Benjamin Braun, Chief Marketing Officer at Samsung Europe, speaks on stage at Samsung’s IFA 2026 presentation at Humboldt Carre on September 01, 2026 in Berlin, Germany.
Sebastian Reuter/Getty Images for Samsung
For the first time in 35 years, Samsung is not exhibiting on the Messe Berlin show floor — and the product lineup it carried to its own venue across town may be the most technically dense the company has assembled at any Berlin event in recent memory. At Samsung Connect — the company’s self-produced exhibition at Humboldt Carré, located 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Messe Berlin in the city’s Mitte district — Samsung unveiled flat-design 24-inch front-load washers, two Bespoke AI Washer engineering milestones, and a full portfolio of AI television, mobile, and gaming display products. IFA 2026’s main show is scheduled to open Thursday, September 4, at Messe Berlin; Samsung Connect opened Tuesday, September 2, two days ahead of it, and will run through Sunday, September 6 — two days past the show’s final day.
Samsung Has Left the Show Floor — and Done It Twice in One Year
Samsung’s absence from CityCube at Messe Berlin is not a temporary logistical decision. At CES 2026 in January, the company bypassed the Las Vegas Convention Center in favor of dedicated exhibition space at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel. At IFA 2026, the approach is nearly identical: a curated, access-controlled environment — trade-visitor badge required — that gives Samsung direct control over how media, retail partners, and B2B clients experience its products, without the foot traffic of a general-public show floor.
Doing this twice in the same year changes what the strategy looks like. At CES it read as a bold experiment. At IFA, it reads like a stated policy.
IFA CEO Leif Lindner framed Samsung Connect not as a defection but as an expansion, describing Samsung’s concept as extending the show into the urban space. Samsung retains an official IFA-linked role: trade-visitor badge holders can access Humboldt Carré during IFA’s run, and Samsung serves as main sponsor of the IFA Creator Hub — a dedicated content studio for influencers and streamers at the Palais am Funkturm at Messe Berlin.
The practical consequence for the traditional show floor is significant. Xiaomi, making its first full IFA exhibitor debut in the show’s 102-year history, now has Hall 6.2 without its largest European competitor in the building. Xiaomi brought real competitive substance to that position: its IoT platform now connects more than 1.16 billion devices globally as of mid-2026, and the company has committed a planned €7.4 billion in AI research and development through 2028.
Not everyone in the industry is persuaded that Samsung’s strategy is sound. Benedict Kober, chairman of Euronics — Germany’s major consumer electronics retail trade group — was direct in his criticism: no retailer will leave the show grounds, travel to Samsung across town, and come back. The tradeoff is genuine: Samsung gets a controlled environment; it loses the spontaneous, competitive-comparison visibility that a shared show floor uniquely provides.
What A-70% Actually Means — and Why It Matters
Samsung’s headline laundry announcement at IFA 2026 is the Bespoke AI Washer with A-70% energy efficiency, a 10 kg (22 lb) front-load model designed to consume 70.2% less energy than the minimum requirement for a European Class A appliance rating.
That percentage deserves unpacking. Under EU Regulation No. 2019/2014, the Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) threshold for a 10 kg washing machine to qualify as EU Class A is ≤ 52. Samsung’s new washer achieves an EEI of 15.5 — equivalent to 15.3 kWh per 100 wash cycles. Put differently, a machine that just barely qualifies as “Class A” consumes roughly 3.4 times more electricity per cycle than Samsung’s new model. The A-70% label is not marketing abstraction; it represents a measurable engineering distance from the regulatory floor.
Samsung achieved these gains through simultaneous improvements in motor efficiency, thermal management, and wash-cycle algorithm design. This follows a consistent year-on-year trajectory: Samsung showed an A-55% model at IFA 2024 and an A-65% model at IFA 2025 — each advancing the efficiency baseline by approximately 10 percentage points over its predecessor.
Also new: a 13 kg (28.6 lb) Bespoke AI Washer that fits within the standard 600 mm (23.6 in) depth found in European kitchens and utility rooms — the compact footprint that defines the European laundry appliance market. Samsung achieved this with SpaceMax technology, which reorganizes the washer’s internal mechanical layout to expand drum volume without altering the outer shell dimensions. The practical effect: washing a king-size duvet, or a family-sized load that would previously have required multiple cycles, in a machine that fits the same cabinet slot as a conventional European compact washer.
“At Samsung, we are continually challenging the traditional trade-offs between energy efficiency, capacity and convenience,” said Hyoung Min Park, VP and Head of the Customer Experience Team of the Digital Appliances Business at Samsung Electronics.
Both Bespoke AI Washer models are development-stage display products — commercial availability and pricing for the US or any other market have not been determined.
Flat Design Reaches Standard-Tier Washers
Separate from the Bespoke AI Washer showcase, Samsung published a second press release on September 3 announcing the expansion of flat design to its standard 24-inch front-load washer lineup — a form factor that has historically carried Samsung’s more protruding, utility-box aesthetic while the premium Bespoke tier got the flush-panel flat design treatment.
The design shift means the new models present a uniform flat front surface from edge to edge — no raised control panel elements, no door frame protrusions. Samsung describes the change as making the appliance blend more naturally into contemporary kitchen and utility room interiors.
Beyond aesthetics, the redesign brings a practical usability change: a larger door that opens to a wider angle, making it meaningfully easier to load and unload laundry. The new lineup also incorporates Bubble Shot and EcoBubble technologies.
Bubble Shot works through a circulation pump that sprays water throughout the drum before the main wash phase begins, pre-saturating fabric and — in Samsung’s internal testing — reducing overall cycle time compared to washers without the feature. EcoBubble mixes detergent with air and water before it enters the drum, improving dissolution and distribution across fabrics — Samsung’s testing under IEC 60456 standards found energy savings in AI Energy Mode compared to default settings.
As with the Bespoke AI Washers, the flat-design 24-inch models are development-stage display products. US commercial availability has not been determined; pricing is unconfirmed for any market.
Does Odyssey G6 Actually Run at 1,100Hz? Yes — at HD Resolution Only
The gaming display story at Samsung Connect is dominated by the Odyssey G6, announced at Gamescom 2026 in Cologne at the end of August and now on hands-on display in Berlin.
The headline specification — “world’s first 1,100Hz gaming monitor” — is accurate, but the technical detail that determines whether it matters for any specific user is this: the G6 reaches 1,100Hz only at HD resolution (1280×720), not at its native QHD resolution (2560×1440). At QHD, the maximum refresh rate drops to 600Hz. This is Samsung’s Dual Mode implementation on a 27-inch Fast IPS panel with a 1ms response time.
For competitive esports players — who already target 720p or 1080p in fast-paced titles to maximize frame rates and minimize render time — 1,100Hz at HD is a meaningful specification. The G6’s 1,100Hz mode reduces the display’s contribution to system latency to less than 1 millisecond. For players at QHD who prioritize image resolution, 600Hz remains well above what most gaming monitors currently offer, though it does not represent the engineering leap that the headline figure implies.
Samsung also displayed three OLED gaming monitors announced at Gamescom 2026:
The Odyssey OLED G9 is a 49-inch ultra-wide model and the world’s first 49-inch DQHD (5120×1440) gaming monitor with a 360Hz refresh rate, up from 240Hz on the prior generation. It uses Samsung’s fifth-generation QD-OLED Penta Tandem panel, which stacks multiple organic emissive layers to increase peak brightness (up to 1,300 nits) and longevity compared to prior-generation single-layer OLED designs. The panel uses an RGB Stripe sub-pixel layout, meaning each pixel’s red, green, and blue sub-pixels are discrete — eliminating the white sub-pixel found in conventional OLED displays that dilutes color saturation. Response time is 0.03ms grey-to-grey. The G9 also includes Dual Mode, reaching 720Hz when switched to Dual HD (2560×720) resolution. 1000R curvature.
The Odyssey OLED G8 is a 32-inch UHD monitor with the same fifth-gen QD-OLED Penta Tandem panel and a three-mode display configuration: UHD (3840×2160) at 360Hz, QHD (2560×1440) at 520Hz, and FHD (1920×1080) at 680Hz. Samsung’s Glare Free coating is 54% less glossy than conventional anti-reflection film. 0.03ms response time.
The Odyssey OLED G7 is a 42-inch 4K (3840×2160) curved OLED monitor at 165Hz — Samsung calls it the world’s first 42-inch 16:9 curved OLED gaming monitor. 1000R curvature. 0.03ms GtG.
The G6 is expected to go on sale globally before the end of 2026. Pricing for all four monitors has not been announced.
Is Samsung TV Plus Now Bigger Than Any Cable News Network?
With Samsung TV Plus crossing 100 million monthly active users globally, Samsung’s free ad-supported streaming platform now rivals the reach of major cable television networks — and operates without a subscription fee or cable provider relationship. Vision AI Companion, the conversational AI layer built into Samsung’s 2026 TV lineup, connects to TV Plus while also extending to content search, recipe lookup, playback control, and home ambient management across SmartThings-connected devices.
Vision AI Companion supports nine languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Korean, Vietnamese, and Thai.
Micro RGB — Samsung’s emerging display architecture that uses individually addressable microscopic red, green, and blue LED elements per pixel rather than a combined light source — sits at the top of Samsung’s 2026 TV lineup. Micro RGB TVs offer per-pixel color control without quantum dot’s color conversion efficiency overhead or OLED’s organic layer degradation risk. Samsung first showed a 130-inch Micro RGB prototype at CES 2026 in January; the 2026 commercial lineup spans sizes from 55 inches to 115 inches.
Galaxy S26 FE Ships Thursday With One UI 9 — and a Pricing Jump
The mobile centerpiece of Samsung Connect is the Galaxy S26 FE, which goes on sale Thursday, September 4 — the same day IFA’s main show opens. It is the first Galaxy S26 device to ship with One UI 9 from launch day. US pricing starts at $699 for the 128GB model and $799 for the 256GB configuration — $50 more than the S25 FE at equivalent storage.
The S26 FE runs on the Exynos 2500 (3nm) processor, carries a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display at 120Hz with peak brightness of 1,900 nits, and pairs a 50MP main camera with a 12MP ultra-wide and 8MP telephoto (3x optical zoom). Battery is 4,900 mAh with 45W wired and 15W wireless charging. Colorways: Blueberry, Graphite, Pistachio. Samsung commits seven generations of OS updates and seven years of security patches from the global launch date.
Samsung also displayed the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — weighing 215 grams (7.6 oz) and measuring 4.1 mm (0.16 in) thin when unfolded — alongside the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 (201 grams / 7.1 oz, 4,800 mAh), Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, Galaxy Watch 9, and the Galaxy Book6 laptop.
Does Samsung Connect Work? The Retailer Verdict Is Still Out
Samsung’s strategic rationale for Humboldt Carré is coherent: a controlled environment for B2B product presentations, media briefings, and European retail partner conversations, free from general-public foot traffic. At CES 2026, the same format — Wynn Hotel over the Las Vegas Convention Center — generated positive coverage and appeared to give Samsung more focused interaction time with press and retail buyers.
At IFA, the distances are more significant. Humboldt Carré is 8 km (5 miles) from Messe Berlin, roughly 40 minutes by public transit through central Berlin. Euronics chairman Benedict Kober’s assessment — that no retailer will make that round trip during a busy show week — captures the operational friction the format imposes on buyers who are simultaneously managing schedules at the main venue.
The Creator Hub sponsorship at Palais am Funkturm provides Samsung brand visibility with influencers and streaming audiences, a media segment that trade-show booth presence never efficiently reached. Whether that substitutes for — or simply supplements — the missed direct competition with LG, Miele, Bosch, and the other home appliance brands that remain on the Messe Berlin floor will become clearer once the show runs.
What Samsung is demonstrating at IFA 2026 is not just a lineup of products. It is a thesis: that the curated off-site experience model is more valuable to a company of Samsung’s scale than the traditional trade-show floor, even at Europe’s largest consumer electronics event. After CES 2026, that thesis remained an experiment. After IFA 2026, if Samsung continues this model, it will have become a precedent.
Is There a US Version of Any of These Products?
None of the Samsung products showcased at IFA 2026 in Berlin has confirmed US availability or US pricing — except the Galaxy S26 FE, which goes on sale Thursday at Samsung.com, major carriers, and US retailers, starting at $699.
The Bespoke AI Washers (A-70%, 13 kg SpaceMax) and the flat-design 24-inch front-load washers are explicitly described as development-stage display models by Samsung. No commercial availability has been confirmed for any market. The EU energy efficiency rating system (EEI, Class A designation) is a European regulatory framework with no direct US EPA Energy Star equivalent at this classification level.
The Odyssey G6 (1,100Hz), G7, G8, and G9 gaming monitors are expected to become available in the second half of 2026, with global availability timelines varying by market. No US pricing has been announced for any of them.
Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is Samsung Connect and how is it different from IFA?
Samsung Connect is Samsung’s self-produced exhibition, held at Humboldt Carré in central Berlin’s Mitte district — 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Messe Berlin, where IFA 2026’s main show runs September 4-8. Samsung Connect opened September 2, two days before IFA, and runs through September 6. It is accessible only to IFA trade-visitor badge holders, not the general public. Samsung is simultaneously the main sponsor of the IFA Creator Hub at the Messe Berlin venue, but is not exhibiting on the main show floor for the first time in 35 years.
What does Samsung’s A-70% energy rating actually mean for electricity consumption?
It means the Bespoke AI Washer achieves an Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) of 15.5, consuming 15.3 kWh per 100 wash cycles under EU test conditions. EU Regulation 2019/2014 requires an EEI ≤ 52 for a 10 kg washing machine to qualify for Class A status. Samsung’s washer uses roughly one-third the energy of a machine that just barely qualifies as Class A. This is a European regulatory designation; no US pricing or availability has been announced.
Does the Odyssey G6 actually run at 1,100Hz, and what is the catch?
Yes — but only at HD (1280×720) resolution. At its native QHD (2560×1440) resolution, the maximum refresh rate is 600Hz. Samsung calls this Dual Mode: users choose between full resolution at 600Hz or reduced resolution at 1,100Hz depending on competitive gaming needs. The 27-inch Fast IPS panel has a 1ms response time. The G6 is expected to be available globally by the end of 2026; no pricing has been announced.
Which Samsung products from IFA 2026 can US customers buy right now?
Only the Galaxy S26 FE is confirmed for US sale on Thursday, September 4, starting at $699 (8GB/128GB) and $799 (8GB/256GB) at Samsung.com, select carriers, and retailers nationwide. All Bespoke AI Washer models and the flat-design 24-inch washers are development-stage display products with no confirmed commercial availability in any market. The Odyssey gaming monitors are expected globally in the second half of 2026, with no US pricing announced.
All product specifications cited are from Samsung official press releases unless otherwise noted and are subject to change prior to commercial availability.