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The Best of IFA 2022: Technology for Better Living

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It’s that time of year again when big brands try to make a big splash in upgrading your home with the latest and greatest in consumer electronics and home appliances. The past two years were filled with devices that tried to fill the needs of the times, offering different ways to sanitize and protect your home against harmful microorganisms. Things have fortunately settled down, and industries have started to recover, putting their attention and resources into products that help make life less stressful and more enjoyable. There are plenty of such products up for show at IFA 2022 in Berlin, and so we distilled the lineup into our top picks for products to keep an eye on this year.

Zendure Superbase V Portable Home Battery

Thanks to natural calamities and resource shortages, power blackouts have become more common these past few years than ever before. Power banks might be enough for phones and even some laptops, but they are useless to power anything else, especially for extended periods of time. Gasoline-chugging generators do exist, of course, but the dangers they pose both to people and the environment make them inefficient and costly in the long run. Clean Energy Tech startup Zendure is putting its best foot forward this year with a new energy system that can power your house or even your car in a sustainable way.

Designer: Zendure

With a capacity that can reach up to 64kWh thanks to its expandable design, the Zendure Superbase V Portable Energy System has enough juice to give power to a house in an emergency. It even has a power outlet for charging EVs. Despite its large capacity and size, it can still be moved around like a cart on wheels. More importantly, the semi-solid state battery inside can be charged using solar power, offering a more sustainable solution to electricity problems. It’s a win-win solution for both humans and the planet.

Leica Cine 1 Projector

Along with cutting cables, some homeowners have also started getting rid of TVs that take up space even when not in use. While still waiting for the perfect rollable TV, home projectors have become more attractive and more practical solutions, especially when you want a bigger screen without losing wall space. Famed camera maker Leica is jumping into this market, and its first attempt is as classy as anything that bears its signature “Coke” logo.

Designer: Leica

The Leica Cine 1 short-throw projector utilizes triple RGB lasers to deliver picture-quality 4K images and videos on an area equivalent to a 100-inch TV. Despite all that power, the projector manages to keep a compact size that will fit in any room arrangement. Even better, it also bears Leica’s design language, with a sleek aluminum body with an automatic dust cover to protect the lens. Stylish and functional, this home projector promises to add life to a space, both through its design and through the videos it will play.

LG OLED Flex Bendable TV

TV innovation hasn’t been standing still, especially if you’ve been keeping track of recent buzzwords. While curved TVs haven’t exactly become the norm, they’ve become a force to reckon with in the market. Not everyone is convinced that they need a curved TV, though, or at least not all the time. LG’s latest trick is to give people the ability to choose between the two whenever they want.

Designer: LG

Utilizing its expertise in flexible OLED panels, the brand’s new 42-inch TV can lay flat or bend to a curve with a push of a button. Designed primarily with gaming in mind, the LG OLED Flex LX3 has plenty of features that benefit even non-interactive content like movies and TV shows. Now you no longer have to make an upfront decision to go flat or curved, freeing you to enjoy content in the best way possible.

LG MoodUp Color-Changing Fridge

Once upon a time, appliances were simply functional pieces of equipment and nothing more. These days, they have not only become smarter but have also become an expression of the owner’s personality and interests. Bespoke home appliances are becoming a little bit more common, but they can also be a little bit too specific to a certain style or theme. LG’s new fridge, however, tries to shake things up a bit by letting people choose the doors’ colors on a whim.

Designer: LG

The LG MoodUp refrigerator’s doors are covered with LED panels that can change their color depending on your, well, mood. You can select different colors for each door or you can set it to follow a motif based on seasons, locations, and moods. These panels can also serve as visual notifications, like when you left a door open. The refrigerator also has a built-in speaker that you can use to play music from your smartphone via Bluetooth. Of course, the colors of the doors can sync to that music as well, truly pushing the mood up on any occasion.

JBL Tour Pro 2 Earbuds

Truly Wireless Stereo or TWS earbuds have come a long way over the past years. Spurred by the retirement of the headphone jack on smartphones, these tiny audio devices have seen plenty of innovation in terms of features and designs. In contrast, the cases that hold these earbuds have remained practically the same, mostly changing only in shape. The JBL Tour Pro 2 tries to change that and make the earbuds case as smart as what it holds inside.

Designer: JBL

Portrait Of Young Caucasian Stylish Man On Sunny Day In The City.

The earbuds themselves are what you would expect from the brand, featuring features like adaptive noise canceling and spatial sound. What truly sets it apart is its smart charging case, which has its own 1.45-inch touch screen that lets you control the earbuds without having to take out your phone. It’s not an earth-shattering new feature, but it does level up the experience for the first time.

Philips Hue Lightguide Bulbs

Lighting can make or break the mood in a room, not to mention affect people’s productivity in that space. Since the smart home explosion a few years back, lighting was the first to be connected to the Internet, giving people better control over the hues in their homes or offices. As one of the pioneers of that smart lighting market, Philips Hue has to constantly innovate and mix things up to fend off the competition, and its new statement lighting collection tries to step up to that challenge.

Designer: Philips Hue

The new Philips Hue Lightguide Bulbs mix the old and the new with large glass bulbs in modern shapes like ellipses and triangles. Diffused light comes from an inner tube that you can, of course, control with your smartphone. Whether hanging from pendants or sticking up on stands, these bulbs give some character to a space, even when they’re turned off.

Electrolux AEG Kitchen Innovations

Electrolux is one of the most trusted names in the home appliance market, and it continues to push the envelope to meet the changing needs and trends of the times. Sometimes that means jumping on the smart home appliance bandwagon. Other times, it means making a commitment to sustainability and resource efficiency.

Designer: Electrolux

The AEG 7000 GreenZone refrigerator, for example, boasts using 70% recycled plastic for its inner liner walls, while the AEG 8000 series has new cooling technology that tries to preserve food longer so that they don’t go to waste. For those who love cooking at home, the AEG 800 Bridge/FlexiBridge with eXTractor sucks up vapor and recycles the air back into the kitchen, removing the stress of lingering odors while preparing your favorite meals.

Tineco Toasty One smart toaster

Everything’s becoming smarter these days, from the lights to washing machines to even toothbrushes. There’s always room to add a little intelligence to consumer electronics, especially when it means relieving our brains from having to fret over mundane stuff. It might sound excessive at first, but a smart bread toaster with a touch screen can be pretty convenient.

Designer: Tineco

The Tineco Toasty One can toast two slices of bread like other toasters, but it can have different settings for each of them. It can even detect the condition of the bread to automatically set the right heat for the desired crispiness. Of course, you can input your own preference, and it can remember different settings for up to eight people. OK, it might be overboard for some, but the toaster’s somewhat cute design definitely fits the kitchen of the future.

Bluetti Green Power Generators

Portable power generators that replace fuel generators are becoming more popular these days. Having emergency power that is clean, green, and safe is almost critical in this day and age, whether it’s for spending the weekend outdoors or living through a power outage. Bluetti is one of the most trusted brands in that growing market, and it’s showing off its latest solution to keep the lights on in the darkness.

Designer: Bluetti

The new Bluetti AC500 modular portable power generator steps up the game with a larger inverter that can dish out 5000W. When paired with B300 or B300S battery modules, it can provide an astounding 18,432Wh of power for the whole house. What makes it different from most battery-powred generators is that you can decide just how many modules you want to bring along, simplifying its portability. Plus, you can also charge it using solar power, creating a more sustainable solution to your electricity problems.

ASUS ZenBook 17 Fold OLED

Smartphones aren’t the only ones that are getting a foldable treatment. Although it’s happening more slowly, even tablets and laptops are getting foldable screens as well. There might still be some hesitation and doubt on whether it’s a fad or the next wave in computing, but devices that can change their forms will definitely become more common in the near future.

Designer: ASUS

The ASUS ZenBook 17 Fold OLED is one of the pioneers of this still nascent market. A 17.3-inch 2.5K screen that can fold into two 12.5-inch Full HD screens gives a whole new meaning to multitasking. Whether it will survive the test of time and hard work remains to be seen, but its launch marks the start of something new.

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold (16-inch)

Credit where credit is due, Lenovo is actually one of the first to demonstrate that it really believed in the foldable laptop hype. The first Thinkpad X1 Fold, while functional, didn’t exactly meet the hype and imagination of the PC market. Its next-gen iteration, however, inches closer to that ideal.

Designer: Lenovo

The new 16-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold refines the design of its predecessor, making the body thinner while also increasing the screen size. It also comes with a new cover stand and an improved Bluetooth keyboard that should make the device more usable. No longer will you feel like you’re carrying around a prototype device and are instead using the computer of the future.

Bang & Olufsen Beosound Theater Soundbar

As TVs become thinner, the need to relocate speakers has also become greater. You can, of course, cram smaller speakers inside those thin frames, but that often comes at the expense of sound quality. Soundbars have become one of the solutions to this problem, offering a way to have an elegant speaker near an equally elegant TV. And when it comes to elegance, there are few names you can trust more than Bang & Olufsen.

Designer: Bang & Olufsen

The marque’s new Beosound Theater is unsurprisingly another proof of its expertise in blending audio quality and aesthetics. Whether standing alone or paired with a TV, the soundbar looks stylish and attractive, unlike common boxy soundbars. Inspired by sailboats, the Beosund Theather’s curved body looks like it’s floating on air, giving it a sense of grandeur and adventure that matches the heart-racing sounds that come from it.

Yaber Pico T1 portable projector

While short-throw home projectors are gaining popularity as alternatives to traditional TVs, another kind of projector is making its way into people’s travel bags or even pockets. Pico projectors offer the opportunity to enjoy videos or make presentations anywhere, as long as you have the right light conditions. Given how projectors work, it’s hard to find the right balance between portability and performance, something that Yaber gets mostly correct.

Designer: Yaber

The Yaber Pico T1 itself is like a shorter but thicker smartphone, and it can easily fit into your jeans’ pocket. It does output at a resolution of 960×540, but it can do so at a screen size of up to 100 inches. The downside is that it doesn’t have an internal battery, so you’ll have to connect it to a compatible power bank. That said, all its accessories still fit nicely in a pouch that you can conveniently carry around if you want a cinema on the go.

Huawei

In spite of and despite all odds, Huawei continues to bring quality products to meet the needs and demands of today’s consumers. From powerful smartphones to professional laptops, Huawei brings a plethora of choices across different markets and tiers. The Huawei nova 10 and nova 10 Pro, for example, bring a 60MP front-facing camera that’s sure to excite selfie lovers with limited budgets.

For those more focused on productivity, the Huawei MatePad Pro brings a tablet to rival the iPad Pro with a 120Hz OLED screen and a Huawei M Pencil stylus. The new MateBook X Pro, on the other hand, packs a 3.1K 14.2-inch screen into a Windows-powered laptop powered by the latest 12th-gen Intel Core processors. Whether it’s for lifestyle, entertainment, or productivity, Huawei has a product that has one of the best bang-for-buck offers in designs that make you feel you’re really getting more for less.

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Lenovo Glasses T1 bring a private big screen into your pocket

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Apple’s mixed reality headset is slated for a 2023 release, and the race for a winning pair of smart glasses is getting enticing. Lenovo has just announced a very practical set of glasses that act as a secondary display for your Windows PC, Mac, or even a phone.

A very unique product in its own rights, the Lenovo Glasses T1 is a personal mobile display solution that works when connected to another device. The primary motivation behind the design of the glasses is to bring a private viewing display when you want to work on sensitive data from prying eyes, especially out in public spaces.

Designer: Lenovo

Revealed at the IFA 2022 and the brand’s virtual showcase, this is Lenovo’s progression from the ThinkReality A3 glasses, which are majorly targeted for custom enterprise solutions. The Glasses T1 are a toned-down version of the expensive A3 glasses and are meant for everyday, practical usage. There are full HD micro-OLED screens in each lens which creates a second virtual display only you can view.

Unlike the ThinkReality A3, these glasses don’t have any sensors or other hardware which makes them ergonomically comfortable to wear. The Type-C cable powers the thing when plugged into a PC or phone. Lenovo has even given the option to use them with prescription glasses courtesy of the in-box attached frame. Everything from the nose clips and bridges to the temple arms are customizable to the user’s liking.

The glasses should not be confused with the more advanced AR versions, as they only overlay the view of the display in front of the eyes. The only similarity is that they maintain the view of the world without disrupting anything, just like AR glasses. Talking of the specifications, the Glasses T1 has a high contrast ratio of 10,000:1, 1920×1080 resolution per eye, and 60Hz refresh rate. To enhance the viewing experience and reduce eye fatigue, they also have the TUV Low Blue Light and Flicker Reduced certifications.

Lenovo has fitted the glasses with speakers, too, so you won’t need a pair of headphones unless you want to completely shut out disturbing ambient noises. Overall, the glasses make complete sense for the current tech-infused world without being too gimmicky. Lenovo has not let out any word about the pricing, but they’ve hinted at a late 2022 launch in China and then later in other markets in 2023.

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The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is proof that a foldable tablet/laptop is a better idea than a foldable phone

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“The single biggest challenge is the screen itself”, says Kevin Beck, Senior Story Technologist at Lenovo (although I’m not entirely sure what that title means). Beck’s statement is rather revealing, as it’s a complete affirmation of the fact that a folding laptop/tablet is a MUCH better idea than a folding phone. Phones are used/opened hundreds of times each day, compounding to thousands of times in just two weeks alone. Laptops/tablets, on the other hand, are ‘opened’ much less often, which translates to a dramatic decrease in the stress taken by a folding display. Moreover, laptops and tablets can usually afford to be thicker than phones, which gives you a lot of leeway to build a better hinge that can withstand friction, and constant folding, and is therefore built to last for years.

Meet the ThinkPad X1 Fold from Lenovo, a laptop-tablet hybrid that celebrates its foldability. In a world where MacBooks don’t look like books, we’ve got ourselves a ThinkPad that opens like one! Now in its second iteration, the ‘next gen’ Thinkpad X1 Fold sports a slimmer design with thinner bezels and a much larger screen with a 16-inch diagonal (as compared to the 13.3-inch one on the previous ThinkPad X1 Fold from 2020). The tablet folds right down the center, sort of like a book, giving you a slim device that’s easy to carry and versatile enough to be used in a variety of formats. You can use it as a tablet in conjunction with a stylus, or fold it in an L-shaped format and use it as you would a laptop… albeit with a touchscreen keyboard underneath your fingertips. If you want a more analog experience, there’s a mechanical keyboard attachment too that wirelessly connects to your X1 Fold, and a stand that you can prop your device onto, turning it into sort of a desktop-style experience.

Designer: Lenovo

On paper, the ThinkPad X1 Fold boasts some rather commendable specs. It sports a 12th Gen Intel Core™ i7 processor on the inside, with the ability to go up to 32GB LPDDR5 memory and 1TB storage. The 16.3-inch OLED display has a 4:3 resolution when completely open, bringing it to 3:2 when folded in half (that’s 15:10, which is just about comparable to the 16:9 aspect ratio found on regular laptops). The X1 Fold can be used solo or configured with an optional magnetic-attach pen utilizing Wacom protocol for a true tablet-esque experience. For laptop-lovers who need a tactile keyboard, the ThinkPad X1 Fold offers an optional full-size backlit ThinkPad keyboard, with TrackPoint and
large haptic touchpad.

The beauty of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold lies in its versatility. The company touts that the device can be used in 5 different modes – the clamshell laptop mode, landscape ‘desktop’ mode with the keyboard, portrait desktop mode with the keyboard (a unique template that Lenovo claims really excited early users), book mode, and finally tablet mode with either the touchscreen input or the stylus. “Productivity, collaboration, content consumption, reading, writing, editing, and so on are all a breeze in whichever mode one feels most comfortable with”, Lenovo says. “The modes are managed by an intuitive Mode Switcher interface”

The hybrid folding tablet comes with a camera array that’s placed on the shorter edge of the bezel (sort of like on the iPad). This means it faces you when you’re using it in laptop mode. Multiple microphones placed along the sides of the bezel help with orientation and spatial awareness, allowing the X1 Fold to be used in a variety of ways.

The one largest drawback with a 16-inch folding tablet is the battery life, given that it’s powering such a massive display. The ThinkPad X1 Fold comes with a 48Wh battery on the inside that is intelligently managed by the tablet’s chip to optimize performance based on usage. When left idle, the X1 Fold’s display automatically dims to save battery, and when you walk away from the device, the screen automatically shuts off, saving power. It even auto-wakes when you return, so you can pick up right where you left off.

With all those impressive specs and abilities, the ThinkPad X1 Fold won’t come cheap. It begins shipping in November with a starting price of $2499. Higher specs will cost you more, and the keyboard, stand, and stylus are sold as optional accessories.

The price, however high it may be, is a factor of exactly how impressive and innovative this little gizmo is. Folding displays aren’t quite mainstream yet, and folding laptop/tablets are practically inexistent as a category barring a few models. The ThinkPad X1 Fold hopes to pave the way to a future where such devices are much more commonplace, resulting in a robust supply chain and eventually… eventually, a lower price tag!

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LG unveils world first bendable OLED TV with 20 curved level settings for personalize viewing experience

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Curved screen displays have been in trend for the last couple of years, and now we are looking up the horizon for the next big move. LG has just announced a cool OLED TV that is capable of bending on demand to morph into a curved display. This announcement comes on the back of Corsair showing off its 45-inch bendable gaming monitor at Gamescom just a few days ago.

Dubbed the LG OLED Flex – a.k.a LX3 model – it is touted to be the first bendable OLED TV on the market. The 42-inch display is targeted at gamers and professionals who demand the next level of immersion, and also want the flexibility to have a normal flat screen TV. The transition between the two modes happens seamlessly with remote control.

Designer: LG

Even better the display can be set anywhere between the twenty levels of curvature. That means, the bendable feature is fully customizable to a maximum of 900R curve. I can think of scenarios where the screen bend can be toggled for strategy, FPS or racing games for maximum gaming prowess.

The 4K display comes with a 0.1 millisecond response time, 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision, HDMI 2.1, ALLM (auto low latency mode) and support for VRR (variable refresh rate). This display is also G-SYNC compatible and AMD FreeSync Premium certified for a smooth viewing experience. Thus, making it ideal for pairing with the latest gaming consoles like Xbox Series X or PS5.

Another feature that’s very useful is the anti-reflective coating for minimum distraction in a bright environment. The stand on the display is height adjustable – 10 degrees towards or 5 degrees away from the gamer, and tilt adjustable – up and down by 140 millimeters. It also gets dual front-firing speakers for ultra-premium immersive sound output. Therefore, it can be used for other purposes like video editing or binge watching too.

There’s no word on the pricing or availability of this amazing display yet, but it should be positioned competitively to capture the chunk of geeky buyers. As per LG, the Flex bendable display is going to be on display at the IFA 2022 in Germany this week, so better keep an eye!

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JBL unveils the Tour PRO 2 TWS Earbuds with an actual touchscreen display on the charging case

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Is that the new iPod Nano?? Nope… it’s a pair of JBL TWS earbuds with a screen on the case.

Announced just before IFA 2022 kicks off in Berlin, the Tour PRO 2 are JBL’s upcoming flagship TWS earphones. Their latest gimmick feature? A touchscreen display that shows you music-related information so you don’t need to pop your phone out to navigate Spotify or Apple Music while listening to tunes and podcasts. It has the potential to be an incredibly clever idea (I’ll explain myself shortly), but it isn’t the kind of idea JBL is capable of pulling off, so we’re probably stuck with one more screen on our person… although it does offer a more music-centric experience. After all, nobody wants to scroll through their music playlist while also seeing angry messages from their boss about why they haven’t sent that mail yet.

Designer: JBL

To just get the facts out of the way, the Tour PRO 2 are JBL’s latest flagship pair of TWS earbuds priced at $249.44 USD. They come with 10mm audio drivers and are Bluetooth 5.3 compatible, have active noise-canceling, and last 10 hours alone, and 40 hours with the charging case. However, their most impressive little upgrade lies in plain view in the form of a 1.45-inch touchscreen LED display on the front that lets you toggle features like ANC, make adjustments to your music-listening experience, or answer/reject calls without taking your phone out. JBL’s idea with this seems to hark back to the original days of the iPod – to provide a clean, uncluttered music experience.

Honestly, I find myself a little conflicted with the idea of a display on my TWS earbud charging case because there are as many cons as there are pros. There are also as many unexplored potentials, which I promise I’ll get to in a bit. For starters, the Tour PRO 2 does, to a degree, give you the benefit of a phone-free experience. You can control playback, seek through songs, see what’s playing, and even toggle earbud features without needing an app or even needing to unlock your phone. However, this doesn’t quite work as well for other earbud-aided experiences, like watching videos or attending video calls/conferences. JBL also somewhat shoots itself in the foot by using that screen to show you phone notifications. So there’s still that likelihood of stumbling across angry texts from your boss/client. Effectively, this makes you end up taking your phone out, which completely destroys the premise of a phone-free music experience in the first place. Not to mention that yet another screen on a device means more battery woes. It also results in a thicker product.

Here’s what gets me excited about this idea, though. The TWS earbuds are essentially wearables, and a screen on the case now has the unique ability to offer a wearable-grade fitness device experience that matches, if not overtakes a smartwatch. Here’s the data you can capture through your earbud – your body temperature, and your pulse (two data points that your smartwatch already tracks). Pair this with music hardware and you’ve got yourself the ultimate fitness device. Imagine if these earbuds could track your heart levels alongside the music you listen to. It knows when you’re exercising and how effectively you’re exercising, it also knows whether you enjoy a song because of changes in your body temperature and heart rate. Moreover, the earbuds can also help with routines like meditation, just because they’re audio devices with bio-tracking abilities. I’ve long believed that if Spotify wanted to absolutely obliterate Apple at the music game, they’d launch smart earbuds that could do the aforementioned things. Sadly though, it seems like JBL isn’t quite the company that’s up for the task… and now I’ve given up my idea for free.

The JBL Tour PRO 2 will only be available in Europe for now, starting January 2023 (that gives JBL enough time to really fine-tune their product). This isn’t the first time we’ve seen screens on TWS earbud cases, though. Just last month, a Teenage Engineering TWS earbud concept showcased something quite similar!

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