It has been raining gadgets and high-tech at Berlin, which has been hosting IFA 2024, the world's largest consumer electronics and home appliances show. With several brands showcasing their latest and soon-to-be-launched offerings, the air has been thick with innovation and tech wizardry.
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Here are seven products in particular that stand out even in the tech brilliance that is IFA 2024:
Lenovo Auto Twist AI Concept: A Twist On Notebook
Lenovo was on top of its innovation game at IFA 2024. The star of its show was the Auto Twist Concept notebook, which turned heads by turning itself. As its name indicates, it is a notebook whose display twists by itself, using AI to track your movements through sound, and moves to face you as you move around it.
The Twist AI has a motorised hinge which can move by hearing the sound of your voice and can also switch to different modes on voice command. It is designed in a way that the screen of the notebook would flip open, twist 180 degrees and fold back down, even when it is in tablet mode.
While similar concepts have existed in the market for a while, Lenovo's take on it is the most impressive by far. Combined with AI, the Auto Twist notebook can make technology more accessible for people with disabilities as well as regular users. Will it go commercial? We do hope it does.
Acer Nitroblaze 7: Gaming In Your Hand
Acer at IFA joined the handheld gaming console league with the launch of the Nitroblaze 7 gaming console.
A very handy 25.6 x 11.35 x 2.25 cm in size, and tipping the scales at a relatively lightweight 670 grams, the Nitroblaze 7 comes with some serious hardware muscle. It features a 7-inch full HD IPS touchscreen display with 144 Hz fast variable refresh rate and is powered by the Ryzen 7 8840 HS chipset with what Acer calls "38 AI TOPS for cutting-edge AI capabilities" with built-in AMD Radeon 780M Graphics.
It also has 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 2 TB of storage, making it a gaming powerhouse. It has two USB ports, but no touchpad and no back buttons either, but comes with a dedicated key for a virtual keypad and mode switch buttons.
It runs on Windows 11 Home, has a 3.5 mm audio jack and Acer's own app, Acer Game Space, which provides a single place from which to access all your gaming platforms.
Will the Nitroblaze do better than the Lenovo Legion Go and the Asus ROG Ally? It has the specs to succeed.
HMD Fusion: Them Modular Phone Feels
Are modular phones making a comeback? Nothing had recently launched the CMF Phone 1, with a back that could be removed and replaced with different accessories, giving it a modular element. At IFA, HMD released a modular phone whose back can be changed as well.
The HMD Fusion comes with a back that has a six-pin connector which can be used to connect back cases with different functionalities. HMD calls these cases Smart outfits. These include a case for ring light, wireless charging, rugged protection (IP68), and even a gaming controller unit that gives the device some very console feel with controls on the side of the feel.
Apart from this modular back, the HMD Fusion smartphone comes with specs that are otherwise relatively budget segment: a 6.56-inch HD+ IPS LCD display with 90 Hz refresh rate and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor with up to 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage.
It does pack in some serious camera megapixels too - with a dual camera set up on the back comprising a 108-megapixel main sensor, with a 2-megapixel supporting sensor, and a 50-megapixel sensor on the front for selfies and video calls.
It is powered by Android 14 out of the box and comes with a 5,000 mAh battery with 33 W charging support as well. The phone comes with a starting price of EUR 249 (roughly Rs. 23,400), which is a little expensive for its spec sheet, but then this is a phone that many will buy to get their own back.
Honor Magic Fold V3: Slimmest Fold Out There
IFA 2024 also saw the world's slimmest foldable phone being launched. Honor released the Magic Fold V3 which not only comes with flagship specs but also brings a frame which is the thinnest of all foldables out there– it is just 4.4 mm thick when unfolded, and a mere 9.2 mm even when folded (that's as thick as a OnePlus 12).
Apart from being really slim, the phone comes with specs like the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, with up to 16 GB RAM and up to 512 GB storage.
That really slim frame still holds a big battery of 5,150 mAh which comes with 66W wired and 50W wireless charging support. There is a triple camera composition on the back comprising two 50-megapixel and one 40-megapixel cameras, and two 20-megapixel selfie cameras - one on the cover screen and one on the main one.
The phone brings some really good display numbers to the table too – it features a 7.92-inch foldable OLED display with a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz and a 6.43-inch cover display. Now, this is the sort of size and power one wants in a foldable!
Beyerdynamic Amiron 300: TWS With Terrific Sound
They might be very popular, but TWS are generally not known for audiophile-level sound quality. Legendary audio brand Beyerdynamic is looking to change that. The brand unveiled the Amiron 300 at IFA, loaded with not just top-of-the-line features and specs, but terrific sound.
The buds come with the brand’s signature 10 mm dynamic drivers along with 6 microphones and noise reduction algorithms. Also on board is Bluetooth 5.3 multipoint connectivity which comes with up to 10 hours of playback time on a single charge, with up to 38 hours of total battery life with the charging case.
Add support for Qi wireless charging and Byeredynamic's brilliantly clear audio to the blend and it was hardly surprising that these were the buds that everyone wanted in their ears at Berlin!
Intel Lunar Lake Core Ultra 200V: Taking On Qualcomm & AMD
It might have been keeping a relatively low profile, but processor giant Intel roared right back into chip centre stage with its Lunar Lake Core Ultra 200V-series processors at Berlin. Intel says that these are the fastest mobile CPU cores around, capable of delivering gaming performance that is well ahead of its rivals, even while serving up much longer battery life (almost 20 hours, in some cases).
Intel did not fight shy of comparing its new processors with traditional rival AMD's Ruzen AI 300 chips and newcomer (in PC space) Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite series, pointing out that its chips could run apps and games that the Snapdragon could not.
The Lunar Lake chips also come with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 and Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, making them potentially the new benchmarks for Windows notebooks. It is now up to notebook manufacturers to make the most of them.
The Intel vs AMD vs Qualcomm battle just got very interesting.
Amazfit T-Rex 3: New T-Rex In Smartwatch Town
There are now a fair number of ‘tough’ smartwatches in the market, and joining this brigade at IFA 2024 was the latest in Amazfit's T-Rex series, the T-Rex 3. The smartwatch comes with a 1.5-inch AMOLED display with 2000 nits brightness, drawing comparisons with the Google Pixel Watch 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7, and with 316L stainless steel bezels that give it a super tough look. It is pretty tough in reality too, in keeping with its name.
It boasts a military-grade rating and can withstand 70 degrees Celsius heat, and -30 degrees Celsius cold and can keep ticking even in 100 meters of water. It boasts dual GPS for better tracking and even has offline Maps access with turn-by-turn direction details.
Also on board are storm and tidal alerts as well as a compass, altitude tracker, and air pressure tracker. Its battery lasts 27 days of 'typical' use and 13 days of heavy use, and can even last more than a week on GPS Max usage - figures that few watches can come close to matching.
Add to this heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, smart features galore (including speech-to-text replies to messages), and the ability to monitor more than 170 types of workouts, and the Amazfit T-Rex 3 emerges as a terrific option for those who want a tough watch without going Apple, Galaxy or Garmin way.