Laptops stole the show at IFA 2016 in Berlin this year, as Lenovo and Acer jostled for attention with powerful notebooks, stunning gaming laptops and flexible 2-in-1s. But they weren't the only products that stood out from the crowd. Smartwatches, the darlings of IFA 2015, continued to make headlines at this show, as Samsung used the stylish looks and increased battery life of its Gear S3 to outshine other worthy watches. Throw in some handy accessories and add-ons, and there was plenty to like about this year's massive show.
Here are the best products from IFA 2016.
Best of Show: Lenovo Yoga Book
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The Yoga Book is everything we love about tech: It's bold, it's innovative and it makes us dream about its potential. The Yoga Book is out to prove that we don't need to burden notebooks with physical keyboards, just as the iPhone proved we didn't need physical keyboards on smartphones. The bottom half of the system transforms from a flat, light-up keyboard to a Wacom tablet that you can use to take notes or sketch. You can even use a real pen and paper if you'd like. Starting at just $499 for the Android version and $549 for the Windows model, the Yoga Book is affordable, too.
MORE: Hands-on with Lenovo's Yoga Book
Best Smartwatch: Samsung Gear S3
It takes a lot to put the Apple Watch on notice, but that just speaks to how much Samsung's Gear S3 smartwatch has to offer, from a stunning Swiss-inspired design to helpful features. Samsung made the bezel of its circular watch more useful, added LTE connectivity to one model and added more colors to its always-on display. You also get up to four days of battery life, a water-resistant casing, Samsung Pay support and useful apps such as Spotify, Nest and ADT SOS.
MORE: Hands-on with Samsung's Gear S3 Smartwatch
Best Fitness Tracker: TomTom Touch
TomTom's new fitness tracker measures the kinds of things you'd expect — and one thing that will surprise you. In addition to logging your steps, distance and other fitness metrics, the $129 Touch measures your body-fat percentage and muscle mass. That's the kind of body composition analysis you'd normally expect from a smart scale, not a wrist-worn device. Throw in the TomTom Touch's optical heart rate monitor and a price tag that's $20 less than that of the Fitbit Charge 2, and you've got a fitness tracker worth keeping tabs on.
MORE: Hands-on with Tom Tom's Touch Fitness Tracker
Best Smartphone: ZTE Axon 7 mini
The secret of ZTE's Axon 7 mini is that it isn't all that miniaturized, at least when compared to the Axon 7 phone that supposedly dwarfs it. The Axon 7 mini has a 5.2-inch screen, shedding 0.3 inches from its larger sibling. But with an expected price of $300, the mini is also shaving off $100 from the Axon 7's price tag. You don't have to make too many sacrifices for that lower cost either, as the Axon 7 mini still features a full-HD display, a 16-megapixel camera and an attractive design. The Axon 7 proves you don't need to shell out big bucks to get a relatively powerful phone.
MORE: Hands-on with the ZTE Axon 7 mini
Best Laptop: Acer Spin 7
A laptop design that's less than a centimeter thin deserves some recognition, so Acer should take a bow for the 9.98-millimeter thin Spin 7. At $999, Acer also kept the price down on this model, considering it has the latest Intel Core i5 processor providing the power. Don't look for a lot of ports on this slender notebook — you get two USB 3.1 Type-C ports and a headphone jack — but in exchange, you'll get a thin, light Ultrabook with an eye-catching gold look.
MORE: Hands-on with Acer's Swift 7
Best Gaming Laptop: Acer Predator 21 X
Acer's Predator 21 X is simply the most beastly gaming laptop ever created. Weighing in at more than 15 pounds, the laptop sports dual Nvidia 1080 GPUs, each with 16GB of VRAM; a staggering 21-inch display on the world's first curved laptop screen; a 7th-Gen Intel Core i7 CPU; up to 64GB of RAM; and space for four SSDs. This rig is so powerful, it needs two power cords. If you want the absolute best in laptop gaming, the Predator 21 X is your answer.
MORE: Hands-on with Acer's Predator 21 X
Best Tablet: Huawei MediaPad M3
Tablets might be on the decline, but Huawei's MediaPad M3 is good enough that you don't have to fret over their future. The MediaPad has superthin bezels, dual speakers tuned by the legendary audio wizards at Harman Kardon, and a DSP (digital signal processor) that can handle high-res 24-bit sound. Below the screen, there is a fingerprint sensor that not only keeps the tablet secure but also can recognize gestures; that means you can open apps by swiping up, down or to the sides. Add in a SIM card, and you'll never have to worry about losing your connection.
Best 2-in-1: Lenovo Yoga 910
The best just got better. By removing the side bezels on the old Yoga 900, the Yoga 910 (starting at $1,299) packs an even larger 13.9-inch screen in the same amount of space. Lenovo also added a one-touch fingerprint reader that works with Windows Hello, so you can say goodbye to passwords. In keeping with the times, Lenovo has also included a new USB Type-C port that supports everything from power to data transfer and video. And Lenovo says that even with the bigger screen, the 910's battery life is now up to 15 hours. What more could you want?
MORE: Hands-on with Lenovo's Yoga 910
Best Home Entertainment: HP Pavilion Wave
You'll like the sound of HP's new multimedia desktop, and that's a credit to Bang & Olufsen. The audio experts joined forces with HP to create the Pavilion Wave (starting at $529), which looks more like a speaker than a PC. We like the way the Wave handles audio, filling the whole room with crisp sound and clean tones. And when a PC comes in a design this stylish, it's hard not to want to sing the machine's praises.
MORE: Hands-on with the HP Pavilion Wave
Best Audio: Jabra Elite Sport Wireless
What was once a trickle has become a flood, as new wireless headphones are sprouting up every day. But Jabra's $249 Elite Sport Wireless earbuds have the tech to ensure a rock-solid wire-free connection, along with an assortment of handy features, including heart rate monitoring, IP67-rated water resistance and background-noise reduction. The Elite Sport earbuds even have a pass-through audio feature so you can stay aware of your surroundings when you're out running or biking.
MORE: Hands-on with the Jabra Elite Sport Wireless
Best Accessory: DJI Osmo Mobile
If we never have to look at another shaky video shot on a smartphone, it'll suit us just fine. And with DJI's $299 Osmo Mobile in hand, we may never have to. The handheld smartphone accessory is ideal if you shoot a lot of action shots, thanks to the Osmo's three-axis gimbal that provides image stabilization. A standout ActiveTrack feature lets you easily select which subject to focus on when filming, even if that subject is you, shooting from your phone's front camera. With support for a number of leading phones, the Osmo Mobile could quickly become a must-have for smartphone videographers.
