I Went Shopping for My Ultimate Smart Home of the Future at IFA 2026

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The IFA 2026 tech conference in Berlin is packed to the gills with gadgets of all kinds, from new foldable phones, innovative alarm clocks and even flying car concepts. But it’s home tech that really dominates the show with brands from all over the world gathering to tell you how you can add smart gadgets to your home in every conceivable way.

Always keen to make my life easier, more colorful and more expensive, I took to the halls of the show to browse for the items I would be most interested in putting in my own home — if I suddenly won the lottery, that is.

LG OLED EVO AI 83W6

I started with the most important part: the TV. I opted for LG’s new OLED model because it’s massive, its colors looked glorious and it’s exceptionally thin, meaning it won’t look weirdly out of place when I bolt it to my wall.

The writer sitting on a couch that has lighting on the underside at IFA.

Govee Smart Lights

My couch currently doesn’t have underlighting like a car from the Fast and the Furious films, but Govee’s smart lights could change all that. I saw (and, indeed, sat upon) a couch with multicolored strips along the underside, giving a glow that could make your living room look like a games arcade. Delightful.

The writer drinking a very small sample of freshly made beer at IFA.

iGulu F1 Smart Home Brewer

I like beer, and I like even more not having to leave my home in order to acquire it, so this smart home brewery setup would be a high priority for me. Simply pour in the ingredients for whatever type of beer you want. (Classic English Bitter? Yes please.) And the brewery setup will do the rest.

I had a taster cup (OK, fine, I had several), and they were delicious.

The writer looking confused at a water bottle that has come out of an extremely cold fridge showcased at IFA.

Xiaomi Mijia Refrigerator Pro Cryo

If I’d made some beer, then I’d of course need to keep it nice and cold, and Xiaomi’s new refrigerator is the one I’d want. It uses various forms of compression and airflow to keep the contents cooler and, therefore, keeps them fresher for longer. That’s great as it means you’ll have longer to use that big of leftover cucumber before it turns into a gloopy mess in the bottom drawer, which will help fight food waste in the home. Nice.

Xiaomi Smart Bedroom

Xiaomi actually had a lot of stuff on show as it basically makes every kind of tech product you can think of. But it was the way everything came together as an ecosystem that impressed me at the show. In the smart bedroom demo, I sat down on the bed with a book. AI-enabled cameras recognized this and immediately switched on the bedside lamp, adjusted the bed for a comfortable reading position, turned on the AC and drew the curtains closed.

The idea is to have all parts of the home automated like this: Loaded the dishwasher? The robot vacuum will come out to clean up the floor after you’ve been cooking. Open the door of Xiaomi’s car in your driveway? It’ll recognize that you’re leaving and switch off the lights in the home and lock the door.

It’s a wild system, and I can definitely see the appeal. But it also relies on having AI-enabled cameras watching you everywhere in your home. Do I really want that? Absolutely not. But thanks anyway.

The writer watches a demo of a pool cleaning robot at IFA.

Roborock Rockaqua P1

In this ideal world, I’d have a salary significant enough for me to afford a home with space enough to build my own pool. And then I’d need a way of keeping it clean without, y’know, having to actually do anything myself. That’s where Roborock’s pool-cleaning robot comes in.

Think of it as a Roomba that can go underwater. It’ll clean dirt and grime from the pool floor and can even climb the walls to keep everything nice and fresh.

The writer gleefully riding an IFA bumper car.

IFA bumper cars

Classic fairground bumper cars aren’t exactly smart home technology, but they were something I could enjoy at the show, and enjoy I did. But when I thought about it more, I realized they may also be the ultimate urban vehicle: powered only by electricity, runs on overhead power lines so you never need to charge them and are safe enough that you can ram them into another road user and you don’t need to exchange insurance details afterward.

Robot lawnmowers doing a synchronized fan dance at IFA.

Mova Astra X

Mova’s lawn-mowing robot has a big robotic arm attached to it that is designed to pick up garden debris as the mower automatically circles the grounds of your home to keep things neat. But Mova had a better use for it at the show: a synchronized fan dance set to an electro-metal soundtrack from a live DJ. Count me in.

An automatic cat litter tray cleaner featured at IFA

Neakasa M9 Litter Box

I love my beautiful fluffy ball of absolute wonderful joy (my cat, Toulouse) more than anything else in the world. But even so, having to go and clear out his daily dumps from the litter box is time that could be spent cuddling him or taking more photos of his paws.

Neakasa’s litter box uses a rotating scoop system that filters out each bit of new nastiness and deposits the mess in a chute for easy removal later. Thanks, technology.

A bird feeder with AI-enabled cameras at IFA.

Birdfy Feeder Metal 2

While “Feeder Metal 2” might sound more like a side-scrolling, beat-em-up game for the Atari games console in the ’80s, Birdfy’s home gadget is much more adorable. Equipped with wide angle cameras, this bird feeder will alert you each time a bird comes for a snack and uses AI to recognize what species you’re seeing.

I love birds. I know I’d thoroughly enjoy just watching the live feed from the cameras and seeing the various garden birds we have in Britain coming to rudely eat the seed I bought them without leaving a thank-you.

EcoFlow Stream 5000

No smart home setup is complete without a power backup solution, and EcoFlow’s is my personal pick. The Stream 5000 power station can have multiple solar panels plugged into it, and it has a built-in inverter to feed that power directly into your home’s grid. While just one unit will keep your devices working for a short time, you can daisy-chain multiple ones to give you up to several days of home power in case of longer outages.

Editors’ note: Andrew Lanxon’s travel costs for the IFA conference were covered by Xiaomi. The judgments and opinions of CNET are our own.

Andrew Lanxon

Editor at Large; Lead Photographer, Europe

When he's not testing the latest phones or phone cameras, Andrew can normally be found with his own camera in hand or behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food -- sometimes all at once. See full bio

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