One of the biggest tech event of the year, the IFA 2017 tech show in Berlin has been a platform for various tech firms to debut everything ranging from Wi-Fi fridges to smartphones. Aside from the newly launched flagships like the LG V30 and the Xperia XZ1, smart assistants, luxury headphones, Bluetooth speakers and smart audio gear were some of the devices showcased at the IFA 2017.

Sinc the demand for smart speakers has surged in the recent past with the entry of Amazon Echo and Google Home, Harman is hedging its bets on smart speakers with the launch of two Google assistant and Alexa powered smart speakers.

Harman Kardon Allure

The Alexa powered, [...]

Samsung announced the Gear Sport smartwatch, the Gear Fit 2 Pro fitness band and the Icon X 2018 wireless earbuds at the IFA 2017 in Berlin. All three wearables emphasize upon fitness features like the ability to swim in salt water with the Gear Sport and Fit 2 Pro.  Though the Icon X 2018 earbuds launched with the ability to interact with Bixby, Samsung skipped the voice assistant’s support in the smartwatch and the fitness band .

Samsung Gear Sport 

The new Samsung Gear Sport pushes further into fitness by adding few new features like 5 ATM water resistance for swimming, capacity to store 500 Spotify songs along with the already present heart rate [...]

Sony has launched its first smart speaker, the LF-S50G powered by Google Assistant at a price of USD 199 (Rs 12,700 approx.). The smart speaker will enter the market dominated by the likes of Amazon Echo and Google Home.

The inclusion of the Google Assistant means that it will work almost identical to the Google Home and has plenty of power to fill “the average room” with sound, Sony claims. The smart speaker looks very similar to the Apple HomePod with a white speaker mesh wrapped around a metal frame. It is, however, a little taller and slimmer than the Apple HomePod, and there’s a slender silver base which houses the power port and two buttons. It has [...]

Sony has launched the Xperia XA1 Plus at IFA 2017. The company pitched the third smartphone in the Xperia XA1 series as a ‘super mid-tier smartphone’ with a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 px display, 23MP rear camera, and a 3,430mAh battery.

In terms of design, the Sony Xperia XA1 Plus inherits the traditional all metal, thick bezel design as seen in its earlier variants. The smartphone’s power button on the right-hand side also doubles as a finger print scanner. The XA1 Plus features a 5.5-inch 1920×1080 px display, whereas the earlier models, the Xperia XA1 and the XA1 Ultra featured a 5-inch display and a 6-inch display, respectively.

The Sony Xperia [...]

Sennheiser has launched three new earphone models at the IFA 2017 in Berlin yesterday.

The trio of new earphones include Sennheiser’s wireless CX 7.00BT, a wired IE 80 S and another wireless model, the HD1 Free.

HD1 Free

The one that top’s the list is the new addition to Sennheiser’s HD1 Wireless earphones, the HD1 Free. On the design front, the new HD1 Free are significantly slimmer as compared to Sennheiser’s first HD1 In-Ear Wireless. Apart from the slimmer design, the HD1 Free will feature custom machined steel in-ear sound tunnels, magnetic earpieces, a three button remote and microphone for calling and playing music. The wireless earphones can [...]

Sony has launched a pair of wireless earbuds at the IFA 2017 in Berlin along with the Xperia XZ1, XZ1 Compact and the Google Assistant powered smart speakers.

The Sony WF-1000X has a 3-hour battery back up and cost USD 199 (Rs 12,700 approx.). The earbuds weigh at 7 grams without the charging case and about 70 grams with the case. The earbuds connect to an audio source via Bluetooth 4.1. The Sony earbuds also feature NFC and a Noise Canceling switch button. The charging case takes 3 hours to charge with the earbuds in it. The earbuds automatically turn off when not in use, to prevent battery drain and feature Adaptive Sound which automatically detects your activity such as [...]

Bang & Olufsen has launched its competitor to the Apple AirPods at the IFA 2017 in Berlin. The B&O Beoplay E8 are Bang and Olufsen’s foray into truly wireless earphones and are priced at$299 (Rs 19,000 approx.), which is almost double the cpost of the Apple AirPods.

The B&O Beoplay E8 is built out of aluminium, stainless steel, and textured rubber, while the included carry case is covered in leather. The earphones have Bluetooth 4.2 and weigh 13 grams without the case. The charging and carrying case weighs 45 grams and gives a twice the additional charge for the earbuds. The earbuds last up to 4 hours of playing time at moderate volume on a single charge. [...]

Sony has officially unveiled its high-end flagship, the Sony Xperia XZ1, and its smaller sibling, the XZ1 Compact at the IFA 2017 in Berlin. A successor to the Xperia XZ Premium, both the Xperia XZ1 and the compact variant with a full metal frame, hasn’t strayed too far away in terms of design.

Both the Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact will run Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box and will be amongst the first devices to launch with the latest Android OS.

The newly launched smartphones are equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, similar to the one found in XZ1 Premium. Both the XZ1 and XZ1 Compact have 4GB RAM with 64GB and 32G onboard storage [...]

Lenovo-owned Motorola launched the Moto X4 at the IFA 2017 in Berlin with a dual-camera setup at the back and a familiar design.

The Moto X4 has a 5.2 inch 1920 x 1080 px IPS LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass on top for protection. The smartphone runs stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat and is powered by a 3,000 mAh battery with TurboCharge capabilities. The company claims that the 15 mins of charge can give up to 6 hours of talk time. The Moto X4 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630, 2.2 GHz octa-core processor and Adreno 508 GPU, along with 3GB RAM and 32GB onboard storage which can be expanded up to 2TB via microSD card. The phone has an IP68 rating for water and dust [...]

LG has officially launched the LG V30 today at the IFA 2017 in Berlin. The LG V30 will succeed last year’s V20 and is a significant departure from the design language of LG’s V series. The LG V30 has a design similar to the LG G6 with thin bezels and rounded edges, and an 18:9 aspect ratio display. The LG V30 is available in four colour variants – Aurora black, Cloud silver, Moroccan blue and Lavender violet

The LG V30 has a 6 inch 2880 x 1440 px OLED FullVision display, LG’s first, with an 18:9 aspect ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. LG’s nearly edge-to-edge OLED display has HDR 10 format for high level of colour contrast and as [...]