Best of IFA 2011: Giant Smartphones, New Takes on 3D, and Many More

Samsung Galaxy Note The Samsung Galaxy Note, a peculiar half-tablet, half-phone device equipped with a stylus. Corinne Iozzio

It's an entirely different kind of gadget lust felt when you know that the thing you're drooling over is dogged by the horrid words "Europe Only," or "U.S. release details pending." Here at PopSci, we get that a lot, but never is it more palpable than the one time a year we cross the pond for the annual IFA electronics smorgasbord in Berlin.

This year's IFA is just wrapping up, which means it's time to look back on the whirlwind of the last few days: what looked great, what didn't, what got us excited, and which technologies we're most excited about. The big themes this year were convergence, new ideas about 3-D, and thin everything--two of those three are represented in the Samsung Galaxy Note pictured above. Stay 'til the end for a couple show-floor sights that turned more than a couple heads.