Let's get ready for some fresh tech, coming live from Berlin.
IFA is a yearly electronics trade show held in Berlin, Germany — and the 2018 version kicks off this week! The show technically runs from August 31 to September 5, but for the purposes of the technology enthusiast things get going around August 29. And of course, that's when Android Central starts hitting all of the news.
As MWC has grown and several companies have decided to focus on running their own separate events for big product launches, IFA has become less important. But it still serves as a good place for the big companies to talk about smaller announcements: things like smartwatches, mid-range phones, products for international markets, accessories, connected home gear and more.
As we all get geared up to cover IFA live from Berlin, here's what you can expect from this year's show.
Samsung
IFA is typically a great show for Samsung to announce its less-important products like smartwatches and tablets ... but this year, the company took the wraps off of the Galaxy Tab S4 and Galaxy Watch well before the show.
Because the big announcements are out of the bag, we're not expecting anything notable in the mobile arena from Samsung. We could see a lower-end tablet (or two) released, plus a better opportunity to see the latest accessories for the Galaxy Note 9 and S9+. The biggest announcements out of Samsung this year will more likely land in the TV and smart home space, where Samsung is extremely influential. We'll hear about the "Galaxy ecosystem" and how everything is tied together — much like we got ahead of the Note 9's unveiling.
Samsung's press conference is on August 30 at 11:00 a.m. CET / 6:00 a.m. ET.
Sony
It isn't uncommon for Sony to time its smartphone releases with the major trade shows — mostly MWC and IFA. Sony's Xperia XZ2, XZ2 Compact and super-spec'd Xperia XZ2 Premium all launched months ago, so IFA could be a great landing place for some sort of an XZ3 (and potentially a Compact version).
Rumors point to an XZ3 that's effectively unchanged in design from the XZ2 Premium, with the new more rounded metal and glass look that we've seen in Sony's 2018 lineup. There's a moderate spec bump in RAM and storage, and it's expected to run Android 8.1 Oreo with a forthcoming update to Android 9 Pie.
Sony's press conference is on August 30 at 1:00 p.m. CET / 8:00 a.m. ET.
Lenovo / Motorola
Lenovo goes after trade shows in a big way, because it covers so many different product categories. Our friends over at Windows Central will have a full breakdown of the Lenovo laptop and convertible announcements, which are sure to be exciting and numerous.
For the Android Central crowd, you can expect Lenovo to have new announcements around its Chromebook lineup (both education and consumer), as well as potential refreshes of its tablet line.
We expect Motorola to announce further availability details for the new iPhone X-lookalike Moto P30 — while we don't expect this to make an appearance in North America, we should hear more about it expanding beyond just China and India.
Lenovo's press conference is on August 30 at 7:45 p.m. CET / 1:45 p.m. ET — it's a bit of a different format than most, so the announcements may trickle out over the course of a few hours.
LG
Early rumors pointed to LG using IFA as a launch spot for the new LG V40, but since then we've heard nothing else to indicate the company will launch the phone at this show. Expect the V40 announcement toward the end of October instead.
Instead, like Samsung, we expect LG to make announcements regarding mobile accessories, TVs and smart home gear. You can expect to see lots of "ThinQ" thrown around, of course.
LG has the opening keynote on August 29, but the real product-focused keynote is on August 31 at 10:30 a.m. CET / 4:30 a.m. ET.
Huawei / Honor
Huawei has a lot of products to announce seemingly at all times, and IFA is a good place for it to get news out particularly for its European-focused segments. The Honor brand has already launched the Honor 9N and Honor Note 10 officially, but this will be a proper global unveiling and our first opportunity to see the new devices. The Honor Note 10 is particularly neat because of its insanely huge size. There's also rumor of the Honor Play — a big, inexpensive, gaming-focused phone — making its international debut.
We should also be in store for some new color variants of the already-stunning Huawei P20 Pro. And Huawei does like to announce its new Kirin processors with more fanfare than most manufacturers, and we could see the latest in high-end chips, the Kirin 980, shown off in prototype fashion. The only wild card is whether we hear about the Huawei Watch 3 — no solid rumors on that front.
Huawei's press conference is on August 31 at 2:00 p.m. CET / 9:00 a.m. ET.
BlackBerry
BlackBerry may be riding the big launch of the KEY2 still, but it's ready to announce something else at IFA. Rumors point to a certain announcement for the KEY2 Lite, or KEY2 LE (Lite Edition) at the show, which will be a value-focused inexpensive version of the phone to compete on a lower price point.
In order to hit the price BlackBerry is rumored to drop the specs across the board to a Snapdragon 636, 4GB of RAM and a 3000mAh battery. Basically, offer up that great keyboard in a more affordable package.
BlackBerry doesn't have a press conference time set, so it's more likely to show off the phone in a more casual setting considering its lower importance than the higher-end KEY2.
Others
- Casio Is expected to announce a new Wear OS smartwatch, which should be a follow-up to the WSD-F20.
- Fossil Group is likely to have some wearable announcements across its many brands. Some could be Wear OS, but most will be proprietary wearables along the lines of what we typically see from its sub-brands like Misfit and Fossil.
- Razer is supposed to have a presence of some sort at the show, though we would expect that to be on the PC/gaming side rather than mobile.
- ASUS will have its typical layout of consumer and gaming gear, but we could get an update on the status of the RoG Phone line.
Be sure to follow all of our IFA 2018 coverage right here on Android Central, subscribe to us on YouTube to see videos from the show, and check back in at the end of the show for our top device announcements!
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