IFA 2016: the best laptops, tablets, and more – The Verge

At IFA 2016, style trumped specs

2016-09-06T13:01:21-04:00

Another of the world's grand tech exhibitions is now in the books, with Berlin hosting what might have been its most varied and intriguing IFA in years. Like other shows, this one had its oddities, such as LG's fridge running Windows 10, but what stood out to me was the practicality and immediate emotional appeal of many of the new products on show. With modern technology now mainstream and reaching a plateau of good-enough hardware, companies are spending less time chasing and explaining new specs and more of their effort on humanizing and styling out their latest gear.

This is not a criticism. I think there's a great deal of substance in …

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Sony’s Signature Walkman and headphones are $5,500 of ridiculous

2016-09-05T14:20:03-04:00

Like a grand old dinosaur that's being left behind by the evolution of the tech industry, Sony is in desperate recovery mode here at IFA. The company has new phones, a rather nice pair of noise-canceling headphones, the imminent PS VR, and… a truly outlandish combo of music player and headphones that costs a mighty $5,499.98. I guess there had to be some outlet for Sony's classic wild-eyed grandeur.

Sony's new Signature audio series consists of the gold-plated NW-WM1Z Walkman, which weighs in at 455g (1lb) and $3,200, the $2,300 MDR-Z1R closed-back headphones, and a desktop headphone amp whose price I haven't even dared to look up. First im …

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Audeze’s terrifying iSine 10 headphones sound terrific

2016-09-04T10:50:41-04:00

I'm ready to crown this the best IFA of this decade. In a show already highlighted by Lenovo's Yoga Book, Acer's ultraslim notebook, and LG's enchanting tunnel of OLED, there's somehow still room to fit in an astounding pair of headphones as well.

Audeze, the boutique audiophile brand responsible for some of the best planar magnetic headphones in the world, has done what many might have thought impossible and shrunken its technology to fit into an in-ear design. The result is the imposing, alien-looking thing you see before you: the $399 Audeze iSine 10. It's basically a 30mm planar magnetic headphone with a funnel to channel its sound into …

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Getting lost in LG’s magical OLED tunnel

2016-09-03T14:09:49-04:00

Most technology out in the world is merely functional, exciting emotions only when it fails to perform routine duties. But sometimes that technology gets used for a higher purpose, such as with LG's OLED tunnel at IFA in Berlin. Created using 216 55-inch curved display, it's a 15-meter walkway that, ironically, stops people in their tracks. LG's marketing isn't hyperbolic when it calls this thing "awe-inspiring."

The OLED tunnel is a microcosm of life itself. It presents beautiful natural images and stars above our heads, and all of us mere humans blessed to be beneath its arch stumble around in a sort of tipsy daze. Not all of us are movin …

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I’ve fallen in love with Lenovo’s Yoga Book

2016-09-02T10:52:59-04:00

The word "innovation" is so overused during a show like IFA that it quickly loses its meaning. It's hard for me to therefore convey the sense of true innovation that I got when I first laid my hands on the Lenovo Yoga Book. This device is a whole new thing. Calling it a mobile productivity device and a versatile 2-in-1, as Lenovo does, really undersells the magnitude of what this Chinese company has achieved with the Yoga Book. There's never been anything like the Yoga Book before, though I get the sense that it will be copied and iterated on for many years to come.

As a quick recap, this is a 10-inch clamshell device, powered by either Win …

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Android companies keep pretending that Android doesn’t exist

2016-09-02T08:22:36-04:00

I've been at IFA, Europe's biggest tech show, for three days now and I've had my eyes filled with a parade of all the shiny, beautiful new technology coming to an Amazon delivery drone near you. Much of that technology is powered by Google's omnipresent Android software, but you wouldn't know it from the way the new devices are presented. Android has become many tech companies' original sin: fundamental to their identity and the character of their products, but buried under a thick veneer of insecure puffery, denial, and evasion.

Welcome to Xperia!

Sony would have us believe that buying an Xperia phone grants us a pass into the exclusive X …

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Acer’s convertible Chromebook R13 is built for Android apps

2016-09-01T18:27:04-04:00

Those itching to run Android software on ChromeOS should check out the new 2-and-1 device from Acer. The convertible $399 Chromebook R13 laptop has a 13.3-inch 1080p touchscreen that makes it suitable to run all variety of mobile apps. Google announced back in May it would begin letting Android developers support ChromeOS starting in the fall, and Acer is one the first device makers to produce a laptop-tablet hybrid that fits the bill.

With regards to specs, the R13 comes with 4GB of memory in 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB varieties with about 12 hours of battery life. It packs a MediaTek quad-core processor and also supports USB-C as well. It'll be …

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Sony is betting the Xperia XZ and X Compact on an unconvincing camera

2016-09-01T12:58:34-04:00

I know it's true of every modern phone, but it's especially true of Sony's new pair of Xperia handsets: the camera will be the most important factor in deciding the fortunes of the Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact. Introduced at IFA 2016 in Berlin today, Sony's Xperia XZ triples down on camera technology with a new laser autofocus, RGBC-IR white balance sensor, and its traditionally strong 23-megapixel imaging sensor. The Japanese company's new flagship even has a dedicated shutter button. And the Xperia X Compact is a smaller, less powerful vessel for that same upgraded camera system.

One of the reasons the camera is going to be so pivotal i …

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This tiny sensor is shaped like a peanut and tracks temperature changes

2016-09-01T12:00:07-04:00

Sen.se, the smart home company behind the slightly creepy hub called Mother, is back with a handful of tiny, single-purpose sensors meant to be scattered around your home. The line of devices are called SensePeanuts, and the first one being unveiled is the ThermoPeanut, meant to track temperature wherever you put it.

The ThermoPeanut is weirdly what it sounds like. It's a peanut-shaped gadget that tracks temperature. It uses Bluetooth - so it doesn't require a hub - to connect directly to iOS and Android devices. It'll record temperature ratings as often as you program it to, and then report those readings back to an app. It can measure tem …

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Sony’s new headphones cancel noise, but not people’s voices

2016-09-01T07:15:07-04:00

One of the biggest problems with wearing headphones - …aside from this… - is losing awareness of the sounds around you. Once loud music is playing, you can't hear if a friend is trying to talk to you, or if there's an announcement on the subway, or if something falls and breaks in the room next to you. It's all cut out, especially if you're using noise cancellation.

Sony is trying to solve that problem with its latest pair of headphones, the elegantly named MDR-1000X. The headphones have several noise-cancellation modes, which give you the option to block out as much sound as possible, or to filter in voices or ambient noise. The intention …

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