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IFA is one of the biggest tech shows of the year, held every September in Berlin, Germany.
The MUO team is on the ground once again to find the best new gadgets of the year, and these are the most interesting new laptops we found at IFA 2024.
Acer Project DualPlay
PC gaming handheld consoles have been gaining popularity in recent years, with the launch of theAsus ROG Ally. In fact, several new gaming handhelds wererevealed at Computex 2024, and they’re slowly creeping into the territory of the gaming laptop. Nevertheless, these devices have some disadvantages, like a small screen, lack of a full-size keyboard (crucial for many PC titles), and dismal battery life.
So, Acer solved this problem with the Project DualPlay concept laptop. This gaming laptop features everything you look for as a gamer—a large display, RGB lights, and a full keyboard setup. But it also has one thing that no other gaming laptop has: a built-in wireless controller that turns the Project DualPlay into a portable (but not quite handheld) gaming console.
When you remove the wireless controller (which also houses the laptop’s trackpad) from its dock, the laptop also deploys two five-watt pop-out speakers for a more immersive gaming experience. It also offers some serious multiplayer gaming, as you can remove the two sides of the wireless controller and share it between two players, ala Nintendo Switch.
It’s no wonder Acer’s Project DualPlay featured in our list of thebest new tech at IFA 2024.
Asus Zenbook S 16
Asus launched a heap of new laptops at IFA 2024.The pick of the bunch is its new Zenbook S 16, a decently-powerful mid-range laptop that brings some nice upgrades to the long running product line.
What I found most interesting is that Asus has spent four years developing an entirely new material that it calls Ceraluminum—a combination of ceramic and aluminum into a single compound. The result is a surprisingly strong material that also looks good and weighs very little; the holy trinity for a laptop case.
The Zenbook S 16 uses AMD’s new Ryzen AI 9 935 CPU (with an integrated Radeon 880M GPU), 24GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD. It has a 16-inch 2880x1800 pixel touchscreen that looks fantastic, and the whole unit is powered by a decently sized 78Wh battery. It’s not the largest battery in the world, especially considering this is a 16-inch machine, but it’ll keep you going for most of the day (depending on what you’re doing). In addition, the Zenbook S 16 weighs a relatively modest 1.5kg (3.4lbs), which is on the light side for a laptop of this size.
Honor MagicBook Art14
New processors like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X and the latest generation of Intel and AMD chips have allowed laptop makers to make incredibly thin and light laptops that do not compromise on performance. And although Honor might not be the first name you think about when talking about PCs, it’s taking its expertise in making premium smartphones and using it to build sleek laptops.
One such example is the MagicBook Art 14, which launched at IFA 2024. This device is one of the lightest and thinnest 14-inch laptops you’re able to buy today, with a 1 cm thickness (a little over a third of an inch) and a weight of 1 kg (or about 2.2 pounds).
But even with these dimensions, it does not skimp on performance. You still get an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with integrated Intel Arc graphics, a nice 14.6-inch touch display with a 3.1K resolution, and a 60-Wh battery for extended use away from an outlet. It also comes with a complete set of ports, including Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, and even a 3.5-mm jack, which goes to show that you do not need to sacrifice ports in the name of thinness and portability (yes, I’m looking at you, Apple).
Now, the final MagicBook Art 14 feature you have to know about is the detachable webcam. Instead of hiding the webcam under a key or in the bezel, Honor has created a removable webcam that slots into the Art 14 case. It connects magnetically to the top of the laptop frame and is instantly recognized by the laptop. It’s really quite remarkable and is a great privacy-focused feature that helps set the MagicBook Art 14 apart from the competition.
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition
Lenovo has long collaborated with Intel for its laptop offerings, and the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is one such product of this partnership. This laptop is powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) laptop chips, allowing you to experience the best in terms of performance, efficiency, and even AI features.
You can spec the Yoga Slim 7i up to 32GB of 8533MHz RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, making sure that it’s capable of handling everything you throw at it. Furthermore, its 70-Wh battery should be more than enough to allow you to accomplish your work for the day.
Aside from this new processor, the Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition also gets Smart Modes, allowing the laptop to adapt automatically to what its user is doing. For example, if the laptop detects that you’re into deep work, it could activate Attention Mode, blocking distracting websites to help you focus better. It also has Smart Share, where the laptop uses AI features to detect your compatible smartphone and automatically share images between them by simply tapping your phone on the laptop’s screen edge.
Tecno Megabook T16 Pro Ultra
Tecno’s Megabook laptop series goes from strength to strength, and the upgraded Megaboot T16 Pro Ultra is one to watch out for.
The Megabook T16 Pro Ultra packs in Intel’s latest Core Ultra 7 CPU, up to 32GB LPDDR5 RAM, up to 1TB PCIe 4.0 storage, and a substantial 99.99Wh battery. Intel’s Core Ultra gives the T16 Pro Ultra on-device AI integrations, such as the Copilot key to use Microsoft Copilot, all working offline. There’s also an integrated AI image generator, which is pretty handy, though you shouldn’t expect photorealistic images—it’s more for making interesting images in a pinch.
Also worth noting is the Megabook’s screen. It comes equipped with a 16-inch, 16:10, 2.5K resolution panel with 400 nits brightness and 100% sRGB coverage, and it looks fantastic in all light levels.
