IFA 2015: everything we’ve seen from Samsung, Sony, Motorola and more

IFA 2015, Europe’s biggest tech show, is now officially underway and there’s been lots of big announcements already.

Samsung, Sony, Motorola, Lenovo, Huawei have all shown their faces at the German trade show with a load of the little guys sprinkled around the edges.

Here’s everything we’ve seen so far…and everything we’ve still got to look forward to.

What has happened so far

Sony Xperia Z5

Sony

Sony has launched a new line of Xperia handsets at their IFA 2015 press conference – including the world’s first ever 4K phone. There are three new phones and we’ve got hands-on reviews of them all ready and waiting for your eyes.

We’ve also compared them all to other phones you can buy right now.

Samsung

Samsung SleepSense

Samsung spent quite a bit of its IFA 2015 press conference on the topic of washing machines, but it also shared some interesting details on its new SmartHub that’s set to be a big part of Samsung’s IoT push.

It has also launched a new Ultra HD Blu Ray player and a sensor that goes inside your bed to watch you sleeping. That was all topped off by a new Samsung Galaxy Car Mode app that makes it easier to control your car whilst driving and even works with the new Gear S2 smartwatch.

Motorola

Moto 360 2015

During the Lenovo and Motorola conference we saw a lot of new announcements, including a new version of the Moto 360 smartwatch. It’s be powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 CPU, will feature wireless charging, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage.

The 1.56-inch display has been bumped up to a 360 x 330 resolution whilst the 1.37-inch version has a resolution of 360 x 325.

Huawei

Huawei Mate S

The Chinese smartphone manufacturer has gone hard at IFA 2015 announcing pricing for its Huawei Watch alongside the new phablet Mate S.

Asus

ASUS Zenwatch 2

Asus has announced a lot. There’s a load more smartphones in the Zenfone line. First up is the Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe (that was previously announced for Brazil) with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It’s not clear where else it’ll be launching just yet though.

That’s also alongside the Zenfone Max that has a HUGE 5000mAh battery on board. And then there’s the Zenfone Selfie that offers a 13MP sensor on the front.

And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also the Zenfone Zoom that claims to have the world’s thinnest 3x optical-zoom. To us it sounds like all these features should have been combined together to make one amazing phone.

The company also announced a new Zenpad tablet with 4GB of RAM on board.

Asus has topped that all off by announcing a new Wi-Fi router in the form of the RT-AC5300 that Jonney Shih himself believes to be the world’s fastest for 4K streaming and gaming.

And everything else

Still to come:

LG

When it comes to televisions, this year’s show is going to be leaning heavily on the burgeoning high dynamic range (HDR) technology. By virtue of being the only TV manufacturer spending money on OLED panel tech, LG is in a prime position to offer the best HDR experience.

OLED is all about the blackest blacks, the brightest whites and every colour in between – which makes it a perfect pairing for the expanded colour and contrast experience of HDR.

LG has pre-announced four new Ultra HD 4K OLED TVs for this year’s IFA, with three of those (the LG 65EF9500, LG 55EF9500 and LG 55EG9200) all supporting HDR. Interestingly the top two EF9500 screens will also be the first to deliver a flatscreen OLED experience too.

4K

The 4K ball is rolling, and there’s no stopping it. While we’re seeing bigger and better UHD TVs all the time (Philips used 2014 to launch its first ever curved 4K TV, the Philips 8900) it’s the price that needs to be the real focus of 2015.

The cost of 4K is just too high right now, so names like Philips and Sony need to start driving the price of their sets down, else they’re only going to alienate people from the format.