Europe’s biggest consumer technology trade show, IFA, is taking place once again in early September 2025. Companies from around the world will pack into Berlin’s massive Messe exhibition center to show off their wares. IFA sees a host of announcements from audio, TV, wearable, and smartphone brands, but lately the smart home industry has made the biggest impact at the German trade show.
The 15-inch Vivobook S 15 Windows laptop will come with an eight-core Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 2880 x 1620 display with a 120Hz refresh rate — all for $900 at Best Buy, available today.
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The Claw was an embarrassment, and MSI quickly announced successors with Intel’s new Lunar Lake instead. But though MSI originally said the “MSI Claw 8 AI Plus” should arrive September, it’s now telling ComputerBase it won’t launch till CES in January.
Just to be clear, the ROG Ally X put the final nail in the original Claw’s coffin. Friends don’t let friends buy an original Claw.
First announced at IFA last year, Switchbot’s new humidifier uses cold evaporation and a 4.5-liter tank that you’ll never have to refill yourself — if you own the Switchbot S10 robot vacuum. The latter can automatically bring water to the humidifier when it’s running low.
The SwitchBot Evaporative Humidifier (Auto-refill) is now available for $239.99 / €239.99. It supports Matter through a Switchbot Hub.
*While streaming Netflix at 1080p with an FHD+ screen at just 150 nits of brightness.
Still, that’s eight hours more than its last-gen laptop in the same test, even with the same battery size and display. The only thing on the spec sheet that’s changed is the processor — to Intel Lunar Lake.
These watches hit a nice balance between style and function without bombarding you with information.
The company’s Hue Secure security cameras sync with its smart lighting to flash red lights throughout your home if there’s a breach and sound a siren. But I don’t think they can lock down the bridge.
Here’s my hands-on on with the new hardware from the launch event at IFA 2023 and you can read more about the Hue Secure features (or lack of them) here.
Bridging older smart home gadgets into Matter is finally fully supported, and cameras are on the horizon, but the new smart home standard still has plenty of unfulfilled promises.
“This would have been the coolest gadget ever if it was released in 1995,” says Jon. 27 inches, 1080p, three-hour battery. $999, shipping mid-October or maybe possibly September.
European tech manufacturers know how to make good-looking cameras.
The new Bosch Eyes Outdoor Camera II on display at IFA 2023 has a sleek look and integrated, full-color ambient lighting in addition to a 1,100-lumen floodlight. It only records in 1080p and costs €350, but compared to most floodlight cameras it’s got some je ne sais quoi. It comes in silver and black, but sadly it’s not coming to the US.
TCL has equipped its latest smartphones with its NXTPAPER display technology, which is designed to reduce eye strain. Fundamentally they’re still backlit LCD panels, but they’re LCD panels that emit less blue light, and have an anti-glare coating and a matte-textured finish. Here’s how the display looks on the NXTPAPER 40 5G, whose 90Hz display can get as bright as 500 nits.
Yeelight’s seriously fun Cube Smart Lamp (from $76) got a new feature this week. Announced at IFA 2023, the modular lighting system can now show real-time fan counts from your YouTube and Twitch live streams.
The Matter-compatible light fixture already displays a clock face on four of its cubes, and now it can sync with your YouTube and Twitch channels to display real-time viewer numbers while you stream.
Wi-Fi-connected kitchen appliances have struggled to prove their worth, but Samsung’s not entirely new app could help realize the potential of connected cooking.
The Dreame Roboticmower A1, a new robot lawnmower, can tackle yards as large as half an acre, which is good news for us Americans with big yards.
These electric autonomous grass-cutting devices have struggled to take off in the US due to range issues, complexity, and high costs.
While Dreame’s bot may cost as much as $2,000 (pricing isn’t finalized) it uses lidar mapping so there’s no need for clunky beacons or fiddly guide wire.
