Over the last week, we've been exploring the labyrinthine Messe Berlin searching high and low for the hottest tech coming out of IFA 2019. From 8K TVs to dual-screen phones to an in-house dry cleaner, here's the best tech from IFA to watch in 2019 and beyond.
Best of Show: LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen
Double your pleasure, double your fun. The LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen is tackling the dual-screen phone trend in a practical, yet innovative way –– by literally using two screens. The actual smartphone slides into a Cover display to power the secondary panel enabling a host of multitasking scenarios without an unsightly fold, from gaming to to video chatting with friends while shopping on Amazon. Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 CPU, the phone is no slouch in the performance department. And it has a great chance of ensuring that dual screens become more than a passing fad. –– Sherri L. Smith
Best Innovation: Vitrine Panasonic Rybakken Transparent OLED TV
Giving the Vitrine Panasonic Rybakken Transparent OLED TV an award for innovation was basically a gimme. Transparent TVs aren't new, but an OLED TV that looks like a fancy piece of furniture is. Its lovely wooden frame surrounds two layers of glass that can be transparent at your will. While the TV sports a transparency feature, the OLED panel still delivers those rich colors and deep blacks when the transparency is off. Since this is still a concept piece, we don't know pricing and availability, but Panasonic promised a production-model by CES 2020. –– Rami Tabari
Best Smartphone: Motorola One Zoom
The minute you look at the back of the Motorola One Zoom, it's clear the phone maker is gunning straight for the Pixel 3a's midrange photography crown. The Motorola One Zoom intends to swipe that best-in-class status with a quartet of cameras, including a 48-megapixel primary lens and an 8-MP telephoto capable of 3x optical zoom. Not many flagship phones that cost twice as much as the $449 Motorola One Zoom can lay claim to those numbers, which has us particularly excited to put the handset's plethora of lenses through its paces. The Snapdragon 675 processor and 128GB of storage out of the box don't hurt, either. — Adam Ismail
Best TV: Samsung 55-inch 8K QLED TV
Even though we saw several TVs at IFA 2019, none of them could match Samsung's 55-inch 8K QLED TV. Not only is it incredibly bright and vivid, but it's now the cheapest 8K TV in Samsung's lineup, coming in at $2,499 on Samsung's website. But that's not all. Samsung is also bringing Apple TV Plus app to this TV as well as its entire QLED lineup. Samsung is making strides to get its premium lineup to a more affordable price point and increase the amount of content you can consume. — Rami Tabari
Best Gaming Hardware: Asus ROG Phone 2
Asus is doubling down on the gaming smartphone market and refining it. The Asus ROG Phone 2 is the first gaming smartphone powered by an overclockable Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 CPU. And it’s massive 6.6-inch AMOLED HDR display is the first to feature a 120-Hertz refresh rate with less than 1 millisecond of latency. The gigantic 6,000 mAhH battery makes sure that you can play extended sessions and the optional accessories offer a myriad of ways to play. Sure, the design is a bit polarizing, but with everything the ROG Phone 2II has going on, you’ll overlook it. –– Sherri L. Smith
Best Smart Home Device: Samsung AirDresser
You can't get more smart home than a full-on dry cleaner disguised as a closet. With the Samsung AirDresser, you never have to rely on anyone else to freshen up your clothes. Just before you go to sleep, you can hang up 5 pieces of clothing in the closet and the AirDressor will clean it in four simple steps. It's going to blast it with air, steam it, dry it and cover it in deodorant. Oh, did I mention that the AirDresser also doubles as a full-body mirror, so you can check out how stylish and fresh your clothes really are? — Rami Tabari
Best Laptop: Lenovo Yoga C940
Lenovo's new Yoga C940 is the laptop to watch out for this holiday season. We're especially excited for the new 15.6-inch model, which packs serious processing power and a discrete GTX 1650 graphics card. The 14-inch model was also upgraded to Intel's new 10th Gen Comet Lake CPUs. Most notable among the aesthetic tweaks is that the Yoga’s sound bar hinge now runs uninterrupted across the laptop’s slim aluminum chassis. And let's not forget about the Yoga C940's laundry list of features, which includes a stylus garage, fingerprint sensor and webcam privacy cover. — Phillip Tracy
Best Smartwatch: Garmin VivoMove Luxe Smartwatch
Is it a smartwatch or a fashion accessory? The Garmin VivoMove Luxe is a little bit of both. At first glance, the Luxe looks like a designer watch. But beneath that sapphire glass face lies an AMOLED display and a host of fitness features, including trackers for stress and hydration. But what's fun about the watch are the hands, which spring into action as mini indicators to designate whether you're running on a full tank or need to re-up on some rest and relaxation. It's a great choice for people who don't want their tech to look too techy. — Sherri L. Smith
Best Audio: Jabra Elite 75t Wireless Earbuds
When it comes to truly wireless earbuds that aren't AirPods, Jabra rules the roost. The company looks to hold on to the crown with the Elite 75t earbuds. Jabra answers some of consumers’ biggest complaints about the category — comfort and battery life — by making the buds 20% smaller and extending the battery life to 7 hours (28 with the charging case). The buds have sacrificed noise cancelling to achieve these lofty goals, but the company is betting that it's a worthwhile tradeoff. — Sherri L. Smith
Best PC: Asus ProArt Station D940MX
What if the Xbox One X and the PlayStation 4 Pro had a baby, and it was a PC. Well that most certainly brings Asus' ProArt Station D940MX into this world. Within its super sleek, 11.8 x 3.7 x 11.1-inch chassis, there's the potential for an Intel Core i9-9900K processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti or Quadro RTX 4000 GPU. This gaming PC beast is also packed with four fans, a vapor chamber and heat pipes for cooling. And with Wi-Fi 6, you won't have to worry about figuring out a complicated Ethernet situation. — Rami Tabari
