Key Takeaways
- The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite will shake up the laptop market with impressive gaming and content creation performance, plus AI capabilities.
- Ducky’s limited edition Year of the Dragon keyboard combines Cherry MX Purple switches with unique design elements for a luxurious feel.
- Asus’ ROG Ally X handheld PC upgrades include a larger battery, more storage options, and increased RAM, making it a top choice for gamers.
For as much as technology has changed in the mobile and AI eras, the PC remains essential. Even in 2024, there’s something exciting about the way the computer industry manages to reinvent itself year after year, and no where is that excitement more palatable than at Computex. Each year, nearly every of company of note in the sector descends on the capital of Taiwan to share their latest wares. And if you love PC gaming as much as I do, Computex is the event to watch. This year was not exception, with AMD, Intel and Nvidia all coming out swinging. These are Pocket-lint’s picks of the most eye-catching, drool-worthy or highly-anticipated products shown at the show.
1 Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite
The laptop market is about to get more interesting
If you’ve only heard of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips inside smartphones, you’re not alone, but the company has been busy working on a way to finally break into the PC market, with its secret weapon being the Snapdragon X Elite processor it announced last fall. According to Qualcomm’s own benchmarks and real-time demos at Computex this week, it seems the X Elite will give AMD and Intel a run for their money when it comes to mobile content creation and gaming.
The Snapdragon X Elite is a 12-core CPU combined with a GPU and NPU or neural processing unit. Combined the two offer gaming performance that matches laptops with low-end discrete mobile GPUs, better content creation performance than some of the latest AMD and Intel mobile CPUs and some very impressive AI performance too. Even better is that the X Elite is so power efficient that you can get close to two days battery life and most laptop manufacturers will offer the chipset in their new models arriving this month, including Dell with its beautiful XPS 13.
Snapdragon X Elite: How PC makers will rival Apple M series
This is everything you need to know about the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite PC platform and what it means for laptops in 2024.
2 Ducky Year of the Dragon Edition keyboard
One for keyboard collectors
Ducky
Every year, Taiwan’s own Ducky produces a new limited edition keyboard inspired by the Chinese Zodiac. As it’s currently the year of the Dragon, the company brought a — wait for it — Year of the Dragon Edition mechanical keyboard to Computex. Our friends over at XDA Developers got a chance to see the accessory in person, and it’s every bit as lush as you would expect. Ducky equipped the keyboard with Cherry MX Purple tactile switches and something you don’t see everyday: a blue tassel. It also has partly see-through keycaps. Oh, and I did I mention Ducky plans to produce only 1,000 units of the Year of the Dragon Edition keyboard? Good luck getting one, but it certainly looks cool.
3 Acer SpatialLabs Eyes
The third dimension
Acer
Computex isn’t normally the place where companies announce new cameras, but Acer did just that at this year’s event. The company showed off a new stereoscopic 3D camera, dubbed the SpatialLabs Eyes, that will make it easier for users to capture 3D video. It will also double as a 3D web camera for video calling. Of course, anyone watching will need a 3D-capable display to see the added dimension, but I can see a scenario where some enterprise customers might find that functionality useful.
4 AMD Ryzen 9000
AMD’s most powerful gaming CPU yet
AMD
Somewhat earlier in 2024 than a lot of PC enthusiasts were expecting, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su announced the company’s plan to release its Ryzen 9000 CPUs in July, including the flagship 9950x. AMD’s new Zen 5 architecture will power the chips, but they’ll still be compatible with existing AM5 motherboards, giving owners of Ryzen 7000 CPUs an easy upgrade path.
Ryzen 9000 CPUs feature increased performance over the previous generation, including up to 14 percent higher instructions per cycle or IPC.
Ryzen 9000 CPUs feature increased performance over the previous generation, including up to 14 percent higher instructions per cycle or IPC. According to AMD’s figures, they also have Intel’s current 14th Gen CPUs beat in games, content creation and power efficiency. All of that means July will be an interesting month for PC enthusiasts.
5 AMD Ryzen AI 300
One more thing
AMD
The Ryzen 9000 series wasn’t the only announcement AMD had to share at Computex. The company also took on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip with its announcement of the Ryzen AI 300 line of processors for laptops. AMD claims the Ryzen AI 300 series will offer the best AI performance of any chip on the market when it arrives in laptops starting next month. With 50 tera operations per second of AI processing performance, AMD-powered laptops will run Microsoft’s Copilot+ features faster than the competition.
6 Asus ROG Ally X
A more refined PC handheld
With the Steam Deck OLED, Valve basically released the perfect refresh. And it’s been interesting to wait and see how other companies in the space would response. In the case of Asus, it took a similar approach to updating the ROG Ally. The new ROG Ally X features the same AMD Z1 Extreme processor and 120Hz LCD screen as its predecessor, but Asus has made a number of welcome tweaks.
Most notably, the Ally X features an 80Wh battery that is twice as large as the one found in the original model. Additionally, the Ally X features a 1TB SSD, and it’s easier to add more storage thanks to the new handheld supporting full-sized 2280 drives. Asus also added more RAM, with the new model featuring 24GB, up from 16GB previously. There are other changes I won’t get into here, but the ROG Ally X will easily be on the top of a lot of people’s wish lists when it goes on sale next month.
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7 MSI Claw 8 AI Plus
A chance at redemption
MSI
The original MSI Claw was disappointing, due in part to a poor performing Intel Meteor Lake chip and lackluster battery life, among other issues. For its second act, MSI showed off a new variant of its gaming handheld, dubbed the Claw 8 AI+, at Computex that the company said would be powered by one of Intel’s new Lunar Lake processors and feature a larger 8-inch display. Like the ROG Ally X, the Claw 8 AI Plus will also sport a 80Wh battery, a larger 1TB SSD and 32GB of RAM. We’ll need to test the new device to know for sure, but on paper at least, the Claw 8 AI+ looks to be a more compelling PC handheld.
A new MSI Claw will be the first Intel Lunar Lake gaming handheld?
With Lunar Lake onboard, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ promises to be better in almost every way than the company’s previous handheld
8 Intel Lunar Lake
Intel plays catchup
While Intel didn’t have details on specific models to share, what it did reveal about its new Lunar Lake architecture was promising. Most notably, the company said its new processors would offer up to 48 tera operations per second of AI performance. Even more exciting, Lunar Lake will feature Intel’s new Xe2 GPU. The company says the module is 80 percent faster than its previous generation GPU and features built-in ray tracing, which should lead to a noticeable uplift in gaming performance.
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9 Fractal Era 2
Gaming PC cases are finally growing up
Fractal Era 2
Of course, it wouldn’t be Computex if there wasn’t a PC case that stole the show. Some years, it’s hard to pick just one, but in 2024, there was a clear winner. Sorry, Lian Li and others, my heart goes to Fractal Design’s new Era 2 Mini-ITX case. After years of obscurity, small form factor gaming PCs are finally enjoying their long overdue time in the spotlight, thanks in large part to YouTube channels like Optimum Tech and Hardware Canucks. And it’s now easier than ever to find great ITX cases. However, for those looking for something that wouldn’t look out of place in a modern home, finding the right case has been a challenge. Until now.
Some years, it’s hard to pick just one, but in 2024, there was a clear winner.
Building on its full-size North case from late 2022, Fractal came to Computex with a redesigned Era enclosure that incorporates the North’s signature wood paneling. In the case of the Era 2, Fractal plans to offer the case in three different colors, and all three colorways will come with a solid walnut top panel. The resulting enclosure might just be Fractal’s best design yet, and I can’t wait to start planning my next build around it.
10 Corsair Custom Lab
Add some color to your setup
Corsair Custom Lab
Corsair’s enormous booth was full of gaming and streaming hardware, but what caught my eye was the company’s Custom Lab. This new service, which is currently limited to peripherals, allows consumers to order components such as mice and keyboards with custom designs and patterns printed onto them.
Whether you want branded colors or just your favorites, the possibilities will soon be endless as Corsair looks to expand the service from a selection of designs for mice and keyboards, to fully custom patterns applied to other products such as cases.
Whether you want branded colors or just your favorites, the possibilities will soon be endless as Corsair looks to expand the service from a selection of designs for mice and keyboards, to fully custom patterns applied to other products such as cases. In fact, samples of customized panels for its drool-worthy One i500 mini PC were on show already. This is definitely one to watch.
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11 ASUS Zenbook S 16
A premium laptop for the design-concious
While there were some very attractive laptops featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip, including one by Asus, the company’s Zenbook S 16 with its ceramic Ceraluminum case (yes that’s kind of made up) was hard to get near at the show despite dozens of them laying around.
The Zenbook S 16 is also only 1.1cm thick and weighs just 1.5kg, which is a little lighter than its $1,700 price tag.
This beautiful laptop features an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor with a 50 TOPS neural processing unit for AI features such as the included Copilot+. Its 16-inch screen features a 3K OLED display with the lid being made of aluminium that Asus treated to produce a ceramic-like surface that’s more pleasing to look at and to touch than bare aluminum, but not at brittle as ceramic. The Zenbook S 16 is also only 1.1cm thick and weighs just 1.5kg, which is a little lighter than its $1,700 price tag.
12 MSI MPG 321CUPF
A two-in-one monitor
MSI had plenty of monitors on show, but one proved to be particularly interesting in that it was essentially two screens in one. Firstly, in one mode the MPG 321CUPF offers a 4K resolution across its massive 3.15 inch screen and at a silky smooth 160Hz refresh rate. However, pressing a button on the back of the screen switches it to lower resolution Full HD HD mode and ramps the refresh rate up to 320Hz to cater for super reactive FPS gamers.
As a result, if you’ve been deliberating whether to opt for an ultra-high refresh rate monitor for those Counter-Strike gaming sessions or a reasonably high refresh rate 4K monitor for stunningly crisp visuals, the MSI MPG 321CUPF essentially does both in a single unit.
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13 Gigabyte AORUS CO49DQ
An ultrawide QD-OLED monitor
If you’ve used an ultra-wide display you’ll know how immersive they feel in games, plus you get the added excuse to reach for your wallet because they aid productivity too thanks to all that extra screen real estate. However, if you want something even wider and with the latest QD-OLED screen technology for stunning visuals then Gigabyte’s AORUS CO49DQ might just be what you need.
This enormously wide monitor features a 49-inch QD-OLED panel, a resolution of 5,120 x 1,440 and a refresh rate of 144Hz. Not everyone will have a desk big enough, but if you regularly play games that would benefit from and ultrawide or just want to be the envy of all your gamer friends, the Gigabyte AORUS CO49DQ is utterly drool-worthy. Even better is that it costs less than $1,000.
