Zach’s Best of IFA 2024

Note: This feature was first published on 9 September 2024.

IFA 2024 is done and dusted, I’ve clocked a total of 125,987 steps since landing in Berlin, and have seen many, many things. Most of these highlights are on our TikTok page. If you haven’t yet subscribed to it, do check it out. Here are however, my personal favourites from the show:

Midea 4-in-1 Washer, Dryer, Vacuum and Mop

The moment I saw this on the show floor, it hit me. That's the perfect combo, the perfect place for a robot vacuum. It should not be a separate device where you have to find some place in your cluttered home to put one, especially these days when robot vacuums pretty much all come with mopping functions that require water tanks and docking stations. A washing machine already has the plumbing needed for clean and waste water, so a robot vacuum would fit right in. Every home makes space for a washing machine, a natural home for a robot vacuum to dock and return too. While I am impressed with some of the improvements made by the usual robot vacuum suspects (Dreame, Ecovacs, Roborock, Shark, etc.), this Midea concept just feels like it's the advancement we actually need.

LG AeroCat 

I must admit that I scoffed a little when this was presented by the demo guy at the LG booth, but the more I think of it, the more it makes sense. If you look at the picture, towards the back, there's the usual multi-storey scratch post seat many cat owners have. It's big, it takes up space, and it does nothing else. So, why not have an actual useful appliance that can double up as a scratch post and seat? In the case of the AeroCat, it's an air purifier that can help keep the environment cleaner, and has sensors that can monitor Fluffy's health too. Win win.

Samsung Ballie

Both Samsung and LG has their take on the home AI assistant robot, and to be honest, I'm not entirely sold on the idea of a robot running my household yet. I already have Google Home to automate the rest of my appliances with simple commands. I'm not yet cranky-lonely that I need an AI companion to chat with, naturally or not. The more I see Ballie  in action (since CES 2024) however, the more I think of it as an autonomous projector. I could see myself having Ballie and only giving it commands to play movies at X wall, or Y room and I'd actually be contented with that. All the AI assistant stuff is just by-the-way. 

TCL RayNeo X2 AR Glasses

From time to time, you come across a product that just stays in your mind. This IFA, it was the TCL RayNeo X2 AR glasses. I only had about a minute trying them on, and I can only think of wanted to get more time with it. For one, these are the first AR glasses I've put on that doesn't make me look more like a dork than I already am. There's no glaring second screen HUD display or awkward camera lenses sticking out the of the frame like frog eyes. With transparent display technologies, the AR HUD is seamlessly integrated into the lens; you can barely see the outline in the picture above. TCL doesn't try to do too many things with it either. It's not a mixed reality device, it doesn't do movies or gaming; it's main purpose is AR for everyday scenarios. Real-time language translation, locale navigation and mapping, and an AI chatbot. Yes, I did say I'm not a cranky-loner yet, but this is more like Tony Stark chatting with Jarvis, than Tom Hanks talking with Wilson in Cast Away. The technology and UI is far from seamless (at least in a 1-minute demo), but Large Language Models (LLM) and multimodal AI like Vision GPT already make these things possible. It's an exciting piece of tech that we've come really far since the Google Glass.

ASUS Zenbook S 14 (Intel Lunar Lake)

I am cheating a bit because ASUS isn't at IFA 2024, but Intel did just launch the Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) processors in Berlin just a couple days before IFA started, and most PC brands launched updated Lunar Lake notebooks in-and-around the same time. Some of them were at IFA, some weren't. So, I say it counts. It's my list. Why the Zenbook and not any of the other brands? I will admit that I am a little biased here because it seemed like 90% of all the demos that Intel showed during the Lunar Lake launch were run on the Zenbooks. Even the benchmarking sessions, and I got to see how it performed on Procyon, Tomb Raider and CyberPunk 2077. I guess the impression just stuck.

This isn't to say the others aren't as good, but this list is made up of products I got to try out at IFA. If I didn't get any hands-on time for it to make an impression, then it's not getting in the list.

Tecno Megamini G1

Now, we move away from thin and efficient to the land of gaming excess. For the longest time, some of the best small form factor gaming PCs actually came from Intel in the form of the NUC Extreme Kit, and after Intel gave that up, ASUS took the NUC and gave it their ROG spin. However, even an ROG NUC isn't as impressive as the Tecno Megamini G1, which screams gaming from the RGB lighting to the ridiculous L-shaped watercooled setup. How did they fit an Intel Core i9-13900H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, 32GB RAM, and 2TB HDD into that tiny cube?

XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro

When I first played around with the OG Samsung Freestyle, I loved its form factor and its versatility. However, it wasn't perfect. There was the constant issue with its hinge getting lose, brightness not high enough to be used effectively during the day, and it was quite chunky, even if it's not that heavy. The XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro seems to solve all of those pain points. It is a rather big design jump from the MoGo 2, and it now resembles the Freestyle's tube shape, but with a more solid hinge, compact design, double the brightness, double the speakers (it's still a 5W driver, so don't expect wonders), and runs on the newer Google TV platform. Pricing seems to be more competitive too, as XGIMI is currently throwing in a battery-pack/tripod mount and a 5x magnifying lens as a kit as well.

Ninja Luxe Cafe

This one is not new for the show, but it has not come to Singapore yet and it's the first time I've laid my eyes, and hands on one for a test run. Being the newcomer in this category, the Ninja Luxe Cafe goe sup against well established brands like Breville and Delonghi, which is no easy task. However, Ninja didn't just make yet another semi-automatic espresso machine. It looks like they went down a list of all the pain points consumers had with some of those more popular machines and resolved it with the Luxe Cafe. It's actually very similar to how the MoGo 3 Pro solves the Fresstyle's issues. The Luxe Cafe has a bunch of sensors and scales all built in so it can detect things like the portafilter basket being used and the flow rate of the last brew, then recommend the right dosage and grind size for your coffee beans based on the type of drink you want to make. It can also froth milk in two modes for hot and cold drinks. It's so smart, it's almost idiot-proof.

Dreo BaristaMaker

Two coffee gadgets in one list? Yes, I am the weird coffee guy, and it's my list. I've known about the Dreo BaristaMaker from Kickstarter and it was frankly a surprise to see them at IFA. Now, if you're not familiar, the usual way for espresso machines (like the NInja Luxe Cafe above) forth milk is through a steam wand. That's generally been the only way to get the really silky, velvety microfoam mlik texture that's capable of pouring latte art. The alternative are those $2 stick frothers from Ikea that just basically churns milk into a chunk of dry popping foam. Many people are also familiar with the Nespresso Aerocinno, that also mostly churns milk in a thick foam that cannot be poured. What if you just wanted that silky milk texture, you don't necessarily have to drink coffee. You can be into tea, matcha, hot chocolate, babycinos, any and all alternative milks like oat, soy, coconut. This thing will whip it up into that smooth texture without the use of a steam wand and without needing to learn a new skill. Once you've had textured milk or beverage, you really don't want to drink something flat again.

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