Dozens of tech press conferences and product announcements fill our days, but often, the largest and most important among them orbit the biggest shows of the year. CES kicks off the year in January, Mobile World Congress sets the pace for spring, Computex sets the agenda in the summer, and IFA has become the big show to watch each Labor Day weekend. And this year it’s bigger than ever. This year, we saw a flood of wearables, about a dozen desktop and laptop PCs, a surprising number of phones, at least three smart refrigerators, and a tasty sprinkling of quantum dots.
But don’t forget, IFA is just the tip of the consumer electronics iceberg. It leads into a busy fall that’s sure to be filled with high-profile releases in anticipation of the holiday season, with no sign of slowing down before CES early next year. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. For now, here are the best products we saw at IFA this year.