Why China stole the show at IFA 2026, for me, and what I loved on the floor
Berlin was a warm and welcoming city when I visited to walk through the sprawling Messe Berlin location of IFA 2026. This year was the first time I was lucky enough to go to ShowStoppers, the official media and relationship-building networking, invitation-only pre-IFA kick-off evening drinks reception for the whole consumer electronics trade fair. And it was there that I spoke to Ruth Harland, Director of Customer Service, who explained that ShowStoppers is indeed even bigger this year than ever before, thanks to 40 additional new companies showcasing their innovations.
And it wasn’t just ShowStoppers that was bigger this year. Over 200,000 people piled into the German capital for Europe’s largest tech circus – on a comparison level equal to CES itself. While these massive trade shows often default to modest annual updates, IFA usually offers proper wildcards. This year, the shift was unmistakable: Chinese tech giants dominated the floor with aggressive long-term plans, while Western brands spent a lot of time playing catch-up or dressing up older ideas in new pastel paints.
Miele was my first brand introduction to Hall 2.1, which housed “Home Appliances”. The huge red-lit welcome area was ideal as it caught my attention and I loved the expanded seating area they offered with green surroundings for rest and relaxation – how little I knew I would need that as much as I did over the next 4 days!
The hunger for smarter, hotter tech was answered at this year’s IFA in spades. However, if anyone needed proof that the centre of gravity in consumer hardware has moved East, my IFA 2026 visit only confirmed it. Aside from the sheer volume of amazing and truly standout new products that I saw myself, which were in vast numbers, all from Chinese brands, this year, Samsung skipped the main show floor entirely to hold a private event nearby, leaving massive halls wide open for brands like Xiaomi and Dreame.
Korean and Japanese brands used to own IFA, but now Dreame had two entire halls (7.1A and 7.1B) to showcase everything in its smart, sleek design range – from Dreame’s latest smart home appliances, including tumble dryers and cookers, to robotic mowers, 3D printing intelligence, and even intelligent pet living ecosystems. I found that once I had walked through both Dreame halls, nearly 2 hours had passed, and I hadn’t noticed the time passing one bit because I was in a trance, obsessing over and appreciating their dream range. Dreame’s global ambassador Cristiano Ronaldo was alas only there in poster form unfortunately.
Chinese robotics firms were everywhere, pushing functional, task-oriented humanoid robots onto the floor to gather real usage data. Over at the RoboCup competition, a showcase featuring robots and AI demonstrations, universities took that autonomous rivalry to a whole new level, pitching teams of custom-built robots against each other in a series of live football matches. Watching these autonomous machines navigate the pitch, pass, and shoot in real time made the shiny consumer prototypes on the main floor look positively tame.
Friday afternoon saw the IFA Innovation Awards taking place in a live ceremony at the trade show, announcing the most innovative new product and spanning categories including Audio, Design, Smart Home, Home Appliances, Mobility, Computing and Gaming, Communications and Connectivity, Sustainability and more. Anker’s RIC Hearing Aids Pro won Best of IFA, Insta360 Luna Ultra was named Best of Tech and LG Electronics was recognised as Best of Brand. But among the other winners, I was particularly impressed by the Honorees in each category.
Having cats, I loved the CATLINK Scoop Robot, which is an advanced self-cleaning smart litter box featuring dual AI cameras and an automatic litter refill system. In the kitchen, I want Euhomy’s Rock Pro Sphere ice maker, which churned out crystal-clear ice balls that were the size of golf balls…..
And Arda’s beautiful cookers that come in some truly gorgeous colours like these blue or orange ones. How can you pick between them?
Merach’s self-powered exercise bike was a dream to ride and could potentially switch me to exercising from the comfort of my own home.
Ringconn won Best in Beauty Tech and Wellbeing for its Gen 3 Smart Ring, which I was lucky enough to find and try on for myself in Hall 14. The stand was set up in multiple levels with all of the ring colours and sizes at three stations per level for a lot of people to be able to see them closely for themselves without elbow jostling for space.
I also tried on the UltraHuman Ring PRO and Ring AIR in Hall 15, and I thought that the AIR was possibly the most lightweight and comfortable smart ring I have ever put on my finger. My heart belongs to the RingConn Gen 3 as it comes in five colour finishes – future silver, which would be my personal choice, royal gold, matte black, brushed silver and brushed rose gold. However the simplicity of the UltraHuman’s clean lines and non-branded ring means I’d be more likely to wear that one.
Despite winning an IFA Innovation Award for its Roomba® Max 875 Combo Robot + AutoWash™ Dock, the device I wanted from iRobot was the one it showcased, which was the Roomba Duo. This massive main robot vacuum came equipped with steam mopping that carries a smaller, detachable mini-Roomba on its back to deploy into tight corners under furniture. It feels like an absurdly complex solution to a basic problem, but you have to admire the sheer madness of it, and I absolutely loved the moving demo on the day.
On Saturday, there was a noticeable energy shift once the press days ended and the doors opened to the general public. In short, Berlin Messe turned into a proper festival of fun and families pressing in to see everything they could get access to across the halls.
Families took over the walkways, kids crammed into the gaming areas, and Hall 6.2 somehow ended up with an actual bumper cars arena, which offered surprisingly ruthless fun for both tired journalists and hyperactive children.
Over at DeerRun and KingSmith, the main attraction was a bright collection of foldable, lightweight walking pads that looked significantly better than the industrial grey treadmills clogging up most gyms. The one that caught my eye was KingSmith’s Walking Case, which was the size of an airline cabin bag.
I will freely admit that I spent a fair part of Saturday at the iRest station, where the company had its smart massage chairs and personalised wellness household consumer electronics for hands-on trials. I spent a good amount of time in one of the smart massage chairs.
On Sunday, I took a little more time traversing the event floor and came across the computing and gaming halls where I found a fantastic wealth of hot new tech, from keyboards, PC mice and cases to earbuds and the most comfortable chairs I have ever sat on in my life.
Firstly, a massive shout-out to Akko for the cute and soft keyboards and animal-shaped PC mice that included hamsters, mice, cats and capybaras. The keyboard was the best rounded and easy to use, but soft-tap keys keyboard in the prettiest design – the keys themselves all had wee smiley faces on them, so I fell in love with it at first glance. I want both the mouse – the cat one – and the keyboard, hence they are now on my Christmas wish list….
My Christmas wish list also includes one of the winner’s circle chairs for working from home or gaming in. The Anda Seats I saw were seriously comfort beyond compare and came in some lovely streamlined, back-support models, but I was drawn to the fun designs such as its (big?) kids’ Minions-inspired set.
DUVA debuted its DUVA ONE AI-powered sleep earbuds at IFA, and these smart sleep trackers sense you, your room and respond in real time to adapt to block noise or change their audio based on heart rate and HRV alongside your own movement throughout the night. The stand was pretty striking when you came across it.
Marvo’s stand had a massive range of earbuds to choose from that included its wireless Quaz In-Ear and AI-integrated models, which are ideal for gaming and listening to music.
GAMEON’s PC cases blew me away with how bright and colourful they were – definitely great for gaming through the night.
Taking as many photos as I had at IFA would have drained my battery fast, but UGREEN had kindly set up charging areas which me and many other visitors found super handy.
It was only thanks to my recharge that I had enough juice left to grab snaps of some of the outdoor products that were cool as heck but would not be needed by me since I don’t have grass or a pool. Firstly was Aiper’s swimming robot pool cleaner, which was doing lengths and diving deep to collect leaves and things the stand team kept throwing into the small pool – yes, an actual water-filled, fairly deep, raised pool in the hall – to challenge it during regular demonstrations.
On the same floor, Mammotion had its smart lawn mowers on display as it showcased its new flagship LUBA 4 AWD robotic lawn mower and introduced the commercial-grade Maston series. The former won an IFA Innovation Award, and both went round in circles, and up and down 90-degree angled areas of grass to show how Mammotion’s turning front wheels’ design and quad-camera AI vision system mean users can leave either mower to cut without surveillance, even on a golfing green or sports field.
A shout-out for UWANT’s raining wet and dry vacuum stand that was nearby and was very calming to watch in the sheer madness of the swarm of visitors.
The last thing I saw that I loved and found really truly unique was the Odyss N1, the world’s first AI dietary necklace. The necklace was lovely and very simple, which works better for me. It was built to make nutritional awareness feel more natural, as it “watches” or takes note of what you are eating throughout the day to help you understand what you eat and make changes to eat better, one meal at a time.
I asked the stand team about data privacy as that seemed the first concern. They told me that there would not be any data sharing or storing, but I wasn’t 100% sure whether I would want to wear a necklace that is essentially taking images of, or just reviewing, everything in front of me the whole time I am wearing it. If they can make it work and ensure it meets privacy standards, how cool could that be and how much easier than logging each and every thing you eat via an app as and when you remember to actually log calories, micros and macros.
I am sure that I walked the best part of 100 miles at IFA 2026 over the 4.5 days I was there, and the extra half day I count because I went to the ShowStopper evening. After walking miles of concrete, surviving endless launches, and dodging bumper cars, IFA 2026 proved that consumer hardware is far more interesting when brands take risks instead of playing it safe.
