This story is part of our continuing coverage of CES 2020, including tech and gadgets from the showroom floor.
This year’s CES has been a fantastic show for laptops. Our favorite conventional laptops got more refined, while others experimented with exciting new designs.
With dozens and dozens announced this year, we’ve gotten our hands on as many as possible to show you what was hot this year.
Dell XPS 13
Some things you can depend on at CES. A new XPS 13 is one of those, but this year, it’s more than just a spec bump. It’s a complete redesign of the XPS 13, bringing a new 16:10 display and a reduced bottom bezel, resulting in a laptop lid that feels like it’s all screen. The new XPS 13 also a more comfortable keyboard, a larger touchpad, and even an infrared camera up top for Windows Hello.
It was already the best laptop you could buy, but with the changes Dell has brought this year, it’s somehow even better than ever before.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold
We knew CES would be full of announcements regarding foldable laptops, but Lenovo’s impressed us most. It’s an OLED 4K screen that can be folded in half, just like the Galaxy Fold. It can be used as a tablet, but also an e-reader — and a full laptop, too.
As with all dual-screen laptops, the keyboard solution is detrimental. And Lenovo got it right. The keyboard itself folds right into the device itself, making for one neat, portable package. The 13-inch OLED 4:3 screen is gorgeous, regardless of the orientation you’re using it in. But most importantly, Lenovo seems to have thought through each of the use cases and modes. Even without the support Windows 10X to back it up yet, it’s the most convincing implementation we’ve seen of a dual-screen device yet.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook is audacious. It’s more than just the bright red color, it’s everything about this high-end Chromebook. First off, it has a 13.3-inch 4K AMOLED display — a first for Chromebooks. Nearly every aspect of the Galaxy Chromebook is top-of-the-line, from its aluminum build quality to its preposterously portable size, it might be the most refined laptop Samsung has ever made.
It does come at a price though. Even with the 10th-generation Intel Core i5 processor inside, $999 is a lot of money to pay for a Chromebook. That didn’t make me any less impressed at the engineering muscle Samsung is flexing with this laptop.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
AMD made a big splash with its powerful new Ryzen 4 mobile processors at CES this year, though not many laptops feature the new chips. The ROG Zephyrus G14 was the stand-out, though. It’s a beautiful gaming laptop all on its own, complete with cute programmable glowing lights on the lid. But the real excitement is around the form and how AMD’s new processor.
Despite being a smaller 14-inch laptop and weighing just 3.5 pounds, the Zephyrus G14 has an 8-core processor and up to an RTX 2060 graphics card. That means serious power in a shockingly small package.
HP Spectre x360 15
Like many of our favorite laptop designs, the Spectre x360 15 has been refined to near perfection. The diamond-cut edges are still there, as is the fantastic keyboard and the option for a 4K OLED screen remains.
But set the 2020 Spectre next to the previous year’s model and the difference is obvious. HP has cut the bezels around the display significantly, resulting in a far smaller and more efficient laptop. It’s now every bit as portable as the XPS 15, and with options for the latest Intel and Nvidia hardware, it’s every bit as powerful, too.
Dell Concept Duet
Dell brought a few interesting concept PCs to CES this year, but one of the most interesting was the Duet. It’s a dual-screen device, featuring two full-sized 13-inch screens. It makes for an incredibly futuristic look, and with Dell’s patented thin bezels, it feels like the modern PC we’ve always wanted to see.
But the two screens are only the beginning. It also comes with a removable keyboard that can magnetize to the bottom of the screen when you need to get some serious typing done. It’s like the Surface Neo, just on a bigger scale. This one’s still a concept, but we’re definitely going to keep our eye on it.
HP Elite Dragonfly
The Dragonfly was launched a couple of months ago, but HP already followed that up with a new version this year at CES. While it doesn’t look all that different, HP made a few interesting changes to the laptop in its quick second generation.
First, the Dragonfly is now one of the most sustainable laptops ever made. The chassis is now made out of recyclable materials, along with ocean-bound plastic used in other elements of the device. HP’s also added 5G support, making for one of the most advanced business laptops we’ve ever seen.
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