IFA, the Berlin trade fair that is to September what CES is to January, opened on Friday and runs until 5 September. It is a consumer-electronics show in the old sense — televisions, washing machines, headphones — with a technology layer on top, and this year the technology layer had a theme: everything is a gaming device, a robot, or has AI in its name. The pieces worth knowing about:
Lenovo Legion Go
Lenovo’s first handheld gaming PC, its answer to the Steam Deck and the Asus ROG Ally. An 8.8-inch QHD+ screen — the largest in the category — with detachable controllers in the manner of a Nintendo Switch, AMD’s Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip, a large battery and Windows 11, so it runs any PC game. Due in October at around $700. Alongside it the Legion 9i, a 16-inch gaming laptop with a built-in liquid cooling loop — a first in a laptop — so that it does not throttle in a long session. Also October.
Honor V Purse
A concept: a foldable phone that folds outward, so its screen is on the outside, hung from a chain strap and worn as a purse, with wallpapers that mimic handbag fabrics. Aimed, Honor says, at fashion-conscious women. Next to it the real product, the Magic V2, a book-style foldable thinner than most flat phones.
The rest
- Mophie — three 15-watt wireless chargers for Android and iPhone using the new Qi2 magnetic standard: a mini stand, a 3-in-1 stand and a car vent mount, $70–130, next year.
- Yale — a smart alarm system with indoor and outdoor cameras, a video doorbell and smart locks, so a visitor can be seen and let in remotely.
- Samsung Food — an AI recipe app with 160,000 recipes that plans meals, adapts dishes to what you have, and orders the ingredients; Samsung’s smart fridges will eventually feed it.
- XGIMI Horizon Ultra — a 4K projector with Dolby Vision and a dual laser-LED light source, a claimed 27 times brighter than the company’s LED models.
- Robot vacuums — from what seemed like every stand, now with mops, self-emptying docks and cameras that recognise cables and socks.
What reaches Bangladesh
Handhelds and foldables are grey imports here and will stay so; the Legion Go will turn up on Facebook groups at Tk90,000 by winter. Robot vacuums are the quiet arrival — Xiaomi and Ecovacs models now sell in Dhaka for Tk25,000–40,000 and work on a tiled flat — and the Qi2 chargers matter more than they look, since the iPhone 15 launching next week supports the standard and the magnetic pucks will follow. The Legion 9i’s liquid cooling is the one to watch in Dhaka’s heat: a laptop that does not slow down at 35°C is a genuinely local benefit.
