SlashGear's Best Of IFA 2025 Awards

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IFA is the largest consumer technology showcase in the world, and it takes place in Berlin, Germany, every year. This year, SlashGear was on the ground, wading through 27 halls, almost 2,000 exhibitors, and over 200,000 of our closest friends to find the best of the best, and that's what we have for you here.

There's a pair of drones that are making (literal) waves in the industry. There's a robot vacuum that neatly solves the biggest pain point when it comes to robot vacuums. There's a set of smart glasses that takes the best of every other pair that preceded them and puts them all into one device. There's a device that's designed to keep the food in your fridge fresher for longer. Finally, we found a camera AI system that analyzes what's happening in the frame in real time and can provide you with a summary of what's happening as it happens.

These devices could all be potential game-changers and can help drive the competition forward, and that's what gets us excited. So, for a look at what got us chattering, here's the best of what we saw at IFA 2025.

I have been a fan of drones for a long time, which might have something to do with why two drones won awards this year, but it's more than that. The two drones in question did something really interesting in the space — and it's been a long time since a drone company did something truly interesting.

Antigravity is a subsidiary of Insta360, proprietor of 360-degree cameras — hence the name. So, imagine if you took a 360-degree camera and put it onto a drone — but not just a drone. This is a first-person view (FPV) drone that requires you to wear FPV goggles. This adds a whole new element to the equation. Now, as you fly your drone around, you can record and look around without having to actually turn the drone. Both of those are big deals.

Looking around the drone and seeing what's going on in every direction (including down!) is really great. You can just fly along and see what's off to your left or right without breaking stride. When you turn away from the direction the drone is flying, a small window superimposes over the image so you can still see where you're going; a nice safety feature.

Recording is a whole other level of greatness. It used to be that you would have to properly position the flight of the drone and the camera at the same time to capture something like a BMX bike jumping competition. This would often include two operators — one for the drone and the other for the camera. Now, you don't have to do that. Just fly the drone next to your rider, and you can capture whatever angle you want in post-production. It could take your drone video creation to a whole new level, and I'm here for it.

While we're on the topic of drones, let's talk about water. Telephone pole cables are a drone's great enemy, but a close second is water. The internet is full of videos of drones accidentally flying into, crashing into, or landing in water, never to fly again. Meanwhile, HoverAir has been developing flying cameras that can track you for several years, and its greatest enemy was also water. So HoverAir decided to do something about that.

The HoverAir Aqua is an appropriately named drone because it is designed to conquer water. It floats on it, but it can also thrive in it. The HoverAir Aqua was developed for people who are involved in watersports who didn't have a flying camera that could follow them safely without worrying about water damage.

To deploy the drone, all you do is toss it into the water. The drone comes with a beacon that you can strap to your arm, wrist, or leg, and with a single button press, the drone lifts up out of the water and starts to fly and follow the beacon. The drone is also designed to be able to flip itself upright if it's upside down in water.

It's only designed to withstand fresh water, so if you decide to take it into salt water, it should be able to hold up, but you'll want to rinse it afterward. Meanwhile, if you have a water adventure that you want to capture with a flying camera, this is a great solution for that.

Speaking of solving problems for an entire industry, let's talk about robot vacuums. Robot vacuums, too, have an enemy — stairs. Last year at IFA, we started to see robots that could climb "stairs", as long as those stairs weren't more than an inch or so tall. This year, Anker has developed a sort of solution to actual staircases. It comes in the form of the MarsWalker bot. This is a separate robot that is designed to carry the Omin S2 vacuum (also introduced at IFA) up and down stairs autonomously. Both robots work in concert to accomplish this.

The MarsWalker has its own charging dock where it waits patiently for the S2 vacuum to need to go upstairs. When it does, the MarsWalker deploys and moves over to the S2 vacuum, where they dock together. Then the MarsWalker deploys its arms and tread tracks to move it up and down the stairs. When it arrives, it releases the S2 vacuum to do its thing, patiently waiting at the staircase to return the bot to the main level. After it does, both bots go about their business.

This may seem to be a form of overkill for some, but I happen to think it's a very elegant solution. Unless there was some fundamental shift in the technology, this is pretty much how it had to be done, though I suspect it won't be long before we start seeing standalone robot vacuums with arms and tank treads on them. For now, this is the solution.

Smart glasses are definitely making themselves heard in the year 2025. After CES was chock full of them, we're starting to see some better solutions. One of those is Rokid. Until now, you've had three flavors of smart glasses — those that could take photos, those with AI built in, and those with heads-up displays. Sometimes you get two of the three, but it's rare to get all three, and that's what Rokid offers.

First comes the 12-megapixel camera that can capture photos with the push of a button. Next comes the heads-up display, which shines a green monotone text onto the lens in front of your eyes. Finally, comes the AI, which is mainly useful for near-real-time translation — technically it's considered "real-time" but there is a slight delay while the words are translated, which could make conversations clumsy.

Plus, the audio from these glasses is impressive, considering it's coming from glasses. The lenses are not replaceable, but there are inserts that can work for those with a prescription, and an attached sunglass shade that comes in the box as well. All put together, these glasses are an impressive package, and we're anxious to put them through their paces with a full review.

We're always on the lookout for products that can extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables in our refrigerators. There's nothing worse than going to make yourself a salad and finding your produce has already started rotting just a couple of days after buying it. Using sophisticated technology, Vitesy has a modern solution that can replace or enhance traditional options like specialized Rubbermaid containers. The Vitesy Lite is an affordable little gadget that you keep inside your fridge. By purifying the air inside your refrigerator, the device reduces odors and bacteria, extending the freshness of fruits and vegetables to up to 12 days. This is great for saving both food waste and money on unused groceries.

In addition to its functionality, two things about Shelfy Lite caught our eye — its sleek design and the special ceramic filter that's at the heart of what makes the purifier work so well. A light inside the Shelfy will activate the specialized coating on the filter to eliminate bacteria. Unlike other air purifiers, the filter never needs to be replaced — just cleaned. It will likely last you the entire shelf life (pun intended) of the Shelfy itself.

This filter is also used in other Vitesy products, including the Shelfy 2 and room air purifiers. The Shelfy 2 is very similar to the Lite, though it costs more. The difference is that it is paired with a useful companion app that monitors fridge temperature and door openings, provides a food library, and notifies you when the cordless Shelfy needs a recharge. The app also uses voice control through Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The Shelfy Lite forgoes the app but has a shockingly modest price. Look for it to hit shelves (both store and fridge) early next year.

As one of the bigger names in smart home security, it was no shock that Reolink had new products on display at IFA 2025, including a new 4K pan-tilt camera. However, the real surprise wasn't Reolink's latest hardware, but its software: Reolink ReoNeura AI. Yes, seemingly every company is scrambling to cram AI into their products, but Reolink has found an innovative use case for the technology.

Essentially, the AI monitors your security camera footage so that you don't need to pore over every second of video to find the information you're looking for. Every 20 seconds, you'll get a text description of what's happening in the frame of your camera. For example, when we were looking at the AI in action on the trade show floor, ReoNeura described the scene as "A group of people taking notes at a crowded convention."

You can search this data to find the video you need, especially if you don't know when an event occurred, such as "dog leaving open gate" if a pet gets loose. You can also set imaginary boundaries, such as the edge of your driveway, and be notified when a person crosses that line. The AI will also provide descriptions of people who are in the frame with timestamps and information like age range, gender, hairstyle, clothing color and style, and accessories like backpacks. These features are some of the several ReoNeura AI tools that are especially well-suited for businesses. The AI can count the number of occupants in a store or let you know if someone is loitering in a particular area for too long, as well as provide a heat map of what areas are occupied by people more than others, which can even give you an idea of what products are attracting customers.