#IFA2017 – Another IFA came and went, and long with it hundreds of products were launched and demonstrated. It was a fantastic show, but it can be overwhelming. We picked what we think was the best product that debuted, and in no particular order, here are the Best of IFA 2017:
Disney Star Wars: Jedi Challenges
Disney has built a fun experience with its Jedi Challenges augmented reality (AR) games and content. The package consists of an AR headset, a light saber controller, and an AR tracker pod. You bring your smartphone, which will power the experience. Our favorite part: lightsaber dueling with Vader himself!
LG V30 Smartphone
The LG V30 is the company’s new high-end, most-powerful, handset. Built with an entirely new design, it gives users a 6-inch OLED “Full Vision” display in a form factor that feels like a standard phone. Additionally, its dual-camera setup remains unique in the whole industry with a very good main camera supplemented by an ultra-wide angle camera, to take shots that other smartphones will envy. Don’t miss our LG V30 Review.
Lenovo Yoga 920
The Lenovo Yoga 920 is an impressively thin and light 13.9” laptop. We like the clean and luxurious metal design without superfluous details. Designed to be powerful, it will be powered by up to a Gen8 Intel Core i7 mobile processor. To move data quickly an expand the computer, it has two Thunderbolt 3 ports that can accept multiple 4K monitors and high-speed docking solutions.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
Revealed just ahead of the show, the Galaxy Note 8 is the prefered smartphone for those who want a pen-driven phone Xperia ear
experience. Samsung even changed its “Infinity Display” design to maximize the writeable surface area. The new dual-camera setup makes taking portrait pictures easy. Finally, it still has the low-light camera module to beat.
Dell VR Visor
Affordable VR headsets are coming on the Windows platform, and the competition will be stiff. We liked the Dell VR Visor (and controllers) for its clean design. It is comfortable to wear, and easy to tweak to the best settings. Last, but not least, it looks good just sitting on your desk.
Motorola Moto x4
The new Moto x4 smartphone is a very well built mid-range smartphone that will address the needs of the masses, at a budget they can afford. The x4 hits where it counts: large battery, competitive camera and Android 7.0 should make it an attractive phone in the ~$400 market.
Sony Xperia Ear Open-style Concept
Sony was demonstrating its next-gen XPERIA Ear, called “Sony Xperia Ear Open-style Concept.” Excellent sound quality aside, one of the design goals was to be able to wear these, without blocking completely sound coming in. It has four microphones that can selectively catch your voice commands in the best way, and they also serve for active noise-cancellation. The integrated motion sensor allows the user to just “nod” for some commands.
Sandisk 400GB microSD
The title says it all. MicroSD cards now have more storage capacities than most laptops. At IFA 2017, Sandisk has shown that it can pack 400GB in a package smaller than a thumbnail. Amazing.
Samsung Gear Sport
Sports has become the go-to feature for a lot of wrist-worn wearable tech, and Samsung has taken notice. Designed after careful market research, The Samsung Gear Sport offers serious fitness features and advanced biometrics tracking capabilities in a durable yet fashionable package.
Bang & Olufsen BeoVision Eclipse
Bang and Olufsen create tech “artwork” pieces that look beautiful whether they are turned on or off. The $11000 BeoVision Eclipse is a 55”-65” OLED 4K/HDR TV (LG Panel). It has an integrated 450 Watt sound system, which is not surprising since B&O also makes dream speakers. The stand is motorized, which allows the TV to rotate towards your location silently.
Logitech CRAFT Keyboard
It’s nice to see a company work out both hardware and software to bring us a more productive experience. Logitech’s CRAFT Keyboard has a touch-sensitive knob that interfaces with popular application to increase productivity and comfort when performing everyday tasks. The manual dial offers more precision than using a mouse cursor.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III Camera
Although mobile photography rules day to day life, it is sometimes tempting to use a larger camera for even higher quality photos. The Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III camera is impressive because it is not only a powerful camera that has all the knobs and tweaks that professionals will love, it is also a good fit for the casual photographer. It is tuned to have an out of the box automatic experience that will crank out stunning photos.
Pimax 8K VR headset
Demonstrated at CES 2017, the Pimax 8K VR headset made an apparition at IFA in the form of a new, near-final, prototype. Things have improved since we last tried it. The twin 3840 x 2160 display offers a 20-degrees view angle (from ~100 for conventional headsets) makes it more natural to move your eyes around a bit, instead of just using head motion to see what’s around you. VR feels less like being in a diving helmet with a wide view angle.
Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset
What if you could record sound and replay it exactly the way your first heard it? That is the proposition of the Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset. The concept might seem simple, but this is new and frankly, exciting. As we are in the era of VR and 360-photos, it is logical that we will also want our sound experience to match our visual one. Well done Sennheiser.
Invoxia Roadie
GPS trackers are nothing new, but when Invoxia comes up with the Roadie tracker that has an 8-months battery in a USB-key form-factor, we could only take notice. The secret of its battery longevity is that it does not use the cellular network or Bluetooth, just GPS, and WiFi. There’s a 3-year subscription included ($10/yr after that) and a fee app (Android+iOS) to track it.
