IFA 2026: the biggest tech and gadget announcements

iRobot has announced a new flagship robot vacuum, which it will showcase at IFA in Berlin this week, the company’s first big tech trade show in years. The Roomba maker will be exhibiting under its new owner, Picea Robotics, the contract manufacturer that purchased the once-troubled American robotics company out of bankruptcy in January.

The $1,199 Roomba Max 875 Combo is the company’s newest top-of-the-line robot vacuum and mop, and it debuts alongside the $899 Roomba Plus 678 Combo. Both models are available now at irobot.com.

Smart homes have gotten really good at making things really complicated. Turning on a light can involve multiple steps, compared to just flipping a switch. Homey, the Dutch-based smart home platform owned by LG, thinks it has a solution.

This week it launched the Homey Portal, a touchscreen smart home controller that looks very promising, if very expensive. Preorders open today at an introductory price of $249/€249, with units shipping in December.

After launching a budget-friendly flood sensor last month with impressive battery life, Shelly announced a new $49.99 security camera today that can be used without any additional subscription fees — although that’s still an option if you want to expand its capabilities.

The Shelly Camera will be available soon from the company’s online store and other resellers in black or white. Although competitors like Wyze have released 2K security cameras for $40, Shelly’s first camera is limited to 1080P with a wide field of view that stretches 110 degrees horizontally and 70 degrees vertically with night vision capabilities. But there’s no battery, so during installation you’ll also need to route a USB-C cable to deliver power.

We’re not even half a day into September, and two new smartphones have already launched: the Poco F9 Pro and F9 Ultra. We’re expecting more this week, as the IFA trade show kicks off in Berlin, before we get new iPhones a week after that. And that’s only the beginning of what promises to be an exceptionally busy month for smartphone launches.

For the decade I’ve worked in the industry, tech journalists have always spoken in hushed tones about the dreaded “Techtember,” when just about every tech company on the planet seems to be in unspoken agreement that it’s time to launch new products in time for the holiday buying season. (It’s followed, in particularly packed years, by Techtober too). In the last few years, the pressure has lessened a little, the release calendar stretching out into neighboring months. But in 2026, Techtember is back with a vengeance, especially when it comes to phones.

The Wi-Fi 8 standard is far from finalized, but TP-Link is almost ready to release its first hardware targeting the next-gen spec. It unveiled the Archer 8 Ultra tri-band router and Deco 8 Ultra mesh system at IFA 2026, which utilize the upcoming IEEE 802.11bn standard to “address the connectivity problems people actually notice” instead of focusing on speed upgrades, according to TP-Link’s announcement.

The Archer 8 Ultra features 18 internal antennas, and can deliver wireless speeds of up to 19Gbps and 10Gbps over wired connection. The Deco 8 Ultra mesh system provides up to 22Gbps over wireless and 10Gbps wired connectivity, according to TP-Link, with a three-pack covering up to 9,800 square feet and supporting more than 200 connected devices.

JMGO’s 4K 120Hz Iris Ultra Max all-in-one Google TV projector is now available outside China. It gets its name from a new dual-iris system that lets it produce an impressive 10,000:1 native contrast, according to JMGO. It boosts the contrast — always an issue with projectors — by placing two separate physical apertures (irises) along different points of the internal optical path to control light scatter and brightness far more aggressively than a single iris can. It also promises to produce a very bright 6,500 ISO lumen image from its triple-laser light engine.

Last year at IFA, 6,000 lumens from an all-in-one projector was breaking new ground. At IFA 2026, it’s shaping up to be table stakes, alongside 4k imagery purring along at a smooth 120Hz for fast-moving sports and gaming. Just note that I found JMGO’s N3 Ultimate to be unwatchable at peak brightness due to color distortion — so best wait for the reviews on this one.