The IFA 2024 trade show saw the entire PC ecosystem announce new systems based on the latest AI PC chips from AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm. Lenovo led the charge for the OEMs in terms of both the number of announcements and the breadth across all the chip vendors.
At Lenovo’s Innovation World 2024—held in Berlin in conjunction with IFA—the company brought out its closest partners and refreshed its PC lineup with the latest Copilot+-capable chips from all three chip makers. Earlier that same week, Lenovo also had a sizable presence at Intel’s Lunar Lake launch event, where Lenovo executive Luca Rossi discussed the multi-year effort with Intel to bring that processor to market.
Leading With Lunar Lake
While Lenovo technically started the show with AMD’s lineup of products, it was quite clear that Lunar Lake systems were Lenovo’s focus. This was especially obvious because Lenovo created a special “Aura Edition” for its Lunar Lake-based products, for example with one of its foremost devices, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The X1 Carbon is an ultra-light (under 1kg) Intel-exclusive platform, so it should come as no surprise that Intel got to keep this flagship ThinkPad within the Intel Core Ultra family. The X1 Carbon ships with a 120-hertz 14-inch 16:10 aspect ratio 2.8K OLED display with Dolby Vision and 100 DCI-P3 color accuracy for professional-grade editing. It would be nice to see this come with 5G connectivity for the ultimate portability platform. The X1 Carbon will start at $2,700 and will be available starting in November.
In addition to the X1 Carbon, Lenovo announced the Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, which features the latest Lunar Lake chips and comes in a 15-inch variant. This system also comes with an OLED display, which will impair battery life compared to an IPS display but also look way better. I recently reviewed the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x with the Qualcomm X Elite inside, so I am interested to see how the Intel-based platform will compare in a similar configuration. Both systems will be limited to 32GB of RAM because Lunar Lake’s on-chip memory is capped at that level, but truthfully most laptop users don’t need more than 32GB today or even in the near future. The Slim 7i Aura Edition was made available in September and starts at $1,400.
Qualcomm-Based Lenovo Laptops
Qualcomm, like Intel, also launched a new processor at IFA 2024: the Snapdragon X Plus chip with only eight cores. This is in contrast to the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus and the Snapdragon X Elite 12-core CPU. The Snapdragon X Plus eight-core is designed to offer a more affordable tier for the Snapdragon X family, enabling Copilot+ PCs at an entry price of $799—which I believe may drop even lower next year as competition increases. The lower price tiers of the PC market have always been the worst for consumers, but with this chip, Qualcomm can enable OEMs, including Lenovo, to ship systems that offer great value while also being performant and having great battery life.
This brings us to the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5X and 5X 2-in-1, which feature this new Qualcomm chip at a starting price of $899. Both versions come with a 14-inch OLED screen with a 1920 x 1200 resolution. They are almost identical in nearly every way, including battery size. The only difference is that the 2-in-1 version has one less USB port. These two PCs became available in September at $899.
The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 also gets the Snapdragon X Plus eight-core treatment. It has a large 16-inch display paired with a colossal 84Wh battery, which could make it one of the longest battery-life AI PCs on the market. Lenovo says this system will be available starting in October with an expected starting price of $819—very close to $799, but not quite. Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon has said that we will probably see $799 systems next year.
AMD-Based Lenovo Systems
AMD did not announce any new chips at IFA; however, its Ryzen AI processors, which it announced at the time of Computex this summer, have found their way into many new systems from Lenovo. This may explain why Lenovo led the show with AMD. The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is arguably the flagship laptop for Lenovo outside of the X1 Carbon; it is considered a workhorse platform for the company. It’s no surprise that the company would put AMD’s Ryzen AI PRO processors in this device, along with up to 64GB of RAM and 5G connectivity. Oddly enough, this platform is capped at only 1TB of storage, while others get way more. It comes in 14-inch display variants with and without touch and starts at 2.86 pounds, or 1.3kg.
The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7+ is very similar to the Qualcomm variant but has a Ryzen AI 365 processor inside. Lenovo has added a Thunderbolt 4 port to this device; Thunderbolt is not native on AMD machines like it is on Intel ones. Thanks to the AMD platform, this system also supports up to 4TB of storage in a 2 x 2TB configuration. Lenovo did upgrade the display on this AMD version with a 165-hertz IPS display as opposed to the 60-hertz model. Clearly, Lenovo built the Qualcomm version for longevity and battery life, while the AMD version is more of a powerhouse.
The Yoga Pro 7 is another Ryzen AI 9 365-based system that features a 14.5-inch OLED screen with similar specs to the Yoga Slim 7x that I reviewed as part of my Copilot+ PC roundup. That said, this system has full-size USB Type-A ports and HDMI ports while the other one did not; that makes this is a bit thicker of a device, though it also carries quite a bit of performance. It is a little disappointing that this laptop is shipping with Wi-Fi 6E while virtually everything else in Lenovo’s lineup has Wi-Fi 7. It also probably won’t have the best battery life considering it has an AMD chip and an OLED display. The Yoga Pro 7 became available in September at $1,699.
Finally for the AMD-based machines, we have the IdeaPad Slim 5, which comes in both 13- and 15-inch variants and is not to be confused with the Qualcomm-based Slim 5X. This is, without a doubt, Lenovo’s budget segment compared to the rest of the systems announced. Both versions of it ship with AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series, which I was admittedly surprised to see, considering that it is a two-generation-old processor. Additionally, both displays are only 60 hertz, although the 15-inch Slim does offer an OLED upgrade option. Both versions are expected to be available in October starting at a very competitive $699. That might explain why Lenovo went for such an old chip, although it was definitely surprising to hear when it was announced.
Looking To The Future
Lenovo also showed off a new concept PC in Berlin, which the company loves to do at big events. This concept PC is the Lenovo Twist, an AI PC featuring a display that can open and close itself and rotate based on tracking the user’s face. While this may seem silly to some, I could see this being a helpful feature for teaching classes remotely or simply having any teleconference. Additionally, it could be helpful for people who want to read a recipe hands-free without touching the PC. The Twist could also be placed on a coffee table, enabling the whole room to talk to someone.
I suspect that Lenovo hasn’t figured out all the ways the Twist could be useful; I found the demo of its abilities exciting but not particularly practical. I do think we are still figuring out the modalities of foldable PCs as well, which Lenovo offers as commercial products—but those might be too fragile and expensive compared to this prototype PC. Moving into next year, I expect that we will see more AI PCs with unique features as the OEMs try to differentiate their offerings from the vast landscape of AI PCs, including what we’ve seen from Lenovo at Innovation World 2024 in Berlin.
