UPDATED 02:31 EDT / AUGUST 28 2015

NEWS

New smartphones, smartwatches we expect to see at IFA 2015 next week

With so much attention focused on Apple’s upcoming iPhone – now confirmed for launch on September 9 – you’d be forgiven for being duped into thinking that’s all we have to look forward to before the end of the year.

One of the year’s biggest consumer electronics trade shows, IFA 2015, takes place in Berlin September 4 – 9 and will companies like Samsung, Sony, Motorola, Huawei, and more introduce new smartphones and wearables.

With pre-event press conferences slated to kick off on September 2, we take a look at the smartphones and smartwatches some of the top brands intend to announce at IFA 2015.

Acer: Liquid Z630 and Liquid Z530

Acer’s IFA 2015 press conference is scheduled for 11am CEST on September 2 and the company is expected to announce at least four new smartphones.

Details of two of Acer’s new devices – the Acer Liquid Z630 and Liquid Z530 – were revealed this week.

The Acer Liquid Z630 will sport a 5.5-inch screen with 720p resolution and IPS. Power comes from a MediaTek MT6735 chipset with a 1.3GHz Cortex-A53 processor and a Mali-T720 GPU for graphics and 2GB of RAM. Internal storage is said to be 18GB and the device supports LTE and has dual SIM slots and an 8-megapixel camera.

The Acer Liquid Z530 has a smaller 5-inch 720p screen and the same CPU and 2GB of RAM as the Z630. It supports LTE but lacks dual SIM slots.

ASUS: ZenFone Zoom, ZenFone Max and next-gen ZenWatch

IFA 2015 will see the official launch of two smartphones revealed by ASUS earlier this year: the ZenFone Zoom and ZenFone Max. Also expected is a new ZenWatch, as teased by ASUS in the below promo video.

The ZenFone Max has a massive 5,000 mAh battery that can double as a power bank. Other features include a 5.5-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) IPS display, Snapdragon 410 processor with 2GB of RAM and 8GB and 16GB storage options expandable to 64GB via microSD, and a13-megapixel camera with laser focus.

Huawei: Mate S and Mate 8

Huawei is likely to introduce at least two new devices at IFA 2015: the Mate S and Mate 8.

The Huawei Mate S is said to feature a pressure-sensitive touch screen similar in function to Apple’s Force Touch technology. Other specs include a Kirin octa-core processor with 3GB of RAM, 64GB onboard storage, a 20-megapixel rear shooter and an 8-megapixel front camera as well as a fingerprint scanner.

The second the device, the Mate 8, may debut as the Mate 7S as both names have been floated in the media. The Mate 8 is said to feature a 6-inch QHD display that is near-borderless, an octa-core Huawei Kirin 950 processor, which consists of four Cortex-A53 cores and four Cortex-A72 cores, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage or 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and dual SIM slots with one doubling as a microSD card slot. Notably the front camera is rumored to be an 8-megapixel unit with LED flash.

Motorola: Moto 360 2 smartwatch

Leaked images – which were quickly taken down – from Motorola itself suggests the company has a new Moto 360 in the works. It could be called the Moto 360 2 (2nd generation) and significant design changes include the crown repositioned to the two o’clock position, straps attached on the sides of the casing instead of underneath, and two watch face sizes.

Since the Moto 360 was released at IFA in 2014, we expect Motorola to unveil its latest smartwatch at the same event this year.

Samsung: Gear S2 smartwatch

Earlier this month, Samsung teased its upcoming Gear S2 smartwatch when it launched its latest smartphones. The company revealed very little about the smartwatch but said it would debut at IFA 2015.

Thanks to rumors and details gleaned from developer documents, we expect the Gear S2 to have a round Super AMOLED display with a 360×360 pixels resolution at 305ppi. The smartwatch is likely to be powered by the Exynos 3472 dual-core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, the Mali-400 MP4 GPU clocked at 450 MHz and 768 MB of RAM.

The Gear S2 could also come with 4GB of onboard storage, 250 mAh battery, Bluetooth 4.1, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi standards and Wi-Fi Direct, a built-in GPS, accelerometer, gyro, barometer and heart rate sensors.

Sony: new Xperia flagship

A flood of rumors indicates that Sony will unveil a new Xperia Z5, Xperia Z5 Plus/Premium and Xperia Z5 Compact at IFA 2015.

Earlier this week the company itself tweeted “Get ready for a smartphone with greater focus.” The tweet also added that “all will become clear” on September 2, the day Sony’s IFA press conference is scheduled for. It seemingly involves a device with improved camera tech.

The Xperia Z5 is expected to include a 4,500 mAh battery, 4GB of RAM, a 20.7-megapixel rear camera, and a fingerprint reader incorporated into the power button. The Xperia Z5 will likely be a scaled down version of the Z5, with the Xperia Z5 Ultra offering a phablet-sized version with upgraded specs.

Image credit: Messe Berlin

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