IFA 2024: Intel Fights Back, Qualcomm Fights Dirty, Lenovo Puts it all Together, and Lots of Gadgets Liven Up IFA’s 100th Anniversary
Summary
IFA celebrated its 100th Anniversary with a silicon fight between Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. Last year was heavy on green tech and light on innovation; this year was all about AI, laptop chips, and gadgets. While Intel and AMD are targeting Apple with their latest efficient AI-centric chips, Qualcomm is now taking Snapdragon to the heart of the volume laptop market. PC vendors aren’t taking sides: Lenovo showed off laptops with every chip in both enterprise and consumer variants at its co-located Lenovo Innovation World. IFA’s TVs, appliances, and gadgets were still well represented; Matter is slowly gaining traction and the WPC is trying to bring wireless charging to the kitchen countertop.
What’s IFA?
IFA isn’t quite a trade show; it’s more of an annual tech and home appliance festival that started 100 years ago for manufacturers of the brand-new AM radio consoles to show off their wares. After two days of press conferences, the sprawling, chaotic Messe Berlin opens to the public. People come from throughout Europe – often with babies in tow – to drink beer and wander halls full of coffee machines, vacuum cleaners (robotic and not), green appliances, and televisions. Last year’s press lineup was weak and Techsponential skipped the show. 2024 was different: the show is under new management, and in addition to digital home gadgets there were extensive silicon and computing announcements.
Silicon Wars Heat Up
Intel and AMD announced new versions of their PC and laptop chips at Computex in June, but Intel withheld crucial performance details for IFA. Intel has not been competitive in mobile computing silicon for a long time. Sure, you could get a very low-voltage chip and pair it with a big battery and get tremendous battery life (like HP did on the Dragonfly G4) but only for computationally light workloads. Intel could also make enormous chips with tons of cores and when you supply them with an 850 watt power supply, a water cooling system, and an NVIDIA GPU, you get a Lenovo Legion Tower 7i, which I use for benchmarking. But Intel couldn’t compete with AMD on unplugged performance-per-watt, let alone anything powered by Apple Silicon. This wasn’t too much of a problem for Intel for a while – it was still the volume producer of laptop chips. However, over time, Apple ate into Windows’ market share, AMD’s offerings continued to improve, and Intel had well-publicized problems getting some of its products to market. Then Qualcomm showed up with Snapdragon X Elite and an Arm-optimized version of Windows, and Intel was faced with a perfect storm.
The new Core Ultra 2 “Lunar Lake” chips have an interesting architecture: just eight CPU cores, integrated Arc GPU that is nearly as powerful as discrete graphics, an NPU with up to 48 TOPS, and either 16GB or 32GB memory on package. I/O is also on package, making for significantly smaller motherboards, and an engineer at a laptop OEM told me that the compact form factor makes it easier to manage thermals as well. Intel claims that this new architecture is competitive with Apple on performance-per-watt, though Intel is using unusual wattage schemes (for example, running at 17 watts on battery and 30 watts when plugged in) so we are likely to see a range of results depending on how the test scenario is constructed. Also, Apple hasn’t even launched Apple M4 laptops yet, so claiming any sort of victory seems premature. Core Ultra also doesn’t get Intel out of its broader cash crunch as it invests to build a public fabrication business. Intel doesn’t have much of the fast-growing cloud AI market, and rivals are rapidly chipping away at its datacenter CPU stronghold. Even if Core Ultra 2 chips are a hit in the laptop segment, margins on the Core Ultra 2 are going to be low, as Intel is using TSMC to make them rather than building them in-house.
However, it does look like Core Ultra 2 could be a hit. Based on what I saw at IFA, much of Intel’s performance-plus-efficiency claims certainly appear to be true. At ASUS’ IFA press conference, ASUS said that the Core Ultra 2 version of the Vivobook S 14 gets 69% better battery life than last year’s version. Nice! A Lenovo engineer told me that Intel’s performance estimates were actually lower than his internal testing. Intel is starting with nine different variants in the Core Ultra 2 family, so we will have to see exactly where each one stands and how OEMs use them, but Intel is back in the competitive scrum after being out for far too long, and that’s good for everyone.
At Computex AMD announced its own new line of AI-enabled high performance chips, Ryzen AI 300, and at IFA they were popping up in product announcements from Acer, ASUS, and Lenovo. This update to Ryzen 9 is based on all of AMD’s latest architectures: Zen 5 for the CPU, XDNA2 for the NPU, and RDNA 3.5 for the 16 compute-unit GPU. We’ll have to get hands on to figure out where AMD’s platform fits in the new competitive landscape, but it looks to be extremely capable for gaming, and battery life should be a highlight as well.
Intel and AMD were left out of the initial Copilot+ PC program as they lacked the required AI power, and Microsoft wrote its software for Arm first. However, at IFA, Microsoft announced that Intel Core Ultra 2 and AMD Ryzen AI PCs will get a software update to Copilot+ PC in November. That’s considerably faster than some were expecting, and cuts into Qualcomm’s exclusivity window. Don’t feel too bad for Qualcomm, which has had a successful launch of Snapdragon X Elite thanks mainly to its performance-per-watt (power and long battery life), not genAI images with CoCreator in Microsoft Paint.
Qualcomm held a press conference at IFA to announce that it is now taking its Snapdragon X architecture to the heart of Intel’s PC market: laptops in the $700 - $1000 range. This is the volume segment of the market, but still pricey enough to provide reasonable profit margins. Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X Plus 8-core loses a bit of performance – there’s no boost mode – but it retains an NPU with 45 TOPS that qualifies it for Copilot+ PC status at prices hundreds less than the competition. I expect Snapdragon X Plus 8-core laptops to perform quite well with Arm-native apps, and battery life should be excellent, but emulated x86 apps could be slow. Systems should be shipping soon, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Lenovo Innovation World
There were plenty of new laptops announced at IFA taking advantage of all the new chips from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, but Lenovo had so many that it created Lenovo Innovation World to showcase them all. Lenovo’s launched at least one laptop from each silicon vendor for both consumer and enterprise markets. This proved to be more than just an engineering challenge: Lenovo’s ear-splittingly loud press conference had to engage in tricky scheduling to bring out executives from Intel, AMD, Qualcomm without having them bump into each other. Microsoft was inserted in between Intel and Qualcomm, and Stability.AI was slotted in between Qualcomm and AMD.
Intel got the lion’s share of attention thanks to “Aura Edition” software that is exclusive to Lenovo and Intel. It comprises a nifty tap-to-connect-your-phone feature along with a control panel that (among other things) makes it much, much easier to manage your laptop’s power modes. There were too many laptops to list them all, but I am especially eager to test the X1 Carbon ThinkPad Aura Edition: Lenovo’s ultralight business laptop has always traded off form factor for performance and battery life, but that may not be the case with the Core Ultra 2 version.
Lenovo also showed off a proof-of-concept laptop with a powered, voice-controlled rotating lid. It’s great fun to watch the laptop open itself, close itself for security when you walk away, and follow you around with the camera on video calls. I doubt the product will actually make it to market, but if it does, the real benefit of this feature will be accessibility. Finally, Lenovo announced that it is expanding its marketing partnership with F1 racing.
More Computing
Microsoft’s IFA Surface laptop announcement confused me at first, but apparently business customers were not able to buy the new Snapdragon X -based Surface Laptop and Surface Pro. Now there are Business Editions – with absolutely no difference in the hardware, so it’s about channels and support. Microsoft did announce new Surface hardware, but it’s just a new version of its low-profile keyboard, now with a Copilot key.
Acer’s IFA highlights included a unique gaming laptop with a removable controller, and the Nitro Blaze 7. The latter is a handheld Windows 11 gaming console, joining ASUS and Lenovo chasing a strong – but limited – niche.
ASUS updated its Zenbook S 14 with Intel’s new Core Ultra 2 and a new hybrid material, ceraluminum, that is supposedly a combination of ceramic and aluminum. I got hands on and ceraluminum looks and feels nice, though not necessarily better than a material with a name my spellchecker recognizes. The slightly lower end Vivobook S 14 also got an Intel overhaul, and that’s the one with the dramatic 69% year-over-year improvement in battery life. ASUS is also making a stronger play in the enterprise with new Intel-based ExpertBooks in P1, P3, and P5 variants.
After launching the Galaxy Book4 Edge with Qualcomm’s highest-performing Snapdragon X Elite chipset this summer, Samsung bumped the series up a digit and announced the Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 with Intel Core Ultra 2 at IFA. The Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 is an enormous 16” 2-in-1 with a “Dynamic AMOLED 2X with Vision Booster” display and an S-Pen in the box (but not stored in the laptop itself). For its size, the laptop impressively weighs only 3.72 lbs., but it’s bulky enough that tablet usage is likely to be limited to tabletops.
REDMAGIC announced the Nova, a new ~$600 flagship Android gaming tablet for China; an international variant will be launched September 27. REDMAGIC claims the Nova is the only tablet to feature a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Edition, along with fast memory and a unique cooling system. With portable gaming systems based on Steam, Windows, and Android already on the market from multiple OEMs, a dedicated gaming tablet definitely appears to be an extremely niche product, but if REDMAGIC sees success, I expect to see a flood of competitors.
Smartphones
For a show that was once the launchpad of Samsung’s Galaxy Note, there was not much smartphone news at IFA this year. HONOR launched the Magic V3 ultrathin foldable, which is now available in a global variant but not for North America or Australia.
TCL announced new devices with its steadily improving NXTPAPER display technology that significantly reduces eyestrain while still allowing full color and video. The TCL 50 NXTPAPER doesn’t take TCL out of the budget category, but it does have a 108 MP camera and a physical switch that toggles the display between regular, de-saturated color, and monochrome modes. This is shipping shortly for Europe and Latin America and will almost certainly come to the U.S. in a carrier or prepaid version later this year.
Standards (Very) Slowly Gaining Momentum in the Smart Home
IFA’s horseshoe of exhibit halls is always full of small and large appliances, and this year was no different, but we’re starting to see some standardization. Qi 2 wireless chargers were everywhere, even if only iPhones can use them for now – why aren’t Android vendors jumping on a standard that gets them closer to parity with Apple for accessories? Anker and Aukey were most prominent, but I counted at least half a dozen different Qi2 vendors at Showstoppers IFA media event.
The Bluetooth SIG was showing off Auracast, again, which allows nearfield broadcasting over Bluetooth.
Matter isn’t ubiquitous, but I did see the home automation control standard gaining momentum with new controllers from Flic. Govee announced Matter-compatible lights, including its first COB (Chip-On-Board) rope light for brighter, more continuous illumination.* Roborock launched two new Matter-compatible robotic vacuum/mop/cleaning systems. It wasn’t too surprising that The Qrevo Slim and Qrevo Curv are supporting this standard, as they are packed with an incredible amount of technology, including their own voice assistants (in addition to Google, Amazon, and Apple ecosystem ties) and a suite of on-board cameras, sensors, and computing resources. The Qrevo Slim is essentially a self-driving smart car with mop and vacuum attachments.*
The Thread Group announced that its Matter-adjacent Thread 1.4 specification is ready for implementation. This is a bit nerdy, but by adding a Thread 1.4 Border Router (which can be embedded in any type of IoT device), it enables secure, private Thread mesh networks regardless of the software or hardware ecosystem in use.
Another standards group, the Wireless Power Consortium, announced K1, a standard for wireless charging for kitchens that can be embedded under any non-metal countertop up to an inch and a half thick. It that can deliver serious power for mixers, blenders, hot pots, air fryers, and more. I’m somewhat skeptical about this one, but I’d certainly appreciate the convenience of having a spot on the counter to ‘plug in’ all the small appliances we have without having to deal with cords and limited outlets.
TVs Projectors and Audio
If you pair a light engine with a DLP chip from TI, a media processor from MediaTek, and TV software from Google, you too can enter the crowded pico projector market – but you’d better have a route to market and something that sets you apart from the crowd.
Anker’s Nebula brand launched a new $350 Capsule Air 720p 150 lumen cannister projector at IFA, but I was more impressed with the Power Bank Tripod. This $130 accessory looks like a tripod stand mount (because it is) and hides a 9600mAh battery that doubles the playtime of the Capsule Air
XGIMI showed off new rotating (MoGo 3 Pro) and twisting (Elfin Flip) small projectors, along with the AURA 2 ultra-short throw projector, but the product that I’m most looking forward to is the HORIZON S Max. I reviewed XGIMI’s HORIZON Ultra last year and was impressed by the first front projector with Dolby Vision, but the new HORIZON S Max has so much light output (3100 lumen) and so much higher contrast than before (a claimed 1,000,000:1) that the HDR and new IMAX support really pops. I’m looking forward to reviewing a unit for Techsponential’s HomeTheaterView.
XGIMI is not the only Chinese cannister projector maker moving upmarket; Yaber announced the K3, a $500 1080p projector that’s simply much brighter (1600 lumen) than anything in its price category. The K3 Pro adds an outboard subwoofer for $100 more. Yaber’s even more affordable outdoor T2 Plus projector now comes in a Keith Haring edition with his distinctive art on key parts of the case. It is a relatively bright 450 lumen, also at 1080p, but with an integrated handle and battery for $399.*
TCL announced new mini LED TVs that are incredibly bright – for better HDR – and have less of a halo effect – so all that extra brightness goes only where it should be. TCL also announced the A300 Pro NXTFRAME TV, making it the latest company to belatedly realize that Samsung’s Frame created the only high-margin segment of the TV market.
Canadian speaker company Kanto Audio was showing off its upcoming REN powered bookshelf speakers that include an HDMI 2.1 ARC jack for use as a simple non-soundbar TV audio setup. They come in a range of colors, but the orange is striking.
Wearables
Earbuds that don’t fall out during exercise tend to be expensive and often have poor sound quality, so I was intrigued that Jlabs’ EPIC SPORT ANC 3 sport earbuds are equipped with Knowles balanced armature drivers and ANC, so there’s a prayer that you’ll actually be able to hear them in the gym. Prior experience with Knowles-equipped earbuds has been extremely positive (though Knowles only covers the higher frequencies, so there is plenty of room for variation with the bass).*
Anker’s SoundCore brand also launched new Space One Pro noise cancelling headphones that I would already be testing if UPS hadn’t delivered them to the wrong address.
Amazfit is well known for selling discounted smartwatches and fitness wearables, and it used IFA to expand into large, ruggedized hiking watches. The T-Rex 3 appears to be directly targeting Garmin with its extremely long battery life in a feature-watch (it doesn’t run third-party apps) with a huge display and offline maps. Techsponential has been testing the slimmer, exercise-focused Amazfit Balance running Zepp OS, and while the lack of apps and deep ecosystem integration is a negative, the price, battery life, and app experience are solid.
Withings did not change the tech in its hybrid ScanWatch Nova launched earlier this year, but at IFA it added new jewelry-like finishes to what previously looked like sport/dive watches, making them markedly dressier. They remain analog watches first, with very limited notifications on the tiny digital inset dial, making them less distracting to wear than a full smartwatch. However, the ScanWatch Nova also features a full suite of sensors and software for health tracking, including heart rate, activity, ECG, SpO2, and period tracking.*
And Now for Something Completely Different
I’m looking forward to testing many of the products I saw at IFA which bring better battery life to laptops, brighter displays to projectors, and other useful benefits. However, my favorite product I saw at IFA is not utilitarian at all – it’s borderline stupid: LG’s Shoecase. Who doesn’t need a temperature and humidity-controlled box with lights and rotating turntable to show off your Jordan 1’s or Louboutin’s?
LG gets the second-best silly product award, too: a room air purifier with a cat seat on top that doubles as a scale. Through AI – I’m sure ThinQ is involved somehow – your air purifier can tell you if your cat is eating properly. The Shoecase is going to sell like crazy to Instagram influencers; I’m not sure who’s buying the cat scale purifier.
*Techsponential has review units in hand and will start testing them shortly.
To discuss the implications of this report on your business, product, or investment strategies, contact Techsponential at avi@techsponential.com.
Updated 9/15/2024 with corrected pricing on Yaber K3.