Europe’s biggest take on a tech trade show has reached its inevitable conclusion, and we came away with more than just stories to tell about this year’s IFA conference in Berlin. Messe might not be as glamorous as the Las Vegas Convention Center, but it’s still got plenty to offer.
Here are our hands-on highlights from the IFA 2026 show floor. The best products, the biggest trends, and the tech we reckon gave us just a little taste of what the future might look like.
IFA 2026: Best tech
Samsung’s smarter Family Hub
While Samsung did show off a demo of its upgraded implementation of the AI-powered object recognition integration coming to its Family Hub smart fridges back at CES, the company’s IFA showcase offered the chance to go hands-on with what appears to be the version of the feature that’ll be rolling out to Australia later this year.
The main upshot is that where the Family Hub’s AI vision feature previously recognised just under 90 different food items, Samsung’s smarter take on a fridge can now use Google Gemini to cover thousands of different food items. It can even handle food in a plastic container by reading the labels — though given it is powered by generative AI, you may want to double-check your fridge’s assumptions from time to time.
Lenovo’s Project Swan
Lenovo loves to show off concept products at tech trade shows, and its most eye-catching contribution to this year’s IFA Conference in Berlin was its new Project Swan laptop. This experimental device is an evolution of last year’s rollable ThinkBook Plus Gen 6.
When you hit the shortcut key on the keyboard, the sides of the screen on it stretch outwards. What was a compact 14-inch display expands to become a 17-inch screen. The prototype that we had the chance to play around with was surprisingly lightweight at just 1.6kg and relatively thin at 18.9mm.
However, it’s worth remembering that it is just a concept for now. Still, the fact that Lenovo is one of the only manufacturers to bring that hybrid-minded hardware to market does count for something.
Sonos Beam Ultra
Sonos’ smaller soundbar is finally getting a follow-up in the form of the new Sonos Beam Ultra. The Beam Ultra bumps the number of drivers up from five to nine, offering better bass and a centre channel that’s better built to deliver clear dialogue — especially when used in tandem with Sonos’ AI Speech Enhancement feature.
The real kicker though, is the ability to seamlessly set up a pair of Sonos Play or Move 2 speakers as rear surrounds. Once you’ve opted into this feature, turning a set of portable Sonos speakers into rear surrounds really is as simple as moving them into your home theatre setup. There’s no app or system management involved, and the system is even smart enough to suss out the individual positions of the additional speakers and take advantage of TruePlay accordingly.
Acer Project Dual Play
If I had a dollar for every time Acer unveiled a high-concept, low-practical-use gaming handheld at Berlin’s IFA conference, I’d have $2 — which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.
Picking up where 2024’s Acer Nitro Blaze 11 left off, this year’s Project DualPlay Mini is a gaming handheld with a twist. You can pull the frame of the device upward to reveal an LED-lit keyboard and a set of speakers. You can then flip the screen around and use the device like a sort-of miniature laptop.
There’s no trackpad here, nor any tangible details if, when, or how much it eventually might cost should it make it to market. Still, you gotta hand it to Acer. The Project DualPlay Mini isn’t ready for prime time, but the kind of radical revision that’s becoming increasingly rare in the gaming handheld category.
Acer PD163Q P3 triple screen extender
The spirit of Razer’s Project Valerie concept laptop lives on in Acer’s new PD163Q P3 triple screen extender. This ambitious accessory brings together three 15.6-inch IPS displays with FHD resolution into a single dock-friendly setup.
Impressively, the connection for all three displays is actually streamlined into a single USB-C cable. Whenever you tweak settings like brightness on one display, that adjustment will carry over to the other two as well — which is pretty handy. I can’t imagine this will be a product for everyone, but the potential appeal to power users isn’t hard to imagine.
Nuvell Plantein
Nuvell’s Plantein is a nifty new kitchen appliance designed to make it faster, easier and simpler to produce tofu and other plant-based products. At a glance, the design doesn’t look too far from the average coffee maker. There’s a dial on the side and a small display on the front. Turning raw ingredients into oat milk or tofu is as simple as adding the ingredients, hitting the button, and waiting for the magic to happen.
A Nuvell spokesperson told us it takes around forty minutes to make fresh tofu and less than half that to make plant milk. Given how common plant-based milks have become within cafe culture nowadays, it’s honestly surprising that it’s taken this long for a product like this to crop up more than anything else, and I can’t say I’ll be that shocked if I clock one in my nearest vegan-friendly cafe sooner rather than later either.
Solvia AI Binoculars
The Solvia 8×32 AI Binoculars might be a little niche, but that does little to diminish the fact that they are one of the most novel uses of AI on display at this year’s IFA. These binoculars come with a built-in camera and display, plus the ability to use on-device AI to identify over 10,000 bird species using AI-powered computer vision. This feature works while you’re offline, but if you have access to the cloud, then these binoculars can also identify animals, plants, insects and landmarks.
Tecno’s bezel-less smartphone
Over the past decade, bezels – AKA the black bars that separate the edge of your screen from the edge of the handset itself – have steadily shrunk to the point where they aren’t as much of a talking point. Even so, Tecno’s bezelless concept device is still one of the most eye-catching smartphones on the show floor.
There’s not all that much to it aside from the unprecedented screen-to-body ratio, but given that Apple is rumoured to be readying its own bezel-less handset in 2027, this is almost a sneak peek at next year’s iPhone.
PlantSenso
While the IFA show floor is still chock-full of startups trying their best to find the magic formula when it comes to AI-powered companions, the PlantSenso is one of the few to find a degree of success. This egg-shaped accessory gamifies the work that goes into cultivating your fern friends.
As with a virtual pet, the screen on the PlantSenso reacts to the level of care you apply. There’s also a companion app that keeps you in the loop, with notifications designed to help make it easier to take better care of your plants by reminding you when to water them and by how much. Even though it does feel like the PlantSenso is getting more than a little mileage from Tamagotchi nostalgia, it’s still a really interesting exercise in gamification and a whole lot less creepy than some of the other AI companion devices.
IFA 2026: The trends
Sleepier smart speakers
While Anker’s SleepLab Pro is certainly the most mainstream option in the mix, sleep-oriented speakers proved to be a common sight within the halls of Berlin’s Messe convention centre. The idea here is to offload sleep tracking from a wearable like a smartwatch to a device that can’t run out of battery, while also using sound and light to cultivate a more sleep-friendly environment that can be adapted to suit your individual sleep routine. It’s a fascinating concept, and it’ll be interesting to see if this niche sees the same popularity as its earborne counterpart.
The search for the next robovac
Another major trend at IFA 2026 was an uptick in anything but robot vacuum cleaners. At times, it felt like you couldn’t turn a corner without running into a robotics product of one stripe or another. There’s no shortage of brands looking to chase the dream of finding a robot that consumers are willing to adopt en masse in the same way as robovacs.
Within that conversation, few garnered the same level of attention as Mova’s AstraX. This revved-up take on the mowerbot features an extendable arm akin to the one found on Roborock’s Saros Z70. This appendage is multifunctional and can be customised to suit specific tasks via a handful of interchangeable tool heads.
More maker tech
One of the more visible trends on the show floor was the amount of booth space taken up by brands and startups looking to pitch themselves to the DIY crowd. Even more mainstream tech brands like Anker are expanding into the space with their newly announced direct-to-fabric printers. Only a few years ago, the very idea of a prosumer-grade CNC machine might have been a pipe dream, but based on this year’s IFA, it’s clear that there’s a lot coming down the line for those who like to take making stuff into their own hands.
Better batteries
The phrase ‘semi-solid-state batteries’ is hardly the most enticing one found at this year’s IFA, but more than a few accessory manufacturers are moving to get this technology – and the benefits it brings – into the hands of consumers sooner rather than later. For many, Belkin’s new BoostSolid Cell range might end up being their first encounter with what semi-solid-state batteries have to offer.
These powerbanks integrate a gel-like layer on the inside. This enables a slimmer and more compact form factor, more stable charging performance, better thermal management, and a threefold improvement in battery life. At the moment, the BoostSolid Cell lineup consists of a 5000mAh Qi2 magnetic charger that’s said to be 40% slimmer than the competition and the higher-end UltraCharge Pro 10K 60W, which features an integrated display.
Fergus Halliday attended IFA 2026 as a guest of Lenovo.
The post Best of IFA 2026: 13 eclectic gadgets and trends that stood out appeared first on GadgetGuy.
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