know, maybe it’s fine, though. Because the T1, which transforms from a humanoid into a dog-style bot by BENDING ITS LEGS BACKWARDS AND FLOPPING DOWN ONTO ITS FRONT ARM TIPS LIKE SOME SORT OF DEMON OH GOD WON’T SOMEONE STOP IT, is a little spooky.

Amusingly, though, its guts fell out after it performed its transformation, and a tech at the booth had to stuff them back in. —Wes Davis

Every time I pick up my gaming headset to game with friends, I ask myself why somebody couldn’t make something small and light enough I could wear it around as a regular pair of headphones. Beyerdynamics took the opposite tack, making a pair of headphones called Aventho Y that can work as a gaming headset in a pinch. I’m not complaining, since the Aventho Y includes a 2.4GHz dongle inside a slot found underneath the right-hand earcup, meaning it’s that much harder to lose among the detritus on your desk. There’s a slot for an attachable boom mic as well.

Beyerdynamic promises the headphones should get 60 hours of battery life with ANC (active noise cancellation) on and about 90 hours without. The version I used includes the faux leather earcups, but there are more plush versions you can buy separately. The headset should cost $150. Also, just look how nice that peach color is on my very peachy head. —Kyle Barr

…I am a Gym Monster 3/3S. Wait, no, that’s what this thing is.

Made by a company called Speediance, it’s got some real as-seen-on-TV vibes. Except, as a person who has been trying to get back into a state of general physical fitness, it actually interests me. It has adjustable pulleys that you can swap between the bottom (for things like bicep curls) and vertical racks for things like chest presses and rows.

The Gym Monster 3’s display shows you stats like those you see on screen here—how long you’ve been working out, your average power output, estimated calories burned, and so on—and it’ll even tell you if your range of motion is out of balance. (It told me my left side had a lower range, which is true—it’s been messed up recently due to… I don’t know, age and sedentary living?) According to the Speediance site, it can produce up to 260lbs of resistance (if you buy the higher-end 3S model), which is probably plenty for most home gym users. The kicker? You know it’s the price. It starts at $4,100. —Wes Davis

I was ready to be disappointed by Tecno’s so-called “bezelless” phone. I watched Marques Brownlee’s video about the device and thought that it was just another pointless idea meant to pretend it’s the future of smartphones. After holding it, I now think that it’s only half of a gimmick. Tecno’s phone concept uses a unique screen-stacking technique to push the screen size practically to the edge of the device. There’s still the tiniest, almost imperceptible gap between the actual screen and the phone’s sides, but it is still striking to see practically no black bars surrounding the screen.

Tecno’s concept device is also surprisingly light and comfortable to hold. Tecno told me this is actually a more recent iteration of their phone concept, where the screen no longer sits flush with the screen sides. There’s no more risk of accidentally tapping the sides of the screen above the phone’s edge. The China-based company wouldn’t tell me what’s running inside, but I can imagine future phones will use this feature as a major selling point. —Kyle Barr

This may look like Oscar the Grouch on some sort of new mobility tech for people who can walk but would rather not, but it’s actually Ollobot, a tablet-faced “family” robot that can do things like emote, help kids learn another language, and do video calling. At least, that’s according to the Ollobot reps who were standing nearby. They also assured me that this robot won’t become totally useless without a subscription or internet connection, which it requires for full functionality. It just gets a little dumber, is all. —Wes Davis

The original Aurzen Zip miniscule foldable projector disappointed us when we first got our hands on it in 2024. Now, Aurzen is back with a “Pro” version, and it may be the kind of projector you actually want. It’s now running at 200 ISO lumens, twice the brightness of its forebear. It’s also now capable of outputting at 1080p, rather than the original projector’s 720p. However, my favorite enhancement may be the inclusion of a small touchscreen on top. Now you can work with some of the devices’ actual controls without having to rely on the app all the time.

It’s a larger, thicker, and slightly heavier device, but that doesn’t actually make it much less portable. It still folds up from its “Z”-shape to the size of a little bigger than a wallet, enough that it can fit into any travel bag where you may want to project your laptop or perhaps your Switch 2 handheld. There are two versions of the Zip Pro, a “Cyber Edition” with its cool transparent plastic cover and a regular opaque version. —Kyle Barr

Oukitel isn’t a brand you’d know of unless you’re really into rugged devices made to take a blow from a sledgehammer on a work site. However, the Oukitel RG14-P is something worth knowing, since it can actually be powered—in part—by sunlight. There’s a large solar panel on the laptop lid that can power at 10W, which means that it may get you to a full 50% in six hours.

In reality, the solar cells can help the laptop maintain a better battery life for longer when it’s under direct sunlight. Lenovo actually showed off a very similar Yoga PC concept last year, and I can imagine we may see more laptops that enjoy a ray of sunshine almost as much as we do. —Kyle Barr

The Soundcore Sleep A30 have long been my favorite pair of sleep earbuds, and Anker is bringing a new twist to its offerings in the space.

The Sleep Earbuds Pro 4 add a few things to the equation, including real-time tracking that can adjust sleep sounds on the fly and hopefully coax you into a deeper sleep if needed. There’s also a charging case with a touchscreen so you can control sleep sounds, alarms, and other stuff without pulling out your phone.

The biggest question is whether they’re as comfortable as the Sleep A30, but Anker has a good track record so far, so my hopes are high. —James Pero

Probably one of the most intriguing audio products out of IFA is the Anker soundcore SleepLab Pro, which claims to be able to track sleep metrics all the way from your nightstand.

To do that, the SleepLab Pro uses a 60GHz radar, which Anker says can keep track of metrics like heart rate and sleep stages. The company even says the SleepLab Pro works when there’s another person in your bed.

I’m sketpical of how well the sleep tracking works from a distance—even wearables that live right on your body can struggle with accurately assessing sleep—but the idea is at least an intriguing one. —James Pero

Remember when people had dedicated stick recording devices so they could give themselves notes or record their thoughts and ruminations? Now imagine if the stick could talk back. The Relay Q is a push-to-talk AI gadget shaped like a Bic lighter, though with a button under the cap you can talk to an AI tied to your Mac (Relay promises it may come to PCs at a later date).

Relay claims that, unlike other AI voice interfaces, its software isn’t just transcribing audio but is understanding the context of your voice recording, including intonation and pacing. So what is the AI using your voice for? Agentic actions, of course, like sending messages to friends. The Relay Q also comes with a magnetic base where it can act almost like a stick mic for talking with AI. Otherwise, it’s designed to be a little more discreet than when you’re supposed to yell at your Mac’s Siri interface. Still, if you’re so keen to talk to your AI assistant without anybody listening in, you could, you know, just type it out. —Kyle Barr

As projector technology continues to improve, we’ll inevitably see them turn into two camps. One will be the dim, though highly portable, projector. The others will try to convince buyers they are TV replacements. The latest laser pointers debuting at IFA 2026 are seriously bright, with Awol Vision’s LuxVision short-throw projector reaching 6,000 ISO lumens. Other similar laser projectors like Xgimi’s Aura 3 Max also promise better contrast levels thanks to its dual-iris optical system. The big thing that will hold these projectors back is cost, but they are technically cheaper than those obscene 200-inch TVs that are only sold to the people with both the money and penthouse-levels of room (i.e., way too much money) to prop one up. —Kyle Barr

The regular Aurzen Zip was not good. Gizmodo gave it a 2.5/5 for its low brightness, loud fans, short battery life, and pricey $400 price tag. The new Aurzen Zip Pro might be better. The company says the tri-fold pocket projector is brighter thanks to a “proprietary 10.7mm ultra-slim optical engine” and has a better thermal design, which—hopefully—means less fan noise.

The Zip Pro also has higher resolution projection at 1080p versus 720p, supports two pairs of Bluetooth earphones versus one, and has longer battery life with 65W+ fast charging. All the extra performance does come at a cost: weight. The Zip Pro is 1.26 pounds compared to the regular Zip’s 0.62 pounds.

The Pro version costs more, too: $629.99 ($579.99 limited-time introduction price). Preorders are available now on Aurzen’s website. —Raymond Wong

I thought the detachable screen on the Insta360 Luna Ultra was sick, but get a load of the Hohem Eyepic’s whole removable lens and sensor body. It detaches from the 3-axis gimbal and can be mounted onto magnetic surfaces or used underwater up to 10 meters, according to the company.

Kyle grabbed a photo of the Eyepic at Hohem’s booth:

It looks way bigger than a DJI Osmo Pocket 3 or Insta360 Luna Ultra. And here’s a pic of the camera module in another accessory:

Other tech specs include 4K video capture at up to 60 fps, a 2.51-inch touchscreen that rotates, and support with other Hohem accessories like a wireless mic.

No pricing or launch details have been shared yet, but Hohem says it’s expected to arrive in Q1 2027.

Somebody tell DJI to step things up. Its Osmo Pocket 3 is still stupidly popular for shooting steady video, but the Osmo Pocket 4 Pro just adds a second camera. Pretty boring compared to the Eyepic. —Raymond Wong

The NXTPAPER AMOLED screen on TCL’s P80 Pro and P80 Ultra caught my attention at first, but then I learned that the phones have a slider key that launches an e-reading experience and extends battery life up to a week. There’s also an AI feature that can convert e-books into audiobooks and podcasts?! I have no idea how well that works, but I am dying to try it out. It’s a shame these phones are only launching in Europe. I’m sure plenty of us dumb Americans could use a paper-like screen with deep contrast and e-reader features. Anything to get us reading more books. Or listening to them if that’s more your thing. —Raymond Wong

TCL’s new lineup of A1 TAB tablets is coming soon to select European markets, with optional NXTPAPER displays that have a matte finish and reduce blue light for an easier viewing experience. We have four options here: two with 11-inch displays (one with NXTPAPER and one without) and two with 12.2-inch displays (one with NXTPAPER and one without). The larger “Plus” models are being marketed as best for watching videos, as they’ve got a 3:2 aspect ratio. No word yet on pricing, but TCL’s tablets are usually on the budget side of the spectrum. Now if only we could get the company to sell them in the U.S. —Matt Wille

Finally, here’s the really cool stuff. First is Lenovo’s Project AeroBlade, a laptop that is less than 10mm thin and weighs way less than two pounds.

The other concept device for IFA 2026 is called Project Swan. If you remember Lenovo’s past rolling laptops that expanded vertically, this one takes a 14-inch screen and expands it horizontally to 17 inches. AeroBlade is easily the more practical of these devices, but Swan is inevitably what will attract more attention, especially if you can’t get enough of flexible screens. —Kyle Barr

Lenovo is one of the first companies gearing up to make OLED monitors made with a new kind of production technique. TCL calls it “inkjet printing” OLEDs, which is supposed to make the process more effecient and cheaper with less waste. These screens are also supposed to be better and longer lasting. Lenovo’s first device not exclusive to China with this screen tech is the ThinkVision P27UL-40. — Kyle Barr

Motorola’s new edge 70 plus phone is promising some big camera upgrades, now coming with a 200-megapixel main sensor that comes with image stabilization. The 6.8-inch AMOLED and a seriously-bright 5,200-nit bright screen round out a phone that, let’s admit it, looks very close to an iPhone, especially with its square camera bump. Motorola may not be as popular in the U.S., but it is certainly one of the largest in markets like Brazil. That’s where you’ll find the new Motorola Edge, rather than the U.S. —Kyle Barr

Everybody’s got a giant watch built for fitness nuts. Now, even Motorola is coming up on the trend. It’s a WearOS-powered Moto Watch Ultra with a 46mm stainless steel frame. More importantly, it works with the Polar ecosystem for its excessively data-driven health tracking features. It’s also Motorola’s first watch that supports both LTE and eSIM. —Kyle Barr

Lenovo’s new IdeaPad Vibe is meant to fit your… well, vibe, I guess. The laptop comes in seven different colorways and can come with either a 14- or 15-inch screen and a choice between a Qualcomm or AMD chip. What’s your favorite (and why is it the red?).

In addition, Lenovo’s launching new IdeaCenter all-in-one PCs that also have a selection of slick colors with tone-matched keyboards and mice. Apple may finally have some AIO competition with pretty colors. —Kyle Barr

The Yoga Tab Plus Gen 2 is Lenovo’s more-powerful tablet that’s meant to take on the iPad Pro. Hey, you know what, it may actually have a chance thanks to its 13-inch 4K display. It comes with Tab Pen Pro 2 and  you can also get its keyboard attachment. The keyboard is actually more stiff than it looks and its weighted so you may even be able to use it from your lap as a laptop replacement. —Kyle Barr

Lenovo’s not losing out on Nvidia’s first CPU in way more than a decade. Lenovo’s first new RTX Spark PCs running an Nvidia N1X chip are the Yoga Pro 9n and the Yoga 9n 2-in-1. They both look good and promise seriously strong GPU performance, but my favorite is easily the convertible laptop thanks to its slick stylus features. You can use the new Apple Pencil Pro-like Yoga Pen on either the trackpad or the screen. —Kyle Barr

If you’re wondering “who the hell is Qira,” Lenovo wants you to get to know the name if you happen to use one of its laptops or any Motorola mobile device. It’s meant to become an agentic chatbot, akin to Gemini or Siri, but work across the company’s ecosystem.

Qira is currently available across 80 devices now, and the AI suite should ship in more devices before the end of 2026 including on wearables like smartwatches. Lenovo claims the file size for Qira has shrunk by 67%, though that doesn’t mean its a small part of these devices. It’s coming to Android 17 devices as well as Windows 11 laptops running with at least 16GB of RAM. —Kyle Barr

Lenovo decided to host their own press conference all the way across town. This feels like a bigger arena than last year’s, if that matters. But we all know why we’re here: the cool Lenovo concepts it keeps pumping out that may actually be useful or, at least, cool. —Kyle Barr

When Dell’s Alienware brand first suggested it was trying to push QD-OLED to esports pros, I wondered if the company was trying to imply these hardcore gamers would enjoy the deeper contrast these screens imply. In reality, the monitor is more designed to facilitate that 0.03ms pixel-to-pixel response time—the speed in which pixels can change color—that your usual fast TN IPS monitor cannot achieve.

The 27-inch Alienware AW2527HX is a 1080p, 560Hz display that also manages with a matte display filter. It’s not built to make your games look their best—it’s a performance-first display. That includes a special button built into the back that stretches the screen resolution. Some Valorant or Counter-Strike 2 gamers prefer this stretched look, as it makes enemies appear larger and easier to hit (the jury’s still out whether this actually makes it easier to aim). Alienware also removed any emblems or icons from the front of the monitor to remove distractions. With a wide -45 degree to 45 degree swivel and a wide tilt range, the AW2527HX can maneuver so players can put their faces directly in front of the display. Listen, it may not be your cup of tea, but Alienware is trying to move esports gamers away from the old LCD model to something more modern. It will be interesting to see if they can budge these notoriously finicky gamers to leave their comfort zone. —Kyle Barr

After launching the XPS 13, Dell decided it wasn’t done trying to beat the MacBook Neo. Its next lineup of relatively affordable laptops is the Dell 14S (you may remember Dell renamed its Inspiron lineup to just “Dell” back in 2025), and it still maintains the full aluminum frame, though it’s 0.3 pounds heavier (2.5 pounds total) and slightly thicker than the 13-inch XPS. For that size, it offers you an HDMI port and an even more solid feel. The XPS 13 had a subtle amount of give in the center of the keyboard, but the Dell 14S feels even more firm. I didn’t get to actually turn the screen on, but unlike the XPS, the 14S isn’t a touchscreen display, though you should be able to buy one with a 2.8K, 120Hz IPS LCD screen.

And if you were wondering how the colors have come out, they’re very subtle depending on the ambient lighting. The pink tone is especially muted unless it’s under brighter, more natural light. The obvious standout is the “Velvet Green,” which has a metallic shade and black accents that make it look especially sleek. Dell hasn’t announced pricing yet, but the company told me that since the XPS is supposed to be the higher-end customer brand with its starting $800 price, the 14S may be even more affordable.

If you ever wanted to see a tech convention in the days before it opens to the public, let me show you. At IFA, it looks like constant construction, with each building of the Messe Berlin reverberating with the sounds of construction. It’s 11 a.m. here, and most booths are barely even half constructed. The floor is littered with debris, sawdust, and garbage. These folk will be working until late in the night. They still have to replace the floors with something you can actually walk on. —Kyle Barr

Similar to last year, Anker had a lot to announce at IFA 2026. While I already covered its SleepLab Pro speaker and its new sleep earbuds, there’s also a new pair of open wireless earbuds, a new pair of wireless headphones, and a new pair of in-ear wireless earbuds.

The AeroClip 2 Pro are Anker’s new open wireless earbuds and are billed as “AI Note-Taker Earbuds.” They borrow some capabilities from Anker’s Liberty line of wireless earbuds, including note-taking and transcription.

On the wireless headphones side, there’s the Space 2 Pro, which, thanks to Anker’s Thus chip, gets a major bump in active noise cancellation (ANC) and clear calling, according to Anker.

Finally, there’s the Liberty Buds 2, which have features such as a “Comfort ANC” mode that’s meant to avoid uncomfortable ear pressure associated with wireless earbuds with silicone ear tips.

The AeroClip price and availability are TBA, while the other two products will be available starting the week of Sept. 22, according to Anker. The Space 2 Pro cost $199, and the Liberty Buds 2 cost $129. —James Pero

The company synonymous with USB chargers, cables, and power banks is consolidating all of its sub-brands under one brand: Anker. Yep, after almost 15 years of expanding through sub-brands like Eufy, EufyMake, Soundcore, and Solix, it’s all just gonna be Anker from here on out.

“Category brands made sense when categories were separate. They no longer are,” said Anker CEO Steve Yang in a press release. “One brand, one promise – Ultimate Innovation, now unified across everything we make.”

I, for one, am fine with the change, though that’s just for product naming. Anker hasn’t said anything about whether it’s going to unify all of its existing sub-brands through, say, a single app or connected experience. As far as I can tell, Anker hasn’t made any such claims. —Raymond Wong

Luna just officially announced that its first wearable, the Luna Band, is now shipping worldwide. The screenless wearable’s main gimmick is that it recognizes patterns in user behavior and changes what it measures and how often it measures it to adapt to users’ “goals.”

Unlike competitors like Whoop, Luna isn’t requiring a subscription for its health tracker. But it’s unclear how well it will actually be able to adapt to health patterns or even how well it will measure standard metrics like heart rate and blood oxygen levels. The company says more than 100,000 people signed up for its waitlist after the Band was first announced at CES 2026. —Matt Wille

As I walked through Acer’s IFA 2026 showcase, my colleague Wes put his finger to the new Acer Swift Air 14 and shook his head. The device is meant to be relatively affordable with a lower-end Intel Wildcat Lake chip, but the trackpad was worse than cheap with a hinge mechanism that restricted a click until your finger was an inch away from the keyboard.

Acer’s new Swift Blade 14 is even lighter than the Air at 1.7 pounds. That’s more than half a pound lighter than the $700 MacBook Neo. And still, the laptop shell had a little more give than I would prefer. The trackpad also had similar problems as the Air. As much as I want a super-thin, super-light design, there are going to be trade-offs. No matter what, though, I just want a single laptop maker other than Apple to create a mechanical trackpad that doesn’t suck. —Kyle Barr

Packard Bell (no relation to Hewlett-Packard or Bell) makes some of the brightest, cutest laptops you cannot buy. That’s because the company hasn’t shipped its products to the U.S., despite being one of the companies to push PCs in big box stores. The company was acquired by Acer in 2013, and it’s been making laptops for the EU and African regions through various licensing deals since then.

Now they’re working closer with Acer again, and that includes a new launch with extremely colorful laptops, keyboards, mice, and even a seriously cool record player. The DotBook laptop is emphasizing a very back-to-basics design but with an extremely colorful shell. Also, just look at these colorful keyboards with their rounded typewriter-like keys. Why do the Europeans get all the cool stuff?

I talked with Eric Ackerson, Acer’s associate director of public marketing, and he agreed that it’s a shame that the U.S. market is dominated by dull gray designs. It’s a money thing, more than anything, but hopefully the mood is changing thanks to designs like the MacBook Neo and Acer’s own laptops like the Acer Swift Air 16 and Acer Swift Blade 14. Just give me a bright red laptop, dammit! —Kyle Barr

Thanks to the MacBook Neo, every laptop maker is now trying to compete with a $700-800 computer that doesn’t suck. Samsung’s answer? A cheaper version of its 14-inch Galaxy Book6, starting at $799.

Lowering the price means exactly what you think it does: weaker performance. The Galaxy Book6 comes with either an Intel Core 3 or a Core 5 CPU. The $799 model also only gets you 8GB of RAM. Samsung’s hoping its 25-hour battery claims will matter more, especially if you’re a student or a cubicle gremlin.

At least the Galaxy Book6 has something the MacBook Neo doesn’t: tons of ports. It’s got a full-size HDMI 1.4, two USB-C, a USB-A, a headphone/mic jack, and a security slot for a Kensington lock. —Raymond Wong

Kyle and I are at the IFA opening press conference. As a presenter spoke about the backlash to AI, he referenced how communities are increasingly protesting the build-out of data centers that make AI possible.

I don’t think he meant that as an applause line, but someone clapped all the same. —Wes Davis

We’re now attending the main IFA press conference. This is my third year attending the Berlin showcase, and it’s my colleague Wes Davis’ second time. And still, every time I come here, I cannot for the life of me navigate the Messe Berlin convention center. Seriously, it’s a maze. —Kyle Barr

I’m with my colleague Wes Davis. We were promised sandwiches inside the IFA 2026 media center. There are no sandwiches. I have not had breakfast, and I am growing hangry. There is coffee and tea, and it will not tide me over. Please, if there is a drone company here (DJI, maybe), air drop me sustenance before I keel over. —Kyle Barr

I found them in a darkened room. Warning to editors: Kyle and I are going to use them. By reading this, you agree to pay for injuries. – Wes Davis

Acer’s gaming handhelds haven’t exactly made much of a statement, but its new concept device is actually making me consider what would happen if our “handheld PCs” acted more like actual PCs. The Project DualPlay Mini includes a flip-down display and an internal keyboard for when you need a backup workstation. On the other side, it includes all the regular gamepad controls you’re used to. It certainly looks janky, but this may be a better option than some of those boutique handhelds with their thin keyboard attachments. —Kyle Barr

I’m still waiting for the Acer Predator Atlas 8 to hit the U.S. market, but Acer went ahead and made a smaller version, the Acer Predator Atlas 7, which may be a little bit cheaper. It features a smaller 7-inch display, but it will also run with either Intel Arc G3 Extreme or the lower-end Arc G3. We’re still waiting for a price point, but we can hope it may not be as expensive as other Intel handhelds have been. —Kyle Barr

I represent the small, small minority of gamers who still want the Nintendo 3DS to make a comeback. Acer’s new Aspire G 3D 16 laptop may be exactly what I’m looking for. It includes a 4K stereoscopic display that can transform 2D content to make it look 3D. It’s also powered with an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip, a small rarity for gaming laptops that normally rely on a discrete GPU. This new Aspire is a ridiculous device, and it may not have that much content that can perform with 3D, but please forgive me; I can’t help but feel excited. —Kyle Barr

I was chatting with my friend Wes Davis last night over a nice German beer about the weird state of screen extenders. They’re massive and bulky, and they don’t actually create the mobile multi-screen experience you’re looking for. So of course, Acer is making them look even sillier with its business-focused PD163QP3. As if two screens weren’t excessive enough, Acer imagines you might want three extra displays. —Kyle Barr

Acer’s taking more than a few cues from Framework with its latest Vero laptops. The Acer Vero 16 is built for modularity, including the option to completely replace the mainboard with up to two generations of future chips. You can remove the screws surrounding the hinge to repair the screen. It comes with up to an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H processor and up to a 3K OLED display. —Kyle Barr

Acer’s going back to the Swift series with what is one of its most petite offerings. I first saw the Acer Swift Air 16 at Computex 2026, but Acer is now offering a few more details. That includes the 13.5mm height when closed up. It was originally pitched as a relatively cheap device, making it out to be Acer’s MacBook Neo competitor, using an Intel Core Series 3 chip (dubbed Wildcat Lake). The thing is, the laptop also supports up to a 3K OLED display, so I can’t really say how much it may cost with the highest-end configs.

But then there’s something even thinner. The Acer Swift Blade 14 is only 14mm thin, and it weighs 799g. It also comes with a 3K OLED display and the Intel Core Series 3 CPUs. Why is a “Blade” thinner than an “Air?” Somebody should talk to Acer about its naming conventions. —Kyle Barr

Acer’s SFF RTX Spark is the company’s new tiny PC that’s employing Nvidia’s N1X chip, with the 20-core Grace CPU co-developed with MediaTek and the humongous 6,144-core Blackwell GPU. It’s a tiny PC that’s promising some serious graphics performance. We’ve yet to actually test any of these RTX Spark laptops or desktops. It seems powerful, but pure performance may not be the end-all-be-all. The actual mini PC itself looks like an old Volkswagen with the fake wood accents. —Kyle Barr

Acer’s press conference is happening right now. I expect them to wax on about their upcoming RTX Spark laptop and mini PCs, but really all I want is for them to do is actually sell one of their gaming handhelds in the U.S. —Kyle Barr

Smart home brand Homey’s latest in its line of hubs is an admittedly cute Homey Potal. Admittedly, the first thought I had was, “That looks like an Apple Watch.” In reality, the Homey Portal can hang out on your dresser or be mounted on a wall and be assigned a zone, where you use the 2.8-inch touchscreen to control your home’s lighting, temperature, speaker, and more. Alongside the touchscreen, the portal includes a rotating frame that acts as a dial for changing volume or the heat inside your home. You can also add different icons and widgets to the touchscreen for different flows, moods, or devices.

The Homey Portal works with all of Homey’s latest smart home hubs alongside the Homey Self-Hosted Server and Homey Cloud. It’s available to preorder for $249 or 249 euros, but the full launch price will be $299. Homey says it expects to ship sometime in December. —Kyle Barr

Although I’m not at IFA with the boyz, I do love to blog about weird-ass gadgets. Accessory maker Jsaux has a new controller brand called VoidJoy (uhh…) and the first two new products are definitely intriguing.

There’s the Skylark S1 Pro Portable that you see above. This rectangular gamepad has dual recessed TMR joysticks (read: no drift), a D-pad, ABXY buttons, and “optical linear quick-switch” triggers. It’s not made specifically for the Switch or Switch 2, but it will work with it. It costs $49.99.

Then you have the Elite Extender. It’s a doohickey that bolts onto a Switch Pro controller and adds a battery and four additional buttons that can be custom mapped. The gamepad also has a turbo mode. Yours for $39.99.

Both are available for preorder today. —Raymond Wong 

Is there such a thing as a “gaming projector?” Perhaps, though the jury’s still out on whether JMGO’s new IRIS projectors are the best setup for your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. These high-brightness projectors promise to hit 4K resolution at 120Hz. JMGO says the Iris series is making use of a “HyperPulse Actuator,” which shifts 480 times per second. The new projectors also support variable refresh rate (VRR), which will prove necessary if you plan to use this projector for gaming at unlocked frame rates.

The top-end Iris Ultra Max claims a nice, bright 6,500 ISO lumens and a 10,000:1 native contrast ratio. The lesser Iris Ultra can only do 7,000:1, though both versions have dual-iris contrast control. The projectors were already announced for China, but JMGO is opening up pre-orders for the U.S. and Europe Sept. 4. If you imagine you want to play your games or watch sports on a gigantic bed sheet strung up in your backyard, this may be one of your better options. —Kyle Barr

TP-Link promised it was coming, but we’re still somewhat surprised that the first Wi-Fi 8 routers are actually here at IFA 2026 before they’re set to launch in October this year. The pack with the new Wi-Fi standard is led by the Archer 8 Ultra, but there’s also a separate Deco 8 Ultra mesh Wi-Fi system.

The big claim with Wi-Fi 8 is that it will finally add more connectivity to the dead zones in the corners of your home. These new routers are also supposed to keep speeds up even if you have multiple devices connected to the same router at once. Of course, you may still be using Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 7 already seemed like a pipe dream. Hopefully we’ll get to test out some of these capabilities for ourselves in the near future. —Kyle Barr

China-based mobile brand Tecno has a penchant for trying to push phones to their silliest. The latest concept to spill out from the company includes a “0mm” bezel-less phone with a screen the company claims can go truly edge-to-edge. Tecno says it achieved this via a complex method of screen-stacking, which it calls “advanced internal stacking, structural re-engineering, and novel screen packaging that reworks the display architecture.” The company is supposed to show this off at Showstoppers here at IFA 2026 on Sept. 3. However, Marques Brownlee already went hands-on with the phone and noted that Tecno has managed to achieve this feat by making the screen sit taller than the sides of the phone.

Furthermore, Tecno is supposed to show off its MEGABOOK T15 360 Pro 2-in-1 laptop Thursday. I’m always interested in seeing more laptops that aren’t from the usual slate of makers you find in the U.S. So stay tuned. —Kyle Barr

Nobody’s promising to make you into Iron Man, at least not yet, but there are several companies planning to debut new leg exoskeletons at IFA, all promising to make you somewhat better at climbing stairs. First up, we have Hypershell, which is planning to announce a new “Hypershell Halo” exoskeleton. Previous leg armatures like the Hypershell X Ultra S only attached to the thigh, but the new Halo has extra bands that go below the knee. This new model adds “four powered hip-and-knee joints” that may actually help you if you have some lower leg issues. Ever since I started writing about these exoskeletons, people have asked me if they’ll help you hike with bad knees. Here’s hoping these ones may actually make a difference. Hypershell is supposed to share more on Sept. 3. —Kyle Barr

Just when you were growing tired of everything becoming an agentic “Claw,” LG wants to shove even more AI into all your smart home tech. The Korean tech giant described its “ThinkQ Claw” as an agentic chatbot designed to comprehend the daily context you feed it, then use all that data as a means to automate certain actions, like getting your ovens prepared for incoming guests or enabling your air conditioner or air purifier settings before you get home from work. How this differs from LG’s previous smart home concepts is a little more vague. However, LG says it’s building off its previous acquisition of AI startup Homey in 2024. If this year’s showcase is as cringe-y as it has been at previous IFAs, we’re in for even more Leave it to Beaver hilarity. —Kyle Barr

Damn, I can’t believe I’m already gearing up for another one of these. The dread of trying to navigate the labyrinthine halls of the Messe Berlin convention center is ready to make me choke on a curry wurst. With that in mind, I need to carry a few extra gadgets to keep me going. So I’m keeping it classic with a MacBook Pro, better to help me when editing pictures from my Ricoh GRIIIX and newfangled GoPro Mission 1 ILS that I’m in the middle of testing. I have one of the action camera maker’s Media Mod with its attached mic alongside the company’s other Wireless Mic System.

Hopefully, that camera and all its accoutrements doesn’t weigh me down. For extra juice on the go, I have a 10,000mAh Genki Energy Pack and an Anker Nano Power Bank. I have my 2TB Crucial portable SSD and my Lenovo travel dock to keep me company. And for my in-flight entertainment, there’s my Switch 2 now packing Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 2 that will finally give me the chance to play Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. I’ve also been jonesing to read Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Word for World is Forest. —Kyle Barr