The Top Tech Trends at IFA Berlin 2026

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Here are six of the top trends I spotted while roaming the IFA floor.

IFA Berlin has often been a place to see cutting-edge tech, cool concepts, and interesting prototypes (or should we say weird ?). While there certainly have been some of those this year, like iRobot's Roomba Duo , various humanoid demos, and a flying car concept , 2026 has felt more muted than last year. We're still seeing the same demos of things like the Saros Rover and the Dreame Cyber X concept. Instead, what I've seen is companies really trying to drill down on perfecting the products and product lines that work for them. Here are the trends I saw at IFA Berlin 2026 that drew my attention and are worth watching for next year.

In-Depth Developments & Factual Context

Robot vacuums have become pretty good maintenance tools for cleaning up dust and pet hair, but if you're someone with asthma or serious allergies, you likely still need a good HEPA-certified vacuum and air purifier to keep things manageable. Well, that's the new target of companies like Anker with the Eufy Omni E35 and Ecovacs with the Deebot X12S Omnicyclone . Both are certified by different organizations to prove they work as claimed. The X12S was tested by the SGS Testing & Control Services Singapore and, in testing, removed an average of 97.44% of dust mite allergens and 95.45% of dust mites from carpet. The Omni E35 also claims the ability to remove a slightly higher 99% of dust mites and has Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America certification. Realistically, the percentage difference isn't particularly significant. What's notable here is that companies are actively seeking out certifications that prove their robot vacuums are capable of robust levels of cleaning and sterilization, that it's suitable for maternal health, newborns and allergy sufferers. This might sound niche, but as someone who has three asthmatic cats and occasionally seasonal allergies, I'm interested to see if it lives up to the testing claims.

This is something we're likely to see more of as robot vacuums become established not just for cleaning but for sanitizing as well, with models that can deploy steam, UV light, and sprays. In the same way air purifiers became increasingly common over the past decade as an easy way to cleanse your air and reduce allergies, we may see certified, high-quality robot vacuums take on the same role.

If you've been following robot vacuums at all, one thing you've probably noticed is that they've gotten pretty good at vacuuming, but mopping can still be a challenge with older and dried-on stains. An old spill of tomato sauce, red wine or ketchup on tile is still going to require you to use elbow grease to remove it - I speak from experience.

Industry Impact & Strategic Analysis

Pretty much every company is trying to address this cleaning gap by using different mopping options, ranging from roller mops that self-clean with more downward pressure measured in newtons, as with iRobot and Eufy's new lineup, which increases the pressure to 14N or 18N, depending on the model. That's a simple and theoretically easy solution, just give the robot vacuum the elbow grease it's missing, and iRobot has tried to do that for the vacuuming side of things too by adding a "skirt" that drops down on the Roomba 875 Combo that significantly increases suction strength on the already substantial 35,000 pascals.

The key problem with this strategy, though, is that robot vacuums are size-constrained, and unless you try something like iRobot's Duo, which incorporates a floor washing unit combined with a mobile docking station, you're never going to get the power of a real wet and dry mop, let alone an upright or canister vacuum .

Another way companies at IFA have tried to address this is Ecovacs Deebot X12S Omnicyclone, which incorporates high-pressure water sprayers to saturate old stains and help work them out of hard surfaces. Clever idea, but questionable implementation with the X12S. As I watched, I completely missed its ketchup-stain target and instead doused the floor, but it still managed to remove the mess. The 875 Combo uses a hot steam spray from the bottom of the unit to help loosen the stain, but no demos were offered, so I can't know how it works in practice until we lab test it.

Forward Outlook & Market Perspective

I'm sorry to say that humanoid robot demos were just plain boring this year. Yeah, there are dancing robots and robots that can do backflips, like the PrimeBot T1 and Q1, and ones that can sort laundry or pick things like Dreame's robot butler and SwitchBot's Onero H1 . Yawn. The real issue is that these things still don't do anything more than what they did last year, and as I wrote in my cover story , the timeline for these robots is a lot further away than we'd hope and a lot more expensive. With a realistic timeline ranging from five to 10 years for partially functional home assistants that can do things like fold laundry and prices that will be closer to $100,000 than $10,000, I expect us to get many more years of IFA humanoid demos without actually getting a humanoid robot that you can buy and use in your home.

Part of why I'm not particularly impressed by any of these humanoid demonstrations is that robot vacuums have gotten so good. We've stopped talking about whether they can clean well or avoid objects easily. The newest models we've tested at CNET lab do an amazing job of it, and IFA demonstrations reinforced it for me as I watched Dreame's X60 Ultra Complete Pro perfectly weave through obstacles with remarkable speed and responsiveness that I don't typically associate with robot vacuums. The downside is that a Dreame representative confirmed to me that currently there are no confirmed plans for the model to come to the US, and with the added complication around the FCC ban and uncertainity around waivers , many of the more interesting new models may be delayed, though most companies have told me that they plan to move ahead with their launch plans.

This also affects humanoids, since a large share of the parts required for these advanced robots is sourced from Chinese supply chains. If the FCC ruling remains in effect without waivers, expect progress on US humanoids to freeze for the next decade as domestic supply chains are painstakingly built, while China races ahead with its already advanced models.

For those who aren't familiar with it, balcony solar is simply putting a plug-in solar panel on a balcony or other outdoor space and using it to store solar power and use it to power your appliances and devices when energy prices are high. It's really intended for people who live in apartments or other homes where you might be a renter or don't have the option of putting solar panels on the roof for a full system. Bluetti's Balco 260 and Balco 500 , Jackery's Solar Vault 3 Series and EcoFlow's Stream plug-in solar are all examples of this, which I saw at their booths, though it's hard to really give impressions for a stationary battery that's not in use.

Some of these weren't necessarily IFA releases either and have been launched earlier in the year, such as the Solar Vault 3 Series. What I will say is that all of these systems are scalable, meaning you can add additional batteries based on your needs, connect more solar panels and use smart transfer switches or other power management.

With New Jersey becoming the 10th US state to legalize the use of balcony solar power (something that's already quite popular in Germany and the European market), I do expect to start seeing these being used in the US to help defray our ever-increasing energy costs. New Jersey's law is particularly beneficial since it restricts the ability of property management or HOAs to stop you from using balcony solar, though you're going to want to dig into the laws for your state before installing it. In most cases, it should work with a standard AC outlet, but if you want to feed power back to the grid, things get a little more complicated and may require an electrician's installation.

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