IFA 2025 (International Funkausstellung or “radio exhibition”) is “Europe’s biggest tech show”, and there were tons of exciting announcements and products for us to check out in the maze of halls in Berlin.
We’re always surprised by the amount of innovation happening when we visit these huge shows and get a chance to see hundreds of new products from a multitude of brands, big and small.
From experimental laptops to stair-climbing robot vacuums (yes, really), this was the best tech we saw at IFA 2025.
Honestly, the Swift Air 16 was one of the most surprising products I’ve handled in years. You’d expect a 16-inch laptop to have some heft to it – even if the manufacturer is claiming it’s lightweight.
Well, Acer has backed up its claim. When I picked up the Swift Air 16 for the first time I genuinely thought it was a dummy unit without any components in it – as did my colleague Jasmine.
But no, the Acer Swift Air 16 is almost impossibly light.
The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is Samsung’s thinnest tablet ever, measuring just 5.1mm thick – matching the current generation iPad Pro 13.
It has the iPad beat when it comes to screen size, with the 14.6-inch display offering you plenty of space, plus there’s a redesigned S Pen stylus with a hexagonal grip, cone-shaped nib and a magnetic attachment to the edge of tablet.
Between us, it looks suspiciously similar to the second generation Apple Pencil.
On screen you get Samsung’s new OneUI 8 interface, and the DeX productivity software has been given a chunky update with the ability to use the Tab S11 Ultra as a monitor in a two monitor setup.
Samsung’s made a number of meaningful updates with this tablet, and it’ll keep Apple on its toes.
Tecno’s new slim phone proves that ultra-thin phones can have big batteries. It features a 5,160 mAh battery that’s 30 percent larger than the Galaxy S25 Edge, but the Pova Slim is just 0.4mm thicker.
A unique camera array on the rear features a single 50MP camera in a symmetrical housing that has unique effects, including a charging animation, and alerts for notifications.
The Pova Slim is the lightest phone in its class at 156 grams, and it feels exceptional in the hand. The 6.78-inch AMOLED display is vibrant, while an IP64 rating rounds out a great phone.
One of the more left-field products announced at IFA 2025, Samsung’s oddly named Movingstyle touchscreen TV comes with a built-in carry handle and kickstand.
What you have here is a 27-inch “portable” TV, although its weight means you’re unlikely to want to carry it far.
It also comes with a freestanding podium, which has wheels, allowing you to move the screen around your home. There’s a battery which should last around three hours on a charge, with two USB-C ports and one HDMI, giving you charging and connectivity options.
I’m a little confused as to why it exists and how it fits into our already screen-heavy lifestyles, but there’s part of me which really digs it.
If you want to look after your eyes, the TCL NXTPAPER 60 Ultra is an eye-friendly smartphone with the firm’s fourth generation NXTPAPER technology.
The NXTPAPER tech offers seven eye-care benefits, including blue light purification and a reflection-free view, and it uses Circular Polarized Light (CPL) technology to mimic natural light.
And with the flick of a switch on the side of the phone, you can switch the display from the standard colorful option you’re used to seeing, to an almost Kindle-like ink finish, which is much easier on your eyes.
It also comes with several AI features including AI Q&A and AI Audiobook along with a MediaTek Dimensity 7400 chip, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 5,200mAh battery.
The Hypershell X Ultra demo I had during IFA 2025 was probably the most fun.
Think of this exoskeleton like an electric bicycle for your legs. You can pedal (walk) as normal, but the bike (exoskeleton) can kick in to provide electric power to help you speed up, travel further, or traverse complex terrain.
It’s a strange feeling at first, but having gone up and down stairs and ramps, and had a spin on an exercise bike, during my demo I could really feel the difference the electric power makes.
For anyone who loves waking, hiking or generally keeping fit, but isn’t as physically able as they’d like to be, the Hypershell X Ultra could well help you continue doing what you love.
The Antigravity A1 is the world’s first 360 drone, giving you a fully immersive experience.
The drop is equipped with parent company Insta360’s 360 degree camera tech, and you get a pair of goggles to wear, giving you a live feed from the cameras.
And by moving your head, you can look around the landscape as if you were strapped to the drone yourself.
It marks an exciting milestone for the drone industry, and with its first product it appears Antigravity could well have a hit on its hands.
Stairs. The eternal nemesis of Daleks, and more recently, robot vacuums. But not for much longer, thanks to Eufy and its ‘Marswalker’.
The Marswalker is an additional device paired with the firm’s new Omni S2 robot vacuum and mop, designed to carry the S2 up and down stairs.
It has caterpillar tracks and four rotating arms to help it navigate flights of stairs. The Omni S2 will automatically drive into the Marswalker, which will then proceed up and down the stairs.
The demo I saw looked pretty impressive, with smooth operation and a relatively quick ascent and descent.
When it comes to concept devices, Lenovo is known for some of the best conceptual products in computing, and its ability to bring them to life in a commercial way in a short period of time.
The new ThinkBook Vertiflex concept aims to deliver the perfect display orientation for your needs. It starts as a horizontal regular laptop screen, but the 14-inch display can be pivoted around the two magnetic hinges with a simple push to flip it into vertical mode.
Whether it’s for documents, coding, web browsing or more, this is truly unique and ideal for working on the go. Here’s hoping it makes it out of concept stage.
The Baseus XP1 shows that great audio doesn’t have to cost a premium, even when it features a sound profile designed by Bose.
The audio experience is fantastic and reminiscent of headphones that cost considerably more, while the Active Noise Cancellation is designed to help you escape the world around you.
The Baseus XP1 feels fantastic in the ear thanks to its ergonomic in-ear design, and it comes in two colors. With a $130 price tag, these offer exceptional sound at an affordable price.
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.
Military working dogs charge into places the rest of us would flee. So, I understand why anyone would want to breed tougher, healthier dogs for the job.
Warhound, a new startup from Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, has stepped out of stealth with $200 million to clone and gene-edit working dogs for American troops, police departments, and emergency services (via TechCrunch).
AI can describe a picture, identify objects, and answer questions about what a camera sees. But when a blind user needs a quick answer, getting an entire spoken essay about the scene isn't exactly helpful. Researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have found that AI-powered visual assistance can leave blind users doing too much work to get the information they actually need.
The study, titled Say It My Way: Exploring Control in Conversational Visual Question Answering with Blind Users, examined how people interact with Be My AI, an AI-powered feature of the Be My Eyes app. The researchers found that users often received lengthy descriptions that didn't adequately address their immediate goals, forcing them to ask follow-up questions or find ways to steer the AI towards a more useful answer.