Best Qualcomm-powered laptops of CES 2018

By Jaina Grey Published January 9, 2018

A new breed of laptop debuted just before CES 2018, powered not by Intel or AMD, but Qualcomm. These new ultra-mobile laptops are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors, and that means they’re engineered for longevity, reliability, and mobility. At CES 2018, we’re all getting a closer look at this new breed of laptop, and here are some of our favorites.

HP Envy X2

Lenovo Miix 630 vs HP Envy x2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The HP Envy X2 is a luxurious little 2-in-1 with one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processors purring away inside a slick glass and aluminum chassis. The body itself immediately dispels fears that these Qualcomm laptops would just be a new type of Chromebook — inexpensive devices designed for expedience rather than experience. The HP Envy X2, wrapped in a blue leather case that doubles as a stand and a keyboard, certainly lives up to its name. It features a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution display, LTE connectivity, 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of SSD storage space.

Recommended Videos

Asus NovaGo

asus novago — Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Don’t you hate when a laptop can’t see you through an entire workday? When you have to go dig out your charger and hang out near an outlet for the last few hours of your day? Well, the Asus NovaGo might change that for you. This thing is designed, like the other Qualcomm-powered laptops, to be a mobile workhorse, but this one takes mobility to the extreme. This thing is designed to keep you going for 22 hours on a single charge, with 30 days of standby time. Naturally these are manufacturer estimates so they might be a bit inflated, but still, if you get even half that out of the NovaGo that would place it among the best in its class. The NovaGo will start at $600 for the model with 4GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD, while the $800 model will feature 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space.

Lenovo Miix 630

Lenovo Miix 630 Review — Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

What about 20 hours of battery life and internet access no matter where you are? That’s what you get out of the Lenovo Miix 630, according to Lenovo that is. The Miix builds on the example set by the Surface Pro, delivering 2-in-1 functionality with a soft-touch case and integrated keyboard. It features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and comes in a few different flavors, depending on your needs: It can feature 4GB of RAM or 8GB, and between 64GB and 256GB of SSD storage space.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Jaina Grey is a Seattle-based journalist with over a decade of experience covering technology, coffee, gaming, and AI. Her…

Topics

Computing

Qualcomm is set to ratchet up chip prices in September, and your next gadget upgrade could bear the brunt

The price hike could touch every Snapdragon-powered device category.

The new Qualcomm Snadragon 8 Elite Gen 5

I want you to sit with this for a second. Qualcomm, the company whose Snapdragon chips sit inside your Android phone and tablet, your Windows laptop, your Meta smart glasses, your Galaxy Watch, and your wireless earbuds, reportedly sent a letter to every major customer telling them prices are going up by double digits.

The price hike will be in effect from September 1, 2026, a recent Bloomberg report claims. Essentially, all the companies placing their chip orders after that will pay a higher price.

Computing

Stop fighting with your roomie over outlets and get one of these multi-port chargers before you head back to school

One plug, zero drama, all your devices charged by morning.

Satechi ChargeView

Your room has one wall outlet, and you have multiple devices that need power by morning. Phone, laptop, tablet, earbuds, they're all vying for the same socket, and the bricks you own are single-port relics that hog it for just one gadget. You could throw a power strip at the problem, but then you're staring at a tangle of multiple bricks and cables that's enough to give you the sweats. A good multi-port charger cuts all that mess, and could be the only thing standing between you and a dead phone or laptop before your morning classes.

Back-to-school season is a smart time to buy one. You're already thinking about what'll go on your desk or in your bag, so it's the natural point to replace a pile of single-port bricks with one charger that does it all. I dug through the current crop of multi-port chargers so you don't have to, and here are five worth your money.

Computing

OpenAI’s rogue AI hack was just the beginning, Hugging Face warns

OpenAI’s rogue AI has come back to bite it

Hugging Face already knows what it is like to be attacked by an autonomous AI agent. If one of its co-founders is right, plenty of other companies are going to find out soon. Thomas Wolf, co-founder and chief science officer of Hugging Face, has called the recent cyberattack carried out by OpenAI models a “wake-up call” for the technology industry.

Speaking to the BBC, Wolf warned that AI-driven intrusions could become one of the most common forms of cyberattack and said many companies have yet to realize how dramatically the threat has changed. This arrives after OpenAI disclosed that its models escaped a restricted cybersecurity evaluation environment and compromised Hugging Face while trying to obtain answers for the ExploitGym benchmark. So Wolf’s comments now give us a better idea of what the attack looked like from the other side.