IFA 2018: Major announcements in mobile devices and laptops

IFA, or the Internationale Funkausstellung, is one of the oldest and largest international tech and industrial exhibitions in the world. The event serves as a platform for companies to showcase their latest technology products and innovations. This year’s IFA 2018 was held in Berlin Aug. 31-Sept. 5 and attracted more than 230,000 journalists, tech enthusiasts, representatives from various companies, and industry experts from all over the world. Numerous consumer electronics and home appliances were launched during the event as top brands such as Amazon, Samsung, Sony, LG, Toshiba, Philips, Panasonic, and more showcased their upcoming products and technologies.

Here are the top announcements and products regarding mobile devices and laptops revealed at the event. (We will cover major announcements of home consumer announcements from IFA 2018 in an upcoming story.)

Smartphones

Huawei, Motorola, Sony, and others launched their upcoming smartphones at IFA 2018.

Motorola

Motorola unveiled two Android One-powered smartphones — the Motorola One and Motorola One Power. Both handsets sport a similar design with a notch. The Motorola One has a 5.9-inch Full HD+ display with a 19:9 aspect ratio. The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC paired with a 6GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage, which can, however, be further expanded via a microSD card.

IFA 2018- Motorola One
Motorola

The Motorola One Power, on the other hand, has a 6.2-inch IPS LCD display with a 19:9 aspect ratio and HD+ resolution. The device comes with a Snapdragon 636 chipset and has two storage variants — 3GB + 32GB and 4GB + 64GB storage. Pricing of both these phones is yet to the announced by the company.

Sony

Sony announced its latest flagship device, the Xperia XZ3. Xperia XZ3 comes with an unconventional curved display design and has the potential to be the most exciting launch by Sony in many years. The device sports a 6-inch OLED curved display with a resolution of 2960 x 1440 pixels. The ZX3 is the company’s latest device to use high-resolution television technology for a smartphone’s display. Under the hood, the device has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset paired with a 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory. The device will run the latest Android P out of the box and comes with a 3,330mAH battery.

IFA 2018- Sony Xperia XZ3
Sony

Huawei

Honor, a sub-brand of Huawei, launched the Honor Play smartphone at the event and has confirmed that it will be available in the European market. The device is a mid-range 6.3-inch gaming-stationed smartphone, which has already been launched in the China and India markets. Being a midrange device, the Honor Play offers very good value and sports impressive specifications such as a Kirin 970 chipset paired with a 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory. The device comes with a Turbo GPU for better graphics rendering and higher FPS. The Honor Play is backed by a 3,750mAh battery and supports fast charging.

IFA 2018- Honor Play
Huawei

Huawei also launched the latest Huawei Mate 20 Lite, a new midrange smartphone IFA 2018. The company said that its latest smartphone chipset, the Kirin 980, will power the upcoming flagship-graded Huawei phones.

HTC

HTC unveiled its midrange smartphone, the HTC U12 Life. The device comes with decent specifications and may be a game changer for HTC in the smartphone segment as the company has been struggling to launch a budget-friendly device with impressive specifications.

BlackBerry

BlackBerry unveiled an all-new variant of the Key 2 handset as the Key 2 LE. As per the company, the Key 2 LE is a less expensive yet colorful handset that will retail for $519 for the 32GB variant and $599 for the 64GB version. The device comes in three colors options — slate, champagne, and atomic.

IFA 2018- BlackBerry Key 2 LE
BlackBerry

Laptops and PC peripherals

Laptop and PC makers from all over the world took the opportunity to launch a wide array of products at IFA 2018. A variety of laptops and various PC peripherals such as gaming accessories, graphics cards, smart displays, and more were launched at the event.

Acer

Acer unveiled a lineup of products including laptops, monitors, and other PC peripherals. The company launched an all-new Acer Swift 5 laptop, which it claims to be the world’s lightest 15-inch notebook. The device is made up of magnesium-lithium alloy body giving it strength and robustness while staying light. The laptop comes in configurable options and is available in both i5 and i7 processor-powered variants. A 14-inch variant of the Acer Swift 5 was also launched.

IFa 2018
Acer

The company also refreshed its existing Aspire 3, 5, and 7 series of laptops with the latest components and all these notebooks will now be available in the latest eighth-generation of Intel core processors with support for Intel Optane memory. All these models will be available for users in Europe to buy starting in December.

Acer also unveiled a new Chromebook, which comes with a 14-inch screen in an aluminum chassis. Dubbed the Chromebook 514, this new device from Acer is claimed to offer a battery life of up to 12 hours on a single charge.

Dell

Dell refreshed its entire 7000 series of convertible 2-in-1 laptops with the latest eighth-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors. It has also managed to place the webcam in the right slot despite the narrow bezels. This is something the company has been struggling to achieve even in its flagship-graded XPS series of laptops.

The company has also revamped its Inspiron 5000 series of 14-inch laptops with the latest processors and all these laptops will also feature Amazon’s Alexa as well as the Dell’s proprietary Mobile Connect software.

Lenovo

Lenovo unveiled a latest 2-in-1 laptop, the Yoga C930, in its flagship division. The laptop comes with a 13.9-inch 4K touch-sensitive display and comes along with Dolby Atmos speakers for multimedia purposes. The device is configured with the eighth generation of Intel Core processors paired with up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 2TB of SSD.

Lenovo Yoga C930- IFA 2018
Lenovo

The company also launched the Yoga Book C930, a 10.8-inch laptop with dual screens. The primary display on the device comes with a resolution of 2560×1600-pixel IPS LCD display and the secondary display is a multifunctional 1920×1080 pixel e-ink screen instead of a keyboard and trackpad.

Philips

Phillips has come up with a range of large monitors that it showcased at IFA 2018. The huge Philips 499P9H served as a center of attention with its super-wide curved screen measuring an immense 49 inches. The company also showcased its range of other ultra-slim frameless monitors, including the 276C8, 278E9Q, and the 328E9F monitors, which offer an edgeless design for a better viewing experience.

IFA 2018
Philips

The company also came up with its all-new Momentum series of monitors exclusively meant for gamers. The Philips Momentum 436M6VBPAB monitor is the first in the Momentum series and offers a 4K resolution along with Quantum Dot technology. The display also features adaptive sync, a 4ms response time, and Philips Ambiglow lighting for a better, clearer, and sharper viewing experience.

Apart from these major launches, several other brands including Logitech and Qualcomm launched PC accessories and peripherals at the event.

IFA 2018 overall impression

In terms of smartphones and laptops, most of the major companies at IFA 2018 announced the availability of their existing lineup of products in the European market instead of launching new products, which is rather disappointing.

Featured image: Shutterstock

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