What to expect from September’s IFA 2014

Hardware makers love showing of­ their tech just in time for Christmas. We look at what IFA 2014 has in store.

Kicking of­ at the beginning of September, IFA presents a perfect opportunity for tech companies to show o­f  the products that will  go on sale in time for Christmas. All sorts of new products will be announced,  including TVs, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and more. We’ve rounded up the best and most interesting rumoured products.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

 One of the most highly anticipated smartphones of the year is the Galaxy Note 4. Samsung traditionally refreshes its Galaxy Note line-up in an Unpacked event at IFA. This year looks to be no diff­erent and we expect to see the Galaxy Note 4 unveiled on 3 September. It’s tipped to be the first 4K smartphone and to feature a retina scanner.

 Sony Xperia Z3

 As we mentioned on the previous post, Sony’s widely tipped to launch its next Xperia Z-series flagship at IFA 2014. According to the leaked details of a competition that will be conducted by Vodafone Germany, a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact is also in the works. (Never mind that we haven’t seen a Z2 Compact yet.) Rather than a complete refresh of its flagship smartphone, Sony will reportedly concentrate primarily on performance, boosting the processor and graphics but retaining the full-HD screen and 20.7Mp camera.

Motorola Moto X+1 (X2)

 Motorola’s Moto X and Moto G smartphones have been popular and the fi rm said at MWC that a follow up to the former would arrive late summer. It didn’t turn up in time for Google I/O, so in our minds the firm is likely to take the wraps of the smartphone in Berlin at IFA. It’s unclear whether it will be called the Moto X+1 or the Moto X2. Rumoured specs include a 5inch or larger screen with a full-HD resolution, up to 64GB of storage and a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor. Motorola could also bundle the Moto X2 with the forthcoming Moto 360 Android Wear smartphone.

Samsung Gear VR

 The Gear VR is Samsung’s answer to the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus. It’s a virtual reality headset that is reportedly already in testing by developers in anticipation of an IFA launch. The Gear VR is expected to be cheaper than its rivals because it uses a docked smartphone (notably, a docked Samsung smartphone). The virtual reality e­ffect is possible through head-tracking using the docked smartphone’s accelerometer, gyroscope and processing power. The Gear VR has an OLED display and runs the Tizen OS.