Event Coverage

IFA 2015: Highlights from Europe's biggest tech show

By James Lu - 7 Sep 2015

IFA 2015: Highlights from Europe's biggest tech show

The biggest companies in tech have descended on Berlin this weekend to showcase their latest products, gadgets and innovations at IFA 2015. Here's just some of the things that caught our eye.

This prototype Panasonic Smart Mirror can show you new makeup and facial hair styles on your face in real time. If you can take the punishment, it can also point out all your flaws and suggest products you can buy to improve them.

This cute little guy is the BB8 droid. Essentially a Sphero (he's made by the same company) with a droid head stuck on top, the BB8 is an officially licensed version of the rolling droid from the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed movie. BB8 costs US$149. Here's a quick video of him in action:

The Samsung Gear S2 might be the first smartwatch that makes me actually believe that smartwatches are the future. The 1.2-inch AMOLED display is surrounded by a brilliant rotating bezel, which you use to navigate the watch's custom UI. Click for our detailed first looks.

The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium boasts the world's first 4K smartphone display with a whopping 3,840 x 2,160 pixels resolution. With its 5.5-inch display, that means it has 806 ppi! The big question is, how long can its 3,430 mAh capacity battery keep it running?

Razer has brought back long-time cult favorite, the Diamondback! First released in 2004, but discontinued and impossible to find for the past five years or so, Razer has updated the Diamondback with a new 5G 16,000DPI sensor and Chroma lighting. Fortunately it will retain the slim ambidextrous design of the original Diamondback. Click for more info.

XMG is a German gaming brand that is sort of like the Aftershock of Europe. This 17-inch gaming laptop is the U705, a beast of a machine with a desktop Intel core i7-4790T processor, an NVIDIA GTX 980M, and dual SSDs. It will set you back €1500 (~S$2400) 

This is the Logitech Blok iPad case. It may not look like much but the case's square corners and polymer structure gives it greater protection than a standard case and a drop protection rating of up to 1.8m. You can get one for your iPad Mini too.

To go along with its UHD TVs, Samsung is launching the UBS-K8500 UHD Bluray player, which sports a curved design to go along with the company's many curved TVs. The UBS-K8500 will be able to play movies at four times the resolution of standard Blu-ray discs, and with a colour palette that's 64 times larger.

Action cam company Nilox had this interesting motorbike simulator at its booth that uses footage captured from Moto GP World Champion Marc Marquez's bike to let you experience a Moto GP race.

Did you know there's an entire corner of IFA set aside for Singapore under the banner "Future Ready: Singapore"? Here's one of the products we spotted there. It's an air filled vest you can wear under your regular clothes that massages your back (although the model I tried on was a bit bulky and would definitely be noticeable). It feels a bit like an OSIM massage chair. 

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