🏆 Our top 15 AI and PC award winners: The Shortcut Computex 2024 Awards
We flew halfway around the world to Taipei, Taiwan to test the latest AI and computing technology to tell you what actually shows promise
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I flew 15 hours from NYC to Taipei, Taiwan for Computex and got to experience the futuristic tech that will power the world of computing over the next several months. I mean, minus what Apple announces at WWDC 2024 on Monday, June 10.
🧠 My biggest takeaway? AI and PC gaming handhelds have breathed new life into the halls of the Nangang Exhibition Center. Computex is more meaningful than ever.
🇹🇼 Our visit. Kevin and I (with ample help from Adam) got to see top Taiwanese companies here, like MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, Acer, and Cooler Master, as well as US chipmaking brands: Qualcomm, AMD, Nvidia, and Intel. It’s been a long week!
👨🎤 Taiwanese-born Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang is a rockstar here (and his autograph is in high demand) now that his company’s market cap just surged beyond Apple (only behind Microsoft). And Microsoft’s CoPilot+ PCs are everywhere – it feels like it’s the first time in forever Windows laptops are a threat to the MacBook.
🤔 🏆 But who won Computex? We picked the 15 best technology newsmakers here, just like we did with The Shortcut MWC Awards and CES Awards this year. ⤵️
🌟 1. Best in Show
Qualcomm's 22 AI PCs show of force
Qualcomm’s “The PC reborn” branding was backed up by big numbers at Computex. The chip maker is touting the Snapdragon X platform in 22 Microsoft CoPilot+ PCs, and, at Computex, the company announced that its AI platform will go beyond laptops by also covering desktop PCs. Best of all, it seems ready to go with AI tools in next-gen computers ahead of its rivals Intel and AMD.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: Qualcomm 22 Snapdragon X PCs felt like a show of force. This feels like Microsoft’s moment to dethrone Apple’s MacBook laptops among creatives and industry professionals, and it has taken AI to do it. Qualcomm is the first and foremost chip partner in this comeback story, powering the first CoPilot+ PCs, with demos readily available on the Computex show floor.
🎮 2. Best Gaming Device
Asus ROG Ally X
The Asus ROG Ally X has made so many improvements to Asus’ original PC gaming handheld that it feels like the ultimate way to play PC games on the go. Perks we’ve tested on the Ally X include added memory for better performance, a bigger battery, and grips so you can play longer. There’ve also been a ton of little improvements like better cooling, tighter thumbsticks, and larger storage.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: Asus ROG Ally X is shaping up to be the best PC gaming handheld when it arrives this July. Last year’s Ally was already one of our favorite gaming handhelds and it feels even better now with bigger grips, a larger battery, and more memory and storage.
🤖 3. Best AI tool
Nvidia Project G-Assist
What if you had help navigating confusing parts of a PC game without having to dive into a strategy guide, search GameFAQs or ask a human friend? Soon, that someone will be AI and we experienced it integrated into the game Ark: Survival Ascend. A helpful AI chatbot not only knew inside tips about this game, it could see what we were looking at on the screen. Nvidia’s tech is also capable of suggesting and making changes to graphics settings for better performance on the fly.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: Nvidia Project G-Assist is like the movie Her if the AI was focused on helping you beat games and tweak settings. As more developers embrace this tool, it’ll make overcoming difficult parts of games or adjusting performance settings as seamless as talking to an integrated AI chatbot.
🕹️ 4. Best Gaming Accessory
Scuf Nomad
The Scuf Nomad makes mobile gaming truly comfortable with a large mobile controller with rear buttons for extra commands. On top of the usual touchscreen button mapping, it also features some handy shortcuts for taking screenshots, recording gameplay, and more.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: The Scuf Nomad feels like the first serious mobile controller we can truly take into battle in Call of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite, and PUBG.
🆕 5. Best Innovation
Acer SpatialLabs Eyes 3D Camera
The Acer SpatialLabs Eyes 3D Camera is an amazingly simple 3D camera that just works. There’s no LIDAR distance sensing or tricky image stitching, it just takes two images to create an amazing 3D image that looks incredibly real. It’s also a real camera you can just take with you to take photos and you can view them in AR and VR too on top of Acer’s specialized SpatialLabs monitors and screens.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: Acer’s SpatialLabs Eyes 3D Camera turns 3D photography into a simple point-and-click process with amazingly lifelike images with true depth.
🎧 6. Best Gaming Headset
Asus ROG Delta II Gaming Headset
The Asus ROG Delta II gaming headset solves the biggest problem of dual-connection gaming headsets by giving you two volume wheels. Finally, you can connect to a gaming device and your phone and adjust your volume on the fly. On top of sounding great, this gaming headset makes your voice clearer with a much larger 10mm condenser microphone.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: The Asus ROG Delta II Gaming Headset is a comfortable and fantastic-sounding gaming headset that makes it a breeze to adjust your volume on two connected devices at the same time.
⚙️ 7. Best Component
Intel Lunar Lake
Intel Lunar Lake is the biggest paradigm shift in years for computing. Say goodbye to Hyperthreading and say hello to integrated memory and a massive 120TOPs of AI performance. This generation of mobile processors also introduces Intel’s new Xe2 integrated graphics, which promise a huge 50% boost in gaming performance.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: Just when you think Intel is on the back foot, it drops a new architecture that dramatically improves power efficiency while greatly increasing performance in computing power, graphics, and AI workloads.
👷♂️ 8. Best Architecture
AMD Zen 5
AMD Zen 5 is a huge architectural leap from AMD and it’s coming to both desktop and laptop this year. The new architecture brings a big 16% improvement in IPC (or information per clocks) while doubling instruction bandwidth, data bandwidth, and AI performance over its last generation of processors. What’s even more impressive is AMD has developed Zen 5c cores to deliver almost as much IPC as its main cores while being physically smaller, with the only tradeoffs being slightly lower clock speeds and less peak performance.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: The architectural genius behind AMD Zen 5 brings huge double-digit gains in many applications like Blender and games like Horizon Zero Dawn. AMD’s new smaller Zen 5c cores also pull off the miracle of being just as powerful as full-sized Zen 5 cores while being more economical and smaller.
💻 9. Best Laptop
Acer Swift 14 AI with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite
The Acer Swift 14 AI is the best Qualcomm-powered laptop we tested at Computex. With an immediate launch date of June 18 and starting at just $1,099, you get a lot of premium laptop specs: a 14.5-inch (2,560 x 1,600) display, 120Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon X Plus with 45 TOPs, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, 1440p web camera, Wi-Fi 7, and USB-4. All of it is wrapped up in a premium shell and it has a neat little light zone on the trackpad that glows whenever the laptop’s NPU brain is thinking.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: The Acer Swift 14 AI is a gorgeous laptop with amazing specs that make it an incredible deal for $1,099. If you want a premium laptop for a reasonable price, this is the perfect machine to jump into the AI craze.
🖥️ 10. Best monitor
MSI MEG 321URX
What if your gaming monitor could help tell you where your enemies are? It almost sounds like cheating and that’s exactly what the MSI MEG 321URX does using AI. This 32-inch 4K QD-OLED screen comes with some built-in AI technology called Sky Sight that helps highlight enemies on your screen. It can also use its machine-learning vision to monitor your health or ammo count and relay the information onto its RGB spectrum bar below the display.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: A gaming monitor that helps highlight enemies is walking the line on cheating, but it sounds like a major help for gamers who consistently need high-contrast modes and other visual aids while gaming.
🕹️ 11. Best AI Demo
Gigabyte AI Arcade: VS Street Fighter
We saw almost too many AI demos at Computex this year, and some were more impressive than others. At the top of our list is Gigabyte’s incredibly creative pop-up – specifically its AI art and arcade installation that offered practical use cases for AI.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: Gigabyte was the AI champion of Computex, bringing practical art and arcade demos. Two human players sat before tall arcade cabinets and, complete with Street Fighter vibes, were asked to create AI images in Midjourney, and often the wildest text-to-image prompts won.
🙌 12. Best PC gaming handheld
Zotac Zone
The Zotac Zone is the prettiest handheld we’ve ever seen thanks to its super-bright and colorful AMOLED screen. But beyond good looks, this new PC gaming handheld is also a cut above with its Hall effect thumbsticks, radial dials for quick setting adjustments, clicky D-pad, dual touchpads, and adjustable triggers.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: The Zotac Zone is the most extra gaming handheld with an AMOLED screen, dual USB-4, adjustable triggers, and touchpads to give you the best of everything in one gaming device.
📶 13. Best connectivity
MSI Roamii WiFi 7 Mesh Router System
We finally got to see the MSI Roamii WiFi 7 mesh router, which supports speeds of up to 21Gbps. It has all of the top-of-the-line specs: 4K-QAM, Multi-RU, MLO (Multi-Link Operation), and a 10Gbps wired connection. But what has impressed us the most is its price which, according to MSI, starts at $299 for the Lite version and $499 for the top-tier Max edition.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: The MSI Roamii is the WiFi 7 router we’ve been waiting for. It has up to 21Gbps (in its “Max” model) at $499 for two units, undercutting a lot of its WiFi 7 competition that has launched with mesh routers at higher prices in recent months.
💻 14. Best budget laptop
Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise Spin 714
Want to fully experience all the latest Gemini AI features that have recently come to Chromebooks? Well, the Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise Spin 714 will give you the best experience to do it with. Thanks to its built-in stylus, this Chromebook makes circling objects to remove or replace with Magic Eraser a breeze. This premium Chromebook also comes with a 14-inch 16:10 screen, fingerprint scanner, Intel Core Ultra CPU, and a QHD webcam.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: The Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise Spin 714 is the epitome of what a premium Chromebook should be with a large, gorgeous screen, Intel Core Ultra power, QHD webcam, and it even has a built-in stylus.
🥽 15. Best VR or AR device
Tecno Pocket Go AR
Fewer tech companies were showing off virtual and augmented reality glasses at Computex 2024, but at least Tecno didn’t leave us hanging with its Tecno Pocket Go AR specs. The controller-and-glasses combo is geared more toward gaming than something like the Apple Vision Pro and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper.
🔑 Why it’s a winner: The all-in-one Tecno Pocket Go AR beams gameplay from a controller to high-end AR glasses – no PC or console is required. It’s exactly how we imagine the future of PC gaming handhelds.
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