IFA 2024 officially began on September 6, but most of the major announcements we were most excited about came in the week leading up to it.
Intel, Qualcomm, Acer, ASUS, and Lenovo notably unveiled some exciting hardware, with a range of PC processors (CPU) and Systems-on-Chip (SoC), new laptops, new gaming monitors, and even some concept pieces that might never actually see an official launch.
Out of all the IFA announcements, we’ve handpicked nine of our favorites to award and highlight here.
Qualcomm goes budget with its 8-core Snapdragon X Plus SoC
Qualcomm announced a new 8-core Snapdragon X Plus System-on-Chip (SoC) at IFA 2024, designed for more affordable Windows on ARM laptops. This brings the total number of Snapdragon X chips up to eight, with four X Elite chips and four X Plus chips.
The new eight-core Snapdragon X Plus is available in two flavors. The X1P-46-100 has a 3.4GHz multi-core frequency, a 4.0GHz boost frequency, and an integrated Hexagon GPU with 2.1 TFLOPS. It’s expected to launch in the first half of 2025.
The X Plus (X1P-42-100) comes sooner with a 3.2GHz multi-core frequency, 3.4GHz boost clock, and a 1.7 TFLOPS integrated GPU. It’s already been spotted in new Acer, Dell, and Lenovo laptops, which are expected to launch soon.
The ThinkBook 16 (Gen 7) is notably priced at $749, making it one of the cheapest ways to get ARM64 efficiency and performance. Qualcomm says the SoC can best the Core Ultra 5 125U, AMD Ryzen 5 8640U, and Apple M2, and it can also support up to three external displays.
That’s not to mention the Copilot+ compatibility thanks to the 45 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that spans all of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips. In related news, Intel laptops with new Core Ultra Series 2 chips and AMD laptops with Ryzen AI 300 chips will get Copilot+ access starting in November.
Intel’s next-gen chips are expected to answer Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X hardware. While Team Blue chases the upper performance and efficiency metrics, Qualcomm now focuses on delivering cheaper silicon for a broader range of PCs.
Intel’s next-gen “Lunar Lake” mobile CPUs are here
After months of rumors and leaks, Intel’s “Lunar Lake” Core Ultra Series 2 processors have been officially announced. The new x86 mobile chips, which use a refreshed 200V naming scheme, were unveiled by Intel as the “most efficient family of x86 processors ever,” which is clearly an effort to combat Qualcomm’s recent (and big) bite out of the Windows laptop market.
According to Intel, the Core Ultra Series 2 chips offer “breakthrough” power efficiency and a “massive leap in graphics performance” from integrated Arc GPUs. Nine new CPUs are in the lineup, all with eight cores split evenly between Performance and Low-Power Efficiency. They all have eight threads, LPDDR5x-8533MHz RAM support, 37W Turbo power, and an NPU with up to 48 TOPS of power for local AI acceleration.
That’s more theoretical NPU power than what Qualcomm can offer with its Snapdragon X chips (45 TOPS), which matters more than ever now that Intel and AMD are both getting access to Copilot+ in November. Microsoft’s AI tools in Windows require an NPU with at least 40 TOPS.
Efficiency is a primary goal for Intel, with Qualcomm pulling well ahead with its chips for Windows on ARM. The Core Ultra 9 and Ultra 7 chips run at a 30W base TDP (dropping to a minimum of 17W), while the Ultra 5 chips run at a 17W base TDP (dropping to a minimum of 8W).
Intel quotes 20 hours of battery life from the Core Ultra 200V CPUs with performance-per-watt matching Qualcomm and AMD in some tests, but we’ll have to see for ourselves when we get our hands on the new laptops. Acer, ASUS, Dell, and HP all announced new laptops with these Intel chips headed our way soon.
Acer’s Project DualPlay concept gaming laptop has a removable gamepad
Acer’s Project DualPlay concept is one of the most unique gaming laptops we’ve ever seen. At first glance, it looks a lot like a stylized version of Acer’s Predator gaming hardware with extra chassis RGB, but it hides a secret that makes couch co-op a breeze.
The touchpad doubles as a removable wireless gamepad with dual joysticks, D-Pad, buttons, and bumpers along the edges. The removable piece is reminiscent of a gaming handheld, except where the display would usually be is the touchpad section.
It gets better. Each side of the gamepad slides off of the connecting touchpad portion, like Legion Go or Nintendo Switch, allowing two players to pick up and play at the same time with separate controllers. Thanks to an electromagnetic attachment, releasing the gamepad from the rest of the laptop is easy, and when detached, two five-watt speakers pop out of the sides of the laptop for booming sound.
Even the gamepad and individual controllers have customizable RGB lighting to match the rest of the laptop. As a concept, this gaming laptop might not ever see an official release, but it would be a boon to any PC gamers who love to play their favorite titles next to friends and family.
Lenovo’s Auto Twist AI PC concept has a display that follows you as you move
A laptop webcam with auto-framing abilities to keep you in view is one thing, but Lenovo’s new Auto Twist AI PC concept takes the idea to another level.
The ThinkBook-branded laptop has what Lenovo calls a “Dual Degree of Freedom Automatic Rotation System (DARS) that connects the display with the laptop body. The display opens normally, but it can also pivot on the center hinge. The screen can essentially rotate any which way, including flat, into a tablet, and you don’t even have to put your hands on it.
Actuators open and move the display automatically, and all you have to do is tell it where to go. It can also be set up to track you around a room as you move, using AI to keep you in focus intelligently. This feature is undoubtedly a boon for anyone who’s ever tried to teach in a virtual meeting, but the automatically tuned adjustments also promote proper ergonomics.
Stepping away from your PC for a moment? The lid will automatically close and lock Windows until you return. Whether or not this specific concept laptop sees a full release remains to be seen, but Lenovo’s DARS hardware is likely something we’ll see again.
Acer’s Nitro XV240 F6 gaming monitor hits an insane 600Hz
Acer has a new level of “UltraSpeed” hardware meant to accommodate PC gaming enthusiasts involved in competitive gaming, pushing refresh rates beyond a sane level.
Whereas refresh rates between 300Hz and 400Hz seemed like overkill for most people just last year, Acer has now pushed the limits with the 600Hz Nitro XV240 F6. That’s not a typo, and that sound you just heard was your graphics card letting out a sigh.
The 1920×1080 (FHD) TN panel matches the blistering refresh rate with a 0.1ms response time, and AMD FreeSync Premium is included to further smooth out the picture. The monitor is expected to start at $599.99 when it launches in Q1 2025, so start saving up now.
Lenovo has an $849 Snapdragon X Plus Copilot+ PC
The sweet spot for most laptop buyers is in the range of $700 to $1,000, and this does not go unnoticed by Qualcomm. The first run of Snapdragon X Systems-on-Chip (SoC) with Copilot+ abilities was announced in May, but none of the laptops dipped far enough into that price range.
Qualcomm’s new 8-core Snapdragon X Plus chip is now official, and it’s notably headed to Lenovo’s new IdeaPad 5x 14 2-in-1 (Gen 9). With a starting price of $849 when it launches in October, it should prove to be a great way to get your hands on a capable Copilot+ PC running Windows on ARM.
The new IdeaPad 5x 14 2-in-1 doesn’t stop at the ARM64 power and efficiency. It has a 14-inch OLED display with FHD+ resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, HDR 500 support, 100% DCI-P3 color, and touch with inking capabilities to work with the convertible design.
There aren’t any apparent cut corners even at this price, with an FHD RGB webcam, Wi-Fi 7 support, lots of ports, and MIL-STD 810H durability certifications.
Lenovo and Intel team up to deliver Aura Edition laptops
Lenovo and Intel teamed up at IFA 2024 to introduce “Aura Edition” laptops, including the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) and Yoga Slim 7i 15 (Gen 9).
Aura Edition laptops are all about blending human and machine interactions to make them as easy as possible, while also delivering the premium computing experiences you expect from these high-end Windows laptops.
Aura Edition features boil down to Smart Modes, Smart Share, and Smart Care (which is essentially just extra tech support). Starting with the Smart Modes first, four options dynamically tune your laptop depending on the task at hand.
Attention Mode blocks certain websites from distracting you, Wellness Features deliver warnings for posture and eye wellness, Collaboration Tools boost camera quality, and Shield Mode hands out automatic privacy alerts, screen blacking, and VPN prompting.
Smart Share is all about making phone-to-PC sharing as easy as possible. If your Android or iOS phone is supported by Aura Edition, you can simply tap it against the laptop’s lid to open a sharing app; from there, it’s just a matter of dragging and dropping files across platforms.
The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) Aura Edition is expected to start at $1,999 when it launches in November, while the Yoga Slim 7i (Gen 9) Aura Edition starts at $1,299 and should launch in September.
Acer’s Nitro Blaze 7 aims to be a more affordable gaming handheld
It seems like every PC maker has a gaming handheld these days, and Acer is the latest to jump on board with its Nitro Blaze 7.
Acer didn’t really set out to beat any of the other handhelds in terms of features and performance, save for maybe the unique on-screen keyboard button for quicker messaging in games. It has Hall Effect joysticks, but they’re also available in the MSI Claw.
It’s powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS CPU, AMD Radeon 780M graphics, 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM, a 50Wh battery, and up to 2TB of M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD storage. Its 7-inch IPS display has an FHD resolution with a 144Hz refresh rate.
Where the Nitro Blaze should excel is its price point. Acer hasn’t yet announced a firm dollar amount or a release date, but if it wants to compete with the other established handhelds on the market it will have to undercut them significantly.
A lot of gamers won’t mind lesser performance in the face of a much lower price, and that’s really what makes the Nitro Blaze 7 an intriguing product.
HONOR’s MagicBook Art 14 has a detachable webcam
Something we’ve never seen before until now is a laptop with a detachable webcam. But why is that a big deal? Laptop makers have sometimes struggled to balance display bezel size and room required for webcam hardware, resulting in solutions like pop-up cameras hidden beneath keyboard keys.
For example, I reviewed HONOR’s MagicBook 14 from 2021, which used this exact solution. And while it got the job done — allowing for the top screen bezel to be super thin — the camera angle was really only good for checking out the inside of your nose.
HONOR has now returned with the MagicBook Art 14, a sleek laptop with a 14.6-inch 3.8K OLED display. The top bezel measures just 2.2mm thin, which HONOR didn’t find thick enough to house the 1080p camera. The solution this time is modular. The webcam lives in a dedicated slot on the side of the chassis when it’s not in use. You just pop it out and place it atop the laptop’s lid, where it’s held in place magnetically.
It works facing forward and back, adding some versatility to what you’d usually find in a notebook. There’s also no need for a privacy shutter, as the camera can’t communicate with the PC when it’s not in place.
The new MagicBook Art 14 is available with Intel Core Ultra Series 1 and Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips, the latter of which makes the cut for Copilot+ AI features. The Intel version is available in some Asian and European markets, and we have one in for testing. HONOR has yet to announce pricing and availability for the Snapdragon version.
We have a lot to look forward to in the coming months
While an exciting CES 2024 might have set the tone for the rest of the year, IFA 2024 followed up in a big way. Concept devices are always fun to check out, and this year did not disappoint, but major CPU news from Intel and Qualcomm will have the most direct effect on most people.
These IFA 2024 award winners were selected by those on the ground at the showcase, and they represent the best of the best for various reasons. There’s plenty more hardware to check out, so be sure to give all of our IFA 2024 news a look.
