Parade of the most interesting premieres of the IFA-2017 exhibition

The Sport prefix in the name of the smartwatch from Samsung directly makes it clear about the orientation of the wearable gadget to people who are actively engaged in sports.

Many sensors on board the watch are designed to track user activity indicators: heart rate monitor, altimeter, barometer, gyroscope, etc. And GPS/GLONASS geo-positioning modules are involved in determining the distance of jogging or cycling trips. Together with one of the leading manufacturers of swimming products, a separate Speedo On application has also been created for watches, which allows you to monitor activity in the pool (determining swimming style, counting the number of laps and swim time, etc.).

From a technical point of view, the "filling" of the model exactly repeats the hardware base of the Samsung Gear S3 Classic watch. It has a similar chip installed and has the same amount of memory (768 MB of RAM and 4 GB of internal memory for storing applications and music). The differences lie only in the reduced diagonal of the display (1.2" versus 1.3), the battery capacity (300 mAh versus 380 mAh) and the equipment of the sports version of the watch with a full-fledged 5 ATM water protection. Theoretically, this figure allows you to immerse a wearable gadget to a depth of up to 50 m, but the manufacturer strongly recommends not diving in the watch. But it does not restrict users in swimming, whether it is an artificial pond or salty sea water.

The watch operates on the basis of the Tizen OS, which is now "friends" not only with Android gadgets, but also with Apple devices. The menu interface of the branded shell is intuitive, and everyone will be able to understand the control via touch input and a rotating bezel without any problems. A SuperAMOLED display with a resolution of 360x360 pixels is used to display training data, as well as to display the current time, date and notifications from applications.

The appearance of the watch is customized with the help of a whole galaxy of interchangeable straps, but there are two colour solutions of the case itself: blue and black. To be able to make contactless payments, the model was equipped with an NFC chip, which provides an extra reason to surprise cashiers in a supermarket or at a gas station with new technologies that confidently step into the masses.

Sony smartphones are recognizable among peers due to rectangular features in appearance, which distinguishes them from competitors. And even if this approach is not a trend, the corporate style of the line of mobile gadgets under the name Xperia is preferred by many users in all corners of the globe.

Not wanting to deviate from the canons of rectangular design, Sony engineers had to sacrifice the dimensions of the smartphone, which, with a 5.2-inch screen size, has larger dimensions than the 5.8-inch flagship Samsung Galaxy S8. All because of the huge chin and forehead. As a moral compensation, there was a place for loud stereo speakers in the areas under and above the screen. The display itself has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and boasts support for displaying images in the extended dynamic range (HDR).

Following the traditions, at the time of the announcement, the smartphone got the top-end hardware (8-core Snapdragon 835 chip, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of permanent memory). But that's not all — Sony Xperia XZ1 is assigned the role of the firstborn among new devices running Android Oreo OS. However, the "bare" interface of the operating system is heavily covered by Sony's proprietary shell.

The main "feature" of the mobile gadget is the main camera. It is not made double, which does not correspond to the trend of the latest fashion trends, but attracts no less attention. The module of the 19-megapixel main camera has its own memory buffer (128 MB), thanks to which it can produce slow-motion video recording with a frequency of up to 960 fps (in HD format) and perform 3D scanning of objects for the subsequent creation of three-dimensional models of the face, head, objects or food. In the future, the resulting model can be printed on a 3D printer. Also, the camera has acquired a tracking autofocus for serial photography.

The surprise in the detailed specifications of the smartphone is caused only by the item related to the battery capacity — 2700 mAh is clearly not enough for today. However, knowing Sony's effective energy-saving algorithms, we can safely talk about the day of full-fledged operation of the gadget without recharging. And if you need to make this process, it will take a minimum of time due to the smartphone's stated support for Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology.

The camera for extreme shooting, as Sony positions it, was obtained by installing the hardware of the Sony DSC-RX100 Mark V premium compact into the "body" of the square form factor action camera.

Under the metal shell of the model's body, reinforced with stiffeners, hides an inch-long Exmor RS matrix with a resolution of 15.3 MP, combined with a BIONZ X image processor. As optics, the camera uses a Zeiss Tessar 24mm f/4 fixed object without an optical stabilization system — there was simply no place for it in such a compact case. There is also no digital stub in the arsenal of the model and, in fact, this is its only disadvantage.

A small display is installed on the back of the all-protected camera body, which serves for sighting during filming and parameter control. Sony RX0 is not afraid of dust, diving under water to a depth of 10 metres and falling from a two-metre height. And together with an additional protective case, the camera can withstand dives to a depth of 100 metres.

You can take photos on Sony RX0 in RAW format, and with a rate of fire of up to 16 fps. The video is recorded in maximum 4K resolution (only on an external recorder) or in FullHD format with a bitrate of up to 240 fps, which allows you to freeze the movement in the frame. Even more spectacular slow-motion is possible to get in a lower resolution with a frequency of up to 1000 fps. One battery charge lasts for about 35 minutes. video recordings, which, taking into account the miniature size of the camcorder (59x41x30 mm), is worthy of respect.

One of the most interesting novelties of the IFA-2017 exhibition is a continuation of the geek line of smartphones V from the South Korean brand LG. However, in comparison with its predecessor (LG V20), it lost an additional screen and a removable battery and became more mass-oriented.

In the appearance of the smartphone, there are obvious features of the flagship LG G6. And indeed, they took all the best from him and pumped the borrowed to the most advanced level. Take, for example, an OLED display with a diagonal that has grown to 6", which occupies more than 80% of the area of the front panel of the device. The picture on it is displayed in a maximum resolution of 2880x1440 pixels both in normal mode and in an extended dynamic range (HDR 10 support is announced). Actually, it was thanks to the display that we managed to get rid of the additional screen, because the OLED matrix shows notifications in a locked state without compromising the charge of the 3,300 mAh battery.

A separate reason for pride is the dual main camera LG V30 as part of a 16-megapixel module with a record low aperture of f /1.6 and optical stabilization, as well as a wide-angle "eye" with an aperture of f /1.9 (viewing angle 120 °). It allows you to get a high-quality result with photo and 4K video shooting in almost any conditions. In addition, videographers are opening up new horizons in flexibly adjusting the parameters of recording videos, including sound control and applying filters to the picture. The only thing that does not please is the front camera, which, due to the frameless design, has acquired a rather mediocre 5-megapixel module.

A top-level gadget relies on a corresponding "filling". And in this regard, LG V30 also does not graze the rear ones — "under the hood" the smartphone has an advanced Snapdragon 835 processor, 4/64 GB of memory and powerful Adreno 540 graphics. And the outer shell hides a 32-bit Hi-Fi DAC from the famous Bang&Olufsen audio brand. At the same time, the smartphone case is protected from external influences according to the IP68 standard, and the weight of the device is only 158 g. There is an ardent competitor to all the key flagships of the 2017 model, which many will want to acquire.

The top hybrid from Lenovo can be used both as a classic laptop and as a huge tablet with a screen size of 13.9", which is facilitated by a special hinge design — the display of the model rotates within 360° and is touch-sensitive.

Depending on the configuration, laptop versions with FullHD or 4K screen resolution are available to the user. In the first case, we can talk about 15 hours of battery life of the device, and in the second, the display activity time will be about 11 hours. The merit of such long-term battery life lies on the shoulders of an energy-efficient platform, which is based on a performant Intel Core chip of the eighth generation (up to Core i7-8550U). The amount of RAM on board the hybrid ranges from 8 to 16 GB, and the maximum capacity of an SSD disk can reach 1 TB.

Personal data is stored in the device's memory under the lock of the fingerprint scanner. And the laptop is also able to listen to the user even in a dream — the Microsoft Cortana voice assistant recognizes user commands from a distance of up to 4 metres both when the screen is active and in standby mode. To top it off, the laptop display got support for a stylus and learned how to determine 4096 degrees of pressing.

Only a large "chin" (a wide frame under the screen) slightly smoothes out positive impressions about the model. However, the eye gets used to it quickly enough and this drawback ceases to attract attention. Moreover, the rest of the laptop demonstrates confident leadership qualities — this is confirmed by a thoughtful design, high-quality assembly and powerful hardware.