The holidays come early at IFA 2019

This week I had the pleasure of being in Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2019 to meet with our PC and IoT ecosystem partners. This is always an exciting time for me because I get to see all the new PCs and intelligent edge devices coming this holiday season. Over the last week, our partners Acer, ASUS, Dell, Lenovo and Razer have announced new Windows 10 PCs that both consumer and commercial customers are sure to want.

Modern PCs look different because they are different. They have better performance, innovative designs and new experiences. According to Microsoft research, people are happier when they get a modern PC. We have a lot of modern PCs in market already from all our device partners, and it’s great to see these benefits continuing to come to life in recently announced devices from our partners.

Better performance

Performance starts with a modern computer with solid-state drives (SSDs). SSDs make the computers fast, thin and light. Performance also considers how long the battery lasts and what processor is used. All these elements are critical for customers who want to use their device on the go and run multiple workloads at once. Today’s modern PCs are at least two times faster and can stay unplugged on average of 32% longer compared to HDD models. Intel’s recently announced 10th Generation Intel Core processors enhance the experience for many of these new devices with AI, Thunderbolt 3 and Intel Wi-Fi 6 technologies, all of which increase speed of connectivity.

A great example is the new Dell XPS 13 now with an Intel 10th Generation processor. Whether bingeing a video series or working on the go, this device delivers performance gains needed for compute-intensive, demanding, multi-thread workloads – while still efficiently displaying beautiful 4K content.

The latest Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptops are great examples of devices engineered for an on-the-go workforce that needs higher performance to improve their workday productivity and security. These devices are optimized for long battery life and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.

Razer announced the new Razer Blade Stealth 13 – the first gaming laptop with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1650. Powered by Intel’s new 10th Generation processor, the new Razer Blade Stealth 13 delivers true gaming performance packed into an amazingly thin 15mm chassis weighing only 1.3 kgs.

Innovative designs

Being fast and powerful used to come at the expense of a beautiful device, but not anymore. Windows 10 PCs are designed to be shown off with touches like metallic finishes and backlit keyboards. Choice of form factors help you work the way you want with 2-in-1 convertibles, detachables and ultraslim designs.

The new ASUS Republic of Gamers demonstrates this attention to design. By offering a new Glacier Blue hue for select Zephyrus and Strix family laptops, the company is reimagining the look and feel of gaming machines for a widening audience of gamers who are also streamers and creative professionals who want more than a black machine.

Great design also comes with devices that are thin and light. The Acer Swift 5*, a super light 14-inch notebook that is 15.95 mm thin, only weighs 990 grams and comes with a new discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics option for high-powered gaming.

New experiences

Finally, we want customers to have the best experiences with their hardware and software, and that begins with the applications and services that come with a Windows 10 PC. This includes multiple ways to interact, with ink and pen, voice and touch, and compatibility with other devices and applications. It also includes top-grade security with Windows Hello and the on-the-go productivity benefits in Office 365 enabled by the cloud. When it comes down to it, Windows 10 PCs help you achieve more.

With a modern PC you get speed, security, durability and great design. While there is a lot of focus on PCs at IFA, we also see a lot of innovation from our partners around the Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge.

By 2020 analysts estimate that 20 billion devices will be connected to the cloud, and Microsoft and our ecosystem of partners offer a unique value proposition because our Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge solutions are extra smart, secure and agile. For example, we have the Smart Home solution from digitalSTROM in our Microsoft booth where you can experience different ways to operate your Smart Home; e.g., order a cup of coffee from a robot or start the coffee machine with just a smile via a 3D Intel RealSense camera.

From the latest in modern, powerful Windows 10 PCs to cloud-connected services, I am constantly amazed by the innovative ways our partners are building on our platforms to deliver rich experiences to customers.  I think it’s going to be a great holiday season for Microsoft, our partners and our customers.

Check back on the Windows Blog for more updates in the coming months.

*Based on Acer’s internal survey as of August 29, 2019 of competing clamshell laptop designs available on the market, running Windows OS or OSX.

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