Best in Show: The very best tech from IFA 2023 chosen by our experts

IFA is the traditional start of a very busy season of tech releases and is itself home to numerous high-profile launches from some of the biggest brands in the world.
Taking place in Berlin, Germany, IFA tends to have far more varied launches than the likes of Gamescom and MWC, with a particular focus on audio and smart home tech. That’s not to say there won’t be numerous phones, wearables and more revealed too.
We’ve got a selection of our finest product experts trawling the show floor and attending multiple product briefings and demos to get the lowdown on everything new. Here’s a selection of our favourites.
Lenovo Legion Go
The Lenovo Legion Go is another contender in the newly busy PC gaming handheld category. But, there’s a twist. In Nintendo Switch-like fashion, the Legion Go features detachable controllers to enable more flexible play.

It isn’t shy on specifications either, with up to an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip, 16GB RAM and a sizable 8.8-inch QHD+ display. The Legion Go has PC gamers firmly in its sights, with a trackpad, mouse wheel, joystick-like FPS mode and tons more features packed in. This could be the most complete PC gaming handheld yet.
Honor Magic V2
A truly next-gen book-style foldable device, the Honor Magic V2 not only boasts a thinner design than any other foldable at just 9.9mm when folded, but it’s actually lighter than some regular smartphones at just 231g.

Throw in an impressively thin hinge, premium display tech, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 power and a whopping 5000mAh battery and you’ve got a very, very tempting book-style foldable.

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Withings Scanwatch 2
The Withings ScanWatch 2 is a new hybrid smartwatch, combining the stylish looks of a lifestyle wearable with the health features of a fitness tracker. One of the standout features includes continuous body temperature variation tracking, so you can instantly know whether you may be on the brink of an illness or alert you to an unknown health condition.

Battery life comes in at an impressive 30 days, while it’s also packing plenty of other features, including heart rate notifications, ECG measurement, sleep monitoring, an OLED screen, water resistance and more.
DTS Play-Fi
A new update has upgraded DTS Play-Fi home theatre solution up to 12 channels (7.2.4) for a bigger, taller, and more immersive performance in a room.

And it’s not only spatial content that can now receive a boost, with stereo content now able to be ‘upscaled’ and sent to surround speakers. A virtual wire that knits your home cinema together, listening to films and music on a DTS Play-Fi system is a blast.
Honor Watch 4
Honor’s new wearable shake-up may take more than a few cues from the Apple Watch but there’s no denying that with a 14-day battery life, on-device calls and a bright 1.75-inch AMOLED display, the Honor Watch 4 massively undercuts the competition at its affordable price point.

If it can live up to the expectations set by its specs then the Honor Watch 4 could become the next go-to in the budget wearable arena.
TCL 40 Nxtpaper series
Glance at the spec list of TCL’s latest duo of budget phones and nothing really stands out – there’s a MediaTek chipset, a good amount of storage, a high-resolution rear camera and 8GB of RAM. Look a little deeper though and this could just be one of the most unique phones around.

TCL is using its Nxtpaper screen tech here, which gives the display a papery finish. It’s matte, making it excellent at evading annoying reflections and should be more comfortable on your eyes if you’re looking at the phone a lot. It’s a nice touch, and a neat way of differentiating the 40 Nxtpaper from its numerous rivals.
Anker Solix F3800 Power Station
This is Anker’s most powerful power station yet, and it’s certainly its most eye-catching. This huge battery station on wheels offers a 3840Wh capacity with 6000W of power and can be plugged into existing home solar systems.
Anker showcased the Solix F3800 charging an EV, a wondrously handy function. If that huge capacity isn’t enough, it’s expandable up to 26880Wh through up to 6 extra batteries.
Fairphone 5
Fairphone 5 isn’t your average smartphone – and that’s what makes it stand out so much. This is a phone designed with repairability in mind and includes features rarely seen anymore, like a removable battery that can easily be swapped out when it starts to degrade.

Sustainable materials are used in the device’s construction, too. But what really stands out to us is the software promise: Fairphone claims it is planning on extending software support for this phone all the way until 2033.
Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Mini
An impressive, high-achieving entry into the compact soundbar market from Sennheiser, featuring a punchy, room-filling sound (for smaller rooms).

It carries over a lot of the positives from the bigger, more expensive Ambeo Soundbar Plus model and while it isn’t as good a performer as the bigger Ambeo models, for some people it’ll be absolutely perfect.
Anker Soundcore Space One
A set of noise-cancelling headphones at a very affordable price packed with features you’d expect from a far pricier model. There’s Adaptive noise-cancelling that detects external noises and sound leakage and automatically calibrates the performance to suppress noise.
There’s also LDAC support for higher quality audio, making the Space One a pair of over-ears to look at if you want good audio quality without having to spend a huge amount of money.
LG StanbyMe Go
LG’s latest addition to its Stanby line is the StanbyMe Go and it is certainly one of the more eye-catching products we’ve spotted at IFA 2023.

This 27-inch touchscreen display comes inside an integrated carrying case for added portability. Images of the product show it being opened in the back of a car and it could be a very intriguing camping or travelling accessory for those who always need Netflix on hand.

There’s a 20w four-channel speaker system onboard, MIL-STD-810G durability and support for both Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio.
Philips Hue Secure
The first Hue branded security camera range is here and it’ll tie in beautifully if you’re already entrenched in the excellent Hue ecosystem.

Wired, battery and floodlight options are all available and they work directly with Hue’s lightning to ward off any possible intruders. Each camera has Wi-Fi, 1080p recording, two-way talk plus end-to-end encryption.
Shark Detect Pro
The Shark Detect is a smart vacuum packing four deep-cleaning technologies and the ability to adjust to different tasks by altering its suction power.
This lets it clean various floor types with ease. There’s a self-emptying dirt chamber too, plus a handy light that can alter its brightness to your needs.
Roborock Zeo One
The Zeo One is not your average washing/dryer and it comes packing a lot of high-end tech. It can dry your clothes to very precise temperatures thanks to some AI smarts and a self-cleaning function automatically collects and removes lint.

Of course, there’s Wi-Fi onboard and all the functions are controlled by a very clever display on the front that looks more like something you’d see on a phone than a washer/dryer.
Sharp Sumo Box
After initially seeing these speakers in their prototype form in 2022, the Sharp Sumo Box party speakers are ready to roll out and they sound much better than you might anticipate.

Audio assistance from French speaker maker Devialet, with their SAM technology, has created a dynamic, energetic, and punchy high performance speaker. The stripped down aesthetic only helps to reinforce the sense that these are a serious range of speakers.
Urbanista Malibu
Another sunny audio product from Urbanista, this wireless speaker takes inspiration from the city in California. And like the city of Malibu, it loves the sunshine, as its battery is powered by a solar panel that soaks in the sun’s rays.

Made from recycled materials and with its solar cell/use of trickle charging helping to preserve the battery so it lasts for longer, this is a speaker that’s environmentally conscious.
TiVo OS
We liked what TiVo OS brought to the market when we first saw it at IFA 22 and its taking shape nicely as it looks to enter the UK market with the likes of Vestel and Sharp TVs.

A swift, visually good looking, and responsive interface that puts content (and the user) at its heart, it takes the best things about other UIs and packages them in one easy to use and customisable form.
TCL X11G Max QD-Mini LED TV
A genuinely massive TV that will probably take up the entirety of your living room wall, at a show with multiple TVs hitting the 100-inch mark, this 115-inch effort from TCL was one of the most impressive.

The TV features incredibly high brightness rated at 5000 nits with an absurd number of dimming zones (20,000+), as well as great contrast, black levels and a wide range of colours. The X11G is arguably overkill in terms of picture quality, but it’s got people chatting about it.