The huge IFA tech convention is taking place this week, with some of the biggest brands from around the globe launching new tech.
Intel launched its new Core Ultra (Series 2) chips, Asus showcased the glorious Zenbook S 14 and both Acer and MSI took the fight to the Steam Deck OLED with new handheld gaming PCs.
Launch events weren’t just taking place in Berlin, with Remarkable launching its colour display-toting Paper Pro tablet and GoPro unwrapping the next-gen of its Hero camera range.
But this is just the start of tech release season. On Monday (September 9) Apple’s next event is scheduled, and this is where we expect to hear news about the iPhone 16 range.
There’ll be more on that next week, but for now – here are our winners and losers for this week.
Winner: Honor’s thinnest foldable hits Europe
Foldable phones have been steadily improving since they hit shelves a few years ago, consistently finessing pain points with each release. The thickness of the devices has always been somewhat of an issue though, and clearly Honor felt the same way as its latest folding phone – the Magic V3 – is seriously thin.
We’ve been putting the Magic V3 through its paces ahead of its European launch this week, and it’s fair to say our reviewer was impressed. Writing about the phone’s design, Mobile editor Lewis said, “Honor has managed to slim the foldable down even further, now measuring in at 9.2mm thick when folded and just 4.4mm when unfolded, and it weighs just 226g. That’s not close to candybar phone territory, that’s comfortably within it…” Impressive stuff.
But a phone can’t rely solely on a thin design to stand out, and the Magic V3 impressed us elsewhere too. The battery got us through a full day of use, the inner display foregoes the annoying crease and the cameras are great – for a foldable at least.
The £1699 price is high, but we’ve yet to really see these high-end book-style foldables come in at affordable prices and this isn’t the most expensive.
Loser: Sony’s Concord taken offline
PS5 and PC shooter Concord, a multiplayer title published by Sony, has been taken offline this week, with sales ceased and refunds offered to anyone who has bought the game. This would be surprising news in any case, but what makes this story even more shocking is that Concord has only been on sale for a few weeks.
According to The Guardian, sales of the title had been low and player counts on Steam weren’t much better. In a statement, Sony said that “…while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended.”
The statement continued, “Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.” So, while this doesn’t spell complete doom for the title, it seems that it’ll need a big reboot for it to return.
Concord launched to mixed reviews, with an average score of 62/100 on Metacritic. The public opinion was much worse, with the Metacritic User Score a lowly 1.8.
It’s not been all bad for Sony-published games this week though, as PS5 title Astro Bot launched to rave reviews across the board.
