• The Aqua20 Pro Ultra Roller X Complete is Dreame's new flagship robovac
• World's first robovac to use heated steam at 180°C as part of its mop system
• Can also clear double-step thresholds up to an impressive 3.9in / 10cm

When I spoke to a load of major robot vacuum brand execs about where they thought robovacs were heading in the next five-to-10 years, a common theme cropped up: the desire to close the performance gap between manual and robotic floor cleaners. That's not just the vacuuming power, but the mopping prowess too.

And so, at IFA 2026, we have the world's first robot vacuum with steam cleaning powers: the Dreame Aqua20 Pro Ultra Roller X Complete. It's an exciting prospect, but based on the demo I saw, I'm not sure I'd be throwing out my manual steam cleaner any time soon.

The Aqua20 Pro Ultra (I'm not typing the full name each time) vaporizes water into 356°F / 180°C steam, which is pushed out through four outlets along the roller edge. This steam is designed to loosen tough, dried-on stains. The roller then gently scrubs them away, using hot water.

On the demo I saw, the steam function seemed quite gentle — there wasn't enough to be visible on a still photo, although you can see it in the video clip above. My first concern about the system is that there might not be enough steam to really make an impact.

The second is that because the heating happens inside the bot itself, using it has a big impact on battery life. I spoke to Dawn Chen, a Director at Dreame, and he confirmed that with the steam function on, the robot's runtime is around 30 to 40 minutes, compared to around four hours with it off. Steam needs to be switched on and off manually, in the app, and can only be used for a zone that's less than 10 square meters in size. Chen explained that the function is meant for spot-cleaning only; to tackle stubborn and dried on stains.

That runtime is fairly limiting. It makes it difficult to use the steam function as part of a more extensive cleaning session, which is a situation I expect will be common.

Making it work

The process of adding the steam function caused Dreame a few headaches. "During this R&D process, we faced two main problems. The first is about the limescale. Because we are turning the water into steam, this process will produce a lot of limescale," Chen explained. "To solve this problem, we added some limescale remover inside the robot, in the pipeline."

The second — and perhaps bigger — challenge was to do with controlling the temperature inside robot itself. "Because we put this kind of heat inside the robot body, the heat it produces will affect other components, especially the electronic components inside the robot body," Chen told me.

To address the issue, the engineers had to add internal insulation to protect the different components. And that was easier said than done — Dreame had to completely redesign the inside of the robovac to add the steam components, and insulation, while still maintaining the streamlined shape and size.

All the talk of limescale and preventing damage to internal components instills a certain amount of fear in me. I can't help but wonder if iRobot might have had the better approach — that brand's new Roomba Max 875 expels warm mist rather than steam, and the active heating happens in-dock rather than on-bot.

The demo showed a much denser cloud of mist than Dreame's bot was expelling, and because the Rooma bot itself isn't doing any active heating, using the mist function has a minimal impact on battery life. Of course, the really important thing is how effectively each robot cleans, and we won't know that until we've had a chance to test them.

Other upgrades

Back to the Aqua20 Pro. Aside from the headline steam feature, you'll also find an upgraded 'Proleap' system that can now bump the bot over single steps up to 2in / 5cm, or double steps up to 3.9in / 10cm. That's the tallest threshold clearance I've seen from any brand (so far) although in the demo it sometimes took a couple of run-ups to make it over.

Dreame has also added enhanced AI vision with adaptive learning — so the robovac can apparently react to moving objects and re-plan its route, in real time, in response.

The roller can kick out from the side of the robovac by up to 8cm / 3in — much further than its predecessor, the Aqua10 Ultra Roller Complete — to get nice and close to the edges of rooms. To avoid unwanted dampness while all this is going on, the main vacuum roller and side sweeper can both lift (by 5mm and 10mm respectively) while the mopping is happening. The roller can also lift 15mm when the bot is traversing carpet.

The Dreame Aqua20 Pro Ultra Roller X Complete is due to launch on September 21 in Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland, followed by a number of other European countries. I don't have a launch date for the UK yet, but Chen promises it'll arrive before the end of the year. Due to FCC regulations, launch in the US is unconfirmed.

• iRobot has unveiled its new flagship Roomba Max 875 Combo
• It sprays out heated mist to dislodge dried dirt from hard floors
• There's a seal around the vacuum to maximize pickup power

iRobot has revealed its latest flagship robot vacuum, and I've just seen it in action at IFA 2026. The Roomba Max 875 Combo is a combination robovac-and-mop, and boasts some intriguing features on both of those floorcare prongs.

One that caught my attention in particular is the mopping setup. Robot vacuum mopping has historically been rather underwhelming, but the latest models are showing some significant improvements. iRobot's Roomba Max 875 Combo's USP is its 'ThermaMist' function. I got the low-down from Adam Pope, Chief Engineer & Vice President of Product Planning & Development at iRobot.

"The ThermaMist is a pretty interesting technology," he tells me. "It's an ultrasonic warm mist, meant to pre-treat stains. So it'll detect stains and pre-treat them before it mops. The customer can also activate it in a certain area if they want to just do that whole area.

"The heat gives you a little better power to break up some of the oily or sugary stains that might be sticky. So that's the reason that we have the heat in there, really, try to help break those up."

Unlike on Dreame's new mist-expelling robovac, which heats the water on the robot itself, here the heating happens in the dock. From an engineering perspective, what's interesting is that the on-bot process of creating ultrasonic mist also naturally generates warmth.

"The dock can put hot water in the robot, but the actual ultrasonic ThermaMist part of that process, it does actually heat the water as it's coming out," explains Pope. "When [the water] goes through that process, it comes out warm, even if there's room temperature water in the robot."

The fact there's no active heater on the robot itself is good news for battery life. "With the ThermaMist on, it's going to have a small impact on the battery life, but not a large one, because the process of heating is part of the ultrasonic component," Pope confirms. "It's not like there's a special heater that you're running all the time."

Unfortunately, iRobot wasn't demoing the ThermaMist feature when I visited the booth. However, based on the video (above) I was sent over later, it looks promising — there's a good amount of mist created, and it's being delivered evenly. In theory it sounds like a truly interesting innovation, and one that has plenty of potential to deliver strong mopping results.

iRobot has also extended the mop, which is larger in diameter and spins faster than its predecessors, for extra scrubbing power. It can kick out to one side to get close to the edges of rooms, and there's a shield that will slide under the roller as extra protection against unwanted sogginess when the bot is moving over carpet.

Sealing the deal

There's interesting innovation on the vacuuming front too. iRobot has added a 'SealForce' system, which is essentially a kind of skirt around the suction inlet on the Max 875 Combo, which lowers to form a loose seal against the carpet fibers.

"The SealForce brings a component of the cleaning head down to the floor, so you get all that airflow going right through the deep fibers of the carpet, trying to pull everything deeply out of the carpet, or even out of crevices, grout lines, that sort of thing," says Pope. "It's really kind of applying the suction where you need it most."

In the demo, the 'SealForce' seal wasn't as dramatic as I had been expecting. You can see the moving frame around the suction inlet below, and in the right-hand photo it's about as extended as it gets. That small shift could be enough to make a big difference to the suction, through — we'll need to test it out to find out.

iRobot is traditionally shy about publishing its suction specs, but here it has done: the Roomba Max 875 Combo offers 35,000Pa, which is right up there with the highest numbers you'll find anywhere. I'm increasingly of the opinion that it doesn't really matter anyway. The suction is only as effective as the wider design you put it into — and if it works as intended, this seal could make a big difference to the Max 875's pickup power.

Saving grace

The past few years have been a rocky time for once-supreme robot vacuum brand iRobot. Its bots have fallen behind the pack when it comes to features, so it's exciting to see the company starting to find its footing again when it comes to innovation.

The iRobot Roomba Max 875 Combo is on sale now in the UK, priced at £1,099. (equivalent to about $1,490 / AU$2,060). iRobot has a presence in Australia, but I don't yet have launch details for the 875 Combo there.

What about the US? Due to the new FCC ban on foreign-made "advanced" robots, the Max 875's launch is on pause for now. iRobot was founded in the US, but at the start of the year it was taken over by Chinese manufacturing company Picea. However, this takeover isn't to blame for the fact the brand can't now sell its new products in the US; the ban refers to where the product is manufactured, and Roomba bots have long been made outside of the US.

In terms of future plans, Pope has this to say: "We're working through with our advisors on how we continue to sell in the US. So we have multiple plans that we're working through and multiple strategies that will come to fruition, and we'll still be able to bring cool technology to the US as well."

• Dyson has launched an updated version of its 2020 Corrale straightener
• The Corrale CoolShine has a clever heat-removing attachment
• The brand has also unveiled a hot brush called the Airsmooth

In recent years, Dyson's hair gadget efforts seem have been mostly focused on its Airwrap styler and Supersonic hair dryer lines. So when I was invited to a showcase of the brand's new launches, I was expecting, perhaps, some cool new attachments or an upgraded Supersonic. I was equal parts surprised and pleased to see something altogether more novel.

There's a brand new tool — which I'll get into in a minute — as well as a surprise second-gen version of the Corrale straightener, called the Corrale CoolShine. If that name isn't ringing any bells, I don't blame you. The original Dyson Coralle came out in 2020 and never quite managed to set the haircare world alight.

I tried a Corrale out at the time and although I didn't hate it, it didn't make it into my regular styling routine. So I was especially pleased to see that the surprise second gen has tweaked or removed my least-liked features, and added some more that I'm genuinely excited to use.

One key feature of the original was that it was cordless. That's all well and good, but the knock-on effect was that it was also really very heavy and chunky. The Corrale CoolShine is not cordless, and as a result it can be nice and streamlined and lightweight. I'm very happy with this about-turn; the new, compact shape is much more comfortable to hold, and easier to direct precisely.

What a flex

The flexible plates from the first-gen version are still present here. They have to be, really — these are what 'corrale' the strands of hair, applying gentle pressure to, theoretically, allow for effective straightening at lower temperatures.

However, they've been downsized in line with the general shrinking of the straightener, and are slimmer in width. In their new format, they look much less likely to snag on strands of hair, as the previous version could sometimes do.

That's the 'Corrale' covered, but where does the 'CoolShine' come in? This refers to a unique-to-the-market cooling attachment. It comes in the form of a pair of frames that slide over each of the hot plates, and clip in place. They feature a heat-extracting copper pipe that contains water and is designed to help remove residual heat from hair.

So the central plate gets hot as usual, and then the bars either side of the plate pull the heat away immediately, helping you avoid heat damage. Dyson promises "hair that is cooler to the touch during and after styling, with a smoother, softer feel".

When it was initially announced, it sounded like kind of cold plumbing system, but speaking to a Dyson representative at the product showcase, I learned the system is subtler and more complex.

The tube has just a 'bead' of water in it — if you're envisaging cold water running through it, that's not the case — and it will absorb some of the heat of the plates as you style, so don't expect those bars to remain cold as you style. I'd be very interested to try it out for myself to see how much of a difference these plates make in practice.

There was a Dyson Corrale CoolShine being demoed at the event, and I was very impressed at how it managed to take the model's coily hair to perfectly smooth with an incredible glassy finish — but the kicker is that the stylist (and Dyson rep) wasn't using the CoolShine attachment.

The representative explained to me that the frame is removable to allow for precision styling, as well as in instances where you need to get right up to the root. Both were required here.

A final welcome touch is that Dyson has added universal voltage, so you'll be able to take the tool away with you when you travel abroad.

Full of hot air

The other new gadget is the Dyson Airsmooth brush dryer. This is a fairly traditional hot brush, for creating bouncy blowouts, but — of course — there's a bit of a Dyson twist.

The engineers have added two different types of bristles: some with loops at the top, and some with open bases. The former are engineered so they provide the right amount of tension for a smooth finish, without snagging on a range of different hair types. The latter are meant to diffuse and control the airflow for less turbulence and less frizz.

Dyson has given the Airsmooth a teardrop profile, to enable you to get closer to the root. I've seen this before, on the Shark Glam, and it works well there. There's also intelligent heat control keeping temperatures stable, and again, there's universal voltage — good news for your holiday hair.

The Dyson Corrale CoolShine straightener will have a list price of $329 / £TBC / AU$499. The Airsmooth dryer brush will cost $249 / £199.99 / AU$399 at sticker price.

The Airsmooth dryer brush goes on sale from Dyson US and Dyson UK today (September 8) in the US, with the Corrale CoolShine joining it on September 15.

At Dyson Australia, the hot brush is already on sale (launched September 4) and the straightener will arrive in November.

If you thought the stubby form factor of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 was a passing craze, think again: Xiaomi has today launched the Xiaomi 18 Fold, a similarly proportioned device that arrives just days before the expected launch of Apple’s first foldable, the iPhone Ultra.

Featuring a 5.38-inch cover display and a 7.58-inch inner display — both of which have a 1.4:1 aspect ratio — the Xiaomi 18 Fold mimics the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s passport-style design (and indeed that of the China-only Huawei Pura X Max) to deliver a “flexible user experience across work, creativity, and entertainment.”

Mind you, the Xiaomi 18 Fold may actually have more in common with Apple’s imminent iPhone Ultra than the Galaxy Z Fold 8, given that it has two rounded corners when closed and four when open. The Galaxy Z Fold 8, meanwhile, is straight-edged whichever way you slice it.

TechRadar’s Collections Editor, Ruth Hamilton, got hands-on with the Xiaomi 18 Fold at IFA 2026, and confirmed that the device is also ever-so-slightly shorter and wider than Samsung’s latest foldable. The latter has a pair of screens measuring 5.5 inches and 7.6 inches, respectively, with each offering distinct 10:16 and 4:3 aspect ratios. The Xiaomi 18 Fold, by contrast, has a 1.4:1 ratio when both folded and unfolded.

Xiaomi’s foldable is also a touch heavier and thicker than the Galaxy Z Fold 8. When closed, it measures 10.68mm and weighs 219g; when unfolded, it’s 5.02mm thick. The latter device weighs just 201g and measures 9.7mm and 4.5mm, respectively.

But we’re talking millimeters here. This is still a thin and lightweight foldable whose proportions are perfectly suited to video content. Tellingly, the Xiaomi 18 Fold’s 1.4:1 aspect ratio is almost identical to the 1.43:1 aspect ratio of an IMAX screen.

While we didn’t get to watch any movies on the device in our short hands-on time with it, we can attest to the superior entertainment experience delivered by the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s shorter and wider form factor. 4:3 is slightly taller and squarer than 1.43:1, but given that most video content is presented in 16:9, the video-watching experience is likely to be similar across both devices.

Incidentally, despite being rumored to have similar-looking rounded corners to the Xiaomi 18 Fold, the iPhone Ultra is tipped to match the Z Fold 8’s 4:3 unfolded aspect ratio. We’re expecting Apple’s device to have a cover display of between 5.3 and 5.49 inches, and a foldable display of between 7.7 and 7.8 inches.

It’s also, however, rumored to be slightly shorter and wider than the Z Fold 8. This may again make it look closer in appearance to the Xiaomi 18 Fold, even if its screens are most closely aligned to the Galaxy's.

Other features of Xiaomi’s latest foldable include a pill-shaped camera bar with three Leica-optimized cameras: a 200MP main, a 50MP ultra-wide, and a 50MP telephoto with 3.5x optical zoom.

This could be where the Xiaomi 18 Fold pulls ahead of the competition — the Z Fold 8 doesn’t have a telephoto camera, and the iPhone Ultra is likewise rumored to launch with just two cameras (a wide and an ultra-wide).

Under the hood, the Xiaomi 18 Fold is powered by Xiaomi’s in-house Xring O3 chip, a 6,000mAh battery, and up to 16GB of RAM. These are strong internal specs. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to put them to the test unless you live in China; the Xiaomi 18 Fold is only launching in Xiaomi’s home market for a starting price of ¥10,999.

That figure would make the phone around $1,650 / £1,220 / AU$2,275 overseas, which, before import tariffs and local taxes, isn’t far off the $1,899 / £1,699 / AU$2,699 starting price of the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Might the iPhone Ultra cost a similar sum? We’ll find out tomorrow (September 9), when Apple’s ‘Surprise and Shine’ event gets underway.

The first Wi-Fi 8 routers were launched by TP-Link at IFA 2026 last week with the devices set to hit the shelves later this year. So, when that happens, is it a good idea to immediately jump on board with this new more performant wireless standard?

Not exactly. There's a bit to unpack here about exactly how Wi-Fi 8 improves on Wi-Fi 7 — it's not any faster in terms of raw performance, in case you weren't aware — as well as when routers and devices that support the new standard will arrive.

All of this will factor in to the decision you'll make about when to upgrade to Wi-Fi 8 in your home. In this article, we'll look at what Wi-Fi 8 offers over and above Wi-Fi 7, and then examine considerations around the upgrade timeline, and when you might want to make a move to benefit from cutting-edge Wi-Fi.

How is Wi-Fi 8 better than Wi-Fi 7?

Wi-Fi 8 doesn't move the needle in terms of raw speed over Wi-Fi 7 — the latter is already beefy in that respect anyway — and instead aims to boost overall wireless performance in different ways.

Wi-Fi 8 seeks to improve the overall stability and reliability of the wireless connection, so you get a smoother and faster experience when you're further away from the router — and it's particularly focused on helping boost speeds at the very edge of the network's signal.

Another key point with Wi-Fi 8 is that it's built to cope with more devices and keep speeds up, as well as dealing with interference better. So, in signal-dense environments, where there are lots of devices competing for bandwidth, all this traffic will be better directed and managed to ensure better performance.

That'll obviously help with larger households where everyone has multiple devices, but it's going to be particularly important for places like apartments or office buildings where there can be a lot of competition from multiple routers and a whole host of devices all packed into a relatively small area.

TP-Link — which unveiled both a traditional Wi-Fi 8 router, the Archer 8 Ultra, and a mesh Wi-Fi system, the Deco 8 Ultra, at IFA 2026 — revealed some clever tricks for these cutting-edge pieces of hardware. They use Dynamic Sub-band Operation (DSO) and Non-Primary Channel Access (NPCA) tech to portion out only the bandwidth any given device needs — so tiny smart home devices, for example, only get the small chunk that they require, leaving more bandwidth to be usable for other hardware. In short, the traffic from all devices is managed in a much smarter manner, and situations where performance gets congested with Wi-Fi 7 are avoided with Wi-Fi 8.

The end result is a considerable leap in performance of wireless devices, even though the core speed and throughput spec of Wi-Fi 8 remains the same as its predecessor. This is particularly evident in environments with lots of competing devices, or when you're at the outer limits of the wireless signal.

When will Wi-Fi 8 routers go on sale — and should I buy one straight away?

As mentioned, TP-Link's initial models are on sale later in 2026, and pre-orders will go live in some regions from the start of October. Asus Wi-Fi 8 routers are also expected to arrive later this year.

In theory, then, you could grab yourself a Wi-Fi 8 router in a couple of months and be up-and-running with the latest wireless standard — but should you?

Here's the thing about being an early adopter of a new Wi-Fi standard: you must remember that when the first routers come out, they're based on a draft version, not the finalized wireless standard. In other words, it's still very early days for Wi-Fi 8 (although when it is finalized, likely in mid-2027, existing routers will be updated appropriately, of course).

So, while you can have a Wi-Fi 8 router later this year, you won't be able to buy any devices which are compatible with the standard. Naturally, both the client device and the router must support the new standard to benefit from its features, and smartphones and laptops that are Wi-Fi 8 capable aren't arriving until next year.

And even then, they will only be available in small numbers, and these will be premium cutting-edge (expensive) devices, as you might expect.

Is it pointless to buy a Wi-Fi 8 router when they first come out?

While you won't get the immediate full benefit of Wi-Fi 8 until you have the supporting devices to go with the router, it's not completely pointless to be an early adopter of something like the TP-Link Archer 8 Ultra. It's backwards compatible with all devices supporting earlier Wi-Fi standards, of course, and that hardware will still get the benefit of some of the Archer's traffic management tricks.

That said, until Wi-Fi 8 laptops, tablets and phones arrive in greater numbers, you're not realistically going to get much mileage out of your shiny new Wi-Fi 8 router. You will, of course, be future-proofed and ready for next year's devices, but the problem is that buying a Wi-Fi 8 router at launch means you'll pay a premium and a high price for the privilege.

This cutting-edge hardware is always expensive when it first comes onto the scene, so on balance, it's much better to wait until the market fills out, and more Wi-Fi 8 hardware — routers and consumer devices — is available, before you pull the trigger on a purchase. Your wallet will be happier if you're patient.

Rest assured, though, that the future of wireless is almost here, and Wi-Fi 8 promises to make a big difference when it fully kicks in.

Can AI-driven NAS tech be sentimental? UGreen CEO Samuel Zhang seems to think so.

Launching the company’s new smart-home technology suite, he started by recounting a personal story. It was a hot summer’s day, and his family gathered in the backyard for a barbecue. They cooked together, chatted, played, and just had a genuinely fantastic time. But weeks later, when Zhang went to check his photo gallery and relive that cherished day, he was left feeling disappointed. The family hadn't taken any photos.

This, he said, got him thinking about home cameras — devices that are typically used for security. But, Zhang said, “it [a home camera] should see more than just danger — it should also be able to witness the joys of everyday family life”. And this, he said, was one of the key points of inspiration for UGreen’s new suite of local smart-home AI technology.

I got the chance to hear about, and see, UGreen’s home hubs, cameras, digital photo frames and more at IFA 2026 in Berlin. Here’s what I learned — and how the technology could transform the smart home.

Keeping it local

At the heart of UGreen’s smart-home suite is the new HomeAgent. This is an ‘agentic AI local hub' that brings local storage, computing, and control all together in a single device. Through this hub, users can connect up a range of UGreen AIoT devices, such as cameras, smart speakers, and digital photo frames, plus some select third-party products.

A crucial part of the HomeAgent’s appeal is its reliance on local storage and computing. This means that any data that runs through your hub — be that photos, videos, voice inputs, or other files — is processed locally, rather than through a corporate cloud server.

At a time when trust in large corporations is strikingly low, and major data breaches seem all too common, this could be a massive selling point for security-savvy customers. Keeping data local also removes the need for costly Cloud subscriptions, making the initial investment feel that bit more worthwhile.

There are three HomeAgent models scheduled for release. The first is the UGreen HomeAgent HA100, which is the most basic option. It provides all of the core functions you’d need from the hub, but offers slightly less processing power, memory, and storage, among other things, than its siblings. The HA100 Pro is the step-up model, which offers heightened performance, with 205 TOPS (as opposed to the standard HA100’s 26 TOPS), a 10GbE LAN port (compared to the HA100’s 2.5GbE), and a more advanced CPU.

The final boss, if you will, of the HomeAgent trio is the MA100. This is powered by the NVIDIA Jetson Thor T5000, and offers far superior AI performance to the other two models, and considerably more memory and storage.

However, this is certainly reflected in the price, with the MA100 commanding a list price of $19,999, compared to the HA100 Pro, which costs $5,999 and the HA100 at $1,799. Early bird offers are available, which make the HomeAgents about half-price across the board. Shipping is set to commence in early 2027.

AIoT in action

So what does UGreen’s smart home AIoT tech look like in person? Well, pretty impressive.

I was able to check out a demo, and take a closer look at all of the HomeAgent products, and other devices you can connect up to it. UGreen had a HomeAgent connected to a smart speaker, and a camera, among other things.

I tried walking towards a door, and a UGreen smart security camera started blaring after I walked past a certain point, telling me that I was on private property. This data is processed locally through the HomeAgent, so if you ask your connected smart speaker about any unusual activity, it can tell you if anyone approached your door, whether that was a delivery worker, or something more nefarious.

The smart speaker UGreen showed off has a new AI assistant, named Uliya. You can use the smart speaker to do just about anything around your home. You can ask Uliya to remind you of where you were at a specific time, to close the curtains, to play music, or even to identify the location of your pet and cast a live video feed. The functionality you get will vary depending on how invested you are in UGreen’s AIoT ecosystem, but the capabilities are pretty broad.

You can also ask Uliya to give you a summary of captured events throughout the day, display memories on a UGreen smart photo frame in real time, or to show you highlights from a special day — circling back to Zhang’s desire to revive memories that had been lost in time. One function I really liked was the ability to create an Away mode, so that when you step out of the house, lights will turn off, curtains will close, and a robovac will get to work.

UGreen’s new HomeAgents appear to be incredibly capable, feature-rich, and innovative products, and their local handling of data could be game changing for some households. At the product launch, Zhang said “In the future, we hope every family can have a HomeAgent”; and it'll be interesting to see how families adopt such tech moving forward.

• Dyson has launched three new fan-purifiers, all with star-shaped nozzles
• The nozzle is designed to be both powerful and very quiet
• I saw them in action, and they're super-effective... but the styling will be divisive

Dyson's loop fans are instantly recognizable. In the home appliance world, their sleek, bladeless design has gained somewhat iconic status. But now we are about to enter a new Dyson fan era — and the design could not be more different to those sleek loops. With their chunky, curving bodies topped with a gaping, star-shaped opening, the new Dyson HushJet fan-purifiers remind me of nothing more than the giant sandworms in the new Dune films.

I perhaps should have seen it coming. Dyson debuted the new look with the HushJet Purifier Compact in September 2025, and it's also used for the HushJet Mini Cool personal fan. But when I saw the new, full-sized range on show in Berlin last week (at Dyson's IFA 2026-adjacent event) I was momentarily stunned.

Both of the previous HushJet fans were compact gadgets, and there was something about seeing the design scaled up — to quite gigantic proportions, in the case of the largest options — that made it feel significantly more unsettling.

The star nozzle draws inspiration from aviation engineering. I spoke to a Dyson engineer about it last year, and she explained the shape was especially good at minimizing the turbulence in the airflow, to create a quiet yet powerful jet of air.

I got to try the new fans out, and I was blown away — pun intended — by how powerful they were. When it came to blasting air, they felt significantly more effective than the loop-style Dyson fans I've used. So while I wasn't immediately sold on the styling, I had no complaints about the effectiveness of the airflow. I'd very happily have one of these in my bedroom over the summer, regardless of the fact it wouldn't blend in at all.

Double-duty

Like most of Dyson's fan models, the HushJets are pulling double- or even triple-duty. They operate as air purifiers, too, and one can also be used as a heater. At the top of the range is the Dyson HushJet Big+Quiet Cool Pure+ Formaldehyde air purifier (and kudos to the Dyson engineer I spoke to, who managed to remember that name without having to check his notes).

The purification capabilities are the most advanced of any of the new models, with the ability to capture a huge range of pollutants, including formaldehyde, and shift a massive amount of air, very quickly. It's around the same diameter as the Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet — ie really very chunky. It's designed for use in large spaces like offices, but it can also be used to clean multiple rooms in a home.

There are also a couple of medium-sized options, built for at-home use. These are the HushJet Pure Cool+ Formaldehyde, and the HushJet Hot Cool Pure+ air purifier, which loses the formaldehyde-capturing capabilities but can be used as a heater over the colder months.

I have no doubt the new-look design will end up being divisive — I think the quirky styling might fit more naturally in an office or commercial setup than it would in a living room, where it'd surely stick out like a sore thumb in many cases. When I asked the Dyson rep if the plan was for the HushJet range to eventually replace the loops, he suggested perhaps not, given how instantly recognizable the loops are as Dyson appliances. I'll be watching with interest.

Pricing and availability

Pricing is as follows: the medium-sized HushJet Pure Cool+ Formaldehyde will cost $599 / £549.99 / AU$999, and the medium-sized HushJet Hot Cool Pure+ air purifier will be $599 / £549.99 / AU TBC. The large HushJet Big+Quiet Cool Pure+ Formaldehyde will come in at $1,099 / £899.99 / AU TBC.

In the US, all three will go on sale in fall 2026. In the UK, the large and medium Formaldehyde options will launch in October and the heater option will arrive in December. In Australia, it's October 2026 for the Cool Pure+ Formaldehyde and "early 2027" for the other two.

• Xiaomi has unveiled two new EVs at IFA: the SU7 and SU7 Ultra
• It also showed off a Gran Turismo-based electric hypercar concept
• It announced plans to enter the European EV market in 2027, although Germany is the only confirmed country at the moment

Ever wanted to drive in a car that's been shaped by the wind? That's the idea behind Xiaomi's latest hypercar concept, which I just got a sneak peek at in the hallowed halls of IFA 2026.

The Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo is an electric vehicle created specifically — you might be able to guess — for the Gran Turismo franchise. The exterior has been designed to be as aerodynamic as it could possibly be, with every element shaped for minimal resistance.

The interior is rather a different story. Rather than the hardcore, cockpit-style seating setup you'd expect, Xiaomi has plumped for comfort. Inside the teardrop-shaped cabin there are bucket seats — on my tour, the Xiaomi rep explained that they wanted to recreate the feel of playing a racing simulator from your sofa.

The reason for such artistic freedom is that this car is not built for real-world driving. Instead, it's a "virtual concept car", as part of a showcase project with various brands designing their own Gran Turismo hypercars. It enabled Xiaomi to explore, as the press info puts it, "possibilities free from the constraints of the physical world".

In the real world

If it's real-world cars you're after, Xiaomi also showed off its new-gen SU7 and flagship SU7 Ultra electric sedans, both with Xiaomi describes as "an elegant, sporty design language".

Xiaomi SU7 Ultra is Xiaomi Auto's high-performance flagship. The production version set the official record in the Electric Executive Car category at the Nürburgring Nordschleife racing track. It's complemented by the SU7 .

Both cars are fully integrated into the brand's wider smart ecosystem — they're designed to work seamlessly in concert with their owner's personal devices (like their phones) as well as their at-home appliances, for maximum convenience.

It's part of the brand's Human × Car × Home vision, which was a key focus at the IFA show. The idea is that multiple gadgets, both inside and outside the home, all 'talk' to each other and work together without automations having to be set up manually.

That wasn't all Xiaomi Auto had to announce at IFA. Xiaomi Auto has been selling cars since 2024, but thus far, they've only been available on the Chinese mainland. Now, the brand is expanding further afield. It says it's making a "planned entry into European markets, including Germany, in 2027", although it was unable to confirm if there were any plans to launch in the UK.

It's been a busy week for the team at Philips Hue. At its annual showcase event in Berlin, the company unveiled not just a new series of smart lights (including some particularly stylish additions to its Liane series), but also a whole new approach to AI, which it's using to take the complexity out of creating bespoke automated lighting setups specifically for your home. No more tinkering with toggles and timers — just tell the app what you want your lights to do and when, and the software will handle the rest.

This isn't Philips Hue's first foray into AI. In 2025, the brand introduced an AI assistant that allowed users to describe a lighting scene and would then either find a match in the library of presets or create a new scene from scratch if nothing suitable existed.

Earlier this year, it also launched SpatialAware for the Philips Hue Bridge Pro, which applies lighting scenes differently depending on the position of smart bulbs, light strips, and lamps in a room, with AI trained using expertise from professional lighting designers.

After this week's showcase, I spoke to Marco Merolla, Executive Vice President and Business Leader of Consumer Connected Lighting at Philips Hue's parent brand Signify, to find out his thoughts on the future of smart lighting and AI. I started by asking him about SpatialAware, and whether users had welcomed the new feature in their homes.

"It’s something that brings smart lighting to the next level, but also intuitiveness in getting to the result that you want as a user — to the desired ambience," Merolla said. "The reception of the base was very good in terms of adoption. This is an exclusive currently with the Bridge Pro, but the reception of the Bridge Pro was extremely good in terms of adoption, and that’s not surprising, because, as we said, ambience creation is key in smart lighting."

SpatialAware has been a success, but Merolla says the brand has now turned its focus to the custom AI automations demonstrated in Berlin.

"Really, in our perspective, [that is] the next step, because there is a lot that you could do, or may do today that is a bit limited by the system itself," he said. "By analyzing and assessing the user behavior and the consumer behavior, we create a lot of different layers with which they can create behaviors and automation."

That analysis doesn't mean monitoring the behavior of individual users, or automatically creating anything for you based on that behavior. Instead, Signify uses anonymised, aggregated usage insights and broader consumer research to understand patterns and usage, which help inform the behaviors and automation built into the system.

"Clearly there is a limit right now, but with the power of large language models, that is not there anymore, so we can give them the chance and [get them] into concepts that were completely unprecedented before — and that’s part of the things that we launched yesterday," said Merolla. "We’re super excited because the consumer experience will change dramatically in the way you can enjoy the system and create beautiful things."

Not AI for the sake of it

The Philips Hue showcase was packed with news and launches, so I asked Merolla which ones he was most excited about.

"I was super excited by three of them," he said. "Custom AI behavior is a great step because it’s not AI for the sake of it — it’s really AI at the service of the consumer experience. Not in the sense of wanting to enter into people’s lives or be intrusive, but in the sense of giving them a chance to unlock possibilities in a very intuitive way. Custom AI from this perspective is an amazing, lovely direction.

"The second key one that’s quite close to my heart is the entertainment area," he said. "You know that over the years we have worked a lot on making the lighting experience better and better, stronger and stronger. Here, the effort we made was really to make it more accessible."

Merolla explained that accessibility isn't just about price, although that is something Philips Hue has addressed with the Sync Box 4K — a more affordable alternative to the Philips Hue Play Sync Box 8K that launched in September 2024. Accessibility, he said, is also about compatibility, which is why Philips Hue has launched Screen Sync — an alternative to the Sync Box that uses a camera rather than HDMI input, so you can synchronize your Hue lights with your TV screen regardless of the source.

"In the area of accessibility, there is also the Bridgeless idea," he added, referring to the ability to use the Sync Box 8K, 4K and Screen Sync without buying an additional Philips Hue Bridge Zigbee hub. "You can have just one strip light in a Bridgeless configuration. And this is again because we believe that everyone should watch TV or watch video with at least one light connected to amplify the experience, and we don’t want to limit the user who, in that specific moment, only wants that kind of benefit [without] having to necessarily join the full ecosystem."

The final items on Merolla's list of exciting launches are the new Liane 360-degree rope and Signe pole lights.

"These are beautiful design objects — really beautiful design objects," he said. "We did not invent the archetype in the design world — that archetype is something that already exists, but of course we can create the mix between a beautiful design object and an amazing light structure. These two things very often don’t go together. Sometimes products that have a super cool design light effect, like gradient scenes and so on, are not necessarily associated with the most beautiful design from an object perspective.

"And as a direction for the brand in the future, I firmly believe that we need to put this world together — that the design of the external object and the light effect, the things that you can do with that, really need to merge. And I think Liane and the new Signe product are a strong step in this direction."

It will definitely be interesting to see how those two aspects join together in the future, and whether AI functionality begins to affect the design of Philips Hue lights, now that LLMs can remove the barrier to complex automations. I'm definitely looking forward to next year's showcase.

We saw a lot of incredible technology at IFA Berlin 2026, be that cutting-edge headphones, futuristic robot vacuums, or game-changing AIoT systems. But one area that arguably went under the radar, but impressed me an lot, was new charging technology.

I saw some incredible gadgets that could change the way that I, and many of you, juice up our phones, tablets, and laptops, so I thought I’d round up some of the most amazing technology I saw at IFA this year.

I’ll run through three of my favorite innovations (alongside a bonus entry), and reveal my favorite chargers, why they impressed me, and all the details you need to know about them. Here's some of the most exciting charging tech coming down the (power) line…

1. UGreen’s liquid cooling wireless chargers

It only seems right to kick things off with the most exciting new products of them all: UGreen’s new liquid cooling wireless chargers.

UGreen’s MagFlow lineup — which consists of a magnetic power bank, 3-in-1 wireless charging stand, and a 2-in-1 foldable model — could be a genuine game changer. Why? Well the a key issue for high-speed wireless chargers is heat, and I’ve seen it myself when testing. You can be juicing up your phone at great pace, but past a certain point, the build-up of heat can trigger throttling, which slows speeds in the interest of safety.

But UGreen’s new model combat this with active cooling, as well as passive heat-dissipation and “intelligent temperature regulation,” enabling improved performance.

I had the chance to see all of the new Qi2 25W chargers, but my favorite was the MagFlow Pro Magnetic Power Bank, which UGreen claims is the first power bank to include micro-pump liquid cooling. It has a transparent window, enabling you to view coolant circulation in real time, and according to UGreen, its peak temperature during testing was 18F / 10C lower than the 118F / 48C “industry reference”.

2. Belkin’s slim semi-solid-state power banks

Another titan of the charging world, Belkin, had a few new drops to show me too. And the most interesting were its new semi-solid-state power banks, which impressed me for two key reasons.

The first, and perhaps most obvious, is the fact that they make use of semi-solid-state batteries rather than the more typical lithium-ion alternative. Semi-solid-state batteries are denser than lithium-ion ones, enabling them to offer higher maximum capacity in an even slimmer form, and they also degrade at a slower rate.

The other thing that impressed me was the build quality of the two power banks. They both look and feel excellent, with a sleek Black or Sand finish available, and their phenomenally slim construction makes them highly practical for using your phone while charging.

There are two models available: the Belkin UltraCharge Pro Slim Magnetic Power Bank, a 15W wireless power bank with a 5,000mAh capacity that’s just 8.8mm thick (which is about the same length and width as a standard credit card); and the Belkin 10,000mAh UltraCharge Pro, which offers a 60W maximum power output, dual USB-C ports for juicing up multiple devices at once, and a display for viewing charging and temperature information.

3. ESR’s dual-retractable cable chargers

I personally use a bunch of chargers with retractable cables — the convenience is unmatched. And so, ESR has a new set of products that truly calls to me in its Xtend chargers.

The 100W version of the Xtend wall charger comes with not one, but two built-in cables which can fully retract. This means it's incredibly easy to charge two devices at once, be that a phone and a laptop, or a tablet and some wireless headphones. The built-in cables are also able to extend up to 95cm (3.1ft), which is considerably further than some models I’ve tested.

A second model, the ESR Xtend 45W has just one built-in cable, but it’s more compact, and has an additional USB-C outlet if you want to charge two devices simultaneously.

Bonus: UGreen’s cat chargers

Okay, these might not be the most advanced chargers I saw at IFA, but UGreen’s new cat chargers really caught my eye.

They look a bit like cats wearing a hoodie, and even come with detachable feet if you want to avoid damaging the charger when it's in a bag, or scraping yourself when carrying it in a pocket. They have a pleasant rubbery feel, a compact build, and offer charging speeds up to 45W from their USB-C port. A purr-fect option for feline fans.

• The Anthbot R7 Series includes an 'EdgeEase' string trimmer
• Its mounted on an arm and comes with its own camera for safety
• There's also infrared animal detection

Effective edge trimming has long been the bane of a lawnbot-maker's life. After all, what good is a robot mower if you then have to go in with a side-trimmer to clean up all the lawn edges afterwards? Anthbot's newest robo-mower — the R7 Series, on show at IFA 2026 — has an innovative solution.

The brand has tacked a string trimmer onto the side of the lawnbot. Or, more accurately, onto a "robot arm", mounted to the side of the lawnbot. This arm is designed to adjust to follow winding lawn boundaries, ensuring "zero-gap edge cutting without manual touch-ups". Anthbot dubs the system 'EdgeEase'.

I saw it being demoed — albeit on an AstroTurf lawn, without any actual cutting. The arm movement is smooth and functions well, tucking neatly away when not required. (It's a little less visually impressive than Segway Navimow's own mechanical side-trimming system, but which system functions better remains to be seen.)

I've seen side-mounted blade trimmers before, but this string version feels like a slightly safer option to be protruding out into the open... at least when not in use. Of course, when spinning, those strings will be able to slice just as effectively as a blade.

On that point, I'm surprised Anthbot hasn't added any kind of protective casing. There is a camera specifically dedicated to keeping an eye on the trimming arm, but it's still putting a lot of trust in those obstacle-spotting skills.

Hedgehog spotting

The EdgeEase string trimmer is the headline addition, but I was also interested to see Anthbot has included an infrared sensor for animal detection. This is designed to pick up thermal signals from critters like hedgehogs that might be hidden in the grass, so the mower can avoid them.

These are two standout features in what looks like an altogether extremely capable lawnbot. For the main mowing, it uses two floating cutting discs, designed to adjust to uneven ground for a clean finish. There's also all-wheel drive — precisely powered by four drive motors and two independent steering motors. That's designed to help with traction and maneuverability.

The navigation suite includes LiDAR, RTK, and three AI-backed cameras (including that trimmer cam) to provide "robust, all-scenario positioning" that won't drop out if, for example, the satellite signal is blocked. Anthbot emphasizes the R7 Series is "designed to handle the complexity of real gardens rather than idealized, flat lawns".

The ANTHBOT R7 Series comprises two lawnbots: the R730 and R720. The R730 is designed for lawns up to 3,000㎡ and has the string trimmer included as standard. The R720 has a smaller battery and is meant for yards up to 2,000㎡, and the string trimmer is an optional extra.

I saw a lot of fun things at IFA 2026, but among the many halls full of tech, one experience has stuck with me the most. It was the Strutt ev1c personal mobility vehicle, which basically mashes up tech from robot vacuums and self-driving cars to create a wheelchair/mobility scooter that can take you from room-to-room in your home without you touching the controls.

Equipped with cameras and LiDAR to sense the world around it, the ev1c really has two key sets of interesting features that come from these sensors: being able to fully self-drive within a known and mapped environment; and being able to offer automatic measures for safer use when you're out and under manual control.

Within the home, what it does at first is exactly what robovacs do: it takes a map of the whole area using LiDAR. The system is able to distinguish temporary, moving objects (people and pets) from static objects (walls and tables) — that's obviously important for mapping, but also means you can see what it 'sees' at all times on a little touchscreen on the armrest.

Once the map is created, you can then choose different areas to set as "Waypoints", basically giving you a menu of places you want it to self-drive you between. So you can use the touchscreen or the connected phone app to select a waypoint, and the chair just starts driving you, no controls necessary from there.

You can also trigger waypoints using voice, so you can tell the app "Take me to my bed" and as long as you have a waypoint called "my bed", it'll take you there.

This also means that if you're someone who doesn't need the vehicle all the time, though you may sometimes need it suddenly. You can use the app to have the ev1c bring itself to you, even if you'd left it on the other side of the house.

There's another feature that the team is testing right now for people who only need the vehicle intermittently, which is a "Follow me" mode — so you can start walking, and the ev1c will just trundle along behind you. If you need it, there it is, ready to go.

I tried that out at Strutt's booth, and while it was buggy at this stage, it did work — and would probably take some getting used to, because having something quietly following right behind you is pretty unnerving.

However, the self-driving side of the tech is ready to go, and when I tried that side out as well, I was truly impressed. The chair can be a little jerky when it's turning around in a small space, but that's really the only issue I could take from it, from my admittedly limited demo.

Starting at one end of the fake 'living space' in Strutt's booth, it steered me around a dining table, through a narrow gap towards a doorway, through the doorway, and then up to the couch. It finished with me facing the couch, for convenience, and it didn't touch a single thing along the way — no brushing a dining chair or clipping wheels against the door. I went across a rug as well as a hard floor, and that made no difference.

I also tried it in its more manual modes, with the 'Co-Pilot' feature switched on. This is the 'smart' system for when you're driving it yourself, and the key thing it adds is object avoidance. The simplest benefit is that the system won't let you crash into anything — Strutt's team told me to drive towards them at full speed, so I did, and the vehicle just stopped as we got a few inches away. It wasn't like slamming on the brakes — it just ramped down and left me stationary.

Other handy features for when you're in manual control include a reversing camera (with a line of your steering trajectory) and a 'cruise control' mode so you can just set it to go in a straight line at a set speed, and you can relax your hand.

But there is also a 'Co-Pilot+' more advanced assistive mode, and the interesting feature the team showed me here was an alternative to the auto-stop, in which the system will look for space and actually steer around the blockage, rather than just braking when you get too close.

Perhaps more useful in the day-to-day use of the chair, is that this mode will just finesse your driving, so if you're at risk of clipping the door in your home it'll automatically adjust the steering to make sure it doesn't happen — it's like the steering assist in Mario Kart.

I tried the same demo of driving into someone, but this time the ev1c steered in an arc around them, then returned me to my original position on the path and carried on forward — but my hand had just stayed on pushing the controls forward the whole time, I didn't contribute any motion to the steering.

As for the vehicle's general specs, it's capable of going up to 8mph, with a range of around 20 miles on its battery, depending on the terrain. It can handle grass and gravel, as well as inclines of up to 13° (23%) and two-inch curb heights, all powered by a four-wheel drive system.

The ev1c breaks down into five pieces for packing into car, and Strutt told me that it's looking into offering a backup battery bag, so you can hot-swap when away from home if you want support for longer distances.

It's officially priced at $7,499 / £5,995 / AU$9,999, though the actual price you pay might be affected by local schemes to make mobility vehicles more affordable.

It's a lot of money, though I assumed it was going to be even more expensive than that. I'm not someone who uses a personal mobility vehicle, so all my opinions here need to be taken in that context, but I was really impressed with how the chair works in practice, how it's been designed and built, and what it can do — it even picked up one of our 'IFA 2026 Best in Show' awards.

Plug-in (or balcony) solar tech has been booming in Europe for a while now, but it seems as though the rest of the world is slowly catching on: these kits are now legal in the UK, while an increasing number of US states are approving them too.

The simplicity is the main appeal of these solar panels, which can be plugged straight into a standard outlet in your home, without any expensive roof mounting or time-consuming planning permission required. Any energy that you generate from free sunlight is used immediately for the appliances in your home, cutting down your electricity bill.

Now that the tech is legal in a growing number of places, we're seeing more and more certified kits and compatible batteries appear on sale. During our travels around the IFA 2026 tech expo in Berlin, the products below particularly caught our eye.

There's one big caveat here — in the UK and US, grid-tied plug-in batteries aren't currently a legal part of plug-in solar, so in those regions the products below will need professional installation (which slightly negates that 'plug-in' descriptor).

Still, there are hopes that plug-in batteries could soon be legalized in the UK and elsewhere, which means the bill-cutting products below could be a glimpse of our home energy future...

1. EcoFlow Stream 2 / Ocean 2

EcoFlow has been in the energy storage game for some time of course, and brings all of its expertise to bear on these two new products. Starting with the 3-5kWh Stream 2 home battery, we've got support for up to 5,000W of solar input and 3,000W of electricity output, so enough to power washing machines, dishwashers, and the like.

It's modular too, so you can stack these up like Lego bricks as your energy needs change, and the units offer four MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) inputs if you need to connect panels in different spots. There's also an AC version if you already have solar panels installed and just need somewhere to store the electricity.

As for the Ocean 2, this is a fitted home battery, replacing the PowerOcean line. It does up to 30 kWh with a single inverter, and can provide backup power if the grid goes down with an instant switchover so you'll never even notice. Both require professional installation, but you can take the Stream 2 with you when you move.

2. Anker Solix Solarbank Max

On to the Anker Solix Solarbank Max, and this impressive-looking home battery brings with it 7 kWh of storage capacity, which should be enough to keep an entire home going overnight (assuming it hits the average figure for usage).

Unlike the AC version that's already on the market, this can connect directly to your solar panels, and it can take on 10,000W of solar input across three MPPTs. You can also expand the capacity up to 42 kWh with extra batteries.

You do need to get an electrician to fit this to your home power network, just to avoid anything blowing up, but Anker reckons you'll have saved on up front costs and be getting pure profit within 2.5 years — though your mileage may vary.

3. Zendure SolarFlow 2400 Pro / 4000 Mix Pro

The Zendure SolarFlow 2400 Pro and 4000 Mix Pro aren't entirely new, but they were shown off at IFA, and we're including them here. Again the emphasis is on simple, easy to manage solar energy storage: the SolarFlow 2400 Pro can take on 4,800W of solar input across four MPPTs, and offers 2,400W bi-directional AC power (hence the name).

With the SolarFlow 4000 Mix Pro, we've got capacity for 13,000W of solar input across two MPPTs, and you get (you've guessed it) up to 4,000W of bi-directional power, so it's a more heavy duty operator and larger unit.

Both these batteries can be connected to plug-in solar panels as well as retrofitted to panels that are already on your roof, though obviously the SolarFlow 4000 Mix Pro can handle more of them.

4. DJI Power 2000 and solar bundle

We were very impressed with the DJI Power 2000 portable power station when it launched last year, and at IFA 2026 it told us that it's going to turn this into a fully fledged balcony solar system — complete with its own solar panels and a microinverter for connecting to a standard power network.

Details are a bit thin on the ground though, as we don't know how much it's going to cost or exactly how it's going to work. Apparently the bundled kit is going to be sold in Germany first, with no word yet on an international expansion.

What we do know is that DJI has the technical experience and nous to put together one of the most compelling plug-in solar packages out there — and one which you can pick up and take camping with you. We'll be keeping a close eye on this.

5. Bluetti Balco 260 / Balco 500

While the kits were unveiled shortly before IFA 2026, we've been able to get a good look at the Balco 260 and Balco 500 at the expo. They offer 2,400W (through four MPPTs) and 4,300W (through a single MPPT) of solar input, respectively.

As with the Zendure models, they're basically an entry level and more advanced version of the same pack: They can be hooked up to balcony solar or rooftop solar as needed, and connected to the mains electricity network in your home.

We were at the launch of these units back in May, and there was a big emphasis on simplicity throughout. The aim here is to reduce as many barriers to entry as possible, which is helped through the changes in regulations now happening in the US and UK.

• The Lissome R1 is a compact countertop dishwasher for small apartments
• Its water tank is filled manually, so it doesn't need to be plumbed in
• It has a surprisingly large capacity — designed for up to three meal sets

For the past decade I have been getting by without a dishwasher. My small apartment just doesn't have space for one — at least, not if I want to have, say, a sink. So when I saw Lissome's countertop dishwasher at IFA 2026, it was like my prayers had been answered at last.

The Lissome R1 is a compact dishwasher designed exactly for situations like mine: small households or apartments that don't have space for a full machine, or rented homes that you can't plumb something new into.

"Dishwasher ownership often assumes a cabinet opening, fixed plumbing and unused worktop space," says the brand. "R1 is designed around the homes where those assumptions do not hold, giving users a compact alternative without asking them to redesign the kitchen first."

It's a compact 280mm wide, 507mm deep, and stands 502mm tall. That means it should be able to squeeze into your kitchen without eating up all your counter space. More useful — for renters especially — is that it doesn't need to be plumbed in. Instead, the water tank is filled manually, giving you plenty of flexibility about where you put it . Plus, you can easily take it with you when you move homes.

Lissome is keen to emphasize that the R1 is designed to be a main dishwasher rather than an overflow machine. In fact, it's rather TARDIS-like, with the ability to hold up to 34 items — it's meant for up to three people's place settings.

It's not a plain white box, but instead has glass windows on three sides. Not only does it look good, but it also allows me to finally satisfy my long-held curiosity as to what actually happens inside a dishwasher. (How well the glass-forward design holds up after being exposed to many weeks' worth of cereal, sauce and coffee dribbles remains to be seen.)

Lissome says the inner workings are built around "the World's First Sweeping Jet Technology". Essentially, there are two rotating arms in the base, shooting out artfully coordinated jets of water that arc gracefully — picture the Bellagio Fountains — across the whole interior chamber.

There are six preset programs. These include Quick Wash, which combines 13 minutes of speed-washing with two minutes of steam-release and drying, and Smart Wash, which uses an AI-powered sensor that "detects water turbidity and grease levels, then adjusts the cleaning cycle and detergent dosage" to get your dishes sparkling without wasting water or cleaning fluid.

Indian tech brand Noise has teamed up with Bose for a brand new pair of open earbuds, the Noise Master Buds Open.

These clip-on buds are a first for Noise in the open ear segment, but join its existing Master series lineup, that includes over-ear headphones and in-ear buds — which were also built alongside Bose.

And lucky me — I’ve already tried the Master Buds Open for myself. I got hands on with the brand new open earbuds at IFA Berlin 2026, and spoke with Noise about its collaboration with Bose and the fancy features crammed into its latest creation.

Bose sound at an affordable price… kinda

Allow me to start with something of a disclaimer. The Master Buds Open aren’t a fully fledged Bose product, they simply feature ‘Sound by Bose’ technology. This means that the audio giant helped to tune the sound on the Master Buds Open, and there’s a specific Sound by Bose EQ option for the model.

We’ve seen other brands use Sound by Bose tech in the last year or so, with Baseus making use of a partnership in its Inspire line (including the XH1 headphones), and Skullcandy teaming up with the ANC giant for products including the Method 360 ANC (which we rated very highly).

However, Noise has a closer relationship with Bose than most, as the latter has invested in the Indian company across recent years, and the pair have already developed a number of audio products together, including the Noise Master Buds 2 and Master Buds Max.

Although the new Master Buds Open don’t quite offer the exceptional build and sound quality we’ve come to expect from products like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds Gen 2, this collaboration certainly heightens the perceived value of Noise’s affordable audio gear, and helps it to stand out as a relatively recent entrant in competitive markets like the US, UK, and EU.

Getting hands on

Anyway, let’s talk about my time getting hands-on with the Noise Master Buds Open.

I have to say, when the buds were brought over to me, they made an excellent first impression. They come in a beautiful case with appealing metallic details, and the buds themselves look incredibly sleek and almost futuristic — especially in the slick Silver colorway.

In use, the Master Buds Open also felt supremely comfortable. I find that some clip-on earbuds have the tendency to either feel a bit tight, or almost too loose, but in my short time with the Master Buds Open they seemed to master the clip-on feel, with a secure yet comfortable fit and almost weightless on-ear sensation.

Sonically, the Master Buds Open performed about as well as I expected, although I should preface my thoughts by noting that the unit I tried was a prototype, and so the Master Buds Open may sound a little different at launch.

Naturally, I made use of the Sound by Bose EQ option, and I’d say the earbuds performed decently overall. A representative played me a bit of I’m Alive by Céline Dion, and I was treated to clear vocals, with fairly prominent bass (as far as open ears go), and well-separated guitars in the mid-range.

I also had the chance to play some songs of my choosing, and switched over to Can’t Resist by Jamback. In this house track, I realized that treble was pretty forward, meaning that drums higher in the frequency range were particularly prominent. Bass was also decently weighted, although you won’t get the pounding low-end that some of the best wireless earbuds can provide.

Was I blown away by the audio on offer from the Master Buds Open? Perhaps not — at least not at this stage. But they did perform pretty well overall, especially when you consider their price. I was told that the Master Buds Open will release for about €119 (around $140 / £100), which is relatively affordable — especially when you consider that Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds have a list price of $299 / £299 / AU$449.95.

A surprising highlight

While the Master Buds Open will undoubtedly face stiff competition from similarly priced rivals like the Anker Soundcore AeroClip, they did impress me with their comfort and looks.

But one thing struck me more than any other: their surprisingly feature-rich companion app. Not only did I find Noise’s app to be incredibly easy to use and navigate, but I also couldn’t believe how much functionality it had to offer.

There’s a spatial audio setting, designed to offer “dynamic and realistic” audio, as well as a Gaming Mode if you need low-latency audio — a nice touch for keen mobile gamers.

On top of this, the Master Buds Open have customizable touch controls, multi-point, Find My Device capabilities, and a Focus Mode, which locks the buds’ controls when you just want to zone in on your tunes and avoid accidental touch commands. Of course, there are also EQ settings, including a fully customizable equalizer, and mics built in for taking calls on the go.

Noise was also keen to show me that the Master Buds have a built-in AI assistant. This enables you to ask questions with your voice, read chat history, and transcribe meetings or discussions. That’s quite a lot of functionality for buds in this price-range.

While there’s no specific launch date for the Master Buds Open just yet, Noise has said that they’re set to launch on their website and with some major online retailers from late September 2026.

Sonos recently announced that it's launching a new soundbar to fill the gap between the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and the Sonos Arc Ultra — it's called (perhaps predictably) the Sonos Beam Ultra. It's launching on September 29th 2026, and it costs $699 / £699 / AU$1,099.

It's small, like the regular Beam, but it features nine drivers to deliver 7.1.2 channels of Dolby Atmos, including upfiring drivers (which the Beam doesn't have).

Sonos' promise is that it's a bigger, more expansive, and meatier home theater experience than the regular Beam, and I got a chance to listen to a demo — though we'll have a full and in-depth review later when we can test more thoroughly.

But my time with the Beam Ultra was enough to really impress me. We started by listening to some music in Dolby Atmos, and the soundbar was extremely good at separating the sound from the hardware — the audio felt spaced across the whole room in front of me, rather than feeling like it was emitting from a compact soundbar.

Bass dispersion was really impressive, as was a feeling of 'airiness', in a good way, to vocals and positional instrument effects. Every element felt like it was able to float in the room very naturally and individually.

Switching to something bass-heavy, which is an area Sonos says it specifically wanted to improve, what stood out to me was the weight of the mid-bass. Often, in smaller speakers, this is where things fall off — they might be tuned to give good punch at their lowest point, but can't always maintain good strength as they move towards the mid-range.

There was no problem with that here: bass felt really solid throughout the range. Being a small soundbar, it's not like it can hit hard on really low-end frequencies, but there's loads of presence across the bass, so it feels satisfying.

Switching to movies and TV, we watched a clip from the Apple TV+ show Widow's Bay, emphasizing the improvement to the clarity of the center channel — dialogue came through clear over background noise.

But the real test was watching Sinners, in the big music scene of I Lied to You, which has become a common demo scene for companies to use. I was so impressed by the positional Dolby Atmos effects of elements that were way off to the side — the width was far better than other small soundbars, and was better than most big soundbars I've tested.

There's a real sense of instruments being positioned right in the far forward corners of the room, a good six feet beyond the edges of the TV we were watching, let alone beyond the edges of the small soundbar.

However, when we get it in to review, I want to test the height channels more deliberately. I wasn't feeling a lot of height effect from the demo — which might have been for a few reasons, so I can't cast judgment against the Beam Ultra for it yet. We'll be keeping an ear out for it, though.

I also got to try the same scene using the Sonos system's new ability to add some portable speakers as rear satellite speakers for surround sound. Two Sonos Play speakers were brought in and placed just behind me, and they instantly connected to the soundbar without needing the app at all.

A little tone emitted from the Beam Ultra to indicate that the Plays had connected themselves, but all the detection and connection is done invisibly by the system, and it seemed really slick.

The Plays made for a really good set of rear speakers in the demo, too — I got really clear positional effects from them, and they have a great dynamic range for movies.

Sonos confirmed that with the Plays (or a pair of Sonos Move 2 speakers, or static rear options such as the Sonos Era 100) connected, it can describe the system as a 7.1.4-channel setup, though the extra two height channels will be virtualized.

I was surprised that Sonos went with the small size of the Beam for a soundbar to sit below the Arc Ultra in its range, because I assumed that would mean a compromise on how expansive it would be — that's definitely not a concern for me anymore, and I'm really looking forward to hearing how it handles our movie library in our test rooms.

I’ll lay my cards on the table and admit that I wasn’t very familiar with Hohem before I arrived at IFA Berlin 2026. But interestingly, the Chinese tech company has revealed one of the most innovative products at the conference so far, in my view, with the Eyepic 2-in-1 Pocket Gimbal Camera.

This product, Hohem told me, is a real “first” — not only because it’s the company’s first actual camera, but because it’s what Hohem describes as “the world’s first 2-in-1 pocket gimbal camera”.

What sets this model apart from other compact video cameras? I got the chance to watch a demo and speak with Hohem about the Eyepic 2-in-1, and learn about its tech specs, features, and design quirks. Here’s everything you need to know.

It’s all about versatility

Hohem told me that the Eyepic is targeted at a more casual, everyday user or vlogger, rather than those looking to take professional-grade video. Even so, its capabilities are commendable.

It offers native 4K vertical video capture at up to 60fps, which is ideal for users who want to film a TikTok or Instagram Reel, for instance. But a Hohem representative showed me that by merely rotating the on-board 2.51-inch touchscreen, the camera will reorient, enabling you to seamlessly switch to capturing landscape video instead.

But it gets even better.

As I watched, the Hohem demonstrator swiftly removed the camera unit from the device, revealing that the Eyepic is capable of fully hands-free shooting. He attached the unit to a lanyard on his neck to film a video, and I can see this being incredibly useful for creators who are on the move. The camera unit is magnetic, so it could really be attached to all sorts of accessories, be that a tripod, a fridge…you name it.

What’s more, the camera is highly waterproof, and Hohem told me it can even withstand being around 10m (32.8ft) underwater if, say, you want to take a video while swimming or diving. I was also interested to find that when the camera is detached, the gimbal retracts and locks, and a user can view a 1080p live preview of the action on the Eyepic’s touchscreen.

From what I saw in the demo, it appeared that the Eyepic was more than able to capture smooth, high-res video in a flexible, versatile manner, and this could really help it stand out from top-tier rivals like DJI and Insta360. It can also capture video in slow motion, although Hohem said that this will likely be at a lower resolution, potentially around 1080p.

While Hohem wouldn’t reveal the Eyepic’s price just yet (trust me, I tried), I was told that the model is expected to launch around the time that CES 2027 kicks off, which is early 2027.

IFA, Berlin's huge annual tech expo, is where some of the biggest tech firms unveil their latest innovations — and this year is one of the strongest we've seen in a long time for interesting new releases.

IFA is a great place to find fascinating new gadgets and devices, ranging from next-gen AR glasses to self-driving personal mobility vehicles, and from weird new kitchen appliances to armies of humanoid robots.

We've chosen the top products from those that were nominated for our IFA 2026 'Best in Show' awards to produce this list of our 25 winners, based on how innovative they are, how well they serve their intended use, and the degree to which we think they'll influence their area of the tech market.

There were many more products that we really liked, of course, but we had to be ruthless — here are our top picks from IFA 2026.

Anker Soundcore Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro

The best technology delivers real-world benefits, and what could be more beneficial than a good night's sleep? The Soundcore Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro use in-ear PPG optical sensors to monitor your heartrate, which is more accurate than other optical tracking methods thanks to the rich capillaries and stable position of your ear canal. That monitoring delivers data to the smart-screen, phone-free SleepHub charging case.

The Sleep Earbuds Pro feature passive isolation as well as 30dB active noise cancelling, and the case-based snore monitoring system detects and masks the sound of your partner snoring using its built-in sounds. Despite the addition of multiple new components the housing is thinner than previous generations, and even more comfortable for side sleepers.

Anker's BioSync dynamic audio system monitors relaxation in real time, dynamically adjusting the audio content and structure to help you find the most effective sleep sounds. Sleep earbuds are something that can truly improve your health and happiness by improving your sleep, and these look like a really smart upgrade.

Agibot A3

Agibot is doing some amazing things with humanoid robots, and the full-sized Agibot A3 combines multiple capabilities in a lightweight, extremely dynamic model: if you're assembling a robot dance troupe or planning a big exhibition, the A3's the bot to buy.

The A3 weighs just 55kg, has a power-to-weight ratio of 0.218kW/kg, and delivers up to 12kW of instant peak power, enabling it to somersault. Its battery runs for up to 10 hours and is hot-swappable in seconds, so it's great for applications where it needs to last all day. It'll happily fit in an SUV for travel, too.

In addition to voice and app control, the A3 delivers industry-first touch sensing that adds physical interaction to its controls. It also has a 360-degree multi-array mic system for accurate voice recognition, even in noisy environments.

One of the most exciting features of the A3 is its large-scale swarm co-ordination, which uses precise UWB positioning to enable performances by up to 100 individual robots. That makes it possible to create very complex, high-impact performances for big events, as well as enabling multiple units to work smartly in environments such as factories or warehouses. The awareness and the uptime make this a great new approach to robotics.

Hypershell X Ultra S

The Hypershell X Ultra S exoskeleton helped mountaineer Adriana Brownlee in -30C temperatures on Mount Everest, supported athlete Aurélien Fontenoy's 4,037km Route 66 journey while recovering from injury, and is currently being trialed by search and rescue organizations worldwide.

Before Hypershell, exoskeletons cost $100,000 and above; the same capabilities are now available to consumers for less than $2,000, in a device weighing under 2kg.

The X Ultra S is an end-to-end AI motion-control system that uses an AI model to transform raw sensor data directly into motor torque, enabling faster response, smoother adaptation, and more natural human-machine synchronization.

There are 12 active modes, including walking, cycling and running, and a new Gentle Assist mode for older adults and users with short or shuffling strides. Fitness Mode adds resistance, turning a walk into a workout.

But it's the price that won us over here — this could be a game changer for getting people with limited mobility out and doing more things that they love, from hiking to just visiting the local stores.

JMGO IRIS Ultra Max

The IRIS Ultra Max is one of the world’s first true 4K 120Hz flagship smart projectors, delivering native 4K (rather than pixel-shifted) at 120Hz from input to output, all from its very compact case.

The Ultra Max's dual iris system has 6+9 blades, the highest count in its class, which promises to improve stray light suppression by 11.34% for a more accurate picture, while delivering class-leading contrast, with a quoted ration of 10,000:1. The MALC 6.0 Triple-Laser Engine delivers an impressive 6,500 ISO lumens of brightness, making it more visible in more lighting conditions, and with a promised ability to recreate 110% of the BT.2020 color space, with an astounding color accuracy of delta-E of 0.7, meaning it's truly capable of pro-level color range and accuracy.

The IRIS Ultra Max also introduces an industry-first 3-in-1 Optical System that integrates 0.88–1.7:1 Optical Zoom, Four-Way Lens Shift (V ±130%, H ±53%), and an AI-Powered Gimbal (360° H, 150° V) into a unified projection architecture. This makes it more more flexible than traditional projectors to positioning, because it has so many different options for correcting its picture. It gives small home theater setups top-tier performance without compromise.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4P

Designed for vloggers and movie-makers alike, the Osmo Pocket 4P is the world’s first dual-lens pocket gimbal camera. It delivers cinema-grade imaging in a pocket-friendly form, and features DJI's Academy Award-winning Ronin stabilization.

The main lens is a wide-angle 20mm equivalent with an f/2.0 aperture, and a new 1-inch CMOS sensor that offers 17 stops of dynamic range and over one billion colors via DJI's new 10-bit D-Log 2 color profile.

That's supplemented with a 60mm medium-tele portrait lens, which gives you 3x optical zoom and up to 12x digital zoom. Its f/1.8 aperture is particularly good for creating bokeh effects by compressing the background and pulling it closer to the subject.

The Osmo Pocket 4P also features the latest version of DJI's ActiveTrack, which uses AI algorithms to maintain tracking lock at up to 12x zoom. It can actively track up to eight people, framing groups and centering anyone new who steps into the field of view.

RayNeo GT Max AR Glasses

The RayNeo GT Max AR Glasses are the world's first AR glasses to support Dolby Vision playback as part of creating a virtual cinema experience. They deliver up to 1,200 nits of perceived brightness, a 120Hz refresh rate, and real-time SDR to HDR conversion for super-clear images, too. Their optical system is 29% thinner and lighter than traditional designs, and delivers an industry-leading 59-degree field of view.

One of our favorite features is the adjustable virtual screen sizes, with a choice of 227 inches, 267 inches or 307 inches. That's clever: the tighter size is ideal for spreadsheets and productivity apps if you're using them as a display for a phone or laptop, while the larger sizes deliver immersive gaming and video.

Steady, Pinned and Follow modes enable you to anchor the screen or have it move with you, and 3DoF spatial tracking maintains the screen position without straining your eyes, and keeps subtitles, taskbars and image edges within the viewing area as you move. These look like the most advanced way to take a screen with you everywhere, and they could be indispensable for long flights.

TCL P80 Ultra

If you spend as much time on your phone as we do, you'll be blown away by the screen of the TCL P80 Ultra. It's the first phone to integrate NXTPAPER eye-comfort technology, with a 1.5K sharp AMOLED display for reflection-free reading even in bright sunlight, and a button that instantly turns your P80 Ultra into an e-reader with paper-like viewing.

The P80 Ultra has nano-etched anti-glare glass, eliminating surface reflections without reducing brightness. It also features circular polarized light technology, which changes the light output to more closely replicate the characteristics of natural light, and flicker-free dimming.

The camera's pretty special too. It's a 50MP 3x periscope telephoto lens with a 50MP 1/1.56-inch large-format sensor, capturing more light per pixel than smaller sensors and enabling 6x lossless zoom. Image stabilization eliminates motion blur in photos and video, and TCL's MuseFilm filters promise cinematic-quality images. But it's the groundbreaking display that really won us over — a lot of people will find it much kinder on the eyes.

Lenovo ThinkBook 14x Gen 2

Lenovo's ultra-light laptop makes even ultraportables look positively porky: at just 2.18lbs / 990g and just 12.9mm thick it's one of the lightest and thinnest laptops around, making it ideal for business travelers and students alike — especially if you opt for the backlit keyboard, which is really helpful in dimly lit rooms and airplanes.

Lenovo has somehow managed to give the ThinkBook 14x the super-thin treatment without sacrificing connectivity, so in addition to its Wi-Fi 7 it features two 10Gbps USB-C ports, two 5Gbps USB-A ports and an HDMI 2.1 port, so there's no need to haul a hub around with you. It also has a spare M.2 slot that enables you to expand its storage, which makes this a solid long-term investment.

The ThinkBook 14x Gen 2 is also one of the most customizable ultraportables, powered by Intel Core 7 (Series 3) processors and with display options including vivid OLED and touchscreen LCD. It's good-looking too, with a choice of metallic finishes including Luna Gray, Celestial White, Mystic Violet and Veil Blue.

EarFun Wave Pro X

EarFun's headphones consistently deliver premium performance without the premium price tag, and the Wave Pro X are the brand's best yet. They feature a patented dual-driver system that places a 40mm diamond-like carbon driver and a 10mm liquid crystal polymer driver on a precisely aligned axis, creating a more natural and detailed sound than you typically get from multi-driver designs.

The Wave Pro X feature an 8-mic AI system that continuously optimizes the hybrid ANC system, even in wired AUX mode, and the Qualcomm QCC3095 chipset delivers Bluetooth 6.0, aptX Lossless, LDAC, USB Audio and Auracast. Add AI translation and up to 90 hours of battery life to the mix and you've got a truly excellent pair of headphones — EarFun has been working on these for a long time, and even delayed them in order to get the tuning just right.

Urevo CyberPad 3

The CyberPad 3 is a home/office treadmill that's designed differently to traditional models. Its WalkFree Adaptive Speed Control uses pressure sensors built into the running board, which detect your stepping motion to automatically start and stop operation; when you're walking or running it takes data from the motor to calculate speed adjustments in real time.

Its multi-user support is smart too, capturing raw weight and stride-rate data to generate a structured user profile that's directly linked to the speed-control algorithm.

The support structure is made from Q235 steel with a side frame of die-cast aluminum, and it utilizes a redesigned transmission path to deliver an exceptionally compact construction: the ultra-slim body is under 11cm thick. Despite its small size it features a 15% incline-lift mechanism and a 42cm running belt, with its size based on analysis of human shoulder widths.

Plaud One

Plaud One is a wearable AI companion that combines three key features that are usually separate: wearable conversation capture, context that builds across day-to-day conversations, and AI that can analyze data and take appropriate action. It can capture online meetings, and face-to-face discussions and phone calls, and it has built-in eSIM and 4G LTE for phone-free operation.

What makes Plaud One different is that it understands context. Instead of treating each recording as a standalone transcript, it can retain context across multiple discussions — so a conversation from one meeting can be connected to a later conversation or call.

That understanding enables the Plaud Agent to help you take action, identifying next steps and completing tasks across tools such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion, and Slack.

Minisforum MS-S1 Max-P495

The MS-S1 Max-P495 delivers large-model AI computing from an exceptionally small footprint with a very high specification. It combines AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 with up to 192GB of unified memory to run 128B+ LLMs locally, delivering up to 126 TOPS, and its unified memory architecture eliminates VRAM bottlenecks while also reducing latency.

That power is cooled by a high-performance thermal solution featuring a copper base, six heat pipes, dual fans and phase-change cooling, and it's encased in a fully scalable design, with a slide-out chassis for easy upgrading and a rack-ready form factor.

With 4x PCIe expansion, dual 10Gb Ethernet, dual 40Gbps USB4 v2, Wi-Fi 7, and a built-in 320W PSU, the MS-S1 Max-P495 delivers future-proof power for desktop systems and scalable AI clusters alike — it's a mind-blowing beast made to meet a new kind of research and development need.

XPPen Magic Pro 13

XPPen's Magic Pro 13 is a mobile drawing pad designed for creative pros, featuring an industry-first hardware-level drawing display mode that delivers low latency, native color output and higher bandwidth video transmission over a simple one-cable connection, giving you a paper-like experience with 16K pressure sensitivity and cursor hover support.

It's the first drawing pad in its category to come with dual-USB support, enabling you to benefit from a high-speed data connection while charging your Magic Pro 13.

The Magic Pro 13 features the new Shelf digital asset management system and XPPen's Canvas software, designed to deliver a simple and intuitive sketching experience for capturing ideas when inspiration strikes. And for creatives on the move it offers two thermal management modes, balancing performance and energy efficiency based on different creative scenarios.

Strutt ev1c

Strutt's ev1c reimagines the power chair with three major advancements: Strutt's evSense sensing array, a quad-drive drivetrain, and a modular, connected design.

eVSense uses two LiDARs, 10 time-of-flight sensors, six ultrasonics and two cameras to create 3D maps in real time, powering the Co-Pilot collision avoidance for people, pets, and edges, and the Auto-Pilot, which enables you to select on-screen destinations, or use LLM-powered voice commands such as "Take me to the kitchen" — basically it's a self-driving personal mobility vehicle.

The drivetrain features four-wheel independent suspension, ABS, active steering, and an integrated electronic stability program (ESP), safely managing 13-degree slopes, cobblestones and rough terrain without slippage or tipping. And when it's time to travel, it breaks down into five modules for easy trunk storage. It looks like a genuine move forward for this kind of mobility device.

xTool M2 Color Craft Laser

The xTool M2 is the first desktop machine to combine full-color CMYK printing, laser engraving and laser cutting into one enclosed Class 1 system, delivering a full print-then-cut workflow. Simply print your full-color design onto a piece of wood, leather or acrylic, and the xTool M2 Color Craft Laser cuts or engraves the exact contour with camera-guided precision. And there's a built-in air-assist pump, an industry first for a semiconductor laser, that keeps cut edges clean by reducing carbonization and yellowing.

Having these three capabilities in a single device is a huge power-up: instead of having to print on one machine and engrave or cut on another, you can turn your raw idea into a finished, professional-looking product in a single operation. It's ideal for stickers, labels, signage, personalized gifts, and small-batch products — you could start a whole business with this one device. And because it's an enclosed system, it's also very safe.

Perlegear AX1 Smart Adaptive Mount

The Perlegear AX1 Smart Adaptive Mount answers an interesting question: what if your TV mount was as smart as your TV? The AX1 is an AI-powered, motorized TV mount that can automatically adjust the height of your TV to different viewing positions, so for example you might have it low for solo TV watching, but raised for watching sports with friends, or for following an on-screen fitness app or motion-based game.

The AX1 is controllable via gesture commands, its mobile app, via remote control, or via Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri. It can distinguish between single- and multi-person viewing, with the latter calculating the best screen height for the group, and it's capable of moving a 200-pound / 90kg TV up to 15.7 inches / 400mm vertically, with real-time obstacle detection that stops and reverses the move if the path is blocked.

Speediance Gym Monster 3

The brilliantly named Gym Monster 3 delivers serious strength training for home workouts, combining the experience of a Smith machine, barbell, dumbbells, cable machine, rowing machine, pulley system, and squat rack into one streamlined setup with up to 200lbs / 90kg of intelligent digital resistance.

Twin 800W direct-drive motors deliver smooth, consistent resistance through every rep, and it's adjustable in one-pound / 0.45kg increments, so you can progress at your own pace, rather than make big jumps you might not be ready for.

The Gym Monster 3 is controlled via a clever Bluetooth Ring Control that enables you to make adjustments without stepping away or breaking your flow, and it features four dedicated training modes: Standard, Chain, Eccentric, and Fixed Speed. It also features a built-in AI coach that can guide you from your first session onwards.

Midea GreenApex Dishwasher

The humble dishwasher hasn't changed much since Josephine Cochrane's 1886 invention went electric in the late 1920s and gained spray arms in the 1950s. But the Midea GreenApex is very different from traditional grease-busters. It's a dual heat-pump system that uses a single coordinated heat pump platform to deliver washing, rapid drying, and dry storage in a single appliance.

The GreenApex is 50% more energy efficient than conventional dishwashers, delivers 30-minute rapid drying and 168 hours of dry storage without continued system operation, and offers gentle heat-pump drying at around 45°C, so you don't need to worry about high temperatures damaging more delicate items. It feels like a major leap forward for an appliance type that doesn't often have the phrase 'cutting-edge' associated with it.

Reolink OMVI 2i Ultra

The Reolink OMVI 2i Ultra Security Camera features an innovative, decoupled dual-lens tracking system in which the individual lenses operate fully independently of one another. Unlike in other dual-lens or hybrid zoom security cameras, the two lenses here are not mechanically linked, so the fixed 130-degree 4K wide-angle lens never moves, while the telephoto camera is free to rotate anywhere, including to cover areas outside the field of view of the main lens.

This means that when the 4K camera's on-device AI spots a person, vehicle or animal, it triggers the pan-tilt camera to lock onto and follow that subject even after they exit the wide camera's field of view — but you don't lose any recording from the wide camera's view during that time.

You can also use the wide-angle view to redirect the pan-tilt camera to a particular location by simply tapping that point in the live camera view, or have the wide camera and the pan-tilt camera monitoring two distinct locations, such as your driveway and a side gate.

Navimow H510 Pro

The Navimow H510 Pro features four key innovations: precise edge finishing, zero-turn steering, adaptive mowing intelligence, and 3D modelling.

Rather than edging with a trimmer line, which can be noisy and cause minor damage, the H510 Pro has an extendable robot arm that performs zero-gap edging quietly and safely — it's the most interesting and smart version of this technology that we've seen.

The all-wheel-drive system protects your turf too, with a zero-steering system that avoids dragging the wheels across the grass during lateral turns. And the Adaptive Mowing Intelligence feature analyzes grass growth patterns to determine the optimal mowing frequency, using the 1/3 cutting rule to preserve lawn health.

With 3D terrain modeling rather than the industry-standard 2D, and a sensor array including infrared as well as LiDAR and vision for low-light reliability, and triple-sensor avoidance to protect wildlife, the H510 is a smart solution for even the most challenging lawns.

DJI Romo 2 Series

The Romo 2 Series is a robot vacuum that won't be defeated by obstacles such as deep rugs, sliding door tracks and other barriers. That's because it has robotic legs that can step over obstacles as high as 4cm, and double-step thresholds up to an impressive 8.5cm.

It also features a built-in LiDAR-guided ultra-wide-swing robotic arm to extend the mop's reach, and its powerful suction system features an automatically lowering plate that forms a semi-seal on carpet for better extraction of dust and allergens.

The Romo 2 Series also benefits from the tech of DJI's flagship drones, with a Structured Light-Speckle projector and dual fish-eye vision sensors for full 3D depth perception. It can detect items such as cables and training pads as thin as 2mm, and its AI can distinguish between debris and liquid, as well as deal with transparent obstacles such as glass doors and mirrors.

Acer Vero 16

With so many laptops sacrificing easy maintenance and repairability for super-skinny styling, the Acer Vero 16 is a breath of fresh air. While it doesn't skimp on style or power — it's highly portable, delivers up to 180 platform TOPS with an Intel Core Ultra X9 processor 388H, and can be configured with a stunning 16-inch 3K OLED display — it's made with longevity in mind.

A tool-free latch provides easy access to the Vero's innards, and the battery and SSD are replaceable, while the system is designed to support the next two generations of processors if you want to upgrade. Fully 70% of the chassis consists of a blend of PCR (post-consumer recycled) and bio-based oyster shell material, and it meets US military standards for toughness. This is a laptop that's built to last, in a way that's rare to see — and very welcome.

Asus ProArt GR1X

The Asus ProArt GR1X is tiny, measuring just 150 x 150 x 51mm. But there's nothing small about its specification. Designed for advanced content creation and local AI workflows, it delivers data center-class compute inside a mini PC, removing the need to run LLMs remotely while eliminating cloud latency, cost, and IP protection concerns for pro creators.

The ProArt GR1X features the groundbreaking Nvidia RTX Spark 'superchip', which means you get a 20-core Grace CPU and a 6,144-core Blackwell GPU, delivering up to one petaflop of FP4 AI inference performance. With up to 128GB of LPDDR5X unified memory at 9,400MHz, it enables you to run up to 120B-parameter LLMs locally, and render entire 3D scenes on-device in Windows 11.

That kind of power demands highly efficient cooling, and Asus has developed an advanced precision-cooling system that delivers 1.6x more efficient thermal coverage than standard compact systems. Asus also solved the challenge of metal-enclosure signal attenuation by embedding the Wi-Fi 7 antennas behind a glass-like signal-transparent material. It's quite the design coup, and an impressive showcase for Nvidia's new elite chip.

EcoFlow STREAM 5000 / STREAM AC 5000

The EcoFlow Stream series is a plug-and-play modular system for residential solar energy generation and storage that's designed to be renter- and apartment-friendly. It can add battery storage and smart power-management to existing solar PV installations, as well as being employed to create a new home system from scratch.

The Stream Series features EcoFlow's Oasis 3.0 home energy management system, which understands dynamic energy tariffs, keeps an eye on the weather forecast, and continuously analyzes your home energy needs to optimize generation, storage and consumption.

That means you can give the EcoBot AI agent instructions such as "I need my car charged by 7am tomorrow at the lowest possible cost" and it will implement the necessary steps, or have your energy schedules reconfigured automatically when you have visitors or other instances of increased demand.

From October the EcoFlow Stream series will also get a new feature: Local Mode, which gives you uninterrupted operation and local app control even if there are cloud or connectivity outages. It's a very powerful (no pun intended) system that's been designed with the real world in mind.

Tapo D260

The Tapo D260 wired/wireless security camera is a video doorbell that delivers all the benefits of high-spec security without the potential downsides: it stores facial recognition data locally to protect privacy, and no features are locked behind a subscription. It's advanced, yet totally cost-free once you buy it.

It has 4K resolution, a wide 180-degree field of view to cover the entire doorway, and delivers sharp detail in subjects up to 30 feet away.

The D260 features multiple intelligent detection and recognition features, including radar as well as the obligatory infrared motion sensor. These enable it to discount false alerts from things such as moving branches or passing headlights, while on-device AI can recognize people, packages, vehicles, and animals.

If you wish, you can opt in to build a library of family and friends using facial recognition, and there's even a voice changer to disguise your voice when speaking to unfamiliar callers. In a world where people are sick of subscriptions, this offers a great security upgrade without the monthly fee.

• The Govee Sky Ceiling Light shifts according to time, weather, and mood
• It prioritizes flicker-free blue light when you want to concentrate
• It's Matter-compatible, unlike a recent skylight-style light from Philips

Smart lighting company Govee has launched a new smart ceiling light that changes color depending on the time of day, just like a real skylight — and can even use AI to shift its settings to suit your mood.

The Govee Sky Ceiling Light, which debuted at the IFA tech show in Berlin this week, can automatically adjust the light based on time and weather (ideal for rooms without natural light), and can prioritize Govee's sky blue spectrum when you want to feel energized (particularly handy if you're working from home).

A few months ago, Philips launched a new skylight-style light fitting that changes light temperature and brightness to suit the time of day. It looked very realistic, but without true smart home integration (the skylight is operated via a physical remote control), we found its starting price of €499.99 (about $580 / £430 / AU$810) a little hard to swallow.

The Govee Sky Ceiling Light, on the other hand, is Matter-compatible, so it can integrate with your other smart home devices. It's more affordable too, with a list price of $399.99 (about £300 / AU$560).

However, the Philips lamp has a few extra tricks up its sleeve, including an integrated UV-B module designed to support your body's natural production of vitamin D, and an IP44 rating for use in bathrooms — which often lack real windows. Its rectangular shape arguably looks more like a real skylight as well, particularly in homes with traditional styling.

I can see smart skylights becoming increasingly popular over the coming years, particularly for small homes, and it will be interesting to see how else brands manage to differentiate themselves. The Philips light isn't a Hue product, but it is made by the same parent company (Signify), so I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see a Philips Hue skylight this time next year.

• Segway Navimow has unveiled its Navimow H510 Pro lawnbot at IFA
• It features an extending, robotic arm for trimming lawn edges
• Also uses the brand's 'Xero-turn' technology for gentler turns

First, we had a robot vacuum with an arm for picking up socks. Now, limbs are making their way to robot lawn mowers too. The new Segway Navimow H510 Pro features its own mechanical arm, and this one is for trimming the edges of your lawn.

Effective edge-trimming has long been a problem for lawnbot-makers, and in recent years we've started to see side modules being added onto machines for exactly this purpose.

But Segway Navimow's solution is altogether cleaner: it has taken the main blade and mounted it on a robotic arm, so when the lawnbot is at the perimeter of a lawn the whole thing can reach out (by up to 2.9in / 7.4cm) to mow those edges. In fact, the brand promises 'zero-gap edge trimming' — no blade left unshorn.

I saw it being demoed at IFA 2026, and it was pretty majestic in action. You can see a clip below of the blade retracting back in.

The supporting software, called 'EdgeSense', coordinates the movement depending on the type of edge it's tackling. It'll react differently to hard edges (like walls and patios), soft edges (like flower beds) and irregular edges (table legs).

Because the edge trimmer and main mower use the same cutting deck, the results should be more consistent and even than if you were relying on two separate systems. Segway Navimow's aim is to "finally [close] the gap between robotic convenience and truly finished results".

One issue with finding a successful edge-cutting solution is how to handle the safety aspect of having blades protruding out from the bot's main shell protective casing.

On this front, Segway Navimow has added a side shield that provides a barrier against the blades. There's also "live-detection protection" that will shut off operation instantly when a human or animal approaches. The latter partly relies on heat-sensing to alert the lawnbot that there's a live creature about.

Smooth mover

The Segway Navimow H510 Pro uses the brand's 'Xero-Turn' technology. This tech was introduced at CES in January, and sees the lawnbot twist its wheels to effectively crab-walk its way around bends, so it won't churn up your grass.

There are further features to help the lawnbot tackle tricky terrain without risking damage to your turf. Each of the four wheels is independently powered (it's an AWD machine) to enable it to move with precision, and there's rear wheel suspension to maximize wheel contact at all times, even when the ground is uneven.

• Baseus Bowie MC2 open-ears launched recently, gaining our glowing review
• Baseus Bowie MC2 NC just made their debut mere weeks later, at IFA 2026
• This model adds noise cancellation and comes at a slightly higher price

It seems like only yesterday I was reviewing the Baseus Bowie MC2 cuff-style earbuds, which I thoroughly believe are some of the best open earbuds for people on a budget.

It was actually about two weeks ago, but the brand is already back with a follow-up to the buds.

At annual tech conference IFA 2026, the wraps have been pulled off the Baseus Bowie MC2 NC, which have one main change over the existing earbuds: the addition of noise cancellation. (You got it from the title didn't you?)

The Bowie MC2 NC are due to go on sale at some point this month, for a slightly-higher price of $99.99 (likely about £99.99, based on the non-NC buds' price). The previous pair sell for $79.99 / £89.99 (about AU$180), so you're paying a little more for noise cancellation. As you'd imagine.

Mostly, these are the same earbuds, with an identical feature set, sound profile and charging case. The latter's stamina is stated to be slightly better, with a 60-hour battery life, but given how much of a power drain noise cancellation is, the resulting battery life will likely be less.

Noise cancellation in a noise uncancelling bud

Noise cancellation is an odd feature for open earbuds — and it's very rare to see it in this ear cuff-style design. ANC typically removes background sound, but the entire point of open earbuds is to allow you to hear what's going on around you. Very few open-earbuds makers have offered any degree of noise cancellation; Honor's Earbuds Open and Shokz' OpenFit Pro are two of the few examples that do, but both sport a more 'traditional' open-ear shell design, rather than the Baseus Bowie's cuff shape.

In practice, though, I get it. You might want to hear what's going on around you while you're stood beside a busy, dangerous road, but not when you're on loud public transport. Some degree of versatility is welcome.

Cancelling sound on these buds is a technical challenge, though. It's hard to remove background noise from music, when these sounds are coming around the bud too. It's like trying to block a river, with a dam that only covers half of it.

To solve this problem, Baseus has redesigned the 'air cushion', or the comfy padded layer around the Bowie MC2's bud. This apparently now blocks up your ear better, to create an acoustic seal that can better block surrounding sounds.

Whether there's appetite for noise cancellation in noise uncancelling buds remains to be seen, but it's good that there are options; this is, as far as I can recall, the first clip-on pair I've heard of with the feature.

• Dyson has launched three new 'Nurovi' robot vacuums
• The R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV has a roller mop and UV spill detection
• The R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry has two Reuleaux triangle mops, which move asymmetrically for no-gap cleaning
• The R1 Nurovi Dry is a vacuum-only bot, with no mopping

Dyson just unveiled a new fleet of robot vacuums with plenty of intriguing features. The range is called 'Nurovi' which is a portmanteau — the bots combine "Neural Intelligence technology" with Dyson's new "Vision system". It makes sense, but if anyone can remember how to spell it without checking, I'll be impressed.

There are three models in the lineup: the R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV and R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry are both hybrid machines that can mop as well as vacuuming, and the R1 Nurovi Dry is a vacuum-only option.

I had a chance to check them all out at Dyson's IFA 2026-adjacent event in Berlin. Here, I also chatted to Nathan Lawson-McLean, a Senior Design Manager at Dyson, about the development process.

Light it up

Let's start with the flagship model: the R3. This is a second-gen upgrade of last year's Spot+Scrub Ai, and like that model it's designed to 'spot' concentrated messes and spills and scrub back and forth over them to clean them away. However, the R3 model's spill-spotting skills are powered by UV light.

"We continue to leverage our in-house vision systems and neural intelligence, to really build on this advanced stain detection," Lawson-McLean tells me. He explains that whereas with the Spot+Scrub Ai, Dyson focused on identifying a range of specific stains, here the team worked on tackling the invisible residue left by dried liquid spills. The UV light causes those stains to fluoresce.

"So as the robot's running around your home on its mission, it will now expose these totally invisible stains that become breeding grounds for bacteria," he explains. "And it will then go over it once, turn around, check, and repeat that movement."

I ask him what kinds of stains the system can tackle, and he tells me it's a wide range, including most sugary drinks, tonic water, sparkling water and milk. "I'll be honest with you, because I find you'd be surprised what fluoresces — a bit like a bowling alley in your own home," he adds.

Going in circles

Moving on to the R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry. A key difference between this and the R3 is that the R3 uses a roller mop for wet cleaning, whereas the R2 uses two spinning mop pads. Not just any spinning mop pads, though: rather than the circular pads we're used to seeing, Dyson has harnessed its geometry skills and given us a couple of Reuleaux triangles. You know — that triangular shape formed from three circular arcs.

Cleverly, the shapes move in tandem to create a straight-edged mopping finish with no center gaps — and they can get right into the corners of rooms too. As you can see in my photo image above, one of the pads can extend out to one side, to clean closer to the edges of rooms.

Both systems use heated water (158°F / 70°C on the R3, and 167°F / 75°C on the R2) to help cut through grease and tackle dried-on dirt. The heating part happens at the dock, rather than within the robot vacuum itself, to conserve battery. Some cooling will naturally take place as the mopping continues, but Lawson-McLean explains to me that the robovac is designed to return to the dock to top up with hot water when the on-bot reservoir drops below a certain temperature.

Large and small

The R2 has a sister model: the Dyson R1 Nurovi Dry. It's essentially an R2 but without the mopping functions, so those looking for a simpler and more afforable entry into the robovac market.

Both the R2 and R1 have a 'Twin-capture system' which separates fine and coarse debris in order to improve cleaning efficiency. "So traditional robot vacuum cleaners will just have one roller. And the balancing act is, well, I need to have a really open aperture to get large debris, — let's say like fusilli pasta, sweetcorn, things like that — but actually, when it comes to getting effective fine dust pickup from the floor, if I have a huge open aperture, all that airflow is wasted," says Lawson-McLean.

The solution was to have a large, open brush bar area for chunky particles, and a separate area for the fine dust, with, as Lawson-McLean describes it, "a highly concentrated and efficient airflow path that's sealed down to the floor."

Finally, both the R2 and R1 boast another feature ported over from Dyson's most advanced stick vacuums: a piezo sensor that intelligently detects the size and amount of dust around, and the floor type, and adapts its suction power to suit. The aim is to deliver an efficient clean without wasting any battery. This intelligent adjustment will kick in if the bot is set to Auto mode.

Dyson has a chequered history when it comes to robot vacuums. The Dyson 360 Vis Nav suffered from a too-high price given its feature set, and was crippled by navigation issues. Last year's Spot+Scrub Ai wasn't quite a roaring success, but did go some way to repairing the brand's robot vacuum reputation. Will Dyson continue its upward trajectory with these new launches? I'll be watching with interest.

Buying information

From Dyson US, the Dyson R3 Nurovi Spot+Scrub UV robot vacuum is scheduled to go on sale on 15 September, at a list price of $1,199. The R2 Nurovi Wash+Dry went on sale on 3 Sept, exclusively at Costco, for $699 (it'll be available direct from Dyson further down the line, but not via any other third party retailers). The R1 Nurovi Dry is also scheduled to go on sale this month, at an as-yet-unknown date, with a list price of $549.

At Dyson UK and Dyson Australia, the R2 and R1 went on sale yesterday (4 Sept) at a list price of £749.99/ AU$1,449 for the R2 and £499.99 / AU$949 fro the R1. In both territories the R3 is scheduled to launch in early 2027, pricing TBC.

• Anker has announced a new eufyMake fabric printer
• It can print straight on to fabrics or on to film surfaces
• We're still waiting on pricing and an exact on-sale date

The product announcements out of IFA 2026 continue apace, and we're very taken by the new eufyMake printer that was just unveiled by Anker. Described as a "personal fabric printer", it's capable of putting designs on a wide variety of materials.

It doesn't have a name or a price yet, and it's not arriving until the first quarter of next year (so either January, February, or March), but we are getting a 'first look' at IFA. It works with both light and dark fabrics, Anker says, with consistent results every time.

There's support for Direct-to-Garment (DTG) and Direct-to-Film (DTF) printing standards, so ink can be pushed right on the fabric itself or a film that's then placed on the fabric. The printer will work with a variety of special-effect films on top of materials too.

"Professional garment customization used to be locked inside expensive industrial machines," explains Anker in its marketing blurb. "Now, we're bringing that magic right to your desk with a printer designed specifically for fabric printing."

More updates

Anker is clearly targeting creators and those with small businesses or side hustles with this: it means you could get some branded goods up for sale without having to take your designs to a third-party printing service.

It doesn't look like you'll need a whole lot of space for it either: the press shots show it fitting comfortably on a table, and it's roughly in the range of a consumer 3D printer. There's a large dashboard on top too, for handling print settings.

More information should emerge soon, including how much this will set you back. At the same time, Anker says it's retiring the eufyMake branding alongside other sub-brands — everything will just be Anker from now on.

Anker has also announced updates for its UV Printer E1 model, the ultraviolet texture printer that was a crowdfunding hit last year. The E1 is getting bidirectional printing and faster print speeds via an over-the-air update, at no extra cost.

TCL has revealed its new P80 series of phones at the 2026 edition of IFA Berlin, and luckily, I’ve been able to try them for myself already.

The TCL P80 Ultra, P80 Pro, and P80 were all on display, and I was genuinely impressed by all three devices. But it was the first two models that really caught my attention. And that’s because the P80 Ultra and P80 Pro combine a vivid, eye-catching AMOLED display with TCL’s nxtPaper technology, which offers a matte, paper-like display akin to something you’d find on an e-reader.

During my time at TCL’s showcase, I also managed to get hands-on with its nxtPaper-equipped tablets, and I have a fair few thoughts to share about them too. So, here’s everything you need to know about TCL’s all-new nxtPaper devices.

AMOLED and nxtPaper: the best of both worlds

By combining AMOLED and nxtPaper technology, the more premium P80 handsets appeared to deliver very solid contrast and color while also providing benefits such as reduced glare and reflections.

When I was using the phone for drawing, watching a video, or scrolling, I found it to be perfectly clear and capable of plating up eye-catching colors — as you’d expect from a standard AMOLED phone. But at the mere flick of a switch (on the side of the phone), I was able to enter an e-reader mode, and this felt excellent to use.

There were two main modes available with the nxtPaper key switched on: Max Ink Mode and Paper Mode. Max Ink Mode is intended to minimize distractions and power consumption for the purest reading experience, while Paper Mode is intended to recreate a paper-like feel and harness customizable eye-care settings.

The Max Ink Mode was my go-to, and when reading text on either the P80 Pro or Ultra, the black-and-white display made viewing text incredibly seamless and focused — almost as if I was reading on a Kindle.

On top of this, the P80 line offers a pretty solid set of specs. The leading model, the P80 Ultra, has a 6.83-inch AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 3,200 nits and a 1.5K resolution. It also boasts a 120Hz refresh rate, ultra-thin 1.38mm bezels, and a 5,800mAh battery. It’s got a seemingly strong camera line-up, too, with a 50MP main lens, 50MP periscope telephoto, an 8MP ultra-wide, and a 32MP front camera.

The P80 Pro is very similar, but skips the periscope telephoto camera; the P80 strips things back even further with no nxtPaper switch and a bit less power. This is reflected in the prices, however, with the P80 Ultra starting from €549 (about $640 / £470 / AU$890), the P80 Pro available for as little as €429 (about $500 / £370 / AU$690), and the P80 going for just €349 (about $400 / £300 / AU$570).

New Note and Tab slates continue to impress

On top of TCL’s flashy new phones, I also got the chance to try out its tablets with nxtPaper technology. This included the TCL Tab A1 and larger A1 Plus, which are available with or without nxtPaper. But the model I really want to hone in on is the nxtPaper-equipped TCL Note A1.

I found each of these models to be absolutely beautiful to use, with smooth, responsive performance for basic tasks, video streaming on YouTube, and drawing, but the Note A1 was on another level.

It’s the more premium option, sure, but it was considerably nicer to use in my experience — especially for drawing. When using the accompanying stylus, it felt like I was getting the pleasing resistance and natural feel I’d expect from drawing on real paper. That meant that whether I was sketching or writing, the user experience was top-tier.

Other than that, the Note A1 packs a 1.5-inch, 120Hz display, a huge 8,000mAh battery, an octa-core processor with 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage for your apps, drawings, photos, and more.

At IFA 2026, the huge tech show in Berlin, Germany, Nvidia announced that laptops running on its ARM-based RTX Spark chip will be available to buy from October.

The biggest names in the laptop industry, including Microsoft, Lenovo, HP, and Dell, will all have RTX Spark devices, and I got to spend a bit more time with some of them at Nvidia’s launch event.

Having already seen a lot of RTX Spark laptops at Computex 2026 earlier this year, quite a bit of what Nvidia showed at IFA was familiar. There was, again, a big emphasis on local AI performance, which is undoubtedly impressive, but a bit niche for consumers, and I can see how Nvidia tech such as DLSS upscaling and Multi Frame Gen (MFG), which RTX Spark devices can make use of, can help content creators working on complex 3D art speed up their workflows (those technologies have in the past mainly been aimed at improving the performance of PC games).

I also got to play a range of games on RTX Spark laptops, including DOOM The Dark Ages, and 007 First Light, and it remains impressive that these thin and light laptops are able to run such demanding titles with such impressive results. This is especially true when you consider that the games aren't running natively on ARM, instead they are being run via Microsoft's Prism emulation layer, which means games developed for traditional Intel or AMD (x86) hardware can run without devs having to make dedicated ARM versions. According to the Nvidia spokesperson I chatted to, the performance hit of running a game via emulation is negligible, at least with GPU-bound titles.

The spokesperson admitted, however, that CPU-intensive games (such as RTS games) could see bigger dips compared to running the game natively.

What is new at IFA is the announcement that RTX Spark laptops will go on sale in October. But, apart from that, details remain scarce - and that means it's hard to get excited about these laptops just yet.

Keeping their cards close to their chest

Despite being about a month out from going on sale, Nvidia was tightlipped about a lot of things regarding RTX Spark laptops. The biggest question mark, of course, concerns pricing.

These are powerful laptops aimed at creative professionals, and will come with up to 128GB of unified memory, so I can't imagine they are going to be anything other than very, very, expensive. The continued silence about prices doesn't bode well for anyone hoping for vaguely affordable laptops.

One spokesperson I talked to did suggest there will be multiple yet to be announced configurations that will appeal to different consumers and price points, though they looked slightly doubtful when I asked if there would be an RTX Spark laptop that students could afford.

We still don't know more about performance, either, as while there were live demos, raw performance numbers were not available, and I was not allowed to run benchmarks or change settings.

What I can say is that complex AI tools and generative AI features, all run locally on the laptops, and appear fast and smooth. Games also ran well. I was also assured by Nvidia that performance would be roughly the same if the RTX Spark laptop is plugged into a charger, or running on battery.

So, no power-conserving throttling it seems, something that Apple has long boasted about with its M-series chips.

A number of laptops from Nvidia's partners were on display, but were turned off, and journalists were asked not to even pick them up, again an odd request considering these devices are supposed to go on sale next month.

I'm certainly impressed with what I've seen, and the potential of RTX Spark is huge. I'm also glad that Windows laptops look like they could finally give Apple's modern MacBook Pros a run for their money.

But, on the topic of money, I really won't be able to ascertain just how excited we should all be with RTX Spark laptops until we know more about the price - and with an October launch, time is running out.

George Yianni is excited about the future of smart lighting, and his enthusiasm is infectious. As the Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Philips Hue, Yianni has seen smart home tech move from niche to mainstream — and he has a clear vision for how you'll be lighting your home in years to come.

On September 2, Philips Hue held its annual showcase event in Berlin, just around the corner from the IFA tech expo. There, Yianni and other senior figures took to the stage to show off the brand's latest hardware (including some particularly artistic new lights and more affordable syncing devices), and to explain how new software developments will change how we all interact with lighting in the coming months.

After the event I had the opportunity to speak with Yianni, and to delve deeper into how Hue (and its parent company SIgnify) has identified practical uses for AI that aren't just a gimmick.

"There’s a push for AI for the sake of it, and we’ve really tried to shy away from that," he told me. "AI large language models are really good at processing the unstructured information and turning it into something structured, and vice versa, and that’s really where we applied it."

The first example he gave was SpatialAware — a feature that launched last year, which creates lighting scenes and applies them based on the position of lights in your room.

"We’re applying AI as a tool to deliver functionality," Yianni explained. "So what we launched last year is, we spent quite some time with our lighting designers to produce the right set of rules, tools, and training towards a large language model to codify and scale the lighting design process."

"So it can take all the unstructured information of where lights are in space, lighting design rules, and what colors look complementary, and then expose that to the user in a general way, so they can describe anything they want, and it uses its world knowledge and this lighting design skill set we’ve given it to generate new lighting design scenes for them. It’s really not something you could have done any other way."

The second example, which debuted at this year's event, is Custom AI Behaviors. This lets you use natural language to describe how you want your Philips Hue lights to behave. For example, you can ask them to behave differently on weekends and weekdays, or change scenes automatically at sunset — all without fiddling around with complex settings.

"There are so many different diversities and details about how a consumer might want their home to behave that we cannot build a user interface with buttons, toggles, dropdown menus for every possibility, and that’s why we put some limitations around automations to this point," Yianni explained. "Otherwise, the user interface would be impossible for most users.

"But natural language is a fantastic way to just describe arbitrarily how you would like your home to behave, and then we can use AI to translate that into a special programming language we’ve developed that runs the automation in the Bridge. So it’s a fantastic way to capture intent and translate into something we can just run in the background, and again, AI is the right tool to do that.

"We think of AI as a tool to be used to solve problems, and often it’s not the right tool, and then we don’t do it that way. But there are definitely are good use cases, and I think more in the works, which take advantage of it."

Exciting developments

The Philips Hue event was packed with new announcements, so I took the opportunity to ask Yianni which one he was most excited about personally. For him, accessibility was one of the biggest draws.

"It's a little bit difficult to choose, because I think we've made some great products for users that don't have smart lights yet," he said. "I think what we've done with entertainment is super exciting, to just make it so that even if people don't want a smart lighting system, they just want it around [their TV]. Now we give you a very simple, easy to use and understand kit that gives it to you."

This system is the Philips Hue Play Screen Sync, which is designed for people who aren't using an HDMI source for their TV, and may be using a native smart TV app, for example. Screen Sync uses a camera with a fish-eye lens to monitor what's on the screen, and then synchronize those colors with a light strip behind the TV. You don't have to invest in a Philips Hue Bridge to use Screen Sync either — you can use it with a single light strip via Bluetooth if you're not interested in a full Philips Hue setup.

If you do use an HDMI source for your TV, there's now a more affordable 4K version of the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, which also works with a single Hue light and no Bridge.

Yianni is also particularly proud of what the brand has achieved so far with artificial intelligence. "I think for our install base of users and for ourselves as users of Hue personally, the AI automations are a bit of a game changer," he said. "I now can finally have my home behave exactly the way I wanted to. I think that's a really big deal.

"So I'm a bit torn between those two, right? For me, it's AI automations, but I think for our business and for our overall mission of getting people to use lights in a in a richer way than just being on or off, I think the the bridge-less entertainment with just becomes so much easier to to step in with just that use case, which is a great way to start."

When it comes to the lights themselves, though, Yianni has a clear favorite: the Liane 360-degree rope light (pictured at the top of this article), which users can drape in any way they like, and which projects light around its whole circumference.

"I think it's hard to beat the statement of Liane," he told me. "I think it's really taking what we offer in a in a new direction, where you can really unleash a lot of creativity in users because it's really a product which has a lot of different ways of it being applied. I think it's something quite unique that doesn't exist in the world yet.

"Yeah, these as they omnidirectional rope lights exist in architectural lighting, but I really think we we add a new element of depth to it by making it controllable and having these subtle gradients that we can put on it. I think that's really exciting. It's something that doesn't exist in the world yet, and really adds something to an existing trend. I think that I think the most exciting lighting model."

I'm hoping to test the Liane rope light very soon to see whether it meets those expectations, so watch this space.

• Belkin has launched two semi-solid-state power banks
• These have 5,000mAh and 10,000mAh capacities and are slimmer than standard power banks with those same capacities
• They should also last longer before wearing out

Semi-solid-state batteries are one of the biggest advancements we’ve seen in consumer battery tech in years — they’re denser than lithium-ion batteries, so they can sport a higher capacity without increasing the thickness, and they also degrade more slowly. In other words: they’re a major upgrade, and Belkin has just launched two power banks with this semi-solid-state tech, which we’ve already had an early look at during IFA 2026.

First, there's the Belkin UltraCharge Pro Slim Magnetic Power Bank with BoostSolid Cell, a power bank with a 5,000mAh capacity that’s just 8.8mm thick and is around the same length and width as a standard credit card. That thickness makes it up to 40% slimmer than comparable 5,000mAh power banks.

The UltraCharge Pro Slim sports Qi2-certified 15W magnetic wireless charging, 22.5W USB-C wired charging, pass-through charging so you can charge a phone and the power bank at the same time, and — thanks to its semi-solid-state construction — the ability to retain most of its capacity across 1,000 charging cycles.

There’s also the Belkin 10,000mAh UltraCharge Pro, which can deliver up to 60W of power, is able to charge multiple devices at once via dual USB-C ports and a USB-A port, and has a display that can show battery, temperature, and charging information.

This power bank also supports pass-through charging, and while it’s understandably thicker than the 5,000mAh power bank above, Belkin claims it’s still 27% smaller than standard 45W 10,000mAh power banks.

Incredibly slim with excellent build quality

Harry Padoan (Senior Writer, Reviews) went hands-on with both of these new power banks and said, “Belkin's new UltraCharge power banks look pretty impressive — largely due to their incredibly slim build, which makes them highly practical for juicing up your devices on the go. That's especially true for the Slim Magnetic Power Bank 5K, which boasts solid Qi2-certified wireless charging as well as 22.5W wired charging.”

Padoan added that “the larger Power Bank 10K is a bit thicker, but it packs in a handy display and a solid 60W maximum power output, which will be more than enough power to fast-charge many modern handsets. The build quality across both models also seems excellent, and there are Black and Sand options, depending on what you prefer.”

While these are among the first Belkin products to feature semi-solid-state technology, we have already seen it in some power banks from other brands, such as the Kuxia S3. But it’s nice to see a big brand like Belkin embracing this innovation.

If you like the sound of Belkin’s new offerings, you’ll be able to grab the 5,000mAh power bank for £59.99 (around $80 / AU$110) and the 10,000mAh one for £69.99 (roughly $95 / AU$130) from Belkin’s own site, Amazon, and other selected retailers worldwide, starting this month.

Visiting Hisense's booth at IFA is always good for some future-gazing technology — the company often shows off product concepts that it's aiming to actually launch, but often only in China. So obviously, I like to go, find the best ones, and then write articles like this to persuade the company to release them more widely.

And here we are, in one of these articles, because I just saw the world's first micro-LED 3D TV (according to Hisense), and I thought it looked incredible.

The reason why is super-simple: micro-LED's giant brightness levels. Hisense's system uses active-shutter glasses, meaning that the TV shows alternating frames that should be seen by your left and right eyes, and you wear glasses that literally close off the vision of each eye, so that only the correct eye sees the correct frame on the TV.

But these lenses reduce the brightness even when the lens is 'open', and having only half the time to see each frame per eye also reduces perceived brightness, since less light reaches you.

This is the same technique used in the better examples of the old 3D TVs, but it meant that 3D always looked a bit dull.

But that doesn't matter if the TV is ridiculously bright to start with. Hisense's micro-LED model is capable of 10,000 nits of peak brightness, which means that when you're watching through the glasses, the 'dimmed' version of the video still looks like just a normal TV among the best TVs available today.

Colors look super-rich in 3D, and the 3D is super-sharp and detailed because you're getting native 4K resolution because of the active-shutter tech, and the crispness of the 3D effect is super-impressive. In the video I watched, there was no ghosting or stuttering of the image.

The motion looked really smooth and true to what you want from a TV, especially when combined with colors that actually feel rich and like you're getting HDR.

The amount of depth was really impressive, as well — the foreground truly looked like it was jutting out of the screen towards me, and the background felt like there was some real distance to it.

Hisense says that the TV will be able to convert from 2D to 3D in real-time with anything you watch, using a powerful AI-based system, with all the processing handled on the TV itself.

Of course, I'm more interested in breaking out my still-saved 3D Blu-rays of the movies I genuinely loved watching in the format, which were truly filmed with it in mind: Hugo, Pacific Rim, Gravity. I have never watched Avatar at home, because I know it would be a way weaker experience — but I'd watch it on this TV.

And while the dimming problem is the main issue with 3D glasses, I know that for many people the glasses themselves are the problem, and this TV won't solve that.

But man, if I were speccing out a high-end home theater setup (Hisense said the TV would cost over $200,00), I'd absolutely want this in it.

Thinking of buying a new TV?

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• Belkin unveils SoundForm Isolate and Dot earbuds
• Offer ANC, Multipoint and ear wings for a really low price
• Also, there's a new set of child-focused over-ears

You may know Belkin as a company that typically sells power banks, phone cases and charging cables, but its range is diverse and now includes some potential winners in the audio sector.

At IFA 2026, the brand has expanded its fledgling audio family with two new super-affordable pairs of earbuds, each of which offers Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) at a price far below rivals.

There's the SoundForm Isolate Buds, which sell for a very palatable £39.99 (about $54, AU$80), and the SoundForm Dot Buds, going for £29.99 (around $40, AU$60). Those names are meaty, but hopefully the audio is too.

Don't confuse the SoundForm Isolate Buds for the SoundForm Isolate; rookie mistake. Those are existing over-ears. Add 'Buds' for the new products.

Also, when it comes to the Dot option, you can select a model with or without ANC, because Belkin wants to give customers the choice. And the set that can't cancel noise can be yours for just £19.99 (around $26 or AU$36). Dot Got it? Good.

As luck would have it, we've got feet on the ground in Berlin at IFA, and my colleague Harry Padoan got a quick listen in with the SoundForm Isolate (main image and below).

His early thoughts? "From my brief time using the earbuds, they sounded very bass-heavy out of the box. The low-end was powerful and fairly regimented too, which is ideal for more energetic tracks," Padoan said. "While this could sometimes mean that vocals and mid-range sounds weren't the clearest in the mix, the audio quality seems relatively solid overall for the price you pay."

These options have been released alongside the SoundForm Play, over-ear headphones which are intended for "older kids".

Dot's the deal?

Both of Belkin's new earbuds are sold on an important promise: ANC for a lot less than Bose, Sony or Apple. But these buds have a few other benefits.

The Isolate offer Multipoint connection, a clear call quality mode, and a 32-hour battery life. They come with a wing-style design, with a ridge that keeps them locked in your ear, which should make them suitable for workouts.

The slightly cheaper Dots miss out on the wings, and have a slightly lower battery life at 30 hours, but still get Multipoint and clear calling. They also come in both ANC and non-ANC versions. The non-ANC model costs £19.99 (about $25, AU$40), so they're super cheap, but do miss a pretty useful tool.

Conspicuously absent? Any mention of the buds' audio architecture. It seems, then, that the feature list is the real selling point here; don't expect incredible sound (perhaps you guessed that from the price).

You'd be forgiven for being apprehensive about buying earbuds from a charging bank company, even a well-known one such as Belkin. However, many similar companies have begun making the jump into audio: Anker's Soundcore now makes some of our favorite earbuds, and Baseus is following suit — and both are also showing products at IFA.

This is because, unlike some spaces within tech, the power bank and charging tech sector is growing quickly (maybe people are holding onto their phones longer in these challenging times?), affording these brands some extra cash to put towards designing new affordable wearables.

What I'm saying is, it's well worth paying attention to Belkin's offerings. I'll be very interested to see if the company's affordable buds can rival our go-to best budget earbuds recommendations.

Philips Hue smart lights just got a major upgrade, with a new system that lets you sync lights with your TV screen regardless of its source. Signify, the company behind the Hue brand, showed off a new system called Hue Play Screen Sync at an event (no, not IFA) in Berlin yesterday, and it looks set to make immersive entertainment lighting a lot more accessible.

The Philips Hue Play system lets you use smart lights (including light strips and bars) to extend the colors from your screen, creating a more immersive viewing experience. However, until now, this could only be done using a Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box, which sits in between an HDMI source and your TV. If you want to watch content via a non-HDMI source, such as a native app on your smart TV, you were out of luck.

The new Philips Hue Play Screen Sync changes all that, using a fisheye camera to monitor the action on your TV screen and synchronize it with your smart lights, regardless of the source.

Similar systems already exist from rivals including Govee and Nanoleaf, so I'll be interested to see how the Hue Play Screen Sync compares. Camera-based systems usually have a few drawbacks compared to HDMI screen syncing (they can be affected by reflections on your TV screen and tend to have more latency) but hopefully the Hue system will offer performance comparable with the HDMI Sync Box.

A bright future

Another big update launched at yesterday's event is Custom AI Behaviors, which lets you use natural language to describe lighting automations, rather than having to create them manually — something that could be quite time-consuming or fiddly when done in the app. For example, you might choose to have your lights behave differently at the weekends, or activate a particular scene automatically after dark.

The Philips Hue app already contained an AI assistant the let you use text or speech to describe a lighting scene (such as 'something for Christmas' or 'a tropical sunset'), and would search the existing scene library for a match. If none existed, the assistant would create something suitable for you. This was a useful feature, but Custom AI Behaviors goes far beyond that, and should make advanced automations much more accessible, with no need to spend time fiddling with switches and sliders.

On the subject of accessibility, there is now a 4K version of the Philips Hue Sync Box to accompany the 8K version launched in 2024. The 4K Sync Box is more affordable than the 8K model, and for the first time, you can use it to sync a single light with your TV via Bluetooth, without a Philips Hue Bridge.

Third-party collaborations are coming as well, including one leaked last week, which allows you to integrate Nanoleaf Shapes lights into your Hue lighting setup, and a collaboration with Sonos that will let you control the brand's speakers with selected Hue switches.

There's a huge bundle of new smart lights too, including Festavia curtain, net, and icicle lights (ideal for Halloween and Christmas), a Philips Hue Liane 360-degree rope light, with LEDs around the entire circumference, and an OmniGlow outdoor strip light. Omniglow is a technology that uses tightly packed LEDs to create an extra smooth gradient, with no visible gaps, and this is the first time it's been available for an exterior light.

I'm hoping to test some of the new lights soon, and will bring you full hands-on reviews as soon as possible.

• Acer has revealed two interesting new laptops at IFA 2026
• The Swift Blade 14 is a super-light notebook at just 799g, and it's the lightest mainstream laptop yet
• The Vero 16 is designed to be easily repaired, with a replaceable SSD, battery, USB ports — even the CPU can be upgraded

Acer has revealed a couple of smart new laptops over at IFA 2026, one of which is notable for its repair-friendly credentials and upgrade possibilities, while the other is remarkable because it's the lightest laptop we've seen to date.

That lightweight champ — which is Acer's Swift Blade 14 — requires a caveat, though, as technically there's a lighter notebook model which already exists. However, the Fujitsu LifeBook laptops out there are niche products targeted at the Japanese market (or other parts of Asia in some cases), so in terms of the global consumer market, the new Blade 14 takes the crown, weighing just 799 grams or 1.76lb (which isn't much more than the mentioned LifeBooks).

The Blade 14 has a chassis that's fashioned from a combination of carbon fiber and a magnesium-aluminum alloy, which Acer says means it's durable as well as incredibly light.

The premium trappings continue with a 14-inch OLED screen that has a 3K resolution (and a 16:10 aspect ratio).

The Swift Blade 14 is built around an Intel Core Series 3 CPU — Wildcat Lake models which are power-efficient and easier to keep cool in a super-trim laptop — backed with 12GB of RAM. So, the spec here is slightly pulled back, with that notable compromise of not going for 16GB of system memory to keep the price down.

As for that price, we don't have it yet, and we don't have a launch date either. However, even with a more affordable CPU and 12GB of RAM, I expect this super-slim machine will extract quite a toll on the wallet.

From lightweight hero to Vero

Also at IFA, Acer took the wraps off the new Vero 16, a notebook that majors in repairability and is backed by some substantial eco-friendly credentials.

As Acer makes clear, this is a 16-inch notebook that benefits from a "more serviceable design [that] makes key components easier to access, repair, and replace", with the aim of extending the usable life of the device. In short, avoiding obsolescence (rather than planning for it, as the accusations often run with some notebooks).

To that end, you're given tool-free access to the innards of the Vero 16, and the SSD is replaceable along with the battery. The RAM is soldered to the motherboard, so that can't be upgraded — the one fly in the ointment here — but the ports aren't, so they're removable. That means if a USB connector is broken, you can switch it out, and the hinge between the body and screen is designed so it can be replaced as well.

On top of that, the Vero 16 allows for the processor to be upgraded, as Notebookcheck.net points out, although it isn't clear how this works yet (likely via a motherboard swap, which would also allow for a RAM upgrade at the same time). This is very unusual for a laptop, and we're told upgrades will be good for at least two generations of CPU silicon.

Speaking of the CPU, the Vero 16 is built around Panther Lake, offering up to an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H chip with Arc B390 integrated graphics. When it comes to the display, there's the choice of a 3K OLED or a 2K OLED touchscreen.

In terms of its green-friendly nature, Acer says the Vero's aluminum chassis is made from a "blend of 50% post-industrial recycled aluminum and 50% low-carbon aluminum". The packaging is 100% recyclable, too.

We don't yet have a price for this laptop either, but hopefully we'll get more info on pricing, and the release dates, for both of these notebooks before long. I'm keen to see both models arrive later this year, and to learn the details of how upgrading the Vero's CPU will work.

• Anker sub-brand Soundcore unveils 7 new headphones at IFA
• New wireless open-ears, over-ears and in-ears, as well as sleep buds
• These include Aerofit 2, taking features from some top options released earlier in the year

Released in May, the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro are my favorite earbuds of 2026 so far, leading to a glowing 4.5-star review... and now Soundcore has taken that DNA, and given it a little twist.

I'm talking about the Soundcore Aeroclip 2, which have just been unveiled at IFA 2026. On the surface, they seem like simple successors to the original Aeroclip, and an odd comparison for the aforementioned in-ear buds. But it's all about the feature set.

You see, the Aeroclip 2 come with Anker's Thus chip, the firm's very own internal AI chipset, used in the Liberty 5 Pro. This brings a suite of advantages that other earbuds of this design simply don't have, including clearer call quality, optimized battery life and a listening test. The new buds are due to cost $169.99 / £159.99 (about AU$320) and go on sale on September 22.

Another point of comparison is that both the Liberty 5 Pro and Aeroclip 2 also now have an advanced model: the 5 Pro Max and Aeroclip 2 Pro respectively. In the latter case, as in the former, the big upgrade is a control panel on the charging case, as well as a note-taking and transcription tool which uses the actual case to take notes. The advanced model is due to cost $229.99 (about £200, AU$400) but has no set release date just yet.

Not all of the Thus chip's features are present: I loved its noise cancellation capabilities, but since clip-style earbuds are designed to not cancel noise, naturally that won't show its face here. But if I want ANC, I have plenty of other options...

A busy IFA for Anker

Anker's Soundcore sub-brand had plenty of other devices at IFA.

First up, there's the Soundcore Space 2 Pro, over-ear headphones which build on the Space 2 we saw earlier this year. Again, the improvement is that they use the Thus chip, with noise cancellation that's apparently 1.5x better than on the original model. There's also a listening test, longer battery life and comfier build, with whatever an "optimized headband" is. These cans are set to cost $199 / £199 (about AU$400), and again go on sale on September 22.

Don't want over-ears? Well, Soundcore has standard earbuds too, in the form of the Liberty Buds 2. These are lightweight, without long stems, and weigh 4.7g each. They use 9.2mm wool paper diaphragms, and once again have the Thus chip, for the listening test and clear calling.

You can buy the Liberty Buds 2 on the same day as these other gadgets: September 22. They'll sell for $129.99 / £129.99 (about AU$230).

Soundcore is continuing its line of sleep earbuds with the... Sleep Earbuds 4 (and 4 Pro). These follow on from the Sleep A30, so the brand is changing up its naming conventions here.

These have build-in photoplethysmography sensors to track your sleep stage, heart rate, heart rate variation and other metrics, with "snore masking" and a redesigned shape so they're even smaller. A neat tool is that they offer dynamic audio: if it notices you waking up, it'll start playing a sleep sound to lull you back to sleep.

The standard buds come in October, and I wasn't provided a price. The Pro models come later, in November, and their main upgrade is that they have a screen on the case, so you don't need to use your phone to manage or monitor them.

Finally, we have the Anker RIC Hearing Aids, which continue a growing trend among audio companies: using their tech to create over-the-counter hearing devices. These use the Thus chip, and therefore the clear-calling and Hear ID tools, to boost sounds you struggle to hear. No word on a price or release date for these.

Phew. Take a breath. That's only the tip of the iceberg for Anker at IFA, with charging devices and home security cameras and more, but luckily for this missive, none of them go on (or near) your ear.

• Anker has launched the SleepLab and SleepLab Pro speakers
• It’s also unveiled the Sleep 4 and Sleep 4 Pro earphones
• These products promise to help you fall asleep more easily

Anyone who struggles to fall asleep at night knows the toll it can take on you, from frustration and anxiety over lost sleep to lethargy and low energy the next day. Anker, though, believes it might have the answer in the form of a couple of new audio products announced at IFA 2026.

The first takes the form of two new bedside speakers: the SleepLab and the SleepLab Pro. The SleepLab plays “music and sleep sounds with a soft nightlight and alarm to set the mood for sleep,” Anker says. The SleepLab Pro goes a step further by using a 60Hz radar for “precise sleep sensing, tracking heart rate and breathing and analyzing the four stages of sleep.” It then plays “tailored audio” that’s designed to help you drift off.

If you prefer to use earbuds at night, Anker also has the Sleep 4 and Sleep 4 Pro earphones. Both of these devices feature noise cancelation, with the latter adding a few extra features for bedtime.

That includes what Anker describes as “the world’s first Track-Assess-Adjustment system.” This tracks PPG, heart rate and heart rate variability while you sleep. It also uses Anker’s proprietary BioSync system to dynamically adjust your audio and “help each user find their most effective sleep sounds.” And there’s a touchscreen charging case with which you can set an alarm, play sounds and check your metrics, even if your phone isn’t to hand.

Analysis: The SleepLab speaker appeals, but questions remain

While I’m usually able to sleep soundly at night, there are times when my sleep is either completely patchy or seems to take forever to actually begin. That can be incredibly frustrating, as I know the result is going to take its toll on me the next day.

While I wouldn’t be able to comfortably sleep with Anker’s Sleep buds in my ears, the SleepLab could be of more interest due to its unobtrusive nature. I’m skeptical about how useful the radar tracking and sleep analysis is (the former feels a bit overkill, while I’ve got my Apple Watch for the latter), but having a device that can play soothing sounds to help me fall asleep has me intrigued.

The main question I have with both of these devices is how they work once you actually drift off. Can they detect that you’re no longer conscious and automatically stop the music? If not, I’d be concerned about their batteries draining unnecessarily, especially when it comes to the Sleep 4 buds.

Anker hasn’t confirmed the pricing of its new earphones, but it says the Sleep 4 will launch in October 2026 and the Sleep 4 Pro will arrive in November. Pricing for the SleepLab and SleepLab is also missing, although Anker has confirmed that neither will require a subscription. The release date for these speakers is currently unknown.

At IFA 2026, Acer announced its upcoming Small Form Factor (SFF) PC, built on Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chip, and from what Acer (and Nvidia) has shown, I should be buzzing with excitement.

After all, it ticks a lot of boxes for me; it’s compact, beautifully designed, and thanks to the RTX Spark, it should also be very, very powerful. And yet, much like the recent announcement of the latest Mac mini with Apple’s new M6 chip, I just don’t feel excited at all.

Despite sharing the same ‘RTX’ branding as Nvidia’s gaming GPUs, it’s clear that early devices using the RTX Spark will be of little interest to consumers like you and me, and are instead aimed at people who need to run heavy-duty local AI tasks.

Even though Acer states that RTX Spark devices are “designed for creators, AI developers and gamers,” the brief information provided focuses solely on the AI capabilities, with Acer saying that its RTX Spark device “is built to deliver up to 1 petaflop of AI performance and up to 128 GB of high-speed unified memory, delivering a combination of compute and data privacy.”

Terms like “1 petaflop of AI performance” are a sure-fire way to make any interest I might have in a device evaporate faster than PC gamer’s tears on a red-hot AI data center. It certainly doesn’t make me feel like the product is aimed at me, despite the RTX branding, brief mention of gamers, and stylish design.

I’ve written a lot in the past about my love of small form factor PCs, mainly when it comes to gaming, as these compact computers can be great alternatives to games consoles, as they can sit in your lounge and plug into your TV without looking out of place. RTX Spark devices, such as Acer’s, could potentially combine Nvidia’s gaming technology with compact designs, something I’ve always wanted. So why am I just not excited?

AI above everything else

There's a simple reason: AI. Now, this isn’t about my general distaste of generative AI, or the fact that things like Google’s AI Overviews are taking written content from websites, such as this one, and featuring them elsewhere without compensation — it’s because from what I’ve seen of RTX Spark hardware so far seems to be lazer-focused on local AI capabilities, which is something that simply doesn’t appeal to mainstream users.

If these were products solely aimed at AI developers, I wouldn’t mind, but it feels like RTX Spark has been teased by Nvidia to be something that consumers, especially gamers, would also be interested in. Hopefully as we get closer to the release of the first batch of RTX Spark devices, we’ll be given some non-AI reasons to be excited.

At the moment, though, I feel the same way about RTX Spark PCs as I do with Apple’s new-announced M6 Mac mini.

Mini heartbreak

Recent Mac minis have been some of my absolute favorite products, and up until a few weeks ago, if anyone was looking for an affordable desktop PC, I would almost always just tell them to buy a Mac mini. They were powerful, well-built, had an impressively small form factor which allowed you to install them almost anywhere, and launching at $599 / £599 / AU$999, you’d be hard pushed to find a better value small form factor PC.

In fact, I awarded a very rare five stars in my Mac mini (M4, 2024) review. So, I should be over the moon with the new model, especially as it’ll be the first device to pack Apple’s M6 chip — quite an achievement for the little PC that could.

And yet, I feel a bit deflated. The latest Mac mini will come with a higher price tag, something that feels all to familiar at the moment, and now starts at $899 / £899 / AU$1,449, a considerable jump up from what the previous model launched at, and instantly makes the Mac mini less of an easy recommendation.

One of the reasons why it’s been hard to get hold of a Mac mini recently is because a lot of people are bulk buying the tiny PCs to run OpenClaw and other local AI tools on them. Apple appears to be leaning into this popularity (I can’t blame them for that, to be honest), with a big focus of the Mac mini, and the M6 chip, being improvements to AI performance (Apple claims four times the AI performance of the previous model).

That’s all well and good, I guess, but that AI focus, along with the price increase, means one of my favorite bits of hardware doesn’t feel like it’s aimed at me any more. I’ll be less likely to recommend it to people as even if it turns out that it’s a great bit of gear, the new price means it won’t be for everyone. And I personally don’t know anyone who is looking for a Mac mini to do heavy AI tasks with it.

It's the same with RTX Spark devices. We’ve not had price announcements, but Acer’s RTX Spark PC not only features cutting-edge Nvidia hardware, but “up to 128 GB of high-speed unified memory.” There’s little doubt that it’ll be very expensive.

So, it leaves me wondering who the RTX Spark PCs and new Mac mini are really for. The Mac mini had a real chance to become a mainstream hit, but its higher price will put a stop to that (the cheaper MacBook Neo now has a better chance), and I can’t imagine anyone except developers who need to run local AI models being interested in RTX Spark, despite the stylish designs.

Bascially, I’d like the likes of Nvidia and Apple to remember us consumers who don’t have a huge amount of cash, have little interest in AI, and are feeling increasingly left behind.

• Dell has unveiled a new 14-inch laptop at IFA 2026
• The Dell 14S is aimed at students and comes in vibrant colors like the MacBook Neo
• Dell has yet to reveal the price tag, which is a crucial missing piece of info with a wallet-friendly laptop like this

Dell has revealed a new 14-inch laptop over at IFA 2026 — and it's clear that this is a Windows 11 take on Apple's MacBook Neo formula.

The Dell 14S is a smart-looking, compact laptop which is aimed at students, and it comes in a selection of vibrant colors. That includes a rather striking green (velvet green as it's dubbed), as well as a light pink (dusty rose), beige (linen) and light blue (washed denim).

It'll be no great surprise to learn that the 14S is powered by Intel's Core Series 3 (Wildcat Lake) CPUs, which are performant but affordable chips that do a good job on the power-efficiency front.

RAM and storage start at 8GB and 256GB, but a higher-tier model offers 16GB and a 512GB or 1TB SSD.

The pitch is essentially a lesser version of Dell's XPS 13 for 2026, so you don't get quite the same thinness or lightweight nature (though the 14S is still 13.5mm thin and 1.15kg, so pretty trim).

The screen on the Dell 14S isn't touch-enabled either — it's a more basic 1920 x 1200 resolution display with a 60Hz refresh rate and 300 nits of brightness (with the XPS 13 you get 120Hz VRR and 500 nits). There is a fancier screen, mind, on the upper-tier model of the Dell 14S, which sharpens the resolution to 2880 x 1800 and gives you 120Hz.

How much is the Dell 14S? Well, that's really the crucial question when it comes to a MacBook Neo rival like this, and the answer is: we don't know because Dell isn't saying yet.

Analysis: a growing no-price-at-launch trend

It makes me a bit nervous that no official price is forthcoming with this IFA unveiling, but we have got a hint behind the scenes of how much the Dell 14S might cost. According to The Verge, Dell reps are saying that this laptop will be "close" to the starting price of the XPS 13 – which is $700 in the US – but "slightly more accessible", which makes sense given the student target market, of course.

Indeed, based on the spec downgrades, I would hope it's cheaper, but the use of the word 'slightly' suggests that there's not going to be much difference. Although to be fair to Dell, the XPS 13 is level with the MacBook Neo's price tag (since Apple hiked the price from the launch MSRP) over in the US. That said, in other regions, the XPS 13 can be a good bit pricier than the Neo – in the UK currently it's 10% more, and it has been a heftier premium than that in the past. We'll likely see a similar scenario with the Dell 14S.

What compounds this concern is the RAM crisis, which is really kicking up a gear, and is expected to make hardware more expensive as 2026 continues (and matters are likely to worsen in 2027). Is Dell keeping quiet on the MSRP of the 14S right now because it's expecting further price pressures to exert themselves by the time it comes to this laptop's launch? I don't think we can rule that out.

Maybe I'm overthinking this, granted, and I like the look of the Dell 14S and the general pitch of this notebook. It just makes me a touch suspicious when we have a product that's built around being wallet-friendly, yet we don't get an MSRP, which, for this category of laptop, is an absolutely key consideration.

Hopefully my fears will prove unfounded, and it's worth noting that Dell isn't alone at being shy about revealing prices, with manufacturers avoiding pinning a recommended price on their offerings at launch being something of a trend of late (one that was noticeable at Computex). This is a symptom of the RAM crisis, of course, and component inflation on various fronts, all of which is predicted to get more severe as this year rolls into next.

• Philips Hue could be launching a light module that lets you connect your Nanoleaf Shapes to the Hue app
• You'll be able to integrate Nanoleaf lights into your Hue schedules and automations
• It's not Matter-over-Thread, but you might be able to use a Hue Bridge for third-party connectivity

We’re just one week from IFA 2026, and we already have our ears to the ground for all the pre-event announcements and rumors — and this latest Philips Hue leak is bound to make Nanoleaf users very happy.

As spotted by the outlet Smartlights, Philips is reportedly launching the Hue Wall Light Module next week, meaning that users will be able to integrate their Nanoleaf lights into the Philips Hue ecosystem — which would be a huge win, especially since Nanoleaf is an affordable alternative to the Philips Hue range of best smart lights.

The Hue Wall Light Module is said to support the Nanoleaf Shapes LED panels, including Mini Triangles, Triangles, and Hexagons, while older panels (formerly known as Aurora) won’t be supported. Philips’ new module is also expected to be announced on September 3, and will go on sale for 39.99 euros, with international prices expected to follow.

Essentially, the rumored Hue module is a small white adapter around 8cm that you can plug directly into the connectors in your Nanoleaf panels, allowing you to integrate up to 100 Nanoleaf Shapes panels into your Hue system. That said, the Hue Wall Light Module shouldn’t be confused with the existing Philips Hue Wall Switch Module, which is installed behind a standard wall switch.

Once your Nanoleaf panels are connected via Philips’ new module, you’ll be able to include them in automations, Hue scenes, and schedules in the Hue app — but whether Nanoleaf’s flagship lighting tools will be carried over is unclear.

Similar to Philips Hue, Nanoleaf offers customizable color scenes and animations, but as far as the leaks go, the product images show the Nanoleaf integration working primarily with Hue scenes and effects. The leak shows at least five points in the color selection wheel, suggesting that there’ll be some kind of multicolor control function regardless, but we’ll have to see how this will work after the launch.

The other catch is that the Philips Hue Wall Light Module isn’t Matter-over-Thread, which, considering Nanoleaf’s devices are mainly Thread- and Matter-supported, is a bit of a departure. Instead, the module uses Zigbee and Bluetooth, the main connectivity protocols Philips has used for some time.

That said, using a Hue Bridge allows you to connect Philips Hue devices that are non-Matter to hubs such as the Apple HomePod, which is helpful if you use the best smart speakers to control your home lighting system — though we’ll have to wait and see how the new Philips Hue module handles third-party connectivity once it’s launched.

Despite these gray areas, the Nanoleaf-Hue integration is an unexpected yet possibly beneficial upgrade. When it comes to smart lighting brands, their respective devices tend to keep you locked into one ecosystem or the other, so having a simple but effective connectivity tool would give users much more flexibility.

Robot vacuums are getting ever more advanced and impressive. But a lot of models offer various combinations of the same features, which can make distinguishing between them tricky. So it's always refreshing to see a robot vacuum with a genuinely unique feature.

Enter the Eufy Omni S2, with its fragrance capsule compartment. A robot that cleans my house and leaves it smelling like a spa? Dreamy.

Of all the many robot vacuums I saw at IFA 2025, this is the one I want to try most. And given that I had demoes of robot vacuums that can climb stairs, and one that can pick up a duster and clean your baseboards, that's saying something.

I've tested most of the best robot vacuums on the market, and this is the only one I'm aware of that can have a scent capsule attached. There are three scent options, including eucalyptus and lemongrass. I had a sniff of each capsule and I liked them all – they were fresh and pleasant without being too synthetic or overpowering. I didn't, however, get a chance to see (or smell) them docked into the S2 and on a cleaning journey, so I can't speak to their effectiveness in practice.

The idea reminds me of Shark's anti-odor capsule – a puck that sits in the floorhead or on the auto-empty docks of some Shark vacuums. Officially, this is designed to neutralize potential bad smells, rather than creating a scent of its own. However, the reviewers who have tested capsule-equipped vacuums for TechRadar have almost all been huge fans, and commented that the puck left their floors smelling fresh.

On Eufy's bot, the scent is the point, and I for one am here for the more luxurious approach.

Further features

Of course, the Eufy Omni S2 is more than just a mobile scent dispenser – there's plenty to recommend it as a cleaner, too. The bot packs an ultra-powerful 30,000Pa of suction (it's apparently capable of sucking dirt from shag carpets with a pile height up to 5cm), and uses two rollers with a gap in the center, to prevent hair tangles.

On the mopping front, the S2 boasts an extra-wide roller mop that scrubs with 15N of downwards pressure and cleans itself as it goes. Mysteriously, it also uses electrolyzed water in its cleaning dock – I'm told this helps kill three common germs, but Eufy has failed to provide anything more specific than that.

The Eufy Omni S2 is scheduled to go on sale at the end of October in Europe, and in January 2026 (after a launch at CES) in the US. I only have pricing in euros: €1,599, which would be around $1,875 / £1,380 / AU$2,800.

You might also like...

• I've just seen Dyson's surprise new robot vacuum, and it looks great... but why is it so enormous?
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• Dreame's new stick vacuum is absolutely desperate to get right under your sofa

It’s been a busy year for Samsung when it comes to new hardware. At IFA 2025, the Korean tech giant revealed the Galaxy S25 FE, Galaxy Tab S11, and Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, expanding its mobile lineup with a more accessible version of the flagship Galaxy S25 and two powerful new tablets.

The Galaxy S25 FE is the latest in Samsung’s line of cheaper FE flagships, condensing the essential features of the Galaxy S25 into a cheaper handset, with a larger 6.7-inch display, a triple-camera system, and full access to the Galaxy AI suite.

As for the new tablets, the Galaxy Tab S11 and Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra follow on from last year’s Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. The regular Galaxy Tab S11 returns to an 11-inch form factor, while the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra sports an impressively huge 14.6-inch display.

Both tablets are powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chipset, and again offer full support for Galaxy AI with additional features tailored to the tablet form factor. AI formed a major part of the brand’s messaging surrounding the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 foldables released earlier this year, and Samsung has increasingly focused on AI with each subsequent launch.

To find out more about the brand’s latest devices and plans to bring Galaxy AI to millions more users, I hopped on a call with Mobile Experience (MX) VP of Product and Marketing at Samsung UK, Annika Bizon, and Smartphone Product Specialist at Samsung MX, Kadesh Beckford.

'You get the full Galaxy AI experience' – Galaxy S25 FE

The Galaxy S25 FE occupies a middle-ground between the most expensive A-series phones and the flagship Galaxy S25 – on paper, it looks like a pretty good deal for those who might be considering either option.

Here at TechRadar, we test all the best Samsung phones to find out which users might benefit from each specific device. But what does Samsung itself think?

“You get the full Galaxy AI experience when it comes to the FE,” said Beckford. “With the A-series, you have what we call Awesome Intelligence, which is great for editing pictures and making other fine-tune changes to your content. When you want to get live translation, full multimodal capabilities, and so on, that’s all been implemented into the S25 FE with no compromises."

Beckford was also keen to emphasise the hardware specs of the new handset: “With that 6.7-inch display on the FE, you’ve got a larger screen-to-body ratio. It’s just over 90%, where you're looking at about 87% on its predecessor.”

He added: “The S25 FE is even slimmer than before – we’ve trimmed it down by 0.6mm, so now it’s 7.4mm thick versus 8mm on the S24 FE.”

The phone also boasts a new 12MP selfie camera and larger vapor chamber compared to last year’s model, as well as the Exynos 2400 chipset and a triple camera array that impressed us during our hands-on Galaxy S25 FE review.

“It's super powerful," he added, “[and] we’ve actually put a bigger battery in it. We’ve improved the phone’s battery by 200mAh to 4,900mAh, and it has 45W super fast charging. I can get over 65% in just 30 minutes”.

Beckford’s answers suggest Samsung is making smart hardware improvements with the goal of attracting those who prefer a premium experience, while also focusing on the type of AI features we saw with the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 earlier this year – though I didn’t get a specific answer as to whether the S25 FE is “for” any one user.

'This is going to last the test of time' – Galaxy Tab S11 and S11 Ultra

As for the new tablets, the Galaxy S11 and Galaxy S11 Ultra, Samsung has focused on hardware performance, and Beckford mentions that the new tablets boast 24% better CPU performance and a 33% faster NPU (Neural Processing Unit) for AI tasks.

He added that the new tablets are designed for longevity: “Both of these are thinner, with huge battery capacities – you’ve got 11,600mAh in the Ultra. That means [these products] are going to last the test of time, especially with IP68 water and dust resistance.”

The new tablets also come with a reworked DeX mode, which moves even closer to a laptop-style experience. With iPadOS 26, and its Mac-style experience for iPads, right around the corner, I asked Annika Bizon for Samsung’s take on the tablet versus desktop debate.

“I would say it's actually about how you use a device,” Bizon explained. “I use [a tablet] with my laptop quite a lot. Often I'll be sat there and I'll have my notes on one [screen] using Samsung DeX beside the PC when I'm actually doing, you know, a Teams call, or so on. So I think it's all about your personal choice and consumption.”

Bizon continued: “We don't want people to stop using laptops, and we don't want people to just use tablets. We want them to use them however they want to use them and, fundamentally, most of the time together.”

'The goal is to make Galaxy AI accessible to as many people as possible' – Galaxy AI

Amidst all the specs and scenarios, Beckford shared one of Samsung’s major goals for the last stretch of 2025: “You may have seen on stage, Annika shared that we’ve currently got 200 million Galaxy AI users – by the end of the year, with devices like the FE, that’s going to go up to 400 million users.”

Adding another 200 million users to any product in the span of about three months is a pretty major task.

I asked Bizon to elaborate on what Samsung hopes this journey will look like: “The goal for us to to make Galaxy AI accessible to as many people as possible. And what we’re already seeing is the rate of people using it on a daily basis increasing exponentially across the world.”

Bizon added: “We started with Circle to Search, then saw that expand into our Interpreter, then things like generative AI and creative tools. People are using these all the time.”

“We want to get as many people as possible using [these tools] on a regular basis,” Bizon continued, “and actually, whilst we talk about them being AI features, truthfully, users don't need to know they're AI – they just need to know that it's working for them and it's giving them time back.”

As mentioned, the Galaxy Tab S11 series comes with new AI features optimized for larger displays – which, in theory, makes it easier for new users to adopt Galaxy AI. Beckford explained: “You get more floating tools – sometimes you don’t need AI to take up the complete screen [...] it’s just simple ways that enable you to use AI on that large canvas – Circle to Search doesn’t take up your complete screen, for example.”

Bizon told me that Samsung’s consumer research has picked up on two different elements as priorities in the age of AI: “You're looking at the actual hardware of a device and how we bring that to market, and then coupling that with, 'What AI features does the consumer need?' [We're exploring how] those two things marry in the best possible way."

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• Tineco Floor One S9 Scientist is a new wet-dry vacuum
• Magnetic flap at front of floorhead acts as a squeegee to remove excess water
• Also has a cool retro-style pixel display

I saw a number of wet-and-dry vacuums at IFA 2025, but one that stood out from a design perspective is Tineco's new Floor One S9 Scientist.

We're fans of this range – another Tineco model sits in the #1 spot in our roundup of the best wet and dry vacuums on the market – and this new addition boasts a particularly cool design and some very useful features.

The floorhead has a flap that runs along the front edge. It contains magnets that mean when it's pushed forward, it lifts up to allow any debris to feed into the roller. When the machine is pulled backwards, it descends and acts as a squeegee, wiping away excess water – Tinesco's line is that it leaves surfaces 'barefoot-ready' almost immediately after cleaning. It's a simple but very clever addition, ensuring your hard floor gets a thorough clean without ending up too wet or slippery.

For tough or dried-on stains you can also activate the 'HydroBurst' function, where the S9 will shoot a high-pressure jet of water from the front of the floorhead onto the problem area, ready to be rollered over and squeegee'd away.

Other useful features include a built-in gyroscope that acts like a car differential, adjusting individual wheel speed for smooth turns with minimal effort, automatic suction and water level adjustment, an impressive 60-minute runtime and ultra-quiet self-clean mode.

However, the thing that really stood out to me when I saw the S9 Scientist in person was the 'CyberPunk' design.

It's difficult to make a wet floor cleaner look cool, but I think Tineco has managed it here. There's a retro-style display on the front that uses chunky pixels to convey key information – a color-changing ring to indicate when the S9 has detected dirt on the floor, an battery icon to show it's charging, and so on.

The Tineco Floor One S9 Scientist is due to go on sale later this year in the US, with a list price of $799 (TBC). It is also expected to be available in the UK and Australia early next year, but I don't have any projected prices for those countries. It sits alongside the S9 Artist Steam, which is a sister model with a curvier, less retro design and steam function.

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Boundary wires might be rapidly becoming a thing of the past, but modern robot lawn mower navigation tech isn't without its problems. Most lawnbots find their way around using satellites, with an RTK receiver to make the location information more precise. Sometimes, this is combined with backup technology like VSLAM and/or cameras.

Mammotion's newest launch takes things to another level, with a triple-pronged approach that includes RTK, a 3D camera and solid-state LiDAR. The inclusion of LiDAR is the most interesting (so interesting that Mammotion has called it out in the product name: the LUBA mini AWD LiDAR) – this is the navigation tech powering today's best robot vacuums, but I've never seen it used in a robot mower before.

The idea is that the LUBA mini AWD LiDAR will swap between these different navigation technologies to offer "±1 cm precision in any situation". Each technology has its strengths and weaknesses, which is why adding various options makes sense.

LiDAR works by emitting beams of light and measuring how long they take to bounce back, then using this information to build a map of an area and everything in it. It's very precise and great for enclosed spaces with things in them (hence its popularity with robot vacuums), but less so in open areas that lack objects to bounce off.

RTK is your standard lawnbot technology. It's less precise than LiDAR and relies on a direct line of sight to a number of satellites in the sky, which means it can struggle to operate under trees or in narrow passageways. However, it's perfect for wide, open areas.

The 3D camera is useful for object identification and avoidance, but it needs light to work properly. In contrast, RTK and LiDAR both work in the dark and are effective in shaded areas.

With Mammotion's "Tri-Fusion" technology, the LUBA Mini AWD LiDAR will automatically pick the best approach for any given space. So when there's a poor satellite signal, LiDAR might kick in, then in open areas lacking in obstacles, RTK would take over as the primary positioning source.

This brand already makes some of the most advanced robot mowers around (head to TechRadar's Mammotion Luba 2 AWD review for a taster), so I'm excited to see how this new addition holds up, having seen it in action at IFA 2025.

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IFA 2025 has seen a whole load of new devices unveiled, from some of the best laptops to brand-new smart home products. The trade show has been absolutely packed with fantastic technology, and AI has certainly been the main topic of conversation this year, which is no surprise.

But what about some of the weirder devices - the products that literally made me do a double take as I walked past them on the show floor?

I’ve rounded up five of the weirdest tech gadgets I came across during my time at IFA 2025 and - spoiler alert - there’s a whole load of robots.

Chess playing robot

When first walking past the X Sense stand, I didn’t even know what I was looking at - it seemed like a sea of robots with chess or checkers sets in front of them. I walked up to one as it reorganised the board from its previous match and pressed Go and low and behold, I was in a chess match with a robot.

Despite sounding intimidating, the SenseRobot - a chess and board game-playing robot - actually wasn’t dominating the game and obliterating me like I was expecting. Instead it gave up its bishop for a measly pawn. Does that mean I can technically say I’m smarter than a robot?

The robot has an arm which it uses to move pieces, as well as a camera sticking up and over the board so it can see everything that's going on.

The small screen, which can be used to display stats about the game or navigate menus also turns into a little face when not being used - which is very adorable.

AI ironing machine

For those who truly want to live a life of luxury, then the AI smart ironing machine from Aivive would be a pretty weird but useful addition to your home. Just hang up one single garment in the device, whether it be a shirt, jacket, trousers - whatever you might need - and it will dry and iron it.

The machine blasts 750 km/h winds at your shirt, around the speed of a cruising Boeing 737, to get rid of any creases. The entire process takes around 90 seconds, which is probably around the same amount of time it would take you to actually iron your shirt, but with this device you can leave your shirt in and go and do something else… for 90 seconds.

Aivive suggested use cases to me such as luxury department stores, airport lounges or high end-hotels, which means this is likely going to be a premium product.

Self-flushing cat toilet

I’m a cat person, probably the most cat-person cat-person you’ll ever meet. I currently have 10 (yes, 10) cats at home. Yet I thought a self-flushing cat toilet would be too much even for me, but somehow after having a gander at the Self-flushing smart cat toilet from Petgugu (cat not included) I might just be convinced otherwise.

This device connects up to the sewage system in your home to make scooping cat litter an issue of the past. Each time your cat goes to the loo, the device then discards any waste, washes the cat litter to refresh it and then resets so your cat is greeted with a fresh litter box after every use.

You get the benefit of a spacious interior to allow for even some of our more chunky feline friends as well as a 15L litter storage capacity to top up litter automatically when it runs low. It also has an infrared sensor and weight sensor so the device will never begin cleaning while your cat is still inside.

Stair climbing robot for your vacuum

Anyone who has a robot vacuum and a home with more than two stories will tell you that having your device get stuck on an edge and start screaming because it thinks it's about to fall off a cliff is one of the biggest downfalls of this category of products. Having to move your vacuum upstairs yourself starts to feel tedious and defeats the point.

In comes the Eufy MarsWalker, a brand new device that carries your robot vacuum up the stairs for you. Just to clarify, this isn’t a vacuum itself, just a whole other robot to have in your house to carry your robot vacuum to other floors of your home.

Your Eufy robot vacuum can park itself in the MarsWalker, which can then travel up the stairs in your home, drop your robot vacuum off, and then bring it back down later when it's done before parking itself up in its own little dock.

Watching this all unfold in front of me actually freaked me out just a little bit. The robots are evolving.

Robot pets

Last but certainly not least are Switchbot’s brand new robot AI companions, Noa and Niko. These are AI pets which are designed purely for companionship as they waddle around your home, greet you and flap their arms.

The robots can recognise different family members and actually respond to gestures and emotions. Switchbot has stated that they can display emotions such as happiness, sadness, or even jealousy - which is a horrifying thought. They can also learn your household routine.

While they don’t serve any practical purpose, these two robots were absolutely adorable as they wandered around together at IFA.

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• Who it will appeal to, and how durable the rotating hinge is, remain unknowns for now

Lenovo has confirmed that ThinkBook VertiFlex, previously known under the codename Project Pivo, is real.

First shown off at the end of August 2025 on X by renown serial leaker Evan Blass, the concept laptop was officially revealed at IFA 2025 in Berlin and it’s just as bonkers as we were expecting.

The ThinkBook VertiFlex features a 14-inch screen that rotates independently of the lid. This mechanism allows the device to switch between horizontal and vertical orientations.

Ultraportable

In vertical mode, Lenovo suggests the business laptop could be useful for displaying and writing code, reading documents and long webpages, or running multiple windows side by side.

The device is slim at just 17.9mm and weighs 1.39kg, making one of the lightest laptops around.

A vertical orientation is not new in the world of external monitors, but it is far less common in a laptop.

Lenovo sees it as a productivity enhancer for users who would benefit from a taller display.

The rotating hinge system is interesting, and while I can see how it would work, inevitable questions arise about its long-term durability.

Lenovo also announced Smart Connect, a feature that links a user’s smartphone to the VertiFlex.

When the screen is in vertical orientation, the tethered phone can share files or mirror its display directly on the laptop.

This suggests the company sees the device as more than a simple curiosity, although the actual audience for such a design is a little less clear.

Concept laptops have a mixed history, with many never making it to market, although some, like Lenovo’s rollable ThinkBook, eventually did.

The VertiFlex fits into that unusual and untried category, where it will definitely appeal to a narrow group of professionals but general buyers will struggle to grasp the point of it, especially if it comes with a high price tag.

I certainly applaud Lenovo’s willingness to experiment though, even if the practical benefits of the ThinkBook VertiFlex’s rotating screen remain open to debate.

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When Dolby Vision 2 and Dolby Vision 2 Max were announced, the feature that I was most intrigued by is Authentic Motion. This promises to remove unwanted judder from movies by adding moment-by-moment motion smoothing control that's chosen by the creators and embedded into the video data, rather than having motion control be completely set by the TV mode or the user.

At IFA 2025, I got to see a demo of this in action, and now I'm more than intrigued – I think it's the best part of the new format.

First, here's an explanation of the problem. Movies are filmed at 24 frames per second, but video is not always delivered to TV screens at 24 frames per second – sometimes it's at 30fps or 60fps depending on the service, TV connection or streaming device. And so if a movie is 24fps but the TV is stuck showing 30fps, then the movie's frames aren't being shown in the correct timing – so the motion may be become unnatural or 'juddery', as we tend to call it.

But also, even if something is shown at the correct framerate, you may still see a judder effect because 24fps isn't that smooth. On a low-brightness cinema screen that's far away from your eyes, you don't tend to notice it much – that's the native, correct way to watch movies, in a lot of cases. On a super-bright, super-detailed TV that's right in front of you, you will notice gaps in the movement more.

Judder really tends to creep in when a film is moving the camera steadily in one direction, such as a panning shot across a landscape. We use No Time to Die as a reference test movie for this, because it has one of the hardest scenes for TVs to handle early on, when James Bond is walking to the cemetary.

TVs handle judder different, because it depends on so many factors – including the particular screen tech, the image processing, and the mode you're in. The solution is some kind of motion processing – but motion smoothing is dreaded by cinephiles, in case it makes motion look unnatural and TV-like, rather than film-like.

Authentic Motion – giving creators control of motion processing

Authentic Motion is Dolby's solution to this. This Dolby Vision 2 Max feature basically means that when creators are mastering their movie or show, they can choose when motion smoothing should be applied, how strongly it should be applied, and how long for.

We saw a demo of the Prime Video show Paris has Fallen, which was filmed at 25fps. In a tracking shot where the camera moves along a street facing towards doorways, you could clearly see judder as the doors move across the screen, with their hard edges flickering along frame-to-frame – this was with no motion processing activated. Then the camera slows to tilt down into a car, where the judder isn't so obvious, then it stops on a woman talking in the car, where there's no danger of motion problems at all.

We then saw the scene with motion smoothing at maximum level the whole time, and it looked weird and overly smooth – exactly what people hate about this setting.

Then we saw it with Authentic Motion active, with a readout at the bottom of what's happening the whole time.

During the initial tracking section, the creators had set the motion smoothing to level 5, and it removed the judder from this shot, but without making look weird. When the camera switched to tilting down gently, the smoothing was reduced to level 3. Then level 1 as the camera settled, and then down to 0 for when the still camera watched the woman talk.

There are actually 10 levels of motion smoothing available to creators, but even in this really difficult example, the creators solved their problem by only switching to level 5, and then ramped it immediately back down when it wasn't needed.

This all seems like the ideal solution to me. Most TV testers and reviews like myself will tell you that following the advice of Tom Cruise and turning off motion smoothing completely isn't actually a good idea, because TVs are not projectors – there are technical reasons that keeping a low level of motion processing is wise as the best balance between the desire to keep film looking natural, and avoiding the technical issues that cause judder.

With Authentic Motion, that's left in the hands of filmmakers, and I like that a lot.

Getting into some technical details

To be clear, Dolby's contribution here is not that it's doing any motion smoothing of the video using its tools. All that Authentic Motion is doing is providing a way for creators to embed a command within the video that tells your TV what to do with its built-in motion smoothing settings.

This means that the end result will look slightly different on every TV, because the motion processing is happening within the TV's processing system.

At the moment, if you use Filmmaker Mode, that will disable this setting – you'll go back to having the default 'pure' settings. But in other Dolby Vision picture modes, this will kick in automatically when compatible content is detected.

Authentic Motion is part of Dolby Vision 2 Max, rather than the basic version, because Dolby will certify that any TVs that want to support it are up to a specific level of quality in their motion handling. These TVs must support 120Hz, as well.

The good news is that the TVs don't need to be as high-end as you might think. The demo I saw was shown on a Hisense U7N – this is a very affordable TV, but Dolby said that it's an example of a TV should should qualify for Dolby Vision 2 Max certification.

However, it's unclear just which TV brands other than Hisense (the launch partner) will support Dolby Vision 2 in the future – LG says that it has no plans, and other manufacturers are being cagey.

We also don't know whether 4K Blu-ray players or projectors will support Dolby Vision 2, and there's little information on streaming services support it yet.

But between Authentic Motion and the improvements I saw for cheap TVs using Dolby Vision 2, I'm on board – I hope we get to see broad support next year.

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IFA is always an excellent place to check out the latest bits of tech, from cool concepts to the latest innovations on the market. Projectors is one area that has received a lot of love at IFA 2025, particularly the 4K portable market.

When you're thinking about the best projectors, you're looking for bold brightness, solid contrast, and accurate colors. And in today's world, it'll ideally be smart too.

Thankfully, at this year's IFA, there was no shortage of brilliant beamers, and from what we can see, there's a theme of big brightness housed in a portable size. Here are the 6 coolest projectors we saw at IFA 2025.

1. Xgimi Horizon 20 Max

Starting off strong is the Xgimi Horizon 20 Max. The most premium model in the Horizon 20 lineup, the 20 Max is a 4K, triple-laser RGB projector that supports Dolby Vision, IMAX Enhanced, and Filmmaker Mode. It's said to have a staggering 5,700 ISO lumens of brightness, far brighter than other 4K projectors such as the Hisense PX3 Pro, which has 3,000 lumens. It also carries an excellent list of features, especially for gaming, boasting a 1ms input lag time, up to 240Hz refresh rate, and VRR.

It also carries a useful digital lens shift tool that means picture adjustment is not only easy but accurate as well, resulting in no frame loss. The same is true of its optical zoom feature, which can zoom in without detail loss.

From what I saw of the Horizon 20 Max in person at IFA, it's impressive. A demo of Assassin's Creed: Shadows shows just how smooth and responsive the 20 Max is with intense gaming sequences. Its brightness, detail, and color are all superb as well, delivering a brilliant image. I even saw the lens shift and optical zoom tools in action, and they work surprisingly well.

With a $2,999.99 / £2,599.99 launch price, it's at the premium end of the portable market. But, from what I've seen, it could be a real winner.

2. Valerion VisionMaster Max

The Valerion VisionMaster Max is a 4K, RGB laser projector with up to 3,500 ISO lumens of brightness. It supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, IMAX Enhanced, and even AI picture features. Where the VisionMaster Max makes its biggest claim is that it's 'rainbow-free', meaning you're getting rich, accurate black tones.

From what I saw, the VisionMaster Max does indeed deliver deep black levels and strong contrast, even in the bright IFA showroom. It also demonstrated solid brightness and bold colors, with some white waves of the ocean delivering a nice, vibrant punch.

Due for release in October 2025, the Valerion VisionMaster Max will launch for $,4999.99, putting it at the top end of the 4K projector market. We'll be eager to get our hands on it to see if it's worth the money.

3. Anker Nebula X1 Pro

We've actually tested the Anker Nebula X1 and we loved it, awarding 4.5 stars out of 5 in our review, thanks to its crisp, 4K picture and high brightness, as well as its easy setup. We also rated its sound quality highly when the optional surround speakers were added.

Well, Anker decided to add a full sound system to the Nebula X1 that now makes it look like a party speaker. Introducing the Nebula X1 Pro. The resulting 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos system features useful detachable speakers that can be added back into the body of the main unit for easy storage. The unit also delivers 3,500 ISO lumens of brightness.

From what I saw (or heard), the X1 Pro delivers impressive sound with plenty of power that will work for decent-sized rooms. And, as expected, the X1 Pro's picture was great too, with plenty of detail and brightness.

The X1 Pro is set to launch on Kickstarter at the end of September for $,2999.99.

4. Dangbei S7 Ultra Max

The Dangbei S7 Ultra Max is another 4K beamer that supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ HDR formats. What really caught my eye with this projector, though, was its brightness: 6,000+ ISO lumens, which Dangbei claims is class-leading. Not to be outdone by Xgimi, Dangbei has gone that little bit brighter.

In person, the S7 Ultra Max delivered solid brightness in the brightly lit showroom, as well as bold colors and accurate textures. Even its black levels were pretty good.

The S7 Ultra Max is due for launch first in China and will then be heading to the US in January 2026. Dangbei hopes to bring it to Europe several months after this. We don't have pricing for this model yet, but I'll be keeping a close eye on this one.

5. TCL PlayCube

Probably one of the most eye-catching projectors at IFA is the TCL PlayCube. An ultra-portable, 1080p projector, the cubed design of the PlayCube is unique. Its body can even be moved around like a Rubik's Cube.

TCL touts this as a projector designed for camping trips. The PlayCube delivers 750 ISO lumens of brightness, roughly what you get from the best portable projectors such as the Samsung Freestyle Gen 2 and LG CineBeam Q. While not the most mind-blowing picture, it appeared solid enough in the demonstration, but really, it's the PlayCube's design that earns it a spot on this list.

Set to launch at €799, (roughly $930 / £693), it's not a cheap portable projector, but we're still curious to give this one a go.

6. Hisense M2 Pro

Next up is the Hisense M2 Pro, the brand's most portable 4K projector to date. Capable of displaying up to a 200-inch picture, the M2 Pro has 1,300 ANSI lumens, and Hisense believes it'll make an excellent projector indoors and outdoors.

The most exciting news here actually comes for our UK readers as it'll be one of the first devices to receive tuner-free Freely support. No cable required, with totally cable-free Freely support. This is set to also come to other projectors in the form of a software update at a later date.

Launching at $,1299.99 (roughly £960), it's a competitively priced 4K portable projector and another we'll be eager to test.

Honorable mention: Hisense HTP80 Tri-Chroma

Now for something completely different. It was hard not to see the Hisense HTP80, a tri-chroma projector display in Hisense's showroom, because it's 300 inches. Yep, a 300-inch image.

Not only was this image massive, but it was bright, and HTP80 is said to deliver an eye-watering 15,000 ANSI lumens via its triple-laser light source. Colors were also very bold, with footage from various soccer games showing off the display's color profile.

There wasn't any pricing or release date info about this, but I couldn't leave it out of the list. I mean, it's massive!

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At IFA 2025, I had a chance to speak to Dolby about the launch of Dolby Vision 2 and Dolby Vision 2 Max.

One of the burning question I naturally had was naturally around support outside of TVs, because this wasn't mentioned in Dolby's original information. And right now, Dolby's being cagey, but isn't ruling anything out.

When asked directly about devices beyond TVs – including the best 4K Blu-ray players and the best projectors, but also devices like iPhones, which have original Dolby Vision support – we got a response from Dolby's Aaron Dew, Senior Product Manager, Home Entertainment. He said: "There's a lot of other kinds of displays, and there's more to talk about in the future. This week we're talking about TV," but also hinted, "You won't get bored!"

I'm not too worried about projectors – as they become more like TVs, they increasingly use the same kind of processing chips as TVs, which means they could unlock access to Dolby Vision 2 by using a new MediaTek chip with support.

We might see a slower level of adoption than in TVs, but I expect it to arrive – especially given how great the results can be when watching Dolby Vision 2 on displays with limited brightness, at a similar level to what you'd get from a projector.

The question of 4K Blu-ray players is a lot more complicated, though. The problem is that new ones just aren't coming out very often. Ironically, this year we've had three – a new Sony model that's basically just an older model with streaming features removed, and then very recently a couple of high-end models from Magnetar made with audiophiles in mind – but otherwise they're few and far between.

The model we rate the most highly, the Panasonic DP-UB820, just turned seven years old, for example. Even if Dolby Vision 2 starts being included on discs, will the players be able to do anything with it? Will Dolby be able to persuade the manufacturers to update these machines?

I can't say I'm optimistic, but who knows – Dolby Vision 2 Max has some features of interest to videophiles, including Authentic Motion to eliminate judder, and bi-directional tone-mapping to help ensure picture accuracy on the brightest TVs, including the latest high-end options among the best OLED TVs. And videophiles love 4K Blu-ray, so maybe there'll be enough interest.

I doubt we'll hear anything about it this year, though – my guess is that CES 2026 is next best chance to hear about any future steps for Dolby Vision 2, including more information about which TVs will support it, and whether LG will change its stance of rejecting it.

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We may be deep into 2025, and most major TV brands have already released their full lineups, but that doesn't mean there can't still be surprises, and that was the case at IFA 2025.

I've tested some of the best TVs of 2025, but I'm always keen to see more, and IFA has provided a few cool concepts. And who knew portable TVs were a growing market? Here are the 5 coolest TVs we saw at IFA 2025.

1. Samsung micro-RGB 115-inch TV

We've already seen Samsung's $30,000, 115-inch micro-RGB TV, but I got an extended hands-on with the ultra-premium TV at IFA. Similar in concept to RGB mini-LED TVs, Samsung's micro-RGB uses micro LEDs to provide high brightness, bold color and deep black levels.

Seeing Samsung's micro-RGB in person at IFA, I was blown away by its colors. Reds, greens, yellows – you name it – looked vibrant. It also delivered excellent brightness and contrast. Samsung even had it set up next to a rival RGB mini-LED TV and the Samsung beat it in one key area: local dimming precision.

I found when I tested Hisense's 116-inch RGB mini-LED TV that it struggled with dark movie scenes, with black areas taking on a cloudy gray look. In the demonstration I saw, the Samsung had better backlight control, meaning there was almost no blooming to be seen.

2. Hisense 85-inch RGB mini-LED TV

Speaking of RGB, we also got to see Hisense's RGB mini-LED TV in action, only this time in a new, 85-inch size. While that's still a big screen, it's more accessible than the larger 116- and 100-inch models.

From what we saw of the 85-inch RGB mini-LED at IFA, it delivers the same gloriously vibrant colors, high brightness and rich black levels as its bigger brothers. A shot of a blue gemstone showed that it had the eye-wateringly bright, vivid color you'd expect from RGB mini-LED.

While we didn't get a more in-depth look at the 85-inch model, it gives us hope that RGB mini-LED isn't just reserved for large screen sizes and that we'll be seeing it in even more living room-friendly sizes soon.

3. Samsung The Movingstyle portable TV

Next up is the Samsung Movingstlye, the brand's first foray into portable TVs. Following the lead set by LG's StanbyME and StanbyME Go TVs, Samsung has created its own small TV, complete with a carry handle that can also be used as a kickstand.

Spec-wise, the Movingstyle isn't groundbreaking, with tech that's closer to an LED monitor. It is a touchscreen display, but what most impressed us is just how portable it is. While on the weighty side, it's probably the best example of a portable TV we've seen. It can be attached to a wheel stand, which can be easily wheeled around and detached, and it carried with its handle easily as well.

The Movingstlye is one of those fun, unique TVs we look forward to seeing at events like IFA, and although it won't be joining the ranks of the best Samsung TVs, it's still a cool concept.

4. Vestel Nekst TV

The Vestel Nekst TV is one of those models that was born to feature at a trade show. Why? Because it's a transparent TV! Tech fans will know that transparent TVs, such as the LG OLED T, are a regular feature at shows like CES and IFA, and the Nekst is Vestel's IFA 2025 offering. (A bit of research revealed the Nekst is an OLED TV.)

In truth, it wasn't the easiest to find as it was actually in the health section, acting as a display for some health gadgets.

Transparent displays conjure up images of futuristic sci-fi movies like Minority Report and Blade Runner, and every time we see these displays, we hope one will come to market. Admittedly, the LG OLED T is available, but at $59,999.99, it's staggeringly pricey. Could we see this Vestel TV make its way to market? It'll likely still be pricey as it is a transparent OLED, but here's hoping we see the price move in the right direction.

5. Toshiba OLEDs – concept and actual models

Toshiba, the legendary Japanese manufacturer, doesn't feature on our site often and when it does, it's usually smaller 32-inch and 43-inch LED or QLED models. This time, however, it's a Toshiba OLED.

The TVs shown above are OLEDs with designs focused on sound. Both TVs have external speakers, with one powered by Onkyo, the same as the speakers found on the Panasonic Z95B and Philips OLED909. While the speakers weren't being used, they were certainly eye-catching. The taller model with its own stand looks like something out of a 1960s 'idea of the future' home, and the other has its huge speaker to stand on.

While these are concepts, there were two numbered OLED models nearby in the Toshiba IFA showroom: the XF9F and the XV9G. Both models support all the bells and whistles we expect from the best OLED TVs: Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X as well as 120Hz for gaming. Watching recurring footage of Fantastic Four: First Steps, the colors and contrast reminded me of the LG B5 OLED, and that's not a bad thing.

It's good to see more brands embracing OLED, and we'll be looking to get one of these models in for testing. The XF9F is available in a 65-inch model for £1,199, which is a great price.

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Lenovo has finally unveiled its long-awaited handheld, the Lenovo Legion Go 2, at IFA 2025 in Berlin, having shown off a prototype at CES 2025 earlier this year.

As expected (based on the prototype), the Legion Go 2 is powered by AMD's Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor, with another model using the AMD Ryzen Z2 processor. Instead of the original Legion Go's 2560 x 1600 display resolution, the new handheld will follow the Lenovo Legion Go S with a 1920 x 1200 resolution, which should help improve performance – and the icing on the cake is its OLED display and 74Wh battery.

Sounds perfect, right? Well, unfortunately, it's not, and that's because the starting price for the Lenovo Legion Go 2 is $1,099.99, for the AMD Ryzen Z2 model – that's about £800 or AU$1,680. Yes, you read that right. That's the price of its 1TB 16GB RAM configuration; there are four different configurations, and if you want to step up to 32GB on the Z2 model, you'll need to cough up $1,199.99.

It doesn't stop there, though, because what wasn't expected is that the Ryzen Z2 Extreme model will cost you $1,349.99 (about £1,000 or AU$2,050) for the 1TB model, and $1,479.99 for the 2TB model, both with 32GB of RAM.

I'm not going to try to sugarcoat this in any way: those prices are absolutely ridiculous, and I have very little doubt that if Lenovo doesn't lower these prices immediately, the Legion Go 2 will be a failure in the handheld market.

I've cut MSI and other mainstream handheld manufacturers slack for overpriced devices like the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and the MSI Claw A8, but Lenovo has taken things way too far here. You can throw in the argument of tariffs in the US, of course, but that doesn't justify paying this much for a handheld – and frankly, I doubt gamers will care about that excuse.

I knew that the device would be expensive considering the added benefit of OLED and a 74Wh battery (even though I don't care to have a bigger battery), and upon hearing the pricing announcement I initially accepted the $1,049 price tag, as I assumed that it was for the Z2 Extreme model – but of course, that's not the case.

I was worried handheld gaming PC prices would make the market niche again, and here we are

After using the MSI Claw 8 AI+, which is the best handheld gaming PC I've used, I realized that the handheld gaming PC market was in danger of losing touch with the precedent Valve had set with the Steam Deck as an affordable device. While incredibly impressive in terms of battery life and performance, its $899 price failed to justify an upgrade from the likes of an Asus ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme).

I'm fully aware that Valve's template of affordable pricing is possible due to its earnings via the Steam store, but that doesn't excuse mainstream handheld makers pushing prices up to this extreme – and especially when you realize the original Lenovo Legion Go (512GB) starts at $699.

Aside from the additions of a 74Wh battery and an OLED display, I see little reason why a mainstream handheld gaming PC that offers barely better performance than its older counterparts should cost $1,349.99. For the same amount, you can start to build a desktop gaming PC or buy a more powerful gaming laptop.

Regarding the base model, the Ryzen Z2 processor appears to be a rebranded Ryzen Z1 Extreme with nearly identical specs, and the latter can be found powering handhelds like the original Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally at much cheaper prices.

We haven't seen a device using the Z2 processor just yet, but going by the Z2 Extreme's minor performance uplift over its predecessor, expect the Z2 to perform the same as (if not slightly worse than) the Z1 Extreme.

I'm now starting to look at the MSI Claw 8 AI+ with a little more respect, as the $899 ($999 now with tariffs) / £899 / AU$1,799 handheld uses the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chip that provides performance that's on par (and better in some games) with the Z2 Extreme. Moving directly up to the Legion Go 2 (Z2 Extreme) from the MSI Claw 8 AI+ means you're mostly spending $350 more for an OLED screen. Does that sound reasonable? Not at all – and I'm not the only one who thinks so.

It didn't take very long, but we're now back into the territory of handheld gaming PCs being niche devices, thanks to these eye-watering prices. Manufacturers like Ayaneo and GPD have been niche for a reason, and Lenovo is now entering that ballpark, and it looks like Asus may do the same thing with the ROG Xbox Ally X, which is rumored to cost around $1,000.

The Steam Deck OLED is still the king of handhelds

Without a shadow of a doubt, the Steam Deck OLED is the king of all handheld gaming PCs. As great as the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is, and including the likes of the Lenovo Legion Go S (Z1 Extreme), Valve's handheld gets the job done, offering a plethora of games and an immersive OLED display.

Performance certainly isn't up to the standards set by other handhelds using more powerful processors, but it can still run demanding triple-A games with adjusted settings. I would personally recommend the Asus ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) over the Steam Deck OLED, but you'd be missing out on the OLED benefit.

If I told you that you'd need to spend a whopping $700 more for an upgrade from the Steam Deck OLED's $649.99 for a better-performing system, you wouldn't be wrong to think I was talking about a desktop gaming PC or full-fledged gaming laptop. I'm not saying the Lenovo Legion Go 2 isn't a powerful device by any means, but at a certain point pricing becomes a significant dealbreaker, and that's what's happening here.

It now makes total sense to me why Valve isn't in a rush to release a Steam Deck successor, as the handheld processors available haven't taken a big-enough leap yet to justify these types of price hikes. When we start getting more laptop GPU-like performance in handhelds there will be some justification for pricing along the lines of Lenovo's for the Legion Go 2 – but as things stand now, there simply isn't.

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Updated 12 September 2025: Samsung provided an official response on potential support for Dolby Vision 2, and it wasn't a 'no'!

Updated 10 September 2025: LG contacted TechRadar to update its stance on Dolby Vision 2 – the rest of this article remains as originally written.

This week, ahead of IFA 2025, Dolby announced Dolby Vision 2, the next-gen version of its advanced HDR format. It comes in two flavors: Dolby Vision 2, and Dolby Vision 2 Max, which adds even more picture-quality enhancement, and will only be supported on TVs that meet certain performance benchmarks as certified by Dolby.

Obviously, the big question is which TVs will support it, and whether current TVs might be updated with it, if they're have the right specs.

So we approached the makers of the best TVs for official comment, and spoke to people in the industry to get the behind the scenes view. For the most part, the TV makers are being cagey about it, but we have some concrete responses, and some more unofficial information from those in the know.

Which TV makers will support Dolby Vision?

Hisense

Let's start with Hisense, because it's the official launch partner with Dolby for Dolby Vision 2. It's confirmed that at least a small portion of its current elite TVs, including the Hisense UX116 RGB mini-LED TV (which we recently tested) will have support. Exactly how many current TVs will be updated is unclear, but I'd expect the focus to be more on its inclusion in future TVs.

LG

Update: LG contacted TechRadar with an update to its stance on Dolby Vision 2. "We are evaluating the opportunity and remain committed to delivering exceptional viewing experiences,” says Baik Seon-pill, head of Product Planning Division at the LG Media Solution Company.

This is a notable change from the original stance, which said: "We currently do not have plans to support Dolby Vision 2 HDR." While the new position is far from a confirmation, it leaves the door open for Dolby Vision 2 support.

LG also previously told us: "Our understanding is an upgrade (any brand) is not possible as Dolby Vision 2 improvements are hardware related, not just software."

I'll come back to that comment about upgrading existing TVs later, because it doesn't appear to be accurate (as you can maybe guess from Hisense's plans).

Samsung

Update: Samsung has offered an official statement about Dolby Vision 2, and it's a lot more ambiguous than I expected. A Samsung spokesperson said: "As more content supports both [HDR10] and Dolby simultaneously, consumers now have the flexibility to choose. We are reviewing how we can further support this environment."

This is a bit of a surprise. Samsung had always been hard against Dolby Vision in the past, and my understanding from speaking to people in the industry was that it wasn't planning to change its long-standing stance on HDR10+ being its only choice.

So this statement is intriguingly open. I wonder if Samsung is actually considering whether Dolby Vision 2 Max's motion control settings and bi-directional tone-mapping might actually be worth supporting. Or maybe it's just being polite and still has no plans.

TCL

TCL also didn't provide an official response to the question of Dolby Vision 2 support, but there was a subtle hint about its stance on its stand at IFA. See if you can spot it in this image.

My understanding is that if Dolby Vision 2 picks up support among the key streamers, we should expect it to arrive on TCL’s future TVs without much delay.

Sony

Sony told me: "Dolby is one of our important partners. Our current TVs are compatible with Dolby Vision and Atmos. So are we in discussion with Dolby? Yes, but at the moment we don't really have a clear statement to make about Dolby Vision 2."

More to come…

Several other TV makers didn't respond by the time of writing, and I wasn't able to get any hints from around the industry about their plans.

What about updating existing TVs?

I've tried to dig into LG's statement about upgrading not being possible, and it seems that perhaps there's some confusion. Dolby declined to respond to this claim officially, but my understanding from discussions with people in the industry is that it should be theoretically possible to upgrade some existing TVs, but it's a small list, and it's still not 100% straightforward.

LG's statement that Dolby Vision 2 requires a hardware upgrade appears to be true, but the hardware in question is built into MediaTek's Pentonic 800 processor for TVs, which is already used in several TVs available to buy today (including from Hisense, unsurprisingly). As you've just read above, Hisense has plans to add support to at least one existing TV that uses that MediaTek chip.

But it also seems possible that even if a TV uses that chip, there could be some other part of its specification or performance that would block Dolby Vision 2 certification, so having the chip doesn't guarantee anything. And the chip is only in a limited number of TVs, all released within the last six months.

However, even beyond whether it's technically possible to upgrade existing TVs, there's also the question of motivation. One TV industry insider I spoke to said that even if TV's can be upgraded, we generally shouldn't expect TV makers to put in the time, money and effort when there's no Dolby Vision 2 content available, and we don't when that content will arrive.

Reading between the lines, I'm also guessing that there's a financial element – TV makers would prefer for you to buy a new set to get Dolby Vision 2, I expect.

Which is a bit of a shame, because it would be great to have Dolby Vision 2 on cheaper TVs especially, since it's an impressive upgrade on budget screens.

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At IFA 2025, Dolby gave me a demo of Dolby Vision 2, the next-gen version of the premium HDR format. I've already written about the broad features coming in Dolby Vision 2, but I got to dig deeper into them at this session – I'll write a full technical explainer later.

One of the initial questions I had about Dolby Vision 2 was what to expect from its promise that it would make a clear difference to image quality even on cheaper TVs. We know that it will come in two flavors – Dolby Vision 2 and Dolby Vision 2 Max – and that the higher-end version will have a load of extra features for even better picture quality adjustment.

That made me suspicious of what kind of a difference the regular version would really make, if Max had all the cool toys – but a side-by-side demo of regular Dolby Vision content compared to Dolby Vision 2 has me convinced.

The only problem is that because copyrighted footage was used for the demo, I wasn't allowed to take photos or video, which would make the differences obvious to you. But I can tell you what I saw.

The demos were on small Hisense A5 TVs, which are very much entry-level models. They're LCD TVs with full array backlighting and QLED, but that's the limit of their display tech.

On footage of a camel in the desert, covered in fabric, everything in the image had more pop – colors were a clear jump up in saturation, white tones were cleaner and elevated more, and shadows and dark areas looked deeper.

The improvement in perceived contrast even makes the image look more detailed, even though it was the same resolution on both TVs – contrast is a huge part of how our eyes resolve detail, so improving it makes things seem sharper.

This scene was the most dramatically improved demonstration, but footage of a landscape with cloud around the run revealed more nuanced detail in highlight areas too – the clouds had more more shades of light gray around the sun, instead of all being smooshed together at the top of the brightness capabilities of the TV.

Footage of someone applying deep black makeup under their eyes also revealed interesting changes in black tone handling. There was again more nuance, with more shades of black helping to bring the shape of the person's cheeks to life – but the black was clearly inkier, and even had more color nuance in the exact hue underlying the black make-up.

This was also another demonstration where the improvement in perceived contrast was clear, because reflections of light on the black make-up were much clearer, and make it look much more lifelike.

In landscape images, I would also say there was sometimes a perceived improvement in fullscreen brightness – the whole image looked lighter, not just highlights.

Having said all his, I did notice some scenes where the colors on Dolby Vision 1 looked a little punchier, or where Dolby Vision 1 felt a little more natural overall. But on balance, I'd say Dolby Vision 2 was a clear step up, and its improvements outweighed the areas where I preferred DV1.

What's changed?

Notice that I've used the word 'perceived' a lot above, because when I saw that things looked brighter, in many cases I believe there's no additional brightness being found from the Hisense TV's panel.

Tom Graham, Head of Dolby Vision Content Enablement at Dolby Labs, explained that nothing has changed in the color or dynamic range spec of Dolby Vision for creators – it's still captured and crafted the same as before.

Dolby Vision 2's improvements come from being able to provide even more data to the TV about how the image is supposed to look, as defined by the creators when they encode to Dolby Vision. It's about taking the data that's already there Dolby Vision, and making better use of it.

One of the key features is called Precision Black, and this enables creators to capture information about their room and bias lighting, and a slider for them to set where their first perceived step out of pure black and into near-black levels (where there will still be some detail) are.

I suspect this bias light data helps with the hue of black tones that I mentioned before, making them look more true to life. The slider for setting the step out of black and room ambience capture is designed to help avoid dark scenes looking too dark on TVs that don't have much dark-handling capability, to make sure detail isn't lost by these tones getting squashed together without enough separation.

But Dolby has also improved the engine that adapts the picture data to each TV. Tom Graham explained: "We have the colorist metadata and we have obviously the pixels, and we can do this next-generation analysis. [In this analysis] we're actually breaking apart the image [in layers] and reconstructing it in a way that a TV with less capability, with far less contrast and detail and color performance, can recreate and deliver. It's a dynamic [mapping], and it's rendering live on the TV based on this next-generation picture analysis that we're applying."

This demo showed a full Dolby Vision 2 setup versus Dolby Vision 1, meaning that both the video and TV were ready for DV2. If you had a Dolby Vision 1 video on a Dolby Vision 2, it seems that you should see some improvement (because the better smart picture analysis should apply to the existing Dolby Vision 1 HDR data), but you'd miss out on features such as the Precision Black control, because that info is only recognized by Dolby Vision 2 TVs, and would be ignored by Dolby Vision 1 TVs.

I was very impressed with the results – but don't expect this to come to your existing cheaper TV. It's looking unlikely that current TVs will be updated for Dolby Vision 2.

But for inexpensive TVs coming out in the future, if Dolby can get the big streaming services and creators on board for Dolby Vision 2, it looks like a genuine upgrade.

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Hisense's RGB mini-LED TVs caused a stir when they were unveiled earlier this year, and while the 116-inch model they introduced isn't the most accessible size, the company said it intended to bring the panel tech to smaller-sized models in the future. Well, at IFA 2025, it's done just that.

RGB mini-LED TVs deliver richer, deeper colors than normal mini-LED ones by using red, green and blue LEDs (hence RGB) instead of standard blue LEDs in the backlight.

I've already tested the 116-inch model, the Hisense 116UX, and was blown away by its dazzling colors, consistently strong brightness, razor-sharp textures and upscaling. While backlight control seemed to be an issue, black levels and contrast were still impressive. However, at $29,999 / £29,999 / AU$39,999, it's not the most affordable tech.

Hisense recently revealed it is bringing RGB mini-LED to a 100-inch model as well, but despite a growing 98-inch-plus TV market, that's not the most accessible size, and a $19,999 price tag is still a tough pill to swallow.

At IFA, an 85-inch RGB mini-LED TV was on display in the Hisense area. And the best news? It's not just a concept, but is planned for a launch next year. While no pricing has been confirmed, the $10,000 difference between the 116 and 100-inch models suggests a promising downward price trend.

Still bright, still bold

The worry when adapting a tech to a smaller size is that picture quality sacrifices have to be made. With RGB mini-LED, a tech that some say will beat the best OLED TVs in years to come, the concern is that its big brightness and bold colors will take a hit to accommodate a smaller screen size.

Seeing the 85-inch RGB TV in action, my concerns were laid to rest. It delivered the same staggering colors as its larger sibling, with a close-up shot of a ring with a blue gemstone looking rich, vibrant and detailed. A shot of a red flower also looked vivid with plenty of color depth.

The 85-inch model also demonstrated seriously deep black levels that rival those of an OLED. Although I found the 116-inch model struggled with screen uniformity, with some clouding visible in darker movies such as The Batman, it still showcased rich blacks, and the 85-inch model did the same. It also exhibited great backlight control with almost no blooming: a shot of a pink tree against a star-filled sky was an excellent demonstration of this.

RGB TV: the future of TV?

RGB TVs are a growing trend in the TV world. LG introduced its Primary Tandem RGB OLED panel in the LG G5, and that same panel is also used in the Panasonic Z95B, two of the best TVs of the year in 2025.

Hisense isn't the only brand with RGB mini-LED on its mind, as we saw Sony's own RGB TV in action and were impressed with its accuracy and backlight control. Samsung has also introduced a $30,000 115-inch micro-RGB TV to the market, and from what we saw, it will take RGB to the next level.

While the tech isn't very affordable (in mini-LED and micro-LED formats at least), it's already on the path to becoming more accessible, and the Hisense 85-inch is the first step in that direction. And with Hisense's RGB mini-LED TVs set to be the first to support Dolby Vision 2, RGB mini-LED just became that much more of a contender.

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