IFA 2019 highlights: everything you need to know

If you thought IFA stood for the Irish Football Association, don’t worry – there’s no real reason why anyone who isn’t a tech journalist should know what happens at Berlin’s warren-like Messe exhibition centre every September.

IFA actually stands for Internationale Funkausstellung. Don’t expect too much slap bass, though, it’s just an excuse for tech companies from around the world to descend on the city and show off their latest wares. Just don’t count on Apple showing up.

It’s only Day 2 and already, we’ve already seen a slew of big tellies, super-powered laptops and some pretty tempting audio products too, with more to come as the show goes on. Here’s our pick of the show’s news so far…

Pre-show rumours

And here’s what we expected before the doors had even opened…

A portable Sonos

A battery powered Sonos speaker has been on many people’s most-wanted list for a while now and it looks like their wish will be granted at IFA this year. Leaks published by WinFuture suggest the Sonos Move will come with a base station, which will mean it acts like any other Sonos speaker when docked, but use the built-in handle to pick it up and it’ll switch to battery power and Bluetooth connectivity. The Move is also expected to come with Alexa and Google Assistant onboard, but they’ll only be available when it’s docked and connected to Wi-Fi.

A double-folding LG phone

LG has been dropping IFA hints like its birthday is approaching, so we’re pretty convinced the show will see a new folding phone, probably dubbed the V60 ThinQ. A teaser video posted to the company’s YouTube channel shows a dual-screen phone that opens and closes both ways (above), suggesting the displays on the new one will be able to fold back on each other. Why? Good question. We expect a whole multitude of beans to be spilled at the LG press conference on 5 September.

New budget Nokias

The return of Nokia never really set the world alight but its recent handsets have brought some nice touches to largely affordable phones – and that looks set to continue if Nokia Power User’s leaked renders of the 7.2 are anything to go by. Despite the name it’ll come with a 6.2in screen including a barely noticeable notch, while its sleek chassis has three rear cameras arranged in a circle above the fingerprint scanner. It’s also expected to come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor to keep things ticking over. Get the pricing right on this one and Motorola’s G range might just break into a sweat.

A smaller Xperia

Sony’s phones aren’t really a big enough deal to hold a special event like Samsung or Apple does, so you’ll often see a new one unveiled at IFA. This year that’s most likely to mean the Xperia 2, which leaked renders suggest will be slightly smaller than the Xperia 1, with a 6.1in 21:9 display rather than 6.5in, plus a slightly rearranged rear camera layout. The insides are expected to be almost identical similar though, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, 6GB of RAM and a 3000mAh battery. While you’re at it, Sony, we’d take an upgraded pair of those excellent WH-1000XM3 noise-cancelling headphones you announced last year as well.

Fancy tellies from Philips and Samsung

And probably Sony, LG and the rest as well to be fair, but we’re particularly keen to see whether Samsung will add more 8K models to its ultrabright QLED line-up, while Philips has hit a rich vein of form recently with its Ambilight OLEDs, especially with the built-in B&W soundbar. More of the same please everybody.

Huawei smartglasses make it to Europe

Despite churning out another top-notch smartphone, Huawei hasn’t had an easy time recently. That could mean it keeps a low profile at IFA but it could also take the opportunity to expand on its range of smartglasses and bring them to Europe. If they do indeed get an upgrade, could they be running Huawei’s new Harmony OS?

About

Stuff's second Tom has been writing for the magazine and website since 2006, when smartphones were only for massive nerds and you could say “Alexa” out loud without a robot answering. Over the years he’s written about everything from MP3s to NFTs, played FIFA with Trent Alexander-Arnold, and amassed a really quite impressive collection of USB sticks.