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I struggled to get a good angle of the 49-inch Ultra Curve Gaming Monitor from TCL, because it’s very wide. But I’d made space for it on my desk, if though it definitely wouldn’t fit.
It sports a 3840×1080 resolution with a 144Hz frame rate, and despite these specs, it still offers a 1ms response time. That, and 90% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage and HDR 400. That gameplay looked super smooth.
Told you there were more AI cats running about. Where are all the AI dogs at?
Oh, and there’s the Honor Pad 8. This sleek-looking Android tablet boasts a 12-inch, 2K display, and the company is talking up its eight loudspeaker “DTS+Honor Histen Sound” system. It looks like it’s been made for streaming movies, TV shows, and all kinds of content, and I would not say no to watching House of the Dragon on this slab.
Honor has a keynote later today, so I’m sure we’ll learn more about its devices on show and (possibly) something the brand is hiding up its sleeve.
Got to check out the devices Honor is showing off this year, including the Honor Magic 4 Pro 5G with a sleek edge-to-edge LTPO display, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, 100W charging, and a “50MP+50MP+64MP Triple Camera System.” Along with the well-designed cases on show, it was quite a looker.
I don’t know much about cars, but this Lego Technic Ferrari I cam across looks to be my kind of vehicle. More to show off rather than drive, of course. Unless it can drive? Either way, a nice set piece among all the other tech around the place.
Qualcomm and Meta announced a multi-year deal, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself (kind of) showed up with a short video clip explaining how upcoming Quest devices will use custom-made Qualcomm chips for a bigger VR experience. However, we’re still a while away, Zuckerberg states.
As for the Qualcomm keynote, here’s a recap of everything that went down:
President and CEO Cristiano Amon talked about the next step in Snapdragon chips with Dr. Aon-Joon Chai annoucing the next chapter in the Qualcomm and Samsung partnership. More Galaxy smartphones, tablets, and PCs will be using Snapdragon power — celebrating the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4‘s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.
Qualcomm is making a big push towards connectivity, too. X70 is the best 5G modem in the industry, the Qualcomm CEO states. And that Wi-Fi 7 is already here, which (obviously) includes faster speeds with multiple connections at once.
This includes 320Mhz (2 x 160Mhz channels), twice as fast as Wi-Fi 6, with 5Gbps speeds. All this also translates to better efficiency, meaning Snapdragon-powered devices aim to deliver better battery life. Oh, and satellite communications, something one of our writers really wants.
Audio-wise, we’re also getting lossless music streaming and crystal clear audio thanks to a partnership with Bose.
Before I get into the Qualcomm keynote, this is the first thing I spotted while walking along the halls: AI Cats. These ones are from Maicat.ai, with the robotic cats boasting face- and voice-pattern recognition, OLED eyes, a speaker, and 20 actuators so they can act “naturally.”
Oh, and those weren’t the only AI cats prowling about…
And we’re kicking off! Welcome to the live blog, where I’ll be posting what I can find throughout the (many) halls of IFA 2022. There’s a lot to explore, and to put it into perspective, we’re nearly halfway through the day and I’ve already done over 10,000 steps. But there’s still plenty to see.
Oh, and check out @laptop_mag on Instagram for more on-the-ground coverage.
