By all accounts, IFA—Europe's largest technology show—should be a complete disaster. Right up until the evening the show opens to the public, and while the press days are still taking place, the labyrinthine Berlin Messe is a chaotic mix of industrial scale construction and confused journalists attempting to not get themselves killed by a wobbly, unfinished booth. And there's no method to the madness either; no sense that a human ever looked at the insanity of the Messe's layout and thought, "no, this is a disaster waiting to happen." Billion-dollar companies are thrown in alongside no-name case makers and startups, while others are made to occupy halls that seem to exist only in the imagination of IFA organisers.
Yet somehow, everyone gets through it. This year's IFA might not have been the gangbusters, headline-stealing show of years past, but it played stage to notable announcements from some of the world's biggest technology companies, as well as a bunch of interesting tech (the best of which is in the gallery below). Sony went ahead and unveiled its new range of Xperia Z5 phones, the "Premium" version of which featured a totally unnecessary, but stunning 4K display. It also had a new take on the smartwatch, the unfortunately named Wena, which pairs a Citizen-designed watch face with a unique wrist strap that offers up subtle notifications and LED alerts.
Compact stereo systems might not get as much love as they used to, what with the ubiquity of all-in-one Bluetooth speakers, but Sony's CAS-1 bucks the trend. Designed for hooking up directly to your PC via USB, the tiny CAS-1 actually contains two independent amplifiers and DACs based on the company's high-end ES range: one for headphones and one for driving the included 62mm speakers. Don't let its tiny size fool you: the CAS-1 was monstrously loud, and sounded phenomenal, even against the din of the IFA show floor. Release date and pricing is TBC.
51 more images in gallery
Indeed, while everyone wonders whether they actually need a smartwatch, the world's consumer electronics manufacturers continue to plug away at the concept. Motorola dropped its new Moto 360, which now comes in a smaller size for slender wrists, but still sports the "flat tire" look on its display. Samsung, after some seriously poor efforts in the past, unveiled the Gear S2, a circular smartwatch with a unique twisting bezel for navigating its homegrown Tizen OS. But there was still little answer to why the smartwatch is a compelling purchase, no killer app to justify their lofty price tags and poor battery life.
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