IFA has traditionally been a home entertainment and appliances show targeting the European market, but this year there were a lot of global PC announcements as vendors were eager to get the word out on AI PCs, particularly after Computex in Taiwan a few months ago. We were excited to be on the ground in Berlin this month to catch the action.
Chip vendors led the charge, with Intel providing more details for Lunar Lake, now officially named Core Ultra 200V, with the “V” designating a premium against Meteor Lake. One of the most important details provided was around battery life, which looks more promising now than what was discussed at Computex. If real-world tests hold true when shipments commence later this year, Intel will be on better footing, especially given its competitive advantage with developers. Qualcomm didn’t stand by idly by though; it also released its lower-tier Snapdragon X Plus in both 8 and 10-core variants, allowing OEMs to target the US$700 range that Lunar Lake isn’t addressing yet.
With new chips comes new design wins with PC OEMs, who showcased an array of models, as well as a number of attention-grabbing concepts. My teammates Tom Mainelli and Linn Huang will be diving deeper into some of these developments in a dedicated report, but there were some high-level highlights, including some other devices at the end for good measure:
- Lenovo introduced its Intel-exclusive Aura Edition products within the ThinkPad and Yoga lines, featuring Smart Modes that adapt device settings based on usage, Smart Share that leverages Intel’s Unison phone sharing, and Smart Care that provides a nice feed into Lenovo’s services arm. Lenovo separately talked up its AI PC Fast Start, which is not about boot speeds like the name might suggest, but instead, a lifecycle service to help organizations deploy AI. What might have garnered the most attention though – and such differentiation is important in such a crowded week of launches – was Lenovo’s voice-driven Auto Twist AI PC, which was a concept only but nonetheless elicited oohs-and-ahs.
- Acer talked up battery life on its new Swift notebooks powered by Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, while also diving into gaming, including a 600 Hz monitor, a detachable controller in its Project DualPlay concept, as well as its Nitro Blaze 7 handheld gaming PC. We are concerned that the Windows-based handheld market doesn’t have room for so many vendors yet, but we also think that existing designs have plenty of room for improvement, so Acer’s entry in this segment is a welcome one in that regard.
- ASUS rolled out updates to its consumer product lines as well as a new P-series in its commercial ExpertBook lineup, focusing on SOHOs and creators and leveraging ASUS’ consumer-leaning strengths. Its newly acquired NUC team also showed off its ultrasmall desktop lineup, including a Lunar Lake-based one with a Copilot+ button and fingerprint readers.
- Honor rolled out its Magic Notebook Art 14 featuring a detachable webcam that comes with a built-in storage bay on the side. Pogo pin-based webcams are not new in the industry (Lenovo has a range of Magic Bay accessories for its ThinkBooks), but this nonetheless is in character for Honor, which isn’t afraid to use its engineering skills to differentiate its hardware. Indeed, Honor also showcased its impressively thin yet durable Magic V3 foldable phone, which is now ready for overseas markets rather than being China-only. In the process, Honor unveiled more progress on Yoyo, its AI agent in China, which can take over a user’s screen to automate application tasks like a human would.
- Phones were not a major focus at IFA, but Google had its Pixel lineup on-site, and HMD presented samples of its Barbie phone off-site. TCL and Transsion’s Tecno brands had booths on the show floor, with TCL advertising its Microsoft-powered AI features on its phones and Tecno interestingly veering into PCs with an ultrasmall form factor gaming desktop loaded with an RTX 4060. Smaller Chinese phone brands like uleFone, Cubot, Oukitel, and Doogee also maintained booth presences, similar to their participation at shows like MWC.
- Chinese wearables vendors were present, with earwear being a significant focus given IFA’s consumer electronics legacy. Hisense showcased its TVs, leveraging its official marketing partnership with the recent hit game Black Myth: Wukong. Appliances like smart vacuums and electric scooters were prominent, especially from Chinese vendors. But AR/VR headsets were limited, and there was only one AI pin that we noticed: the Plaud NotePin notetaker, which was featured at a small media-only event the night before the show floor opened.
The momentum around AI PCs has continued to build, which is a good thing for the sake of generating awareness. And software like Lenovo’s Creator Zone and Intel’s AI Playground that make a range of multimodal models easy for users to access is a good thing. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of big use cases otherwise, which means that much of the upcoming 4Q24 device launches will be more of a supply-side push of the latest processors. The good thing though is that battery life comparisons are now crystallizing, and this may very well be the more important thing given the industry’s ongoing struggles to compete with the perception of MacBooks lasting all day.
