IFA 2015: All stories from Europe’s biggest tech show
Sep
03,
2015
For 51 weeks of the year, the German capital of Berlin is far more concerned with techno than tech – but in early September that all changes thanks to IFA, Europe’s biggest annual consumer technology expo.
The Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (that’s IFA to you and me) has been running since way back in 1924, making it one of the world’s oldest trade shows, and nowadays it’s used as a platform for launching many of the biggest consumer tech brands’ new products. TVs, home cinema gear, hi-fi, appliances, cameras, PCs and smartphones. In short, we can expect a heck of a lot of fresh gear to drop and when it does, we're putting it on this page.
While the show officially opens its door on 4th September, many exhibitors are unveiling their new wares ahead of time. We've got boots on the ground in Berlin to cover all the biggest launches, and we'll update this story as the show progresses. Make sure to check back regularly.
Sony
Update 02/09/15: Well, someone had to do it eventually, and it turns out that someone was Sony. The Japanese company just unveiled the world’s first 4K smartphone in the 5.5in Xperia Z5 Premium, which boasts a frankly bonkers pixel density of 808ppi.
That phone sits alongside two other new models, the 5.2in Xperia Z5 and the 4.6in Xperia Z5 Compact. All three new handsets have a Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM and expandable storage, and we’ve had hands-on time with the lot of ‘em. So go and check out our first impressions of the Xperia Z5 Premium, the Xperia Z5 and the Xperia Z5 Compact, why don’t ya?
Huawei
Update 02/09/15: Huawei’s IFA was all about watching and touching. Erm, sorry, that sounds weird: we mean the Watch (the company’s first smartwatch) and the Force Touch-equipped Mate S smartphone (the first smartphone in the world to offer a Force Touch screen).
The Android Wear-based Watch has a (perhaps surprisingly) gorgeous design that, we think, puts it in the upper echelons of smartwatches. Elegant and understated, its face is sapphire crystal and it’s looking worth every cent of its €399 price tag.
The Mate S, meanwhile, is a 5.5in Android smartphone that features Force Touch, meaning its screen is far more pressure sensitive than any other phone’s. We’d thought Apple’s next iPhone would be the first to offer this feature, so kudos to Huawei for getting it out there before next week’s Apple launch.
Intel
It’s new chip time for Intel. The company has chosen IFA 2015 as the venue for officially launching its sixth generation of CPUs, dubbed “Skylake”. The new processors will replace Broadwell architecture, and Intel says that, were you to compare a Skylake-equipped laptop to a comparable model that’s three years old, it would offer 2.5 times the overall performance, 30 times the graphics performance and three times the battery life.
Intel says 800 computers are already slated to use the new silicon, with the first wave due to arrive by the end of 2015. There will be something like 50 different editions of Skylake processor, so you can expect to see them on everything from tiny stick PCs to hulking all-in-one desktops.
The company also showed off a conceptual product that name checks a good portion of tech’s current obsessions: a 360-degree selfie stick that records 4K video for VR playback purposes. Powered by six GoPro action cameras, it captures everything around it in pristine detail, allowing you to later don an Oculus Rift headset and relive moments in terrifying fidelity.
Toshiba
Toshiba has unveiled the world’s first 12.5in laptop with an ultra HD screen. The Satellite Radius 12 is a compact Windows 10 notebook with a 4K resolution, as well as USB Type-C and one of the aforementioned new Intel Skylake processors (up to Core i7, depending on your options). It’s a convertible to boot, which means you can flip that pixel-packed screen and transform the notebook into a tablet.
Acer
We can’t exactly remember the last time a company released a phone designed specifically for gaming (we do, however, recall that such efforts have never been particularly impressive) but Acer has done just that with the Predator 6, a hugely powerful handset with a 10-core processor, quad-driver speaker array, 4GB of RAM and a 21MP camera. Just the thing for playing Angry Birds 2 like a pro, we suppose.
Samsung
Update 26/08/15: Samsung customarily holds a pre-IFA event in Berlin to give the world its first official look at that particular year’s edition of the Galaxy Note phablet, but that's obviously not happening this year - the company already announced the Galaxy Note 5 alongside the Galaxy S6 Edge+, and the former isn't even launching in Europe. Ho hum.
However, the Korean giant is still holding an event on 3rd September, and one thing we're sure to see is the Gear S2 smartwatch.
We know because Samsung has been kind enough to release photos and a video of it, which we’ve embedded above for your viewing pleasure. There’s even talk that we might see a second variant of the Gear S2 called the Classic, but that’s merely speculation at this point.
Samsung will probably have lots of other new products and prototypes at IFA – don’t be surprised to find at least one record-breakingly vast 4K television looming over the show floor, or a 4K Blu-ray player.
Update 28/07/15: Backing up what we already suspected, Samsung looks like it isn't going to disappoint at IFA despite having already announced its latest flagships.
In yet another teaser video which you can enjoy above, the South Korean manufacturer reckons it's "the place to be" in Berlin for all things Internet of Things.
Without it giving anything more away than that, what we can expect to see from Samsung is anyone's guess - given that some tech companies are going as far as putting cameras in ovens, who knows what it reckons is the future of connected tech.
What the tech corp did point out, though, was that anyone with a Gear VR headset will be able to get involved with IFA in wholly virtual way - which would certainly save on the plane ticket to Berlin.
Microsoft
It’s been announced that Nick Parker, a corporate vice president at Microsoft’s OEM division, will be delivering a keynote speech at IFA 2015, so we can expect the big M to be a major exhibitor there too. The OEM division is responsible for third-party Windows 10 gear like tablets, 2-in-1s, laptops and all-in-ones, so we can expect new devices in those fields to be getting plenty of stage time.
That doesn’t mean we won’t see phones, too. We know there’s a new range of Lumia handsets incoming, and Microsoft launched the Lumia 730, 735 and 830 models at a pre-IFA event in Berlin last year, suggesting it could use this year’s event to unveil the first Windows 10-based Lumia models like the 940 and 940 XL. However, according to one rumour Microsoft will save its 2015 phones for a special Windows 10 Mobile event on 24th September. So we may not get any Microsoft phones at IFA 2015 at all.
LG
Even if the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 isn’t unveiled at IFA, the show might still see the launch of a South Korean phablet: the rumoured LG G4 Pro. Likely to be the spiritual successor to 2014’s G Pro 2, the G4 Pro seems set to be a straight-up rival to the Galaxy Note 5 with 6in screen, stylus and premium, possibly metal, build.
If it’s the real deal, expect it to be unveiled at the conference’s opening keynote on 4th September, which is being delivered by LG Display CEO and President Sang-Beom Han, who, given his job title, will probably talk a lot about screens. So we’d put big money on new UHD 4K tellies coming too – and LG has promised to give us a glimpse of “the future of TV”.
Update 26/08/15: Turns out LG wasn't joking about those tellies. It's set to launch no fewer than four 4K OLED TVs being launched at IFA 2015: two flat, two curved, and three of them HDR-compatible.
Also officially slated for an IFA showing is the G Pad II, a 10.1in Android 5.1.1 tablet with a skinny 7.8mm frame and a huge 7,400mAh battery.
And rumour has it that LG will be one of several companies to show off a new Android Wear smartwatch. Yes, according to reports there'll be a Watch Urbane-inspired wearable that ditches webOS for Android Wear. Stay tuned for more.
Update 27/08/15: As if all of that wasn't enough, LG has staked its claim on the mobile accessories market with the announcement of a roll-up physical keyboard for 10in tablets.
The aptly-named Rolly Keyboard is a polycarbonate key-tapper offering pocketable practicality for serious on-the-go typists, folding up along four lines into an almost-dinky, digit-drumming device.
Debuting alongside the rest of LG's IFA releases, the Rolly demonstrates the breadth of the Korean manufacturer's expertise - we just don't know where to look first.
Motorola
Update 26/08/15: With Motorola having launched its 2015 range of smartphones already, there's not a great deal for it to debut at IFA. But there’s always the possibility of a Moto 360 2 smartwatch. While the original Moto 360 wasn’t perfect, it was the first smartwatch that actually looked like something you’d want on your wrist – so Motorola has quite a tough act to follow with its replacement. One report says that there'll be a raft of new Android Wear watches making their way to IFA, with a Moto wrist-wrapper among them.
Update 27/08/15: And that possibility seems almost certain to become a reality: sneaky snaps have revealed rumours regarding two sizes of Moto 360 to apparently be true.
Carrying the tell-tale lugs on their outer edges, the new 360s look to be pursuing all things premium, complete with leather straps, and it seems IFA will be their unveiling.
The rumour mill further suggests the new Motos will be labelled 360S and 360L - no prizes for guessing which is which.
HTC
The VR headset that HTC has co-created with Valve, the Vive, will definitely be a part of the IFA 2015 “experience”. We know that because HTC has announced that IFA will be among the stops on the Vive’s “world tour”, which has already begun. So while attendees will get a chance to go eyes-on with the Vive, we don’t imagine that’ll mean any new announcements regarding the headset.
Update 26/08/15: HTC usually launches its flagship smartphones later in the autumn, but a lot about its next phone, the Aero/A9, has been leaking out of late. Could it be set for an IFA unveiling? We'd bet against it, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility.
Panasonic
LG aside, Panasonic appears to be the only major manufacturer interested in launching an OLED TV. So far it’s only showed off prototypes, so IFA 2015 could well be the place we get our first look at an actual consumer product version. Rumours point to Panasonic’s first OLED TV as sporting a curved screen with a 4K resolution, but until the show gets underway we won’t know for sure.
Back at CES in January, Panasonic unveiled a prototype 4K Blu-ray player. Since then, the Blu-ray Disc Association has finalised the standards for the 4K Blu-ray format, meaning the IFA 2015 could well see Panasonic (and other manufacturers like Sony, Samsung and LG) unveiling actual consumer 4K Blu-ray players. Expect them to be expensive, but capable of delivering the absolute best image quality of any source around, with support for HDR as well as UHD resolutions.
Source: Stuff
