When is a business laptop more than just a business laptop?

HP launched three new EliteBook business laptops at CES 2025, featuring new Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" vPro chipsets. In conjunction with all the benefits of the "Lunar Lake" architecture, the vPro series adds security features built onto the silicon.

At CES in Las Vegas earlier this month, Laptop Mag met with representatives from HP and Intel to discuss the co-engineering that went into these new EliteBook laptops. Cory McElroy, Vice President of Commercial Project Management at HP, explained to Laptop that "The vPro value proposition with the HP commercial and elite value proposition is very important." And from that combination of the Lunar Lake vPro and HP enterprise mindset, we get the EliteBook X.

I've been using the EliteBook X 14 for the last few weeks to experiment with its AI capabilities, as AI for business and the IT Workforce Experience Platform were two of HP and Intel's main focus points for the updated EliteBooks.

But what's new beyond the silicon?

HP EliteBook X 14 (G1i): Specs

HP EliteBook X 14 (G1i): Pricing and availability

HP EliteBook X G1i's starting price is $1,999. This model likely features an Intel Core Ultra 5 200V-series processor, 16GB of memory, 256GB of storage space, and a 14-inch (1920 x 1200) LED panel.

The EliteBook X G1i can be configured with an Intel Core Ultra 5 or 7 200V series vPro CPU, up to 32GB of memory, and up to 512GB of storage space. Display panel options include a 14-inch (1920 x 1200) LCD panel, a 14-inch (1920 x 1200) touchscreen, a 14-inch (1920 x 1200) low-power LED panel, or a 14-inch 120Hz (2560 x 1600) LED panel.

The pre-production test sample I have currently won't be available for sale as it features a 1TB SSD.

The prices for all other configurations have yet to be announced. The EliteBook X G1i is expected to launch in March 2025.

HP EliteBook X 14 (G1i): Design

HP's EliteBook line maintains a minimalist business aesthetic but with new quirky colors for the AI PC generation. The EliteBook X G1i comes in either Atmospheric Blue or Glacier Silver. The Atmospheric Blue reads as a deep navy, while the Glacier Silver reads more white. While these colors aren't exactly eye-catching, they are a nice twist on the standard business laptop choices, which range from silver to dark gray or gunmetal.

The EliteBook uses up to 90% recycled Magnesium in its chassis, more than 20% recycled cooking oil in the bezels, 30% ocean-bound plastic in the speakers, and 30% post-consumer plastic and recycled fishing net materials in the keyboard. So, at least 70% of the major parts of the EliteBook X G1i are recycled materials. Impressive sustainability figures for HP.

Our EliteBook X 14 pre-production configuration also weighs just 2.81 pounds, while some configurations will weigh as little as 2.6 pounds. Coming in below 3 pounds is optimal for a business laptop, especially for those with lengthy commutes.

HP EliteBook X 14 (G1i): Ports

Based on our hands-on time with the EliteBook and HP's product brief provided to the press before CES, we've pieced together the full list of ports on the EliteBook X 14:

• 2x Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps signaling rate, USB power delivery, DisplayPort 2.1)
• 1x USB Type-C (10Gbps signaling rate, USB power delivery, DisplayPort 1.4)
• 1x USB Type-A (5Gbps signaling rate)
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 1x Audio combo jack
• 1x nano SIM

That should be enough ports for most professionals, but you may want to invest in a laptop docking station or USB-C hub if you plan to power your office workstation using the EliteBook X 14.

HP EliteBook X 14 (G1i): Display

Our preview configuration of the EliteBook X 14 G1i features a 60Hz (1920 x 1200) LED touchscreen panel with a matte finish.

HP rates the EliteBook X G1i FHD panel options at 100% sRGB color gamut coverage, and based on what my eyes can tell, the EliteBook X 14 meets that claim.

I pulled up the trailer for the upcoming suspense film Drop and was pleasantly surprised by the vibrance and deep contrast on the EliteBook's display, as much of the trailer takes place in dim and low-lit environments. The tense dinner scene between Meghann Fahy's Violet and Brandon Sklenar's Henry is dark enough to create a sense of tension, but, the colors on the EliteBook X 14's display were vibrant enough to catch the bright red details of Violet's date outfit.

HP rates the LED touchscreen at 800 nits. While we didn't get a chance to test this claim in the lab, based on how eye-searingly bright the Google homepage appeared when the display brightness was set to 100%, I'm inclined to believe the brightness comes close to HP's claim.

HP EliteBook X 14 (G1i): Performance and heat

With an Intel Lunar Lake vPro processor onboard, we expect the EliteBook X to offer solid productivity performance. However, the Intel Core Ultra 200V series is designed for thin and light laptops that can last for a full day or more on battery life, so don't expect record-breaking performance scores.

While the vPro line differs slightly from the consumer-level Core Ultra 200V series, we expect similar performance to the Asus ExpertBook P5 (P5405). In my hands-on testing, I had no trouble loading multiple AI programs and running them simultaneously, even with a cluster of 15-20 Chrome tabs open.

In general, the Intel Core 200V series has kept cool under pressure, even in ultra-thin systems like the Zenbook S 14.

In my hands-on testing, the ExpertBook X 14 G1i remained cool, even after extended use with the display set to 100% brightness. The keyboard was a comfortable temperature, and the underside was just a bit warm but not unbearable to leave on your lap for extended periods.

HP EliteBook X 14 (G1i): AI features

AI features that could help businesses were one of the major points of my talk with Intel and HP about the new EliteBooks. McElroy tells Laptop Mag, "As we look at manageability, security, productivity, name your application, it's really great to see the right workload on the right XPU."

The AI for Business solutions showcased by Intel and HP do work across the CPU, GPU, and NPU as different software developers target different hardware accelerators.

Some of the demos shown by Intel and HP included video conferencing software that can use an existing recording and sync your mouth movements to new audio. Or Poly Camera Pro, which can control your video settings across multiple applications so you get a quality video feed regardless of whether you're using Zoom or Microsoft Teams. The two companies also showcased LLMWare, a private AI software for Intel PCs.

"It's really been great to see the flywheel really going... We put out a goal last year to try to get about 300 AI-enabled features, and we surpassed that. And, you know, we didn't do that alone. It took partners, the ecosystem team, and a lot of them doing on their own," enthused Carla Rodriguez, Vice President and General Manager of Client Software Ecosystem at Intel.

HP EliteBook X 14 (G1i): Security and software

McElroy explained the decision to utilize the vPro line of Intel processors was mainly a response to the kind of users targeted by the EliteBook. "The EliteBook X is our flagship premium product for these kinds of managed IT environments. So it needs to have all the security and manageability and everything you need to deploy and support these devices, yet at the same time, it's really catering to highly mobile users."

Indeed, the Intel vPro line comes with additional security features including, built-in security on the CPU itself, faster on-chip security operations, isolation of sensitive operations and data to the processor for increased security, and a dedicated security engine for third-party firmware. The Intel Core Ultra 200V vPro chips have MITRE ATT&CK framework validation, meaning the chips have proven protection against over 150 real-world cyber-attack techniques.

HP has optimized the EliteBook X for its Workforce Experience Platform, designed to increase IT fleet control, offer better self-help solutions for employees, provide a collaborative work environment, and offer better endpoint security for companies upgrading to the EliteBooks.

HP has also included a TPM 2.0 embedded security chip, and Wolf Security for Business on the EliteBook X 14. That includes the BIOSphere, a 5th Gen Endpoint Security Controller, Sure Start, Sure Admin, Sure Recover (Cloud), Sure Click (Basic), Secure Erase, Privacy Camera, Tamper Lock, Seamless Firmware Updates, and Sure Run.

The EliteBook X 14 G1a comes with either Windows 11 Home or Windows 11 Pro, with the standard Microsoft applications pre-loaded like Edge, Copilot, and Clipchamp. HP proprietary software like Poly Camera Pro and HP AI Companion have also been pre-loaded.

HP EliteBook X 14 (G1i): What's next

Intel's vPro line of processors aims to increase security for employees and for IT departments, and HP has its own security solutions baked into the Wolf Security program and the Workforce Experience Platform. And with Intel's Lunar Lake vPro chips offering a powerful NPU, employees can use more in-depth AI while maintaining on-device security for those functions.

AI applications and AI features built into existing apps has seen exponential growth in the last year alone. While some of that AI exists in a legal gray-area like image generation, other AI features like video conferencing tools have become more needed than ever in a hybrid working environment.

As Rodriguez wrapped up for me during our discussion at CES, "the momentum is real, and it's being unleashed."

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I’ve always associated MSI with Intel chips, because every MSI gaming laptop I’ve reviewed has come with one. It had nothing to do with what was available at the time for me to review, either; Taiwan-based MSI has long partnered with Intel for processors.

Even when MSI started using chips from AMD — the Intel competitor less than two miles away in Santa Clara, California in its gaming laptops — many of MSI laptops still only came with an Intel option.

But this year at CES in Las Vegas, an AMD chip was listed on nearly every one of the little display cards that sat next to new MSI laptops.

This was a huge departure from what MSI has done in the past — and maybe a sign that Intel may be up for a fight if it wants to continue its domination of the mobile gaming space.

MSI reps tell Laptop Mag via email it still considers Intel “the leader in the professional industry,” but now that AMD has expanded its mobile chip catalog, MSI wanted to give more options to different types of users.

The popular AMD Ryzen X3D processor, which can produce higher frame rates and smoother game play for demanding AAA games, is one example of an AMD chip that MSI wanted to utilize in its laptops.

“The X3D solution largely benefits gamers, so we brought the technology to our gaming flagship Raider series.”

MSI went beyond its Raider laptop series this year at CES, announcing the following new configurations (in addition to Intel options):

• AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D for the Raider
• AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX for the Vector
• AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 for the Pulse
• AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX for the Crosshair

Of course, none of those AMD Ryzen chips were around at CES last year. MSI debuted new Raider, Vector, Pulse, and Crosshair gaming laptops with Intel 14th-gen or Core Ultra processors — though the company released an AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D version of its Raider gaming laptop later in 2024.

Still, the AMD Ryzen 8000 series existed last year, yet MSI did not include that configuration in its Crosshair gaming laptop or any of its higher-tier gaming options. Its nostalgic '90s budget Cyborg launched with only an Intel option last year, but this year it will feature up to an AMD Ryzen 7 260 chip.

The new Katana gaming laptop is listed with either an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS option or the new Intel Arrow Lake processor this year at CES, too. The Stealth is also getting a boost to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (up from the Ryzen AI 9 365 version Laptop reviewed in November 2024).

The only gaming laptop without an AMD option is the Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth. As MSI tells Laptop Mag, the Dragon Edition is a special edition laptop that will be available in limited quantities.

AMD in MSI laptops is a huge win for gamers

This many AMD configurations is a huge win for gamers. Anyone who might have wanted an MSI gaming laptop but opted not to buy one because it didn’t come with an AMD chip can now include MSI in their decision process. From high-end to budget options, there’s a configuration for almost anyone. There’s no shortage of choices. But it also feels like there is a rift between gaming laptop makers and Intel, one that perhaps has been growing for a while, and we’re just now starting to see its width.

Between AMD making significant leaps in mobile gaming and Intel tripping over hurdles (remember the great 14nm saga of 2021?), a tug-of-war between the two chipmakers has been playing out in yearly laptop announcements. My own memories stretch back to MSI’s budget-priced Bravo 15 (2020), but the company has been working with AMD since before it released that laptop — yet it’s been slower to adopt a full slate of AMD-powered products, as we’ve seen from past announcements.

Now that MSI has gone the whole hog with AMD configurations, it will be the company to watch once gaming laptop reviews start flowing — not just for the quality of those products, but how they compare to their Intel counterparts.

For me, one of the biggest selling points of a 2-in-1 laptop is if it comes with a stylus.

If a laptop does come bundled with a stylus, I’ll pick that one over the competition, but it can’t be just any stylus. I make a half-closed fist when I write, so if there are protruding buttons near the tip, I can’t assign actions to them unless I want to rewrite what I accidentally erase constantly.

That brings me to MSI’s gorgeous black, gold-trimmed 2-in-1 Summit laptop. When it debuted, it didn’t come with a stylus that made me say, “Here’s my credit card; now I own you.” But at CES this month, I noticed a stylus attached to the Summit, and it wasn’t just any stylus — it was the MSI Pen 2.

Two years ago, at CES, MSI introduced its Pen 2, a dual stylus and pencil with a graphite tip that can be used to write on a laptop screen. I write as much on my laptop as one might use Post-It notes, so as I tested it out, I couldn’t hide my enthusiasm — especially since the action buttons were flush with the pen’s surface. The only problem was that the Pen 2 only shipped with MSI’s Creator Z17 HX Studio and CreatorPro Z17 HX Studio laptops. It wasn’t available separately or with another MSI laptop.

Thankfully, the lack of the Pen 2 with the impressive MSI Summit laptop ended in September 2024. At IFA Berlin, the Tawain-based firm announced it would include its Pen 2 with the Summit 13 AI+ Evo, a 13" 2-in-1 laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" processor.

Fast-forward to CES 2025: I’m standing before a slightly different Summit 13. This one has an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H "Arrow Lake" processor, but I'm really gawking at what's on the outside: An MSI Pen 2 that is magnetically attached to the left of the keyboard.

Anyone with a touchscreen laptop that supports MPP 2.6 (Microsoft Pen Protocol) should be able to use the Pen 2, regardless of whether they have an MSI laptop.

At $130, the MSI Pen 2 is not cheap, but the accessories a company bundles (or doesn’t bundle) with its 2-in-1 laptops can be the final factor in whether to purchase it.

The "Arrow Lake-powered MSI Summit Evo 13 is due out by March 31, 2025, but MSI tells Laptop Mag it has not settled on a price.

We saw a lot of interesting trends at CES 2025, and on the gaming side, no trend was more obvious than a continued commitment to putting more and more RGB lights on gaming laptops.

But we're hoping we might see a different trend take off, thanks to the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 and 18.

The Strix Scar 18 was our winner for Best Gaming Laptop at CES 2025, in part because of the Scar's upgradeability and easy repairs. But we also loved the AnimeVision LED lights on the top cover panel and the full 360-degree light bar on the bottom side of the Scar 18.

But the Strix Scar 18 offers more than just customizable LED lights, a ton of RGB, and an easy-open latch for the bottom panel.

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (G835L): Specs

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (G835L): Pricing and availability

Asus's updated line of ROG gaming laptops are set to launch in Q1 2025, though exact dates and prices are still unclear.

Based on what we know from Nvidia, the RTX 50-series laptops will launch in March 2025, and Nvidia expects laptops with the RTX 5090 to start at $2,899. The starting price for the Strix Scar 16 (G635L) and 18 (G835L) is $2,599 though we don't know the exact configuration of the starting model. It does appear that all models of the Strix Scar 16 and 18 will feature ROG Nebula HDR Mini-LED displays.

We can expect a higher price tag for models with the RTX 5090 and upgraded memory and storage, but the exact price isn't finalized yet. Asus will likely provide further information on pricing and specs as we get closer to the expected March launch date.

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (G835L): Design

The ROG Strix Scar series has always been the flagship for Asus's gaming options, which means the designs are often pretty wild. The 2025 Strix Scar 18 (G835L) is a perfect example. The laptop features customizable AniMeVision LEDs on the top cover, RGB lighting on the keyboard, and an LED light strip that wraps around the entire bottom panel. Plus, the ROG Logo on the top cover also gets some additional RGB lighting.

But the design choices go deeper than just lighting. The Strix Scar 16 and 18 both feature an easy-release latch on the bottom of the laptop to pull off the back cover and upgrade your RAM and SSD options, clean your fans, or replace your battery. And that bottom panel itself has "ROG STRIX" embossed into the heat exhaust vents, for an added flourish.

As for portability, the Strix Scar 18 is a desktop replacement laptop. So it won't be the easiest laptop to carry around. Measuring 15.71 x 11.73 x 0.93~1.26 inches and weighing 7.67 pounds, the Strix Scar 18 is a beast of a laptop. It isn't at Alienware 18 Area-51 levels of weight and size, but it is up there when we consider massive gaming machines.

Then again, you're not likely to commute with the Strix Scar 18 (835L), so it can get away with being a thicker, heavier laptop than we'd expect from something like the Razer Blade 14 (2024).

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (G835L): Ports

Asus has published the full port array for the Strix Scar 16 and 18 laptops, confirming a massive number of ports on the desktop replacement class flagships:

• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 (with Power Delivery, DisplayPort, and G-Sync support)
• 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
• 1x RJ45 2.5G ethernet
• 1x Audio combo jack

That should be more than enough ports for most gamers, so you're unlikely to need a docking station or USB hub.

However, streamers and content creators may want to invest in a laptop docking station since both Strix Scar models lack an SDCard reader.

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (G835L): Display

The Strix Scar 18 (G835L) has an 18-inch 240Hz (2560x1600) ROG Nebula HDR Mini-LED display with a matte finish.

Asus rates the Strix Scar 18's ROG Nebula HDR Mini-LED displays at 500 nits of SDR brightness and up to 1200 nits of HDR brightness. Asus also rates the display to 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut with Pantone Validation.

Like many of the gaming laptops at CES 2025, the Strix Scar 18 was locked to a series of game trailers repeating over and over. However, the Indiana Jones and Doom: The Dark Ages trailers looked fantastic on the mini-LED panels on the Strix Scar series laptops. With high color vibrance and deep blacks, the contrast on these displays is worth the hype based on what we could see at the Asus suite.

Of course, we'll have to wait and see how the Nebula HDR Mini-LED panel handles in our lab testing, but from our first look, we're looking forward to gaming on this display.

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (G835L): Performance and heat

The Strix Scar 18 features an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor with up to 64GB of memory and up to 2TB of SSD storage. So we're expecting a pretty powerful general performance from the Strix.

Because the laptop was locked to an Nvidia game trailer showcase, we didn't get a chance to get hands-on with the performance but we do have an idea of what to expect based on Intel's benchmark claims.

Intel rates the Core Ultra 200HX as "up to 20%" better for multithreaded performance over the 14th generation. The 200HX will also over more than 5% increases to single-thread performance.

Asus has paired the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU and Nvidia RTX 50-series GPU with a new end-to-end vapor chamber and sandwiched heatsink that features tri-fan technology, and Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal in the newly revamped cooling solution for the 2025 Strix Scar lineup. This new cooling system should get your CPU and GPU running at up to 15 degrees Celcius cooler than the older model.

So if you plan to use the Strix Scar 18 to replace a desktop as your main home computer, you should get more than enough power for photo and video editing, 3D workloads, spreadsheet surfing, and email management.

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (G835L): Gaming and graphics

We don't know what the starting GPU configuration is for the Strix Scar 18, but do know it will feature RTX 50-series GPUs. Asus may restrict the Strix Scar 18 to just the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 since it is the gaming flagship.

While we did get some time to poke around at a few gaming laptops in the Nvidia Press Suite, they opted for the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 instead of the Strix Scar 16 or 18 for the Asus brand representation. Based on what we know of the RTX 50-series GPUs so far, we can expect a 10-30% increase in framerates without DLSS 4, and some incredible gains in 4K gaming at ultra settings with DLSS 4 frame generation enabled.

And if Intel's claims can be believed about the Core Ultra 9 275HX, you shouldn't run into too much CPU bottlenecking with these powerful new GPUs. Particularly when gaming at higher resolutions like the Strix's native 1600p.

Plus with Asus's revamped vapor chamber, the Strix Scar should get some serious performance out of the RTX 50-series GPUs without risk of thermal throttling.

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (G835L): Outlook

While we still need to do our own internal testing to see how well Asus has leveraged the new Intel and Nvidia CPUs for the Strix Scar 18, we're already anticipating the pure gaming power promised by the Strix Scar laptops.

But we're also enthusiastic that the Scar's upgradeability might hint at a new trend for laptops. While there are plenty of challenges to making laptops as upgradeable as desktop PCs, just having an easy-open latch with user-replaceable batteries, and easy to access RAM and SSD slots is a step in the right direction.

We'll have to wait until we get to spend some quality time with the Strix Scar 18 to determine if you should just recycle your old desktop in favor of this gaming powerhouse, but for now, it might be worth setting aside a budget.

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2025 is apparently the year for all gaming laptop companies to lean into the RGB lightbar gamer aesthetic even harder than usual. But no company went as deep into the RGB zone as Acer.

The new Acer Predator Helios 18 features per-key RGB lighting in the keyboard, an RGB light strip that runs along the edge of the chassis from the left side port array to the middle of the keyboard deck, more RGB lights in the keyboard deck itself, and lighting on the Predator logo on the top cover.

But this gaming laptop offers more than just RGB everywhere you look. The Predator Helios 18 offers swappable MagKey 4.0 mechanical switches, a 6th Gen AeroBlade 3D fan for the thinnest cooling fan blades, powerful new Intel and Nvidia chips, a dual-mode Mini LED display panel, and truly absurd specs for storage and memory.

The Helios 18 is beyond extra; this is a gaming laptop for the person who doesn't understand the concept of moderation.

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI: Specs

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI: Pricing and availability

While the Nvidia RTX 50-series will launch on laptops in March, RGB fanatics will have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on the Predator Helios 18 AI.

The Helios 18 AI (PH18-73) will be available in North America starting in May 2025. Prices will vary depending on configuration, but the 18 will start at $2,999 for the configuration with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU. While this is a bit pricey, Nvidia's expectations for laptops with the RTX 5080 start at $2,199, so this isn't far from what we expect, considering the Helios 18 AI features an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor.

Of course, upgrading the GPU to the RTX 5090 will add a decent bit to the cost of the Helios 18 AI. Pricing for RTX 5090 laptops starts at around $2,899, which is a price hike of $700 between the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090. Not that Acer needs to adhere to the Nvidia pricing, but it does mean you're looking at a substantial bill increase when opting for the Nvidia flagship GPU.

Other configuration options for display, memory, and storage options will also add to the final price. So a fully kitted out Helios 18 AI with the Intel Core Ultra 9, RTX 5090, 192GB of memory, 6TB of storage, and 18-inch Mini LED panel will probably cost about as much as a custom desktop PC. Given that the Helios 18 AI is a desktop replacement laptop, the cost isn't exactly out of the realm of expectation.

Whether you need all that memory and storage, on the other hand, is an entirely separate discussion.

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI: Design

The biggest change to the Acer Predator Helios 18 AI from the previous model is the sheer volume of RGB lighting. There's the Milkyway RGB dynamic lighting on the rear fan hub behind the display hinge, a wraparound RGB lightbar running from the left-side down along the bottom of the keyboard deck, RGB lights set into the palm rest, and RGB underneath the Predator logo on the top cover. There's even per-key RGB on the keyboard. And all of that lighting is customizable.

But, the overall design of the Predator Helios 18 AI doesn't just add more RGB from the 2024 model; it's also lighter, smaller, and a bit thinner depending on your configuration options.

The 2024 Predator Helios 18 measured 15.9 x 12.3 x 1.1 inches and weighed 7.2 pounds. The 2025 Predator Helios 18 measures 15.78 x 12.12 x 0.68~1.16 inches and weighs 7.05 pounds.

While you aren't likely to be lugging the Helios 18 AI around on your work commute, it is a bit more portable than the previous iteration, which is good if you do need to take it with you on the go.

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI: Ports

Acer has not released the full port array specs for the Helios 18 AI, but based on the unit we saw at CES and the published photos of the laptop, we think we've figured out what the port options are:

• 1x DC-in
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 2x Thunderbolt 5
• 3x USB Type-A
• 1x RJ45 ethernet
• 1x Audio combo jack
• 1x Micro SD card reader

That should be more than enough ports for most gamers and streamers. The Helios 18 is a desktop replacement style laptop, and Acer clearly didn't skimp on the ports at all so you're unlikely to need any kind of docking station or USB-hub.

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI: Display

The Acer Predator Helios 18 AI's top display option is a dual-mode Mini-LED panel, which is a 120Hz (3840 x 2400) panel that can be dropped down to 240Hz (1920 x 1200) for high-intensity gaming. The base option is a 250Hz (2560 x 1600) Mini-LED panel that doesn't appear to have dual-mode functionality.

Both display options are rated at 600 nits of brightness when viewing SDR content and up to 1000 nits of brightness in HDR. They both also achieve a 100% rating for the DCI-P3 color gamut for a high degree of vibrancy.

While we did get to see the Predator Helios 18 AI with its display panel on, it was stuck to a spec screen with gameplay demo footage thanks to the Nvidia GPU announcement. But the Mini-LED display did look gorgeous running through the Black State game trailer, even if we didn't get to test it out with any video or gaming content ourselves.

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI: Performance and heat

Acer had the Helios 18 AI locked down to show just game trailers and specs, which meant we couldn't get a hands-on feel for performance. But we can make a few guesses based on its configurable specs.

Intel rates the Core Ultra 200HX as "up to 20%" better for multithreaded performance over the 14th generation. The 200HX will also over more than 5% increases to single-thread performance. Intel has made some serious claims about how good the "Arrow Lake" 200HX chips are, and while Acer is not putting the flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, the 275HX should offer a solid compromise of performance and thermal control to offset the high power demands of the Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs.

You can also augment your laptop's performance with upgrades to the system memory. I'm not sure who could use 192GB of RAM, but my tendency to future-proof all of my technology has me wanting to test that spec just for the challenge of finding the limit of how many Chrome tabs and Photoshop windows you'd need to open to even put a dent into that memory capacity.

The 6TB storage option is also brow-raising but to a lower extent. Game files are absolutely massive these days, with many exceeding 100GB file sizes. So, having multiple terabytes of storage just makes sense. 6TB may be a little excessive, but not to the same extent as the 192GB RAM spec.

As for heat management, Acer has revamped the AeroBlade technology with the 6th gen iteration, which offers 0.05mm fan blades, much like the fans in the Razer Blade 16 (2025). The new fan design increases airflow efficiency by up to 20%, which combined with a thicker chassis, should allow for a relatively cool experience even after gaming for hours.

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI: Gaming and graphics

Much as we couldn't test the general performance of the Helios 18 AI, we also couldn't get any game time in on the laptop at CES. However, based on what we know of the RTX 50-series GPUs, thanks to Nvidia, we can expect some solid frame rate increases with the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090.

While the Helios 18 AI does have a 4K panel option, 2025 is not the year you can game in 4K at ultra settings, as even the desktop RTX 5090 doesn't clear 60FPS under those conditions. You need DLSS 4 to get high framerates for 4K gaming.

As for the pure-silicon performance, games without DLSS 4 optimization saw a 10-30% increase from generation to generation. That's not nothing, and does make the RTX 50-series a worthwhile investment if you're finally looking to upgrade from your Windows 10 GTX 1060 laptop.

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI: Outlook

The Acer Predator Helios 18 is a pricey gaming laptop. It's also the flagship Predator laptop, offering the best of power and performance for the desktop-replacement class. So it will command a higher price.

But if you want a laptop with more memory and storage than you'll ever possibly need, alongside RGB lighting everywhere but the bottom panel, then you can't do any better than the Helios 18 AI. While we can't make any promises about performance or gaming outside of what we've heard from the chipmakers themselves, the frankly ridiculous specs of the Helios 18 make it hard to believe you won't be getting desktop-class performance out of a laptop.

We'll have to wait until we can put the Predator Helios 18 AI through its paces in rigorous testing suite, but so far, it seems like a choice for a gaming rig. Assuming the price doesn't scare you off, that is.

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• Razer Blade 16 (2025) is the "thinnest Blade ever," but what's the catch?

AMD's Ryzen AI Max, codenamed "Strix Halo," was our Best-in-Show winner for CES 2025, and with good reason.

Thanks to its innovative approach to x86 chip design, the Ryzen AI Max series of APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) offers incredible performance in gaming, content creation, and AI. With up to 128GB of unified memory, up to 16 cores and 32 threads, and a boost clock that ranges from 4.9GHz to 5.1GHz this Ryzen series has earned its "Max" name.

But we gave the Ryzen AI Max chips Best-in-Show for more than just its beefy tech specs.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 with Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 features a Ryzen AI Max APU chipset onboard, designed to make this a powerful gaming tablet on its own. You can also connect it to the XG Mobile eGPU with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 or RTX 5090 to make it a gaming powerhouse.

AMD showcased the Flow Z13 at CES, running Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart on the Ryzen AI Max chipset. While Rift Apart is not the most graphically demanding game, the Flow Z13 kept up with the fast-paced teleporting combat without any frame drops or stuttering.

While the Flow Z13 was plugged into AC power for the gaming demo, so we can't say if you'll see a massive framerate dip on battery power only, the fact the Flow Z13 can provide a smooth 60+fps gameplay experience at 1080p is a solid win for the Ryzen AI Max and AMD's commitment to iGPU gaming.

HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a with DaVinci Resolve

The HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a was our Best Laptop of CES 2025. There was plenty of stiff competition for this coveted spot, but the ZBook Ultra blew us away with its powerful performance and ultra-light build, weighing under 4 pounds.

At the AMD suite at CES 2025, we watched the ZBook Ultra chew through an transcription test in just seconds utilizing its powerful AMD Ryzen AI Max Pro's 50 TOPS NPU in Black Magic's DaVinci Resolve. Editors can also make changes to the transcript, either before or after dropping it into the video, though according to reps from AMD the transcription AI is generally pretty accurate.

While a powerful desktop workstation is still going to be faster at basically any video editing workload, the easy portability of the ZBook Ultra makes it fantastic for editing in the field. Tasks that used to take hours are down to just minutes of time.

Is Ryzen AI Max "Strix Halo" the one chip to rule them all?

Systems featuring the Ryzen AI Max APUs are expected in Q1 2025, with the Asus ROG Flow Z13 and HP ZBook Ultra 14 being the first two products announced for the consumer and professional lines of the chip.

If the Ryzen AI Max's powerful gaming and workstation performance, and unified memory, have put Apple's M-series silicon in mind, there is a good reason for that. In an interview with Engadget, AMD's Joe Macri credited Apple for proving people will buy powerful computers without discrete graphics. Additionally, AMD compares the Ryzen AI Max chip's performance to Apple's M4 Pro silicon. So there are plenty of reasons for the Apple comparisons.

Intel's Lunar Lake chips also have unified memory, with 32GB of RAM soldered right onto the CPU package. However, AMD's Ryzen AI Max offers a truly bonkers 128GB of unified memory, of which up to 96GB can be dedicated to the GPU.

With Qualcomm gunning for MacBook users with its new suite of creative applications and AMD aiming at M-series performance, we could see an interesting shakeup in the Apple market this year.

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Lenovo announced the Legion Go 2 at CES 2025 in Las Vegas on January 7.

The original Lenovo Legion Go was released in the Fall of 2023, so we expected a refresh of the Lenovo gaming handheld, especially considering AMD announced new Ryzen Z-series processors. The Legion Go 2 remains a prototype, but Lenovo plans to make the second-generation handheld available worldwide later this year.

So, will the Legion Go 2 be worth waiting for, or should you opt for the Legion Go S instead?

Lenovo Legion Go 2: Specs

Lenovo Legion Go 2: Pricing and availability

Since the Legion Go 2 is still a prototype, Lenovo hasn't announced pricing or availability. However, the handheld is expected to ship worldwide later in 2025.

While Lenovo was only showcasing the Legion Go 2 in a prototype state with the display powered off, the handheld was playable at the AMD booth at CES and felt pretty polished already. So, we could see the Legion Go 2 as early as the spring or summer of 2025.

Lenovo Legion Go 2: Design

Lenovo has rounded out the Legion Go for the second iteration, offering better ergonomics on the hand grips and more rounded edges for the bumpers and triggers. There are also two control buttons on the right and left controllers, giving easier access to various quick control settings without running into controller mapping issues with the standard "share" and "menu" buttons on most modern gamepads.

The Legion Go 2 keeps the same Eclipse Black colorway that we see on much of Lenovo's Legion lineup. This is your standard gamer black choice, but it does look pretty good on a gaming handheld. It helps the display bezels meld into the rest of the handheld for a smoother overall look.

Additionally, Lenovo kept the detachable controllers on the Legion Go 2. Thus, you can use the kickstand to set up the main body of the handheld as a monitor, use the controllers separately, or utilize them as joysticks.

The Legion Go 2 is also smaller than the previous edition. The Legion Go 2 measures 11.64 x 5.38 x 1.66 inches, while the Legion Go measures 11.76 x 5.16 x 1.60 inches with the controllers attached. However, the Legion Go 2 is heavier than its predecessor. Lenovo rates the Legion Go 2 at 2.1 pounds, while the original Legion Go is 1.88 pounds.

The original Leigon Go was already on the heavier side for a gaming handheld, so over 2 pounds may be pushing it. Luckily, Lenovo kept the kickstand on the Legion Go 2 so you can take some of the weight of the handheld PC off your wrists.

Lenovo Legion Go 2: Ports

Lenovo has not confirmed a port array for the Legion Go 2, but based on our hands-on time with the prototype, the handheld currently has the following ports:

• 2x USB 4 Type-C ports
• 1x Audio Combo Jack
• 1x microSD card reader SD 3.0

This is a pretty standard port array for a handheld gaming PC. The original Legion Go was the first to offer two USB type-C ports, a design decision many other handheld manufacturers followed. So, seeing that trend continue with the Legion Go 2 is no surprise. The dual USB type-C ports allow you to charge the handheld while also connecting a USB-C accessory.

With that additional USB-C port, you can utilize a docking station or a USB hub to turn the Legion Go 2 into a workstation. But as far as handheld gaming goes, this port array should get you everything you need.

Of course, the port array is still officially TBD, so we could see some changes before the Legion Go 2 launches.

Lenovo Legion Go 2: Display

Lenovo did commit to putting an OLED display in the Legion Go 2, making it one of the few handheld gaming PCs to feature an OLED panel. The only other OLED options are the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch, so if you want an OLED Windows handheld, the Legion Go 2 is the way to go.

The 8.8-inch, 144Hz (1920 x 1200) OLED touchscreen is rated to 97% DCI-P3 coverage and 500 nits of brightness. These are Lenovo's claims, which we'll have to back up with our own lab testing once we get our hands on a production version of the Legion Go 2, but if Lenovo's claims are correct, this is a pretty high-end display panel for a gaming handheld.

From my brief demo time with the Legion Go 2 at the AMD booth, the OLED panel has great vibrancy and contrast with deep blacks. The display was bright enough to be seen even under harsh light bars, but because it is a glossy display panel it does suffer from a bit of glare. However, 500 nits of brightness is enough for most on-the-go gaming.

Lenovo Legion Go 2: Performance and heat

The Legion Go 2 will feature the new AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor, built using AMD's new Zen 5 architecture with integrated Radeon 780M graphics with RDNA 4 graphics technology. The Legion Go will also offer up to 32GB of memory and up to 1TB of SSD storage onboard.

While we don't have any hard performance expectations for the Ryzen Z2 Extreme yet, Zen 5 is at the heart of AMD's Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" series. "Strix Point" has been a solid performer in terms of productivity and gaming performance. So, we can expect a high degree of multicore, multithread performance from the Z2 Extreme chipset based on its Zen 5 core architecture.

This also means the Lengion Go 2 could make a solid AI PC if you turn it into a workstation machine rather than a handheld gaming PC. Additionally, we do know that Ryzen AI 300 chips tend to run on the cooler side for CPUs, which means you're less likely to singe your fingertips while using the handheld during long gaming sessions.

Lenovo Legion Go 2: Gaming and graphics

Lenovo's Legion Go 2 handheld houses an AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics chip on its Z2 Extreme CPU.

We haven't seen a gaming handheld using the Z2 Extreme processor or its Radeon 780M integrated graphics chip, but we have tried gaming on an AMD Ryzen AI 300 laptop. Though the Z2 Extreme in the Lenovo Legion Go 2 has the same underlying CPU and GPU architecture as the Asus Zenbook S 16 (UM5606), they do feature different integrated graphics chips. The Zenbook S 16 houses a Radeon 890M series iGPU, while the Legion Go 2 houses a Radeon 780M iGPU. Because both integrated graphics tiles utilize AMD's RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture, we can expect similar gaming performance from the Legion Go 2.

While at CES, I did get a chance to play around in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 on the Legion Go 2. The demo was set to the tricky Sandman boss fight, and the gameplay was smooth and reactive, which is sorely needed for the action-adventure web-slinging video game. While I quickly realized I hadn't played enough of Spider-Man 2 to have a hope of beating Sandman, I was impressed by how well the Legion Go 2 handled the game.

We'll need to do more in-depth testing to make a determination of the Legion Go 2's gaming capabilities, but it did make a positive first impression.

Lenovo Legion Go 2: What's next?

Lenovo is still calling the Legion Go 2 a prototype, so things could still change from our initial impressions. However, things do look good for this second-gen handheld. Between the smooth graphics and powerful performance expected of the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, a slick OLED display, and better ergonomics the Legion GO 2 is a worthy successor to the original.

The only thing that worries me is the weight of this device, which is more than we've seen from other 8-inch handheld PCs. But we'd need some real dedicated time with the Legion Go 2 to say for sure if it's too heavy for a handheld PC.

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When it comes to nostalgia-fueled trends, ‘90s tech doesn’t make me feel as aware of my mortality as a pair of parachute pants might. It’s a pleasant reminder of all the cool see-through gadgets I had as a kid, like my N64 controller or Monkey Giga Pet. It’s also a reminder of how far laptop designs have come in the last 20-plus years, particularly budget gaming laptops.

Us ‘90s kids are all grown up with our own budgets and ready to spend it on a souped-up gaming laptop. In addition to that, a new generation is understandably fascinated with tech before their time, so there’s no reason for budget gaming laptops to look as dull and ugly as they used to.

MSI seems to understand the nostalgia that connects two generations of tech-natives with its Cyborg line of budget gaming laptops. It first announced a refreshed, 14-inch Cyborg at CES 2024, which had translucent panels around its ports and underside. The year before, it was a 15-inch Cyborg. The best part is the price for each — they are among the lowest in the entire MSI gaming laptop catalog. Today, these laptops are still some of the best-looking, cheapest ones you can find — most recently at $900 or less over the holidays. (B&H Photo still has it on sale for $829!)

MSI added a 17-inch Cyborg to its lineup this year, featuring a different translucent see-through panel above the keyboard that also runs along the sides of the deck and continues under nearly all the keys.

An MSI rep tells Laptop Mag these very ‘90s design choices were made to help the 14”, 15”, and 17” Cyborg laptops stand out. The W, A, S, and D keys are also translucent, a trend that first caught on with higher-end gaming laptops and has made its way to the Cyborg line.

All three of MSI’s Cyborg models come with reasonable specs: a 13th-gen Intel Core i7, up to 32GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage, and a 1200p 144Hz IPS display. There’s no word on a release date or price for the 17-inch model, but I expect it will be over $1,000, given the prices of the smaller models.

I’m also glad black gaming laptops with rounded corners that were somehow still sharp have largely disappeared. (If only parachute pants would fade back into the 90s where they belong.) MSI’s Cyborg looks much more unique and refined than some of its other budget — even mid-range — gaming laptops. Take the MSI Katana: when I recently saw it on display at CES, it still had an overly chunky, matte chassis that was obviously made of plastic. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a plastic chassis, but it has to have the refined shape of a more expensive machine to feel not so, well, budget-y.

The Katana’s keyboard was still slightly depressed into the chassis, and the trackpad still looked small and out of proportion to the laptop's overall size. In contrast, MSI’s Cyborg looks more expensive than it is. The keyboard is flush with the top of the bottom chassis. The outer edges form clean, straight lines instead of tapering off at various points to make it look more aggressive. Instead of making the Katana’s top bezel thicker to avoid a webcam notch, MSI gave the Cyborg a notch and made the rest thinner.

With these differences between its budget and mid-range laptops, I can’t help but feel like MSI flipped the script on what we’ve come to expect design-wise from gaming laptops. Some of that could be due to recent advancements in hardware architecture. Still, I hope MSI continues this trend — you better believe I’ll one day give into my childhood nostalgia and buy a budget gaming laptop with translucent panels.

Snapdragon doesn't just want to take down the Intel and AMD duopoly on Windows, Qualcomm is now coming for dedicated Mac users in the creative space.

Qualcomm unveiled the final entry in the Snapdragon X platform, the budget-friendly Snapdragon X chipset, at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, NV, from January 7-10. However, the new SKU in the Snapdragon X family was hardly the most interesting thing Qualcomm brought to the computing space of CES. Qualcomm has expanded its app partnerships for Windows on Arm to include the Moises App, DJay Pro, Steinberg Cubase, and Capture One.

So what's new with Snapdragon?

DJay Pro and Capture One

Qualcomm announced a partnership with Algoriddim for DJay Pro back in May 2024 at Microsoft Build. The application is usable on all Snapdragon platforms, including the new budget Snapdragon X chipset. DJay Pro wasn't quite ready to go for Windows on Arm at launch, but it is available now on Snapdragon X devices.

The special feature Qualcomm showcased at CES 2025 was DJay Pro's Neural Mix software, which allows for real-time music source separation, allowing you to adjust and remix singular elements of a track in real time to isolate beats, instruments, or vocals in the midst of a performance. So, if you want to emphasize the cowbell in "Livin on a Prayer," you can now get speedy isolation support on Snapdragon machines and Apple's MacBook line.

Qualcomm also showcased CaptureOne in a demo photo studio complete with a multi-monitor setup, studio lights, and a camera that was plugged into the Snapdragon X Elite laptop for additional control right from the digital workstation. Not only did the Snapdragon X-powered workstation control the camera and a dual monitor setup, but Qualcomm also leveraged the built-in Hexagon NPU for quicker and easier photo editing, essentially allowing photographers to leverage post-production effects in pre-production.

While both the DJay Pro and CaptureOne applications had been announced for Snapdragon X prior to CES, this was our first time seeing both applications in action on Snapdragon X Elite laptops.

Moises Live

New for CES 2025 was a demo of the Moises Live feature in the Moises App. A preview build of this feature was showcased at Snapdragon Summit in October 2024, but the feature is now live and exclusive on the Snapdragon X Series.

Moises Live will leverage the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU to isolate vocals and instruments in any audio streamed on a Snapdragon X platform. So whether you're streaming Netflix or watching YouTube videos, you can get crystal clear audio tuned to your specific needs in seconds with the Moises Live application.

Qualcomm demoed the app using a recording of live music, and the adjustments were seamless.

Steinberg Cubase

Finally, Qualcomm showed off Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo, which are now available on Windows on Arm with Snapdragon X. This was the one live demo Qualcomm showcased on Snapdragon X Plus machines, while all of the others were running on Snapdragon X Elite platforms.

Not only has Qualcomm achieved MIDI support for electronic instruments, and pioneered low-latency audio with a native ASIO driver, but the company hosted a live music riff session showing off the low-latency drivers and MIDI support using Steinberg Cubase to cover various guitar effects pedals. If I didn't know the entire performance was run on a few Snapdragon X laptops, I would honestly have believed it was performed using standard effects pedals and amplifiers.

While Steinberg's music applications are useful for live music, and that's how Qualcomm showcased the applications, they're also used in music production and recording. This allows Qualcomm to compete with Apple's native and third-party music recording software.

What's next?

Creatives, particularly in the music and photo studio space, have long been a core user base for Apple. Because Apple's platform is plug-and-play, it makes it easy to connect a camera, a guitar, or a set of turntables to a MacBook and get started. So, with MIDI support, native ASIO drivers, and multi-monitor support, the Snapdragon X series is a solid competitor to the MacBook.

And considering the massive updates to Qualcomm's native application portfolio, the company is clearly hoping creatives will flock to Snapdragon X laptops instead since they'll be available for much less than the MacBook Pro line. Plus, unlike previous Snapdragon X demos, which used custom hardware to run DaVinci Resolve, all of these demos were run live on consumer laptops that are currently available on the market.

But it's hard to predict that these creatives will ditch the MacBook anytime soon. Apple's dominance in art spaces has been running for decades, lasting through the final Intel-Mac years, which were inarguably Apple's worst MacBook hardware in recent years, with the much-maligned "butterfly" keyboard and Touch Bar. If those weren't enough to get creatives to switch to Windows, I'm not sure Snapdragon will move the needle.

But you've got to respect the efforts Qualcomm has put into building out the Windows on Arm ecosystem over the course of a single year. Apple's reputation with creatives wasn't built in a day either, so perhaps Qualcomm can slowly win over a new generation.

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My years as a laptop reviewer have been punctuated by CES. Though the first time I attended, I was focused more on gaming desktops and components, I’ve been laser-focused on laptops since 2020. (What a weird year that was, covering CES remotely with my colleagues.) I’ve gone hands-on with and reviewed a gamut of laptops announced at CES, from tiny 13-inch productivity machines to massive gaming laptops and even dual-screen convertibles.

Every year, a new trend or twist on laptop design is usually carried into the following year. CES 2025 was an amalgamation of all those years I spent holding and typing away on prototypes. (The only thing missing this time was actually being able to see gaming benchmarks.) It was a treat to see dozens upon dozens of laptops that debuted at CES a few years ago return to the show floor, further refined thanks to chip architecture and power efficiency advances.

There was a little of everything on display. If I could make a keyword graphic of the laptops that stood out to me the most, it would say thin, light, budget-friendly, unique, powerful, and AI.

10. Thinkpal T100 AI Learning Tablet

I’m a teacher skeptical of AI’s usefulness in education. But the Thinkpal T100 AI Learning Tablet is the first compelling AI-integrated anything I’ve seen since the bandwagon left town. It’s not designed to — nor can it — replace your kid’s teacher or tutor. Still, it has a surprising amount of merit as a homework study buddy and seems to incorporate many of the same teaching methodologies I learned when I worked as a 1-to-1 tutor and aide.

With AI-integrated software and a camera, it analyzes your kid’s math, writing, or reading homework by taking pictures of it. If they got a math problem wrong, the tablet will explain how to get the correct answer. If they mispronounce a word, the tablet will say the proper pronunciation (similar to Duolingo and other language apps). If they don’t know what a word means, they can call up its dictionary entry by placing their finger on it.

The ThinkPal tablet also connects to popular apps like Google Classroom and YouTube. So if your kid needs to type something in Google Docs or watch a video for homework, they can do that.

You can pre-order the Thinkpal T100 AI Learning Tablet for $249. The tablet, plus the optional detachable keyboard, costs $339.

9. LG Gram Pro 16-inch

If you blinked, you might have missed this laptop at CES. LG first announced its new Gram Pro 16 last year at IFA Berlin 2024, providing more details at the tail end of 2024. But I found it at a tiny booth at the end of an aisle at CES Unveiled. Not only is the Gram Pro 16 the first Copilot+ PC in LG’s laptop family, but holy cannoli, it's seriously light for a 16-inch laptop.

It weighs 2.73 pounds, is 0.5 inches thick, and has a large 77Wh battery inside. The base model comes configured with an Intel Core Ultra 5 (Lunar Lake), but you can upgrade that to an Ultra 7 or Ultra 9. (All will have integrated Intel Arc graphics.) It will also support up to 32GB of RAM and up to 2TB of SSD storage, but the 144Hz display panel is an LCD, not OLED.

There is no word on pricing or availability yet, but if we’re lucky, we could have this laptop in our testing lab before the end of Q1.

8. Razer Blade 16

When I think of a blade, I think of something thin and sharp, like a razor. Razer, the company, is known for its sharp-looking gaming laptops, but compared to some of its competitors, it hasn’t been quite as thin. This time, its Blade 16 gaming laptop is 32% thinner and 30% lighter than it’s been in the past. To put that into context, the 2024 Razer Blade 16 is 0.87 inches thick, but the latest model is 0.59 inches.

Just because it’s shed some excess chassis doesn’t mean Razer skimped on the high-end specs, either. It’ll have up to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, an Nvidia 50-series GPU, a 1440p 240Hz OLED display, and a 90Wr battery.

That said, there’s no word on the price or release date yet, but if Razer’s pricing history is any indication, it will not be cheap. (Probably in the $3,000 range.)

7. MSI Cyborg A17

Feeling nostalgic for transparent 90s tech? MSI has a brand new, 17-inch budget gaming laptop, the Cyborg A17, showing no need for a portable gaming machine to look boring and ugly. This time, the transparent sections are on the top of the laptop, around the keyboard, and underneath it, making the aesthetic more obvious. (And, of course, the keys are out with RGB lighting.)

This laptop can be configured with an Intel Core Ultra 240H or AMD Ryzen 7 260 processor, an Nvidia RTX 50-series GPU, and will have a 1080p IPS display with a 144Hz refresh rate. No word on the release date or pricing yet, but given this is a budget gaming laptop, I’d expect the official price to be somewhere in the $900 range.

5. Acer Vero 16

I’ve appreciated the Vero line's use of recycled materials and budget-friendly price tag. Acer’s newest Vero 16 is no different. This time, the company has incorporated oyster shells into its recycled plastic chassis to boost the overall percentage of recycled materials used in the laptop. The result is a speckled surface that’s smoother than previous versions of the Vero.

Specifically, Acer says at least 3% of the bottom palm rest and bottom cover are bio-based oyster shell material, while the entire chassis has at least 69% post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR). The rest of the laptop consists of familiar specs: an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 16GB RAM, up to 2TB of SSD storage, and a 1200p IPS display with an optional touchscreen.

The Vero 16 will be available starting in April 2025 for $800.

4. Asus ROG Strix Scar G18

Typically, when I think of a desktop replacement, I think of a massive laptop with the power of a desktop PC that’s harder to upgrade or repair. We still have to crack open our laptops with a screwdriver and hope swapping out components doesn’t need a bottle of ibuprofen. But Asus has brought its newest ROG Strix Scar gaming laptop one step closer to a gaming desktop replacement.

Like a modern gaming PC desktop case, the bottom panel is removed by sliding a manual switch instead of screws. The dual SSDs and RAM are easily accessible, just a fingertip’s depth into the chassis. The SSDs are as easy to remove as they are from an Asus motherboard, as they use the same latched mounting (Q-Latch) system. This new setup also makes it easier to blast dust out of the fans. (Oh yeah — Asus’ new G16 has all the same features.)

The Asus ROG Strix Scar G18 should be available on March 31, 2025, and will cost $3,299 for the fully loaded model.

4. Asus ROG Flow Z13

For the first version of this gaming tablet to crank out the highest frame rates possible, you’d need Asus’ optional RTX 3080 eGPU. That bumped the cost from $1,800 to over $3,000, well beyond an equivalent, high-end gaming laptop. Also, the eGPU used a proprietary connector so you couldn’t use it with another laptop. But with those barriers to entry torn down, the ROG Flow Z13 has caught my attention again.

Its base model comes configured with an AMD Ryzen AI Max 390, with a 32-core iGPU built on AMD’s RDNA 3.5 architecture. That architecture powers the surprisingly excellent gaming performance in the Zenbook S 16 — and that laptop has half the total number of iGPU cores by comparison! Alongside AMD’s improved FSR (resolution upscaling) technology, you likely won’t need a discrete graphics card to game on this tablet. (Rumor has it the AMD Strix Halo chips’ graphics performance competes with Nvidia’s RTX 40-series.)

But if you decide you do, Asus will have new eGPUs, up to an RTX 5090, that you can connect it to — via USB-C. Of course, it will probably cost thousands of dollars, but no more property connector means you can use it with another compatible Windows laptop.

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 starts at $2,000 and should be available by the end of March 2025 (Q1). The ROG XG Mobile (eGPU) should be available simultaneously, though Asus has not yet released official pricing.

3. Asus Zenbook A14

Reviewers, including myself, might have to start rethinking what it means for a laptop to be thin and light. Asus’ new Zenbook A14 is so light it feels like there’s nothing inside it, like a toddler’s “my first laptop” toy. But it’s an adult-aged machine made of fancier materials than plastic.

The 0.52-inch thick, 2.18-pound A14 chassis houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, up to 32GB RAM, up to a 1TB SSD, two USB4 ports (with DisplayPort and power delivery support), one USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, one HDMI 2.1, and an audio jack. That’s on top of a 600-nit OLED display and a 70Wh battery, which Asus says lasts up to 32 hours. (Like, what?!) The laptop’s outer shelf is crafted from Asus’ Ceraluminum material, so it has the same subtle texture as some of the company’s newer Zenbooks.

The $1,100 Zenbook A14 model, configured with a Snapdragon X processor, 32GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD, should be available in mid-January 2025. A $900 model, configured with a slightly faster Snapdragon X Plus processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, is scheduled to ship in March 2025 and will be sold exclusively at Best Buy.

2. Lenovo Yoga Book 9i

I still love Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i two years after buying it. But Lenovo’s newest model feels like a whole new dual-screen laptop, and upgrading sooner is more tempting than usual. Compared to its predecessors, the new Yoga Book weighs a little less and is a tad slimmer, yet sports a larger 88Wh battery. Its OLED display is larger, too, 14 inches, with a 120Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of max brightness.

There are many other excellent features I wish came with the previous versions. The virtual keyboard can now be repositioned and resized with finger gestures. The five-finger tap gesture, which expands a window across both screens, now works regardless of how the displays are positioned. The top end of the keyboard folio stand now folds in two different directions, so the laptop can either stand near-vertical (an original feature) or sit near-flush with your desk (a new feature), making it more comfortable to type or draw while retaining full use of both screens instead of just one.

The Yoga Book can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage space — but it comes with an Intel Arrow Lake processor (Ultra 255H) instead of Lunar Lake, so it likely will have way more multicore performance by comparison.

It should be available in May 2025 for an expected starting price of $1,999, including the laptop, the keyboard with a folio stand, a mouse, a new stylus, a USB dongle, and a carrying pouch for all of it.

1. HP ZBook 14 Ultra G1a

I didn’t believe this 14-inch laptop was a workstation at first. How could something so small and so light have the desktop-like performance needed for heavy workloads? Turns out this ultra-portable powerhouse is an incredible feat of engineering.

At the heart of HP’s 3.3-pound ZBook 14 Ultra G1a is AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395 processor with 128GB of unified memory (RAM that is built into the CPU itself). Like the Ryzen AI 300 series chips, you can allocate a large portion of RAM to the integrated graphics to speed up tasks like 3D image rendering or real-time auto transcription.

Combined with its 40-core iGPU, this monster chip could push this ZBook into Apple MacBook Pro M4 Max performance territory or even compete with other workstations configured with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4060 — if the ZBook is loaded with top-tier parts, of course.

This laptop also features a 2.8K (2880 x 1800) 120Hz OLED touchscreen, up to 4TB of SSD storage, and a bevy of ports. HP hasn’t released pricing details yet but says the ZBook 14 Ultra G1a should be available by March 31, 2025.

Razer announced its "thinnest, most powerful" gaming laptop, the Blade 16 (2025), on January 6 at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, NV.

Featuring an AMD processor for the first time on the mainstream Blade 16, this gaming laptop also leverages the Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics cards, a deeper keyboard, and a redesigned thermal hood, all to get the laptop chassis to measure just 0.59 inches when closed.

But is the Razer Blade 16 (2025) really the thinnest, most powerful Blade laptop ever? Let's check the facts.

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Specs

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Pricing and availability

Razer has not announced pricing and availability yet, but based on the information we have from Nvidia, we expect the RTX 5090 spec of the Blade 16 to cost upwards of $4,000. The 2024 Razer Blade 16 started at $2,999, so don't look for the thinnest, most powerful Blade 16 laptop on our best gaming laptops under $1,500 page.

Like many gaming laptops with the new Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics cards, the Razer Blade 16 (2025) is expected to ship in March.

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Design

In terms of design aesthetic, the Razer Blade 16 (2025) retains most of the features of previous Blade laptops. It's got a black aluminum chassis with a minimalist, almost Apple-style design. The RGB lighting is still limited to the keyboard backlight, and the Blade 16 is still a very slim, portable gaming powerhouse.

However, Razer claims that the Blade 16 (2025) is its thinnest, most powerful Blade laptop ever. But, there are those of us who still remember the 0.5-inch-thick Razer Blade Stealth (2017), which was absolutely thinner than the Blade 16 (2025), which is 0.59 inches thick.

We'll forgive Razer for the marketing because the Stealth line lacked discrete graphics, which allowed it to be thinner. Additionally, the 2025 Blade 16 is far thinner than its 2024 counterpart, which was 0.87 inches thick. The new Blade 16 is even slimmer than the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M4 Pro, 2024) at 0.66 inches.

The Blade 16 (2025) features a revamped keyboard with deeper key travel at 1.5mm and the same oversized touchpad as previous Blade models. So, it is a fascinating design challenge to fit all of that into such a slim laptop. And we have to give Razer credit for putting in a deeper keyboard while still shaving almost 0.3 inches off the chassis.

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Ports

Razer has not released the official port array for the Blade 16 (2025), but based on the models we saw at CES we can put together a general idea of the port array on the new Blade laptop for you. At least one, if not both of those USB Type-C ports should be Thunderbolt 5.

• 1x DC-in
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 2x USB Type-C
• 3x USB Type-A
• 1x SD card reader
• 1x security lock slot

This should be enough ports for any gamer, allowing you to skip out on the USB-C hub or laptop docking station.

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Display

The Razer Blade 16 (2025) has a 16-inch 240Hz (2880 x 1440) OLED display with a response time of just 0.2ms. Razer displays are generally on the good side, and OLED panels offer a solid advantage in terms of color vibrancy.

Older OLED panels used to suffer in terms of brightness, but plenty of modern OLEDs can get a good 300-500 nits, so we're not too worried about a dim display with this panel option.

While I didn't get a chance to see the Blade 16 display in a well-lit environment to test for glare, the OLED panel looked great in low-light in the Razer press suite and the Nvidia press demo area. Playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the Blade 16 (2025) was an absolute treat, as the game has a wide array of colors and lighting effects, and the Blade 16's panel handled the game with ease.

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Performance and heat

Rather than pairing the Blade 16 (2025) with the brand new "Fire Range" variant of AMD gaming processors, Razer opted for the "Strix Point' Ryzen AI 300 series. This decision likely came down to the chassis redesign for the Blade 16, which required a new cooling system to keep the RTX 50-series GPUs running. So, to offset the cooling requirements of the RTX 5090 GPU, Razer opted for the more power-efficient AI PC chip instead of the gaming processor.

The Ryzen AI 300 series has proven to have solid multicore performance in our testing on various other laptops, including gaming machines like the Asus TUF Gaming A14. So, seeing the AI PC chip here isn't completely out of nowhere.

Razer's redesigned thermal hood for the 2025 Blade 16 is intended to get the most power out of the CPU and GPU possible with a new generation of Razer's patented vapor chamber. Featuring a dual-fan design with 0.05mm exhaust fins, the new vapor chamber covers 57% of the motherboard surface area. This should keep the Blade 16 cool even under sustained stress conditions like gaming or rendering video.

Of course, we'll have to wait to get the Blade 16 into our labs for testing to determine how well Razer has optimized this ultra-slim laptop for performance and heat management.

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Gaming and graphics

While Razer's choice to opt for AMD's AI PC chip instead of the gaming chip could lead to some CPU bottlenecking, Strix is not a gaming processor; the CPU does have high multicore and multi-thread performance, so gaming at the maximum 1440p resolution should help alleviate any issues there.

We do know a bit about how the Nvidia RTX 5080 laptop GPU will handle various games thanks to Nvidia's most recent news drop. However, we don't have confirmed performance benchmarks for the flagship RTX 5090 laptop GPU. But we expect it to offer about 10-30% better performance than the RTX 4090 laptop GPU.

I spent some time playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the Blade 16 at the Nvidia press suite at CES. While the game did have DLSS 4 enabled, it played smoothly and looked pretty great even with the frame-generation software. A representative from Nvidia confirmed that the Blade 16 had performed well with gaming, without any CPU bottlenecks or thermal throttling in their testing.

For a more reliable understanding of gaming performance on the Blade 16 though, we'll have to see how well the laptop handles in our suite of gaming and graphics tests in the Laptop Mag labs.

Razer Blade 16 (2025): What's next?

As always with our hands-on experiences, our final call will have to wait until we've had a lot of dedicated hands-on time with the laptop and have put it through our rigorous testing process.

However, there is plenty of reason to be eyeing the new Blade 16 if you're looking to upgrade your gaming laptop setup this year. The Blade 16 (2025) does have an improved keyboard, a 240Hz OLED display panel, and a new Nvidia RTX GPU up to the 5090 flagship. So, while it may not be the thinnest laptop Razer has ever built, it is the thinnest Blade 16 model we've seen.

While the CPU and GPU combo isn't the most common we'll see with the RTX 50-series, it isn't unheard of, and of all the AI PC chips, AMD's Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" is the best choice for a gaming platform. So it shouldn't hurt your performance.

The only real catch is the price tag, which could be upwards of $4,000 at the top end, but even that remains a mystery for now.

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It's finally time for us to find out if the Nvidia "Blackwell" GPU hype is real.

Nvidia launched the newest generation of gaming graphics cards, codenamed "Blackwell" after mathematician David Harold Blackwell, at CES 2025 in Las Vegas last week. Nvidia has made plenty of claims about the "Blackwell" 50-series GPUs when it comes to power and performance, not the least of which is the argument that the RTX 5070 can get similar performance to the RTX 4090.

Between the impressive gaming claims and the fact that the Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs are built for AI and gaming workloads, we can't help but ask: is "Blackwell" worth the investment?

Nvidia RTX 5090 gaming performance

During the Nvidia Editor's Day at CES, the company gave attendees an early look at the architecture changes, AI optimizations, and performance expectations of the RTX 50-series GPUs.

When it comes to pure gaming power, the RTX 5090 flagship GPU still can't quite gaming at 4K on Max graphics presets. On Star Wars: Outlaws, Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong, and Alan Wake 2 the 5090 still can't break that 60 fps (frames per second) gaming threshold for playability. Granted, you can get away with playing these games at 30 fps, but in any game with gunfights, you'll want to opt for higher framerates whenever possible.

That's where DLSS 4 comes in. With the latest iteration of Nvidia's frame generation technology, you'll be able to game in 4K with frame rates over 200 fps. Of course, you're relying on software performance to generate all of those additional frames rather than pure silicon, and not all games offer DLSS 4 support.

You can also lose visual fidelity with frame-gen software like DLSS, as it upscales a lower-resolution image using AI. So you're playing the game at a lower resolution like 1440p, but the GPU's AI pipeline makes it appear like you're playing in 4K. For that reason, plenty of gamers won't use frame-generation software like Nvidia's DLSS, AMD's Fluid Motion Frames, or Intel's XeSS.

In fact, the 5090 is only about 10% better than the RTX 4090 when it comes to pure silicon performance.

While this information is technically about the RTX 5090 desktop GPU, it is still relevant for gamers on the laptop side, because it helps explain why you don't see gaming laptops with 4K displays anymore. We're still too far off the mark for 4K gaming to be viable.

Nvidia RTX 5080 Laptop GPU performance

Nvidia did also share information about the performance expectations of the RTX 5080 Laptop GPU which will have 16GB of VRAM onboard.

As you'll notice from the chart, with RT and DLSS 4 enabled, the RTX 5080 can offer almost twice the gaming performance of the RTX 4080. But on gaming titles and workloads that don't offer DLSS 4 and RT, the performance of the 5080 is just 10-30% better than the RTX 4080.

Nvidia has also leveraged the AI features of it's new GPUs for better power efficiency on gaming, offering up to 40% longer gaming sessions on battery power, and up to 30% longer web and video surfing on battery with the optimized BatteryBoost system.

The new battery AI can save power during low scene motion, marginal pixel changes, and minimal player interaction scenarios. It can also optimize your display refresh rate and offer faster PCIe, SSD, memory, and IO power states to get you the most battery out of your system as possible.

Laptops with the new RTX 50-series cards will be available starting in March.

Nvidia RTX 50-series gaming AI

Nvidia's "Blackwell" GPUs are built for AI. The cards have an AI controller that can help with frame generation, which makes DLSS 4 smoother than previous iterations. The GPUs are also built with both gaming and AI workload pipelines.

While most gamers probably don't want to use their GPU for generative AI tasks most of the time, Nvidia is dedicated to bringing AI to the gaming sphere with additional advancements in gaming AI.

Nvidia showcased AI for gaming with new integrations of InWorld's Ace platform. We've seen Nvidia Ace used for controlling NPC dialogue in various tech demos before, but at CES 2025 the company showcased multiple additional iterations of the AI software.

Nvidia was demoing Ace as an AI companion in your Player Unkown's Battle Grounds matches as the PUBG Ally. While the PUBG Ally can join your matches, it doesn't function as an AIM-bot and play for you, but it is a virtual companion that can offer advice and give you gameplay tips on the fly. However, because PUGB Ally exists in the game with you as a digital avatar, it does still feel like a cheat because you can use the PUBG Ally to pick up items and hand them to you, which can give you advantages over other players.

The PUBG Ally iteration of Nvidia Ace is not expected to ship as an official part of PUBG, as it runs entirely on the client side.

Nvidia was also demoing Ace as a streaming companion as part of a collaboration with StreamLabs, giving you an assistant for your livestream that can control your camera, put together highlights, and adjust your stream feeds. The Ace Streaming Companion does not have an expected launch window, but the Streamlabs Intelligent Streaming Assistant will be coming soon.

Nvidia is bringing Ace to the game inZOI, allowing you to have better control of your Smart Zois. This will run on the client side but is expected to be a featured part of inZOI when it launches on March 28, 2025. Lastly, Nvidia is using Ace to create AI raid bosses for Mir5, which will alternate strategies to provide additional challenges to players.

Because raids aren't difficult enough without AI.

Outlook

The RTX 50-series GPUs are built for AI, and also for gaming. But if you're a pure hardware performance gamer who wants to play games at max settings natively at 4K, the RTX 50-series is something of a disappointment.

While you can game in 4K at lower graphics presets, or with better optimized titles, the RTX 5090 is still not capable of making 4K gaming viable for the competitive player. Additionally, because these cards are as well designed for AI as they are for gaming, the prices of the RTX 50-series are incredibly high. The cards also require a large amount of power and thermal management, which doesn't say great things for your electric bill.

The RTX 50-series does have at least 10% pure silicon performance upgrades generation to generation, which is nothing to sneeze at. However, if you were hoping for this latest generation of Nvidia GPUs to suddenly make 4K gaming competitive, make 8K single-player gaming a possibility, or lower the cost of gaming with a discrete GPU, the results fall flat.

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It's a new year of GPUs and CPUs across the board, which means new hardware for gaming enthusiasts.

Lenovo's Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 is our current pick for the best gaming laptop overall, so naturally, I was intrigued to see what the company had in store for its 10th Gen update. As it turns out, the Legion Pro 7i offers more than just iterative updates to the internal specs; it also offers a new set of RGB light bars on the back vents, a new thermal management system, an updated keyboard, and a slightly redesigned chassis to fit all the changes.

I reviewed the Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 last year, and I'm excited by the changes Lenovo has implemented in this new generation of Legion Pro laptops. Is it enough to take it from 4.5 stars to a perfect 5-star product? We'll need to get it in our labs for the final answer, but here's my first look.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gen 10: Specs

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gen 10: Pricing and availability

Lenovo hasn't revealed the entire spec range for the Legion Pro 7i Gen 10, but we do know that the pricing will start at $2,399. Configurations that jump the specs up to the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 with 24GB VRAM, 64GB memory, 2TB storage, and 16-inch OLED panel will cost a decent bit more than the $2,399 starting price.

Lenovo tells Laptop Mag the Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 will be available starting in March 2025.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gen 10: Design

Lenovo's Legion laptops have always been on the heavier side, and the Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 doesn't change much of that formula. If anything, the new Legion Pro 7i leans into the large and in-charge laptop aesthetic by putting RGB light bars along the rear of the chassis around the heat exhaust vents and into the Legion logo on the top cover of the laptop.

The Legion Pro keeps the Eclipse Black colorway, which looks fantastic, even if it smudges rather easily. And it features a massive port array, even if the design moved the HDMI and DC-in ports from the rear control hub to the right and left sides of the chassis in favor of a revamped thermal system.

At 0.86 to 1.04 inches thick and weighing 6 pounds or more, the Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 is portable, but not the sort of thing you want to commute with. Or take onto a flight. The Legion's 16-inch chassis isn't the largest or heaviest out there, as the Alienware 16 Area-51 (2025) will weigh up to 7.6 pounds at its heaviest. But it is more a desktop replacement laptop than a portable gaming rig.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gen 10: Ports

Lenovo's Legion laptops typically offer massive port arrays fit for gamers of all kinds, and the new Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 is no exception.

The only real difference between this gen and last year's model is a lack of ports on the rear side of the laptop behind the hinge.

That port array includes:

• 1x DC-in
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 1x USB Type-C with 140W power delivery
• 1x Thunderbolt 4
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
• 1x 35mm Audio combo jack
• 1x 2.5G RJ45 ethernet
• 1x E-Shutter button

So Lenovo may have moved some ports off the back side of the laptop, but you've still got a massive port array with just the right and left sides of the chassis. So you're not likely to need a USB-C hub or laptop docking station to get the most out of the Legion Pro 7.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gen 10: Display

The Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 will come with display options up to a 240Hz (2560 x 1600) OLED display panel. That OLED display is rated with a 1ms response time, 100% DCI-P3 coverage for vibrancy, 500 nits of brightness, VESA TrueBlack 500, and TUV Rheinland Low Blue Light certification.

Lower spec displays for the Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 will be IPS panels, which we've enjoyed in the past on previous models like the Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 and Legion Pro 7i Gen 8.

While we couldn't see the display on Lenovo's sample unit at CES do more than showcase the Legion background image, it does look fantastic. OLED displays offer decent vibrancy and are brighter than they used to be, so we have no real reason to disbelieve Lenovo's claims. However, we will want to put those specs to the test in our lab when given the chance.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gen 10: Keyboard and touchpad

We've loved the Legion keyboards for a few generations now, and the keyboard is only getting better. Lenovo has kept the off-set touchpad and full-sized arrow keys on the Legion Pro 7i Gen 10, though each key now has 1.6mm of keytravel compared to the 9th Generation's 1.5mm keytravel.

While 0.1mm of key travel distance isn't going to be game-changing, it is enough to add even more bounce to your keys. So you'll get a more satisfying typing experience than ever.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gen 10: Performance and heat

We don't have much information yet on what performance to expect from Intel's new Core Ultra 200HX series of gaming processors, but from Intel's own internal testing, the company claims the 200HX series offers up to 20% performance increase in multi-thread performance.

If Intel can match those claims, that would make the Core Ultra 9 275HX processor inside the Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 a worthy successor to the Core i9-14900HX that was in the previous iteration of the laptop.

Additionally, because Intel's Arrow Lake architecture is intended to be more power-efficient than the 14th generation Core i9, the CPU will be running at lower temperatures than previously. And with a new thermal management system in the Legion Pro 7i, that exhaust system can focus on the GPU getting you better graphics performance, or letting you game with a cooler keyboard than before.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gen 10: Graphics and gaming

Much like Intel's new processors, we only really have Nvidia's word to go on when it comes to the performance of the RTX 50-series processors. And Nvidia has made some fantastic claims about the new GPUs' performance. If the RTX 5070 is capable of competing with the RTX 4090 with DLSS 4, the more budget-friendly options of the Legion Pro 7i could be more attractive than ever.

And with the expanded heat management system on the Legion Pro 7i Gen 10, there's more room for the Legion to leverage the full power of whichever Nvidia GPU you choose to spec your system with.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gen 10: What's next?

Lenovo has a history of solid build quality, which only makes us more sure the slightly redesigned Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 will leverage its new thermal management to get the most performance possible out of its new Intel and Nvidia hardware.

But that’s not the only reason we want to get some extended hands-on time with this new Legion. The updates to the keyboard with extended keytravel and the OLED display panel are also cause for serious interest.

Of course, we’ll need to put the Legion through our rigorous lab and hands-on testing process to make a final determination on whether the new Legion Pro is worth the money. But from our early peek at the new Legion line, we think it’s a safe bet to be excited.

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When it debuted last week, I couldn't let the Acer Swift Go 14 laptop go unnoticed. After all, its predecessor spent most of 2024 as Laptop Mag's #1 budget laptop in our best laptops buying guide.

On January 6, at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Acer unveiled the updated Swift Go 14, which I had the opportunity to try out.

There are some slight design changes — including an interesting touchpad augmentation that I'll address later. But coupled with a few upgrades inside, it should be one of the sub-$1,000 laptops to beat again in 2025.

Thinner and lighter with some new flare

The Acer Swift Go 14 weighs just 2.9 pounds this year, down from 3.1. This may not sound like much, but every ounce counts when you lug a laptop everywhere. It's also slightly thinner, tapering to just 0.4 inches at its thinnest points. You'd have to have them side-by-side to tell the difference, but it's there.

While the exterior retains the same silver colorway as last year, it adds some much-needed flourish with angular lines crossing the lid and a "Swift" logo in the upper right corner. It's not the flashiest design, but it's a far more dynamic look while retaining minimal elegance that should appeal to a broad spectrum of people.

Contextual touchpad controls

Acer designers added some new features to the touchpad this year, including contextual touch controls.

These include playback and volume controls for watching videos and meeting controls for quickly muting your mic or disabling your video during a call.

While it's not the sort of feature that would single-handedly convince me to buy this laptop, it's a welcome extra on what I expect to be an excellent laptop.

Blessedly, the touchpad retains its accurate navigation and solid touch-and-click response, so quality wasn't sacrificed for this add-on.

Acer Swift Go 14 specs, price, and release date

The Acer Swift Go 14 comes with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H (Arrow Lake) CPU and Intel Arc Graphics. The 14-inch display starts at a 1920 x 1200 IPS touch panel but can be upgraded to OLED at the same resolution or bumped up to 2880 x 1800.

If you are looking to push the capabilities of the Swift Go 14, you can get up to 32GB of RAM and up to a 1 TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD.

Ports include a pair of Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, two USB Type-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a microSD card reader. Finally, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 ensure future-proof wireless connectivity.

The Acer Swift Go 14 will ship in May at $899, while the 16-inch model will arrive in April and start at $949. Both the 14" and 16" models see a $100 increase over last year's starting price, so Acer is edging into slightly more competitive territory.

What's next?

I didn't encounter any concerns with the hardware during my time with the Acer Swift Go 14, so the remaining questions will depend on our lab testing and more meaningful time spent with the final shipping hardware when we get a review unit later this year.

Battery life is the biggest question for this updated laptop. It was our most significant complaint about last year's model, which lasted only 8 hours and 25 minutes.

Eight and a half hours wasn't too far short of our battery standards at this time last year, but the second half of 2024 was game-changing for battery life because AI PCs, with their system-on-a-chip CPUs, debuted in the summer. Because so much processing happens directly on those chips, battery life is longer because other laptop components don't come into use and use power.

Intel Arrow Lake chips are being marketed as using less laptop power, which could mean the new Swift Go 14's battery lasts longer between charges. However, this sleek-looking new laptop could suffer if its battery life doesn't significantly improve. Laptop Mag's battery test will be among the most interesting tests we run on this new laptop when we get it in our lab.

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I am not a workstation guy, and I have never been.

Presented with the opportunity to expand my horizons with another monitor, I usually shrug. A laptop stand? That's called a table in my book. And don't even ask me about ring lights or external webcams.

That's not to say those things don't have value — they clearly do — but I've just never bothered to dive in, and if I've gotten by this far without them... Why should I start now?

Xebec, that's why.

The Xebec Snap workstation

If there's one thing that's going to force me out of my minimalist comfort zone, it's CES, and this year the world's biggest consumer tech conference did just exactly that.

Xebec, an Austin, Texas-based laptop accessory company, loaned me one of the company's newer workstation setups, the aptly named Xebec Snap.

I say the Snap is aptly named because magnets are the main component of the Snap's modular design. The setup is very straightforward. Attach the retractable frame to your laptop and then you can use the magnetic arms attached to either side to glom on all sorts of add-ons.

The biggest ticket attachments here are obviously the two additional screens that you can attach to either side to turn your laptop into a tri-monitor setup. I'm happy to report that the process of getting those two aforementioned screens up and running is ridiculously easy.

I attached the Xebec harness, snapped the magnetic screens onto the wings, plugged them into my laptop's USB-C ports using the built-in cables, and then we were mostly up and running.

Because I'm a MacBook person there was a little bit of messing around with my display settings and also manually installing some drivers, but that's not Xebec's fault. Even with a couple of added steps, the process was painless.

And the possibilities don't end there. In addition to screens, you can also attach other accessories to the Snap, including a light for when you need to look extra good in a video call or maybe even a vlog. My personal favorite is a magnetic wireless charger attachment that lets you slap your phone onto one of the wings and hover there while it charges.

This appeals to the phone addict in me who requires an eyeball on my device at all times and also sufficient charge to sate my hunger for social media.

Still, the most useful thing you can do with your laptop is have more screens, and that's where the Snap really shines. Both displays I was given to test were surprisingly solid quality for a mobile workstation. These are the full specs:

• Screen Size: 13.3” Full HD display
• Dimensions: 12.4” x 7.4” x 0.33”
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p)
• Display Type: IPS LCD  
• Brightness: 400 nits maximum brightness  
• Refresh Rate: 60 Hz 
• Orientation Options: Use in presentation, portrait or landscape mode
• Weight: 1lb per screen
• Compatibility: Compatible with most laptops between 13” to 17.5” (USB-A or USB-C port required)

You're not going to want to do any professional photo editing on these screens, but for my purposes (light Photoshop, watching YouTube, real-time data) they really excelled on all levels.

On top of that, the whole kit is very portable, so if you're looking for a "digital nomad" setup, there's no reason why Xebec's Snap shouldn't be on your radar.

A portable display disciple

Diving straight into portable monitors might be a weird way to get into workstations, but after that using the Xebec Snap, it's clear to me that sometimes more is better.

This isn't the setup for everyone, of course. If you need a screen that's genuinely large then you're going to want to spring for a whole monitor. That being said — despite Xebec being made for people on-the-go — I can see myself using this setup at home.

I live in small apartment after all with limited desk space (and space in general) which makes having a standard, non-portable tri-screen setup feel a little daunting, not to mention potentially an eyesore since my desk is in my bedroom.

The Xebec Snap. however, consolidates all the multi-screen goodness and if you, like me, don't want even more black screens floating around your living space, you can just pack them away in the kit's included carrying case when you're done using them.

This is all to say that the Xebec has definitely opened my eyes to the world of portable multi-screen setups and I can't see myself wanting to go back to one measly screen.

Naturally, given all the utility of a workstation like this, the Snap doesn't exactly come cheap. For a dual-screen setup (one display included) it'll run you $549. For two screens included that price leaps to $99 — and that's without any accessories. Here's a list of all the accesories you can add an the pricing.

• Xebec Snap Case 13" $79
• Snap Light $79
• Snap Stack-Up Mount $99
• Snap Wireless Phone Charger and Mount $49

This is definitely a pricey setup (probably the biggest downside of the Xebec Snap) but still one that I think most people in search of a portable workstation will find a lot of value in.

I might not be a workstation kind of guy, but this practical (if a little pricey) setup may have just changed my mind.

We just wrapped up CES 2025, the Consumer Electronics Show that gave us a first look at the most exciting future technology we can expect over the course of the year.

During this year's showcase, Nvidia unveiled its latest line-up of graphics cards for desktops, alongside the price ranges and expected performance of laptops that will feature their mobile versions.

Yes, the Nvidia RTX 50-series has finally been revealed, making it over two years since the first 40-series GPU was unveiled in September, 2022. Back in December, I wrote a piece about how you should wait until 2025 before buying a gaming laptop, but that largely relied on how soon Nvidia would actually get the next generation of GPUs out.

And now, after seeing official release dates and some details on what these GPUs are capable of, I stand by my claim: Wait until the 50-series before purchasing yourself a shiny, new gaming laptop.

Wait until the RTX 50-series before buying a gaming laptop

I predicted that we could see RTX 50-series laptops launching throughout May 2025, with release dates potentially coming sooner. Not my worst guess yet, as we'll see the RTX 5070 Ti, 5080 and 5090 laptops in March, while 5070 laptops will come in April.

In just a few months, we'll see what the next generation of graphical power is capable of. I claimed in December that if you're considering buying an RTX 40-series laptop now, it's your best bet to wait, as the additional power that we expect out of the RTX 50-series would more than likely be worth the wait, and the potentially extra cost.

However, Nvidia's claims about the RTX 50-series are pretty intense, to say the least. In a popular image from the company's CES 2025 press briefing, Nvidia showcases an RTX 5070 laptop that costs $1,299, with the caption "4090 performance, half the power."

If it isn't clear just how bold of a statement that is, the desktop version of the RTX 5070 will launch at $549, while the desktop version of the RTX 4090 launched at $1,599. One card is nearly three times the cost of the other, yet Nvidia is claiming their mobile variants are equivalent in power.

Even if we avoid talking about desktop GPUs and focus on laptops specifically, Nvidia claims that RTX 5070 laptops will start at $1,299. Comparatively, the latest RTX 4090 laptop we reviewed is the Origin EON16-X, and the model we tested cost $3,620.

According to Nvidia's claim, the RTX 5070 can yield identical performance to a GPU found in gaming laptops that cost nearly three times as much.

However, the boldness of these claims puts a few things into question. Nvidia's slide shows that RTX 5070 laptops will start at $1,299, but that's a generous estimate and isn't considerate towards the other aspects of a laptop.

Sure, there will likely be an RTX 5070 laptop available for $1,299, but who's to say if its display will be any good, or if it'll have a decent processor, a high amount of RAM, or a reasonable amount of storage.

And while it may not seem as important to the average gamer, a well-designed chassis is vital. You don't want your laptop to feel like a flimsy piece of junk, and we often find that the cheapest laptops typically suffer from this exact problem.

For context, back during Nvidia's CES 2023 keynote, the company claimed the RTX 4050, 4060, and 4070 laptops would be starting at $999, whereas the RTX 4080 and 4090 laptops would start at $1,999.

In reality, the first RTX 4070 laptop we reviewed was the Asus ROG Strix G16 (G614J), and the model we tested cost $1,999. Another one of the earliest RTX 4070 laptops we reviewed is the Origin EON-16S, which cost $2,386 at the time of testing.

While Nvidia is likely being honest about the $1,299 starting point for the RTX 5070 series, it's only a starting point for a reason. You're most likely still going to spend up to $2,000 or more if you want to ensure the laptop has a solid processor, plenty of RAM and storage, and a decent display.

But that beckons the question: Regardless of whether or not the estimated price point is a generous one, is there any validity to Nvidia's claim about the performance potential of RTX 5070?

Is RTX 5070 actually as powerful as RTX 4090?

Let's break down the RTX 5070 mobile version's specs: It's built with 4,608 CUDA cores, which determines how many parallel processing tasks it can perform at once. Essentially, the higher the number, the better. It also features 798 AI TOPS, which measures how many computing operations it can handle in its AI processing. Finally, it sports 8GB of GDDR7 vRAM, which is vital for smooth gameplay experiences (vRAM determines how much graphical data a GPU can store).

Comparing it directly to the RTX 4090 mobile version makes Nvidia's claims a bit questionable, as it's built with 9,728 CUDA cores and 16GB of GGDR6 vRAM. It's a bit worse at AI, with only 686 AI TOPS, but there's no avoiding a very obvious conclusion here: In terms of pure technical power, the RTX 4090 is significantly stronger than the RTX 5070.

In reality, what Nvidia is talking about all boils down to DLSS, otherwise known as Deep Learning Super Sampling. It's AI-powered upscaling and frame generation that can vastly improve visible framerates. Nvidia recently unveiled DLSS 4, which apparently can generate three additional frames for every one frame originally existing. Nvidia is calling this "DLSS Multi Frame Generation," which is exclusive to the GeForce RTX 50-series.

The Verge spoke to Lars Weinand, Senior Technical Product Manager at Nvidia, in order to get some clarification of the company's claims. “Using neural rendering and DLSS 4 we can reach performance levels [on an RTX 5070] that were only possible with an RTX 4090,” Weinand says.

So, this isn't about the RTX 5070 being able to match the RTX 4090 in power on every level but instead refers to what the company has seen while using DLSS 4. Keep in mind that not all games support DLSS 4, but it seems like the ones that do will shine on RTX 50-series GPUs.

While it's a bit less exciting to know that the RTX 5070 isn't really as powerful as an RTX 4090, it's also not remotely surprising. However, the performance differences absolutely still make it worth waiting until the 50-series launches, and if you're doubtful, wait until we get our hands on the hardware and put Nvidia's claims to the test.

More from Laptop Mag

• CES 2025 Coverage
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• Lenovo's Legion Go 2 handheld gaming PC is real but you might have to wait a while to get one

I love this era of handheld gaming PCs, but it could use a little more oomph. Granted, the portability of these devices limits the level of power they can provide. But if you’re sitting in bed or on your couch, there might be a solution.

The Nintendo Switch paved the way for the best handheld gaming devices, and the Asus ROG Ally built upon that path for the PC handhelds to follow. The Asus ROG Ally X is by far our favorite among those available today.

Leave it to the Asus ROG team to deliver a wonderful yet ridiculous invention, the ROG XG Mobile eGPU, which was just announced at CES 2025. A highly portable external laptop GPU that you can connect to a cheap notebook and get premium-level graphics.

But why connect it to some random laptop when you could connect it to a handheld gaming PC like the Asus ROG Ally X? What would that look like, and how much would that even cost? Let me explain why this may be a fantasy come true for some gamers.

A match made in Asus

While Asus may not have intended for the ROG Ally X and the ROG XG Mobile to be paired together, they actually come out at a relatively decent price.

The latest ROG XG Mobile can be outfitted with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, which costs $2,199. Now, that’s a little too steep for me; however, the RTX 5070 Ti model comes in at $1,199. Still pricey, but not terrible. If you combine that with an Asus ROG Ally X, you’ll land around $2K. Some premium gaming laptops with that kind of GPU cost around that price, except they aren’t nearly as portable.

But how exactly is that going to work? Well, the Asus ROG Ally X supports a Thunderbolt 4 port, which is perfect because the ROG XG Mobile connects via a Thunderbolt 5 port. Now, you may experience some performance throttling there, but it shouldn’t be significant, considering Thunderbolt 4 is still quite fast.

As far as the physical setup goes, it’s not too dissimilar to the Nintendo Switch. The ROG XG Mobile comes with a neat little stand, and it also has a hinge to stand on its own. You could place the XG Mobile on your nightstand and game comfortably in bed or on the couch with the Asus ROG Ally X, making for a powerful home gaming companion. The XG Mobile comes in at 8.19 x 6.1 x 1.17 inches and weighs less than 2.2 pounds, so it won’t take up much room.

Outside of performance and compatibility, the XG Mobile would also expand the ROG Ally X’s port selection:

• 2x Thunderbolt 5
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 1x DisplayPort 2.1
• 1x SD card reader
• 1x 5G Ethernet

You could easily connect to a monitor or TV, but if you’re going for the “cozy in bed” route, getting a direct Ethernet connection to the Ally would give you the edge in online gaming.

What's next?

The Asus ROG XG Mobile will be available at the end of Q1, so March 31, 2025 at the latest. That gives you plenty of time to mull over your future relationship with your handheld gaming PC.

However, you could also wait for the sequel to the Asus ROG Ally X. Another handheld gaming PC from Asus seems like an inevitability, and if it is outfitted with a Thunderbolt 5 port, the XG Mobile will be an even more sensical companion.

It's also worth noting that the XG Mobile can supercharge any other Thunderbolt 4 or Thunderbolt 5 laptop you have. An Asus rep tells Laptop Mag they enjoy gaming on their Zenbook 14, augmented by the new XG Mobile.

At the very least, we’re excited to test the experience and compatibility of these devices. First things first, we need to get the ROG XG Mobile through our lab. Stay tuned for our full review and benchmarks. In the meantime, check out everything else we saw at CES 2025.

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Let’s face it: No one wants to lug around a four- or five-pound weight all day. And no one wants to sacrifice function for form.

CES 2025, which wrapped up on Friday, marked the first year I found more laptops than ever that hit this Holy Grail metric — and they did so without making the sacrifices often considered necessary to achieve a light form factor. That’s an exciting prospect, and not just because it can save our collective backs.

I saw many three-pound laptop models in person and saw announcements for others. Why did I zero in on laptops under three pounds? Laptop weight doesn’t matter if you plan to keep your system parked on a desk, as is often the case with a gaming laptop (typical weight: 5.5 pounds and up).

But if you’re like me and take your laptop everywhere, weight matters — a lot. I’m using three pounds as the cut-off here because laptops that are heavier than that can feel their weight fast when in a valise or backpack.

This year's laptop crop stood out for its impressive designs, excellent array of ports, and leading specs (brilliant displays, AI support, tons of storage).

While some models had high price tags, others were under $1,000. That means we, as consumers, have to make fewer usability trade-offs in exchange for a lighter load.

The following list marks my 5 favorite sub-3-pound laptops I saw at CES 2025. Note that this is not an exhaustive list of the sub-3-pound class of 2025; Lenovo alone introduced 6 models under 3 pounds (the lightest being the 2.17-pound ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition), while Asus, Acer, and LG all had multiple models under 3 pounds, too. But these were the ones that stood out and were some of my favorites.

See also: Lenovo ditches its most iconic feature on this new ThinkPad — but that's not even the biggest design change

Acer Swift Go 14 AI

The Acer Swift Go 14 AI (SFG14-64/T) sneaks onto the list, weighing in at 2.86 pounds (OLED version). What stands out here is Acer’s attention to detail and value for the price.

This Copilot+ PC uses the new AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors (either a Ryzen 7 350 or a Ryzen 7 340) to deliver up to 50 NPU TOPS, AMD Radeon 800M graphics, and the promise of up to 24.9 hours of battery life. The 14-inch display options include 3K OLED, FHD+ OLED, or FHD+ touchscreen. The OLED versions have 100% of the DCI-P3 color space, which is a great find on a laptop at this price.

Configurations include up to 32GB of RAM and up to a 1TB SSD. The unit has a sturdy, stylish aluminum design, and it feels well-balanced in hand. The Swift Go has an array of ports, with HDMI, 2 USB-A (speeds not specified), 2 USB 4 (Type-C) ports, and a headphone jack.

Available in May, pricing starts at $899.

Asus Zenbook A14

Asus is one of the laptop makers with a long track record of innovating with thin-and-light models. However, I was not prepared for the Asus Zenbook A14 UX3407. This model is genuinely a featherweight at 2.16 pounds, which meant it was easy to hoist overhead, even with my weaker arm. Obviously, I won’t be doing that regularly, but Zenbook A14 would be nothing to carry around all day at a trade show or while dashing through an airport.

The unique chassis uses Asus’ shock- and scratch-resistant Ceraluminum (the company’s trademark for its plasma ceramic aluminum process); by contrast, the Zenbook S14 series only uses Ceraluminum on its cover.

This model uses Qualcomm Snapdragon X series processors with up to 45 NPU TOPS, each with a long-lasting 70-watt-hour battery. It has a built-in Copilot key quickly accessing Copilot features, and it comes with 2 USB 4.0 ports at 40Gbps, a 10Gbps USB-A port, an HDMI port, and an audio jack, which gives this model all the makings of a laptop that unit for its can work well for a host of creator tasks.

The Zenbook A14 comes in two colors, beige and gray. The gray one uses the Snapdragon X with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, and it will cost $1,099. The beige one uses the Snapdragon X Plus with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, and it will cost $899. Both units will be available soon.

I’ll call out a second Asus model here for those who'd prefer an Intel processor. The 14-inch Asus Zenbook S14 weighs just 2.65 pounds, and it is impressive for its light weight, display quality, and ports. This Copilot+ PC has a comfortable keyboard and a bright 3K 120Hz OLED screen, and it uses Intel Core Ultra 9 (series 2) processors.

LG Gram Pro 16Z90TR

The 16-inch LG Gram Pro 16Z90TR exemplifies the trend of packing more into a thin and light space. LG is the only manufacturer offering 16 and 17-inch 2K displays in a lightweight form. Like Lenovo and others, the company has a slew of sub-three-pound laptops in 2025. Even though full specification details and pricing remain unannounced for all models, what we know makes this model stand out above all others from LG – especially for creatives who want a powerful, lightweight system.

This model has the largest display on this list, with a 16-inch 2K WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) IPS display with VRR to 144Hz and an anti-glare coating. It’s also the only laptop with a dedicated graphics card (at minimum, it will come with an Nvidia GeForce RTX4050). It also has an Intel Core Ultra “Arrow Lake” processor (version to be announced). And it measures just 0.56-inch thick and weighs 2.99 pounds, squeaking in under our filter.

The unit I tried physically felt and responded beautifully, and it handled about the same as the LG Gram Pro I bought last year. It has a low-profile keyboard that's comfortable and sturdy to type on and a dedicated number pad – one of the benefits of getting a larger screen. Available later this year, this model’s pricing and full specifications will be announced closer to when it ships.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition

The 14-inch Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition marks Lenovo’s latest in its long line of top-tier Yoga laptops. This Copilot+ PC weighs 2.91 pounds, and it sports a sleek, all-black design with barely-there screen bezels and its familiar 360-degree hinge that lets the laptop twist into tent and tablet positions. Its screen specs are solid, with up to 2.8K WQHD+ OLED screens with 120Hz VRR refresh rate, 1,100 nits of peak brightness, and 100% DCI-P3 wide color gamut.

This iteration delivers 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, in addition to a 10Gbps USB-A port and a USB 4 Type-C port with Power Delivery. That means you have plenty of ports for power and using peripherals like an external SSD and a memory card reader simultaneously.

As an Aura Edition laptop, this unit has nifty features that reflect Lenovo and Intel’s combined efforts to deliver compelling mobile experiences. For example, it has Smart Modes for faster customization (among them an attention mode that helps you maintain focus by blocking distracting websites) and Smart Share, which uses AI to tap and share images between your smartphone and laptop. You can buy this laptop in February, and pricing starts at $1,599.

Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition

The Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition maintains Lenovo’s high ThinkPad pedigree, but in a wholly new design that makes this the first ThinkPad in years I’d want to buy. This aluminum model has a cover made from 50% recycled aluminum, and a ridged rear cover plate that makes it easy to hold.

I loved this keyboard and found it to be next-level comfortable to type on, with a massive touchpad area and no TrackPoint in the center of the keyboard. The laptop has a thin, tapered profile with a unique internal design that houses the motherboard and ports in what Lenovo calls the Engine Hub, but looks like a black bump along the rear quarter of the laptop.

With a weight that starts at 2.66 pounds (add another 0.13 pounds for the touchscreen version here), this model ranks as one of the impressive thin and light laptops of CES 2025. It has processor options up to Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2), and display options of up to a 2.8K OLED touchscreen with 500 nits brightness,120Hz VRR, and 100% DCI-P3 wide color gamut, this system is up to the needs of creative pros.

The unit has one HDMI port, 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, and no USB-A port. This model also has the Lenovo AI Now on-device AI assistant (based on Meta’s Llama 3.0), which helps with everyday tasks like document searches. It also supports Aura Edition features such as the Smart Modes and Smart Share described earlier. This model comes with a tiny 65W GaN Nano adapter that looks more like what you’d expect to use with a tablet than a laptop. You can buy this laptop in February, and pricing starts at $1,399.

What's next

The 2025 class of sub-3-pound laptops are clearly setting the stage for new experiences with sacrificing features. They now have plenty of performance power, including enough processing power and battery life to enable productivity and creative tasks and AI activities.

Plus, this category now covers all price points so no one gets left out of this next-gen mobile revolution. Carrying a lightweight laptop can make a huge difference to how your arm and back muscles feel, and with options like these it absolutely pays to think about weight when you're buying your next laptop.

CES 2025 is wrapping up, but this year's new wave of gaming accessories is just getting off the ground.

A slew of exciting new tech products launched at CES, from Lenovo's latest handheld gaming PC to a unique gaming chair from Razer, along with dozens of new laptops.

While many intriguing products were unveiled, five in particular caught my attention. Whether you're looking for a new gaming keyboard, a customizable mouse, or the right fit for your next gaming chair, these five gaming accessories from CES 2025 are the ones to watch.

HyperX Pulsefire Saga Pro modular gaming mouse

Arguably the most innovative peripheral announced at CES 2025 was the HyperX Pulsefire Saga Pro. This is the most customizable gaming mouse I've ever seen. The case is modular so you can create up to 16 different combinations with various magnetic case pieces and buttons. This effectively allows the Pulsefire Saga Pro to be a one-size-fits-all gaming mouse you can customize for your specific needs, whether that's hand size or play style.

As someone with smaller hands, I know how challenging it can be to find a gaming mouse that fits just right. It's even more difficult for left-handed gamers. A modular design like the Pulsefire Saga Pro features could be the perfect solution for many gamers. It's a refreshing departure from mouse designs that default to the least common denominator: right-handed gamers with larger hands.

The Pulsefire Saga Pro is a wireless gaming mouse weighing in at 72 grams with a 4K max polling rate. There is also a wired version, the Pulsefire Saga, that weighs 69 grams and boasts an 8K polling rate. Both will launch in March 2025 for $119 and $79, respectively.

Keychron K2 HE mechanical keyboard

Hall effect keyboards are quickly gaining popularity, so I wasn't surprised to see Keychron bringing more HE models into its line-up at CES 2025.

Perhaps the most eye-catching of the bunch is the Keychron K2 HE. The Special Edition model looks especially stylish, featuring a matte black case with rosewood edges. It has the clean, minimalistic look Keychron is known for, but the wood accents are a nice, unique touch.

Keychron keyboards may not be made specifically for gaming, but with magnetic switches appearing in more and more mainstream keyboards, that line is getting blurrier every year.

The Keychron K2 HE could be a great fit for someone who wants a keyboard that can keep up with fast-paced games without looking like a stereotypical gaming keyboard (think cliché tech fonts and loads of RGB). Plus, as a Keychron keyboard, the K2 HE will probably feature better sound quality than most gaming keyboards.

Cherry XTRFY MX 8.3 TKL gaming keyboard

I know Cherry best for its mechanical keyboard switches, but it produces its own keyboards, as well, including the new Cherry XTRFY MX 8.3 TKL gaming keyboard. This sleek keyboard features a polished design with a uniquely rounded top edge. It also includes a knob and a mini display along with full RGB backlighting and a gasket structure. To top it all off, it also boasts an 8K polling rate.

With all that going for it, the XTRFY MX 8.3 TKL is hard to ignore. It will have plenty of competition, but if its specs are any hint, it could be a contender for our best gaming keyboards list.

MSI Strike 700 and Forge GK600 gaming keyboards

The MSI Strike 700 might just be the keyboard I'm most excited to try out this year. It features a more stylish design than I've seen from most other mainstream gaming brands, but with just enough of a cyberpunk edge to still look characteristically MSI. The blue, white, and indigo keycaps look great and appear to be XDA or MDA profile, both of which I'm a big fan of.

MSI seems to be embracing the enthusiast keyboard community with this one, too. The Strike 700 is fully hot-swappable and features a gasket mounted design with multiple sound-dampening layers.

The Strike 700 isn't the only new MSI keyboard taking cues from the enthusiast keyboard community. MSI also unveiled the Forge GK600 TKL at CES 2025 and it also looks fantastic. It's available in two colorways, "sky" blue and "violet" (which looks more like pink). Each features KTT HiFi linear switches, which are surprising to see on a gaming keyboard. Like the Strike 700, the Forge GK600 TKL is fully hot-swappable and gasket mounted.

I'm excited to see gaming keyboards branching out beyond basic matte-black designs, so I'll be keeping a close eye out for the launch of both of these new keyboards from MSI.

Razer Iskur V2 X gaming chair

One of my favorite gaming accessories I reviewed last year was the Noblechairs Epic Compact, which remains my favorite gaming chair. Much as I love the Epic Compact, as a vertically challenged gamer, I always have my eye out for new gaming chairs with low minimum seat heights. That's why I'm cautiously optimistic about testing out Razer's latest gaming chair, the Iskur V2 X.

The Iskur V2 X is a more budget-friendly sequel to the original Iskur V2, coming in at a modest $299. That's almost half the price of my Epic Compact and even less than the Razer Enki X, which is also a budget-oriented gaming chair.

The Iskur has a cleaner, more cushy design than the Enki, but there is one trait I hope Razer copied: the minimum seat height. The Enki X has the lowest minimum seat height of Razer's gaming chairs at just 400mm or 15.7 inches, which is below my ideal 16-inch minimum.

The Iskur V2 X is recommended for people at least 5'2" tall, but I still have hope it will have a low enough seat height for me to give it a test drive. I'd love to see the premium versions of gaming chairs like the Iskur V2 X feature more height-inclusive designs (and not just at the upper end), but lower seat heights on budget chairs are a good start.

More from Laptop Mag

• My favorite gaming laptop is back at CES 2025 — will the Asus Zephyrus G14 earn a perfect score?
• Acer's enormous CES 2025 gaming handheld looks absolutely ridiculous
• I'm hot and cold over Razer's new gaming chair — but it could lead to something incredible

With a slew of high-profile games on the horizon and the recent launch of Nvidia’s RTX 50-series GPUs, it’s an exciting time to be a gamer.

We just came back from CES 2025 where we got our hands on the latest and greatest gaming tech, which we’re excited to pair with games like Avowed, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Monster Hunter Wilds, all of which launch just next month.

New games and tech means higher graphical fidelity and frame rates, so we need to be prepared if we want the best. Here’s a look at what’s coming down the gaming industry pipeline and what we’re most excited about.

Avowed on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

I’ve been gushing about Pillars of Eternity ever since I heard Critical Role blasting its soundtrack during their actual-plays, but I didn’t have the courage to dive into 200+ hours worth of out-of-date gameplay mechanics. That is until Avowed was teased for the Xbox Game Showcase back in 2020. Since then, I’ve completed every quest in the Pillars of Eternity universe and find myself more than prepared for the Elder Scrolls-like entry into its world.

We’ve seen some gameplay at this point, and I’m most excited about the spellsword-esque combat. Granted it was years ago, but playing Skyrim as a spellsword didn’t feel intuitive. In the latest trailer, the player could swiftly freeze the enemy with one hand and smack him with an axe in the other. And when a spell took two hands to cast, like the trapping vines, the swap back to melee looked smooth. When I play an RPG, I focus on making my build look and feel as stylish as possible as opposed to maximizing my damage output, and I’m pleased to report this game has style.

With Avowed launching on February 13, it may not align with the launch of my favorite gaming laptop at CES 2025. However, if I do get to play Avowed on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, it’ll be a treat. I’ve been particularly fond of the Zephyrus G14 model ever since it launched back in 2020 (coincidence?). So I jumped when I saw it could support the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU as well as a 14-inch, up to 2880 x 1800, 240Hz, OLED display with 100% DCI-P3 and 500 nits of brightness. Translated: It pretty and I want.

— Rami Tabari

Little Nightmares 3 on the Lenovo Legion Go S

Little Nightmares is among my most cherished series, solidifying my adoration for lovingly crafted worlds occupied by unimaginable horrors. Both games make my skin crawl, from their eerie sound design to the otherworldly manner in which every antagonist shifts and moves. I have wonderful memories huddling beneath a mountain of blankets in my bedroom, glued to my Asus ROG Ally past midnight as my heart pounded while traversing Little Nightmares 2.

Little Nightmares 3 is set to launch in 2025, and it’s no secret that I’m excited, even if it’s being developed by a new team rather than Tarsier Studios (although it’s working on the fantastic-looking spiritual successor, Reanimal). What better way to celebrate my history with the series than to play Little Nightmares 3 on another Windows gaming handheld, particularly the affordable Lenovo Legion Go S powered by SteamOS.

The Lenovo Legion Go S starts as low as $499 and launches May 2025. It can be built with an AMD Ryzen Z2 Go or AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, integrated AMD Radeon 700M series graphics, up to 32GB of 6400Mhz LPDDR5X RAM, and up to 1TB of PCIe SSD storage all wrapped up in an 8-inch LCD display at a 1920 x 1200 resolution. And since it’s running on SteamOS rather than Windows 11, the lightweight Linux-based operating system will yield greater performance. In short, it’s the perfect indie game machine, making it ideal for a title like Little Nightmares 3.

— Claire Tabari

The Outer Worlds 2 on the Lenovo Legion Go 2

I’ve been waiting years for two big gaming releases: an update to the End in Minecraft and a sequel to The Outer Worlds. While the former might never happen, the latter is finally going to launch this year. The Outer Worlds is one of my favorite RPGs thanks to its snappy gameplay, vibrant world, and an endless supply of sarcasm and satire. In 2025, Obsidian Entertainment is finally releasing the sequel.

The first gameplay trailer promises The Outer Worlds 2 includes “everything that should have been in the first game,” which apparently includes more action, more weapons, and more graphics. Personally, I’m hoping to also see some lovable new companion NPCs and even more opportunities to upend the galaxy through poor dialogue choices.

What better way to play a sequel than with a sequel? Specifically, the Lenovo Legion Go 2. Much like The Outer Worlds 2, we don’t know exactly when the Lenovo Legion Go 2 will launch, but a 2025 release looks likely. I played the first Outer Worlds title on Nintendo Switch, and while I loved the portability, the graphics quality left a lot to be desired. So, I have my eye on the Legion Go 2 already. It features the handheld form factor I enjoyed playing The Outer Worlds on the first time around, but with far better gaming tech inside.

The Lenovo Legion Go 2 was confirmed early last year and finally unveiled this week at CES 2025. It will feature an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor, one of the most advanced in any handheld gaming PC. While it’s heavy at 2.38 pounds, it packs a 74Wh battery, nearly twice the size of the original Legion Go’s battery. With an OLED display to top things off, the Legion Go 2 could easily be a contender for best handheld gaming device of the year, but we’ll have to wait and see.

— Stevie Bonifield

Gunman Contracts on the whatever laptop is connected to the ROG XG Mobile eGPU

Gunman Contracts was originally released as a Half-Life: Alyx mod back in 2021, re-jigging the genre of Valve's VR masterpiece from sci-fi adventure meets survival horror to gun-fu Hollywood blockbuster. It's about as close as you can get to living in John Wick's skin without flaying Keanu Reeves first, promising an adrenaline-fueled gunfight mixed with a liberal dose of judo flips in your one-man quest to bring justice to the criminal underworld.

While playable in standard first-person mode, I'll be opting for the PCVR experience, because as good as you might be with a mouse and keyboard, there's just no way you can juggle a knife into the air, take out three armed goons with a handgun and hip toss your remaining opponent into the path of said falling blade, as you can in VR. Not that I can in VR, either. But by God, I'll try.

Expected to release as a full standalone title this year, Gunman Contracts will initially take flight on Steam Early Access, which means if I don't want to play the game through a zoetrope as its developer works out any niggling optimization issues, it might be time for me to call in an upgrade.

However, perhaps I'd sidestep replacing my entire machine and instead opt for the new ROG XG Mobile eGPU, granting me up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 mobile-tier graphics (max TGP 150W) with up to 24GB of GDDR7 VRAM met with DisplayPort 2.1 goodness in tandem with the high bandwidth (up to 64Gbps for graphics, and 128Gbps of throughput in total) offered by its Thunderbolt 5 connection. Granted, that model is $2,199, but the RTX 5070 comes in at $1,199.

— Rael Hornby

WWE 2K25 on the HP Omen 16 Max

WWE 2K is my favorite wrestling game series and WWE 2K25 is set to release later this year. After a brief WWE 2K25 teaser during WWE RAW’s Netflix debut on January 6, I’m excited to see what’s next in the franchise.

Besides speculating that Roman Reigns will be on the cover of WWE 2K25 and naturally in this year’s 2K Showcase, I’m wondering about the graphical upgrades. I reviewed last year’s WWE 2K24 and experienced an issue where the game would run in slow motion. For context, my HP Pavilion Gaming PC features an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 6-core processor, 16GB of RAM, and AMD’s Radeon RX 5500 GPU with 4GB of dedicated memory.

Sure, I got it to work after updating my graphics drivers and adjusting my monitor’s refresh rate, but it was a stark reminder that games are getting more demanding. Although I’m a casual gamer, I’d like to enjoy newer games in the future without having to worry about running into issues.

That’s where a high-performance gaming laptop like the CES 2025-announced HP Omen 16 Max swoops in for the rescue. With configurations up to the latest AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 or Intel Core UItra 9 275HX CPU and graphics up to the new Radeon 890M and RTX 50-series, it likely more than surpasses WWE 2K25’s forthcoming recommended system requirements.

Although I’d be shrinking from a 32-inch, 2K, 144Hz monitor to a 16-inch, QHD, 240Hz display, I would benefit from a higher refresh rate. For games like WWE 2K25 that feature fast-paced combat, high-flying in-game acrobatics, and realistic cutscenes, gameplay would be smoother than room-temperature butter on the HP Omen 16 Max.

— Hilda Scott

CES is not only a showcase of the best tech to come in the year ahead, it's also a place for manufacturers and developers to showcase some of their grander ideas for how breaking technologies can theoretically be applied in the consumer space several years from now.

These concepts can sometimes steal the show, gifting us a look at a future yet to come. CES 2025 was no exception, and as you'd expect AI had a lot to do with many of the concepts we came across on showroom floors throughout Las Vegas, Nevada. However, one concept caught our eye in particular: Razer's real-time AI esports coach, Project Ava.

Best Concept of CES 2025: Razer Project Ava

CES is always full of products that may or may not come to fruition, but in that sea of concepts, one really stood out to us. Razer’s Project Ava is an AI esports coach that works in real-time.

That means, while you’re mid-raid in League of Legends, you can get feedback on where to push or which items to use all without having to leave your game to trawl YouTube.

What makes Razer’s AI coach different than competitors is that it utilizes visual data from your game in addition to game data from other players.

The result is a coach that’s tailored to your specific scenario and play style. Razer also envisions Ava being used for non-esports play in games like Black Myth: Wukong to give real-time advice on how to beat bosses as well as post-match coaching for breakdowns on what you did right and wrong during your match.

It’s hard to say whether Project Ava, if it gets released in full, will actually live up to all of Razer’s vision, but the idea is one that companies like Razer and its ilk are pursuing.

Project Ava may be a concept right now, but it’s also a template for gaming’s AI future.

Virtual and mixed reality is waving goodbye to a pretty successful time of 2024, but we don't expect things to come to a crashing halt at any point this year. If anything, this category of tech seems to have a very promising future ahead of it.

That said, the halls of CES 2025 weren't exactly bustling with stands ready to showcase the next generation of consumer-level headsets, but there were still some impressive pieces of hardware on display, most notably the Sony Xyn — a creator-focused sister headset to the company's impressive PS VR2, and our pick for the best VR/XR tech at this year's show.

Best VR/XR of CES 2025: Sony Xyn

In the world of VR and XR, Sony might be known more for its PS-VR headset, but its recent addition, the Xyn, looks compelling in an entirely different way. Unlike PSVR, the Xyn is focused more on creative application,s with Sony positioning the headset as a way to create “spatial content.”

Part of that master plan will be Xyn’s “spatial capture solution” which creates photorealistic 3D assets using images captured of real-world objects and spaces. In effect, wearers will be able to create 3D scans of objects and environments just by looking at them.

Combined, Sony says the Xyn and its software could be useful for all sorts of creative applications, including CG production films, games, and more.

Naturally, the Xyn will need a very high-res display, so Sony is including a high-quality 4K OLED micro display that should give wearers all the pixels they need to render 3D content effectively.

Just when the Xyn will be released is anyone’s guess, but having another headset with high-res displays that can match the Vision Pro should be exciting for anyone who’s hopeful about the future of XR.

Sadly, due to its creator-focused angling, the Xyn might not be all that fun for the average consumer, but creative professionals may be looking at a mixed reality marvel to improve workflows and bring their skills to the next level.

Wireless earbuds have become a staple in the everyday tech category, gifting us all the ability to discretely score the soundtrack to our lives, catch up on our podcast backlog, and even take calls hands-free, no matter where we find ourselves.

While convenience is key to earbuds, the tech that powers them gets better every year. Improved touch controls, spatial audio, and refined active noise cancellation are hallmarks of a great pair of earbuds, and the longer they can last, the more we get to enjoy them.

At CES 2025, Laptop Mag took a moment to switch from WiFi to HiFi in search of some killer competition for Apple's ever popular iPods, and thanks to the efforts of Audio-Technica, we may have found just that in the ATH-CKS50TW2 wireless earbuds.

Best earbuds of CES 2025: Audio-Technica ATH-CKS50TW2

If there’s one thing we all love in our gadgets, it’s a long battery life and wireless earbuds are no different. Even if most earbuds charge pretty fast, having to take your buds out and endure the horrible sounds of the New York City subway while they charge in their case isn’t ideal.

For that reason, Audio-Technica’s ATH-CKS50TW2 wireless earbuds are getting the nod for the best earbuds of CES 2025.

While we haven’t had a chance to test for ourselves, Audio-Technica claims the buds get 25 hours of battery life outside the case while ANC is turned off and a still very impressive 15 hours while ANC is activated.

And if a hefty battery life isn’t enough to convince you, the buds also come with a useful feature for those of us who like to let our buds live dangerously outside the charging case.

Magnetic Switch Technology, as Audio-Technica has dubbed it, uses magnets on the buds themselves to glom with ears together and automatically switch them off so they don’t die when you hastily shove them into your pocket (I assume this would also be useful for not losing them, too).

The ATH-CKS50TW2 wireless earbuds are available to purchase from the Audio-Technica website for $149 in Black or Beige colorways.

Did you think our pick for this was going to be a pair of gaming cans or a VR headset? Well, surprise — it’s a pair of AR glasses!

Try as we might, during our limited time exploring the massive showrooms of CES 2025, we didn't really come across a traditional gaming headset that stood out as a key winner.

However, in terms of non-traditional headsets, there were the Rokid AR Spatial glasses, wearable screens in smart glasses form ready to connect to gaming handhelds, laptops, and phones to maximize your viewing experience with enormous virtual displays.

Best gaming headset of CES 2025: Rokid AR Spatial glasses

The key feature that sets the Rokid AR Spatial glasses apart from the majority of VR headsets and gaming AR glasses is its built-in myopia and pupillary adjustment. Users who are nearsighted or have an IPD (inter-pupillary distance) outside of the common VR headset’s presets can fine tune the focus to their eyesight — no extra lenses required.

Like prescription glasses, this can not only tremendously improve the clarity of the virtual world, but also can make looking at a screen right in front of your eyeballs more comfortable.

VR headsets like the Meta Quest 3 provide only a few presets that don’t accommodate everyone’s IPD. If you try to play a game with an IPD or focal length that doesn’t accommodate your eyesight, you could strain your eyes — at worst, you could start to feel nauseous. AR glasses like Lenovo’s Legion Glasses 2 don’t even have this feature.

As for their specs: Sony 0.68-inch Micro-OLED displays; 600 nit max brightness; 1200p resolution; and a 90Hz refresh rate. The virtual display spans up to 300 inches and supports up to a three-screen setup.

They weigh 75g, slightly heavier than some competitors but they still feel comfortable .The glasses run on Rokid’s own platform, which supports Android apps, but you can also connect it to your phone, laptop, or gaming handheld.

Rokid's AR Spatial glasses are available for pre-order at $648 ($698 full price) from the Rokid homepage.

The computer in your computer setup is only half the story. An external monitor offers expanded real estate for your programs and windows, and you can often gain sharpness, picture quality, and color accuracy. All of which are vital if you're a content creator.

While making our way through CES 2025, we were searching for a monitor that offered something truly special. What better product to leap at us than the LG UltraFine 6K? It's a 32-inch Thunderbolt 5-compliant monitor with an impressive 6K resolution. It's the latest monitor to join a remarkable flock of creator-class displays and a first-of-its-kind pairing for Thunderbolt 5 adoption. No wonder our Laptop Laurel for best monitor landed on its shoulders so easily.

Best monitor of CES 2025: LG UltraFine 6K

LG just leveled up its professional monitor game in a big way with the release of the 32-inch LG UltraFine 6K Display at CES 2025.

This is the first 6K monitor to offer 5 ports for Thunderbolt. The MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro on my desk is calling out to be paired with this monitor immediately.

Offering what LG is calling a “Nano IPS Black” panel with 99.5% of Adobe RGB and 98% DCI-P3 color gamut, it should meet the needs of professional photographers and videographers.

While I’m incredibly excited about this display, we are still awaiting some details from LG, including how much it will cost.

The general assumption is that it should come in at around $3,000, but some of the final details, like its refresh rate, which could be 60Hz (most likely) or 120Hz (less likely), but given the intended market for this panel, the former should be fine.

It’s a gorgeous display and welcome competition in the 6K monitor market that is largely dominated by the Apple Pro Display XDR for $4,999 and the Dell Ultrasharp 6K for $2,749.

LG has yet to share pricing and availability for the UltraFine 6K.

With so many excellent new laptops, powered by top-of-the-line chipsets on show at CES, you'd be forgiven for forgetting all about the computer you carry in your pocket.

However, while CES 2025 wasn't the location for the next big iPhone announcement, that's not to say there wasn't plenty to look for when it came to smartphones. In the hunt for this year's best smartphone accessory, our Laptop Laurel fell squarely on the head of a very familiar type of device to many, but there's no harm in highlighting a golden oldie, if it's a true classic.

While it may simply be another smartphone power bank to some, in our eyes, the Belkin Stage PowerGrip is more than worthy of our pick for best smartphone accessory of CES 2025.

Best phone accessory of CES 2025: Belkin Stage PowerGrip

Power banks are plentiful, but Belkin’s Stage PowerGrip adds a twist to this useful category. The Stage PowerGrip attaches magnetically to iPhones with MagSafe, allowing them to charge wirelessly or with a cable.

In addition, it comes with a built-in button that acts as a Bluetooth camera shutter, making it ideal for content creators who perhaps don't have access to the latest iPhone's action button.

That feature is complemented by a unique design that resembles a digital camcorder, adding an additional touch of charm to an otherwise traditionally background-level device.

Outside of that, the Stage PowerGrip is just a solid external battery. It has a 10,000 mAh battery capacity and can charge three devices simultaneously – one wirelessly via MagSafe, one through its built-in USB-C port, and another through a retractable wire built into the power bank.

Yes, a power bank may not be the most exciting device you can attach to your smartphone, but that doesn't detract from the fact that accessories like the Belkin Stage PowerGrip remain among the best.

Belkin reps say that the Stage PowerGrip will be available from May 2025, with the aim to keep the price under $80, making the Stage PowerGrip an excellent value for a power bank.

Plugable may not have the big-name recognition of your Apples, your Samsungs, or your Razers, but it does have a catalog of accessories all three would be envious of in terms of performance, reliability, and user satisfaction.

That said, anybody who has browsed our best laptop docking stations buying guide will be familiar with this brand name, as it currently sits next to our favorite pick, the Thunderbolt 4 & USB4 Quad Display Docking Station.

Plugable set the bar pretty high with that effort, and its dock has held onto pole position for an impressive amount of time.

So imagine our excitement when CES 2025 showcased the Plugable UD-7400PD, a fantastic DisplayLink dock that trades its quad display potential for quint display possibilities.

Best docking station of CES 2025: Plugable UD-7400PD

Plugable hit the ground running with a couple of first-of-their-kind products this CES and among them is its new docking station, the UD-7400PD.

While there’s a lot to unpack, the biggest feat is this docking station’s support for a grand total of five monitors – four 4K and one 8K – which makes it, according to the accessory company, a first-ever in the category.

While using that many monitors simultaneously might feel like overkill, Plugable says its docking station is perfect for serious professionals like financial analysts or serious creatives.

Believe it or not, there are people out there who would sneer at Plugable's five monitor cap, though I assure you those people are few and far between.

This is of course, plentiful in terms of external monitor support for most, though perhaps a little lacking in port variety for those with a hunger for peripheral fueling ports.

That said, Plugable has plenty of alternatives for folk like that, the UD-7400PD is all about building your very own panopticon of productivity, and to that end, it looks set to serve you greatly.

We haven’t had a chance to test the UD-7400PD but if it’s anything like Plugable's other accessories, you can assume the best.

The Plugable UD-7400PD will be available later in Q1 2025 for a reported price of $265.

Plugable paid for travel and accommodation for this writer's visit to CES 2025. The company's sponsorship did not affect the outcome of this award, nor did it see the contents of this article before publication or influence its outcome.

There's still life in the external webcam yet, especially while laptop manufacturers seem dead set on providing the worst ones possible by default.

Even in the age of FaceTime, the humble webcam manages to survive, the hero of the Zoom call, the online class, and those strange websites that let you video call absolute strangers for fun.

However, when it comes to webcams, it's pretty hard to break new ground. At least, that's what we thought before we came across the Emeet Pixy at CES 2025.

Best webcam of CES 2025: Emeet Pixy

The webcam market is very crowded, but among the debuts at CES 2025, the Emeet Pixy stands out.

This new webcam does not have one but two horizontal cameras that improve image quality and focus. No word yet whether this newly familiar array will be able to capture 3D video.

Standing out in video conferences can help your career — whether you’re a streamer on Twitch or work in a more corporate environment. To that end, the Pixy also uses AI to improve image and sound quality, keeping you looking like the star of the OLED screen.

Shooting in 4K, the Pixy also features a PTZ (“pan, tilt, zoom”) feature to capture your best angles across its three-axis gimbal.

While it does little to aid conversation about the Pixy's technological achievements, it's also worth pointing out that it does look like a cheeky little robot with its two beady eyes positioned above status light smile. Its cuteness factor is sure to play well with younger crowds.

In fact, Emeet, founded in 2016, is marketing the Pixy as a tool "designed specifically for Generation Z content creators who demand nothing less than excellence.”

Now, don’t let that marketing-speak turn you off — this camera holds promise and Emeet says more features are coming to it in the months ahead. Stay tuned.

While Emeet wasn't able to share any details regarding pricing and availability, the company claims that more news and features regarding the Pixy will release later in 2025.

The term "smart home" seems rather quaint in 2024; almost every device you can get for the home nowadays has the potential to offer some internet or home hub integration. However, dedicated smart home devices that focus on unifying your home's smart controls or offering monitored security are still very popular.

Our time at CES 2025 brought one such device to our attention and earned our Laptop Laurel award for smart homes in the process: Aqara's Presence Sensor (FP300), a multiband sensor for the home that can run on just two CR2450 coin cell batteries.

Best smart home of CES 2025: Aqara Presence Sensor FP300

The smart home is a plugged-in world. Cameras, motion detectors, chargers, and more: Most need an outlet to work.

That’s what makes the Presence Multi-Sensor FP300 from smart home firm Aqara, which debuted at CES 2025, such a gem.

This Matter-enabled motion sensor can detect changes in light, temperature, microwave, and humidity runs on two CR2450 coin cell batteries, enabling you to stick it anywhere you'd like and not worry about the battery for two years. It’s something customers have been asking for since the debut of the wired Presence FP 2 sensor.

“A lot of our friends say that they wanted to install [a motion sensor] in another room without a power supply, and with the FP300, you can do that without a socket,” an Aqara rep tells Laptop Mag.

The battery-powered presence sensor will ship in the spring of 2025, and while company reps couldn’t give Laptop Mag a hard number on price, one said it will cost less than the FP2, which is $85.

In all the hustle and bustle of the showroom floor, it's easy to lose yourself in the mix of new and exciting products that dominate CES 2025. But don't forget the chips and silicon that kicked off this year's event — we didn't.

And how could we? These new generations of chips powered several new laptops we tested during CES, and we had plenty to write home about. However, one chip from AMD stayed at the forefront of our minds throughout the event: the AMD Ryzen AI Max, which claimed our best-in-show Laptop Laurel.

Best in Show CES 2025: AMD Ryzen AI Max

Look. We’re Laptop Mag. Usually, this spot goes to a laptop. Sometimes, it goes to a GPU or GPU series. But AMD decided to try something new this year, and it paid off fantastically.

The new Ryzen AI Max chipsets were codenamed “Strix Halo” and offer powerful gaming, content creation, and AI performance across the full APU.

With up to 128GB of memory on package that can be allocated between the CPU, GPU, or NPU as needed, the Ryzen AI Max chipset is an absolute beast of a processor.

We watched the Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395 crush an intensive DaVinci Resolve task in seconds on the HP ZBook Ultra 14 g1a, and we even took the non-workstation Ryzen AI Max+ 395 for a few slick encounters in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart on the Asus ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet.

The performance capabilities we’ve seen from the Ryzen AI Max and its sheer boundless potential have us so incredibly excited we couldn’t even think of a laptop that would top “Strix Halo.”

You'll be able to find AMD's Ryzen AI Max APUs in systems starting Q1 2025.

It was love at first sight with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i this year at CES.

The near-bezel-less panel is achieved via a clever new design that gives the Slim 9i a 98% screen-to-body ratio, offering a window into your creative endeavors on screen. I can't wait for us to get this laptop in our labs to put all of Lenovo's claims to the test, but it is an undeniably gorgeous laptop. It could easily find its way among the best laptops for Photoshop or best laptops for video editing later this year.

Best Creator Laptop of CES 2025: Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

Why it wins

This ultra slim laptop is 14" — despite the engineering challenges to make one, it really is the perfect size if you ask me — and boasts an OLED display. As Lenovo points out, the design of the webcam is a "world first," and it's quite the innovation. The webcam is under the display, giving more screen real estate. The bezel isn't literally “razor-thin” like Lenovo tells us, but it's quite thin and who can blame them for the hyperbole?

This ultra-thin laptop has an Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) 7 processor that powers Windows 11 with Copilot+. Based on previous testing, it's an AI laptop that should also boast incredible battery life. Lenovo says it’ll last 17 hours, but we’ll run it through the Laptop Mag battery test soon.

While it only has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one can accept this reality because it's so thin and light (just 2.62 pounds). In hand, it feels as elegant and professional as any productivity laptop. And thankfully, it comes in a fabulous “tidal teal” color: It's downright blue-tiful.

Release and availability wrap-up

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is available for pre-order from Lenovo, starting at $1,759. Lenovo indicates that shipments will start on January 24.

Lenovo remains the dominant force in the 2-in-1 laptop market, so it's no surprise that it has claimed the top spot for the best 2-in-1 laptop at CES 2025. The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition brings the company's new AI-augmented features to the 9i for the first time after debuting in the Yoga 7i at IFA 2024.

The combination of well-considered hardware and software made the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition an easy pick.

Best 2-in-1 Laptop of CES 2025: Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition

Why it wins

The tenth generation of the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 laptop builds on the impressive reputation of the series. The specs alone put this latest 2-in-1 in rarefied air: It's an Intel Copilot+ PC, it has an OLED display, and it comes with up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor.

This 14” laptop is an Aura edition, Lenovo’s new series of AI laptops that debuted in September 2024. This “convertible” laptop includes a new, magnetically attached Yoga Pen, a stylus to bring the most out of the touch screen display that reaches 1,100 nits of brightness. A slew of thoughtful features — attention mode to reduce distractions and shield mode to protect privacy are just two — are thoughtful touches that only come on Lenovo Aura series laptops.

The ability to turn your laptop into a tablet by pushing the display all the way back on its hinges is one of the best mechanical laptop innovations in recent history, and Lenovo, with its Yoga 2-in-1 series, has the best version of it on the market. The latest edition — a “cosmic blue” to boot — is all the easier to fall in love with. We will have to test it in our labs and give a full review, but when it comes to CES debuts, there are few better than this device.

Release and availability wrap-up

Starting at $1,459, the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is available to pre-order now.

Streaming movies and TV shows is pretty much the standard in 2025, with services like Netflix becoming our central hub for all things entertainment. However, when hunting down the best streaming gadget during CES 2025, we were struck not by a new TV-friendly accessory but by an app. An app for a handheld gaming PC.

While TV has its streaming options pretty much in the bag, the gaming world is another topic entirely. However, Nvidia's CES announcement that it would be bringing its GeForce NOW cloud gaming service to Valve's Steam Deck as a native app may suggest otherwise, and makes for a perfect choice for our Laptop Laurel awards.

Best streaming of CES 2025: Steam Deck + GeForce Now

Valve’s Steam Deck catalyzed the current PC gaming handheld boom, yet even now among a slew of competitors (even cloud-gaming handhelds from Logitech and PlayStation) it’s still a standout device for its direct integration with the Steam launcher and ability to emulate hundreds of classic games. But it lacks one crucial feature for combating its short battery life: native cloud gaming support.

That will change later this year when Nvidia releases its native GeForce Now app for the Steam Deck. With support for thousands of Steam games, it’s arguably the best cloud gaming platform out there.

On the Deck, you will be able to play games at up to a 4K resolution at 60 fps with ray traced graphics (as long as you connect the handheld to your TV and have a GeForce Now Ultimate subscription).

Currently, if you want to play games on the Steam Deck via GeForce Now you have to manually download a script to install it in your Steam library or manually set up your browser for it to run there.

From personal experience, not only is this time consuming, but some games also won’t run reliably — if they launch at all.

Nvidia’s GeForce Now native apps for other platforms are free to download, so it’s reasonable to assume the one for the Steam Deck will be free as well. If you don’t already have a Steam Deck, you can grab one for between $399 and $649.

If you were scouring the CES 2025 announcements for the best business laptop, look no further than the HP EliteBook Ultra G1i. In our review of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-powered HP EliteBook Ultra G1q last year one of our few concerns with the EliteBook Ultra was the potential software incompatibility due to the ARM-based Qualcomm chip. The new Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor in the EliteBook Ultra G1i eliminates any such concerns.

Here's a closer look at what convinced us that this was the best business laptop of CES 2025.

Best Business Laptop of CES 2025: HP EliteBook Ultra G1i

Why it wins

The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i was the best business laptop debut at CES 2025 because, as with so many winners, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. While the features — which include up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of SSD storage — are impressive, the total package makes for a productivity machine right out of the box.

And HP didn’t try reinventing the wheel in the business laptop category, which is a feature, not a bug. It looks similar to that ubiquitous MacBook design, which is just fine. Few executives want twinkling RGB lights. Instead, the EliteBook Ultra G1i focuses on results and security. The results will come faster with AI, courtesy of an NPU with up to 48 TOPS (Tera Operations per Second) that works with Windows 11 AI features. HP also pushes its proprietary Wolf Security features, which are table-stakes for enterprise-level businesses.

Release and availability wrap-up

The price is expected to start around $2,000 for this powerful, sleek business laptop full of ingenious touches. The HP website says "coming soon" on availability, but a rep for HP tells Laptop Mag that the EliteBook Ultra G1i will be for sale by January 31, 2025.

Often overlooked for the tasks they perform, routers are much more than simple WiFi connection spots, and a great one can have a real impact on the speed and range of your available connection.

They're the backbone of your at-home internet experience, managing your devices, prioritizing traffic, and acting as hardware firewalls with their built-in security features.

At Laptop Mag, we don't overlook the humble router, and made hunting down the best and brightest in this category one of our many missions while attending CES 2025.

After scouring showroom floors, one impressive mobile option, complete with a retro off-white color, stood out: the Acer Connect M6E 5G Mobile WiFi.

Best router of CES 2025: Acer Connect M6E 5G Mobile WiFi

Innovative upgrades in routers aren’t exactly myriad these days, but every so often, a router can feel like a much-wanted solution to a very real problem — instead of a solution in search of a problem.

Enter the Acer Connect M6E 5G Mobile WiFi, which the company designed for small and medium-sized businesses but will undoubtedly make a difference for teams who need secure connectivity on the go.

It costs $249, plus the monthly subscription you’d pay to your wireless carrier, and can connect up to 32 (!!!!) devices at once. It will be available by March 31, 2025.

It uses a cellular 5G connection to create a WiFi 6E hotspot and offers a range of about 20 feet. When using WiFi in public, security is key, and this little white router — it's about the size of a cell phone but thicker — has WPA/WPA2 encryption and supports VPN use.

It charges via a USB-C cable, and given its portable nature, feels rugged in hand Acer says it's water resistant to up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes.

According to Acer, the Connect M6E 5G Mobile WiFi hotspot will be available from Q2 2025, retailing with a starting price of $249.

Intel officially announced the arrival of the Thunderbolt 5 connectivity standard on September 12, 2023. Over a year later, we're finally starting to see this connection standard being fully adopted, with Asus, in particular, revealing several new models of ROG Strix and Strix Scar gaming laptops that each feature Thunderbolt 5 connectivity.

Still, the number of accessories that are prepared to make full use of this tech is rather slim. However, don't take that as a suggestion that our pick for the best Thunderbolt 5 accessory of CES 2025 was a "best of a bad bunch" pick.

They might be few in number, but that makes spotting the best use of Thunderbolt 5 all that easier, and at CES 2025, few Thunderbolt 5 devices stood out as much as the Asus ROG XG Mobile eGPU.

Best Thunderbolt 5 accessory of CES 2025: Asus ROG XG Mobile eGPU

CES 2025 finally kicked off a round of Thunderbolt 5 accessory launches, and while there are some enticing new Thunderbolt 5 docking stations, hubs, displays, and external SSDs, it’s the world’s first Thunderbolt 5 eGPU that won me over.

The 2025 Asus ROG XG Mobile boasts up to a top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 mobile GPU and a considerable array of ports in an attractive semi-translucent 2.2-pound shell.

It’s the partner to the 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet, but as this model is Thunderbolt 5, rather than the proprietary Asus cable that the previous XG Mobiles used, it will offer far more flexibility.

Beyond the gaming performance boost from the RTX 5090, it also features a pair of Thunderbolt 5 ports, a pair of USB Type-A ports, a DP 2.1 port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 5G Ethernet Port. So you’re getting a pretty robust docking station along with that GPU.

Now, you need a laptop or gaming handheld with a Thunderbolt 5 port to use the Asus ROG XG Mobile, but we expect to see considerably more launches over the course of the year.

Asus tells Laptop Mag the Asus ROG XG Mobile will ship by March 31, 2025, starting at $1,199 for a version with an RTX 5070 Ti GPU, or go all-in on the RTX 5090 version for $2,199.

To many, a good gaming keyboard is the one whose backlighting has gone technicolor. To the initiated or the enthusiast, a good keyboard is all about performance, touch, and responsiveness. However, a great gaming keyboard? Now, you're talking about fine-tuned levels of customization.

At CES 2025, Laptop Mag was spoilt for choice when it came to picking Laptop Laurels winners, but when a keyboard like the Keychron K2 HE comes along, there's really no other option.

Mechanical mastery meets magnetic minimalism in this keyboard, and while Keychron takes home the laurel, the real winner is whoever sits in front of it.

Best gaming keyboard of CES 2025: Keychron K2 HE

Specs to edges, the Keychron K2 HE (Special Edition) is an outstanding, gorgeous keyboard for gamers and typists alike. Both black and white versions are adorned with rosewood on either side of its aluminum frame.

OSA keycaps uniformly span across, complementing the classy, minimalist look. The keys make a soft “thwack” sound when they bottom out, thanks to the switches themselves and the padding inside.

Pressing them is like running your fingertips over silk. The K2 HE is compatible with all major operating systems, too (macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, iPadOS), and it supports Bluetooth 5.2, 2.4GHz, and wired connections.

It gets better: instead of more common mechanical switches, the K2 HE uses magnetic (also known as Hall Effect switches). So, instead of a physical action, the switches use an electromagnetic field to register key presses.

This allows you to set custom actuation points for each key (in Keychron’s browser-based software), so you don’t have to press the keys all the way down like you normally would with a physical switch.

Not only can this make it easier to type, but it’s also a super handy feature for fast-paced shooters or racing games where you might want more precise control over your movements. You can program up to four different actuation points on a key, whereas most high-end gaming keyboards with magnetic switches only allow up to two.

The Keychron K2 HE is available to purchase from the Keychron store and shortly from Amazon.com, starting at $130 for the standard model and $140 for the special edition. Both models feature Gateron Double-Rail Magnetic Nebula switches .

Gaming has a big presence at CES, at least when it comes to hardware, accessories, and peripherals. While there are no world-exclusive game reveals on the cards as you'd find during PAX, GamesCom, or the late, great E3, the best of the best in gaming laptops, keyboards, and mice are all on show. HyperX's PulseFire Saga mouse was the one we singled out above its contemporaries for our Laptop Laurel awards.

Best gaming mouse of CES 2025: HyperX PulseFire Saga and Saga Pro

HyperX has taken a more practical approach to modular gaming mice with its wired PulseFire Saga and wireless Saga Pro. Instead of swappable side panels or weighted cylinders, both of its new mice come with a total of eight interchangeable, magnetic parts: two main clicker sets, two palm rests, and four thumb buttons. They’re easy to swap out, so it shouldn’t take much time to find the right combination of parts for your hand and grip style.

For a more tailored fit, HyperX also provides digital blueprints (links via printables.com) for each part so you can tweak the dimensions and 3D print your own in any color you want.

Our friends at Tom’s Hardware saw some neat examples: a bright red Saga Pro with a thumb rest; another in shimmering purple; and one with teal main clickers and a red, gridwall-style palm rest.

The mice come with a nice slate of hardware specs good enough for serious esports players. Both the 69-gram PulseFire Saga and 72-gram Saga Pro feature HyperX’s 26K optical sensor (26,000 max DPI) and optical mouse switches, plus a max speed of 650 IPS (inch per second) and up to 50Gs of acceleration before it loses the ability to track gestures.

The wired Saga features up to an 8,000Hz polling rate, while the wireless Saga Pro supports a 2.4GHz connection and maxes out 4,000Hz.

HyperX's PulseFire Saga and PulseFire Saga Pro gaming mice will be available to purchase from March 2025 for $79.99 and $119.99 respectively.

You may own a sizeable gaming laptop with an impressive display, but nothing quite beats having the option to supersize the action on a monitor that breaks free from the traditional 18-inch ceiling.

When it came to handing out our Laptop Laurel for the best gaming laptop at CES 2025, how could we deny the efforts of Asus ROG, blending 4K resolutions with OLED display tech and delivering a rapid 240Hz refresh rate in its new 27-inch ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM display.

Best gaming monitor of CES 2025: Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM

Asus’s ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM is the world’s first 27-inch 4K OLED gaming monitor. Now as is often the case, this is a bit of a trick as multiple vendors released a 27-inch 4K OLED gaming monitor at CES 2025, so while it is first, it’s not alone anymore.

However, beyond the vibrant and sharp 240Hz panel, Asus delivered gorgeous styling and a couple of unique extras to stand out from the competition

OLED and gaming leads to concerns about burn-in, so Asus introduced some features to help alleviate these concerns.

These features are called “ROG OLED Care Pro” and include a sensor that measures your distance from the display and can be set to flip the monitor to a black screen when you aren’t using the monitor.

This eliminates the chance of burn-in due to an unexpected distraction, but also doesn’t inconvenience you by fully shutting down the display in case it is just a brief interruption.

ROG DisplayWidget Center software offers additional assistance with OLED Care features including firmware updates, and the ability to import shared display configurations. A three-year warranty offers you further reassurance.

The ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM gaming monitor will be available for pre-order starting January 21, 2025. There's currently no word on pricing.

TVs have been computers for years now, and to hear Samsung executives explain it, as they did from the stage at CES this year, the TV is more than just a computer; it’s the central feature of your smart home.

Admittedly, it is an off-center pick from Laptop Mag to give a TV the Best Design of CES 2025 award, but the new Frame Pro is overwhelmingly the best-designed piece of technology to debut this week in Las Vegas.

The Frame Pro uses Neo QLED mini-LED tech, an upgrade from the first Frame TV’s LED lights along the edges to light up the screen (edge-lit QLED).

Best design of CES 2025: Samsung Frame Pro

The best design fits seamlessly into your life and brightens — not detracts — from other features in your room. The fact that Samsung also announced at CES a partnership with Art Basel, the Swiss firm that organizes art fairs worldwide, makes buying the Frame Pro all the more enticing.

The depth of art available from the Samsung Art Store for this brilliant screen makes the Frame more than a computer or a TV or a TV/computer; it’s a window into your soul, capable of presenting works that stop you in your tracks. And “art mode” ensures the brightness is just right for the art that is being displayed.

The technology within the Frame Pro vs. the original Frame is also arresting. The new Frame Pro includes an NQ4 Gen3 AI processor, which can upscale video from years past to up to 8k resolution. The third generation of the NQ4 processor also optimizes the images and sound on the Frame Pro.

Finally, the mix of design and technology perfectly harmonizes with the Wireless One Connect box, enabling the Frame Pro to be mounted on a wall like you would a painting (assuming you can place your power outlet behind the TV itself).

It’s a design wonder because it doesn’t demand your attention, it entices it.

Samsung's Frame Pro will be available in 65-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch sizes when it launches, though no details on when that will be or how much it will cost have been revealed as of yet.

The last 12 months have seen a lot of attention brought to the term "AI PC," used to denote computers housing processors or APUs with powerful NPUs (neural processing units) for enhanced AI computation.

However, even then, these machines lack the raw performance that many more powerful AI applications require to tackle complex generative AI tasks, leaving a lot of the work to be done in the cloud.

Until Nvidia announced Project Digits, that is. A personal AI supercomputer, and our Laptop Laurel winner for the best use of AI at CES 2025.

Best AI of CES 2025: Nvidia Project Digits AI PC

While the Nvidia RTX 50 series GPUs dominated the conversation at CES 2025, the company’s Project Digits was a massive announcement that went a bit under the radar.

Nvidia calls it an “AI Supercomputer on your desk,” delivering a petaflop of AI performance in a form factor that appears similar to a Mac Studio.

Who needs that kind of AI power? It’s targeted at AI researchers, data scientists, and the education market to help run large AI models without relying on ChatGPT or another cloud-based solution.

The key to its performance is the GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, designed in partnership with MediaTek. It also boasts 128GB of RAM and up to a 4TB NVMe SSD. Running Nvidia’s Linux-based DGX OS, it will be capable of running 200-billion-parameter large language models or 405-billion-parameter models if pairing two Digits together.

While it feels like AI is everywhere in the tech world already, this kind of (relatively) affordable system can put it in the hands of far more users, which is an AI advancement I can get behind.

Starting at $3,000, it isn’t cheap, but assembling a comparable AI computer could run over $10,000 in the not-so-distant past. Project Digits is coming in May from Nvidia and its partners.

Nvidia's Project Digits will be available to purchase from May 2025 from Nvidia and partners at a starting price of $3,000.

What does it feel like to have giants like Samsung and Apple order dozens of your company’s product? What does it feel like to be the center of such attention?

If you’re Amaury Kosman, the French-American co-founder and CEO of Paris-based Circular, the feeling is, in a word, “frustrating.”

Kosman, who leads the six-year-old smart ring startup Circular, tells Laptop Mag from his booth at CES this week that all the attention paid to the company’s new ring, the Circular Ring 2, is frustrating because he knows Circular should be a bigger presence in the market. (Also, those lanyard-hiding execs aren't fooling anyone.)

The Circular Ring 1 debuted in the US at CES three years ago and sold a “couple tens of thousands,” Kosman says. But the Circular Ring 2 claims one major federal approval that no other smart ring maker — not Oura, nor Samsung — can.

Best wearable of CES 2025: Circular Ring 2

The Circular 2 smart ring is capable of ECG (electrocardiogram) readings. To get to the heart of the matter, this means that the ring on your finger can detect atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat — which can result in more than 400 beats per minute, according to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Kosman, who speaks with a slight French accent and whose mother hails from Madison, Wisconsin, tells Laptop Mag it took 10 months to gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Afib detection for the Circular Ring — a stamp of approval that neither Samsung nor Oura have for their rings.

His eight-person team based in Paris works to see their rings made in China despite efforts to build a ring entirely in France. With the Chinese ability to produce electronics at a massive scale, Kosman, annoyed now that Circular isn’t a bigger player in the smart ring market, may not cut a frustrated figure for long.

The Circular 2 ring starts at $349 and goes up to $549, depending on your finish (gold, silver, black, or rose gold). This is up from the $259 starting price of Ring 1, which one Redditor described as having a “plastic” feel.

Also, separating Circular from the pack is a digital sizing feature. In this feature, the user takes a picture of their hand with their phone, and from there, a ring size is detected with “95% accuracy,” Kosman says. The Circular 2 ring works with Android or iOS devices and has up to an eight-day battery life. Charing is done via a wireless charging dock.

Circular co-founder Amaury Kosman tells Laptop Mag that the Ring 2 will launch via Kickstarter in March and be for sale for $349.

If there's one thing guaranteed at CES every year, it is a new batch of high-end gaming laptops, but the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is more than just an incrementally updated massive gaming laptop. It caught my eye due to its user-friendly new design, Intel Arrow Lake CPU, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU. That's a clean sweep of new high-end gaming hardware inside, and a design change that could make gaming laptops a much more viable option for desktop gamers.

Best Gaming Laptop of CES 2025: Asus ROG Strix Scar 18

Why it wins

Gaming laptops have gone hard into the RGB aesthetics and translucent panels this year, but one laptop went hard into RGB and LED customization while also offering a slick solution for self-repair and upgradeability.

Not only is the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 a high-end desktop-replacement beast of a laptop with the latest Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 processors, the Strix Scar also features 64GB of DDR5 5600MHz memory, a 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, a clicky keyboard, AnimeVision LED lights, and a Mini-LED Nebula display.

What truly sold us on the Strix Scar was the custom easy-open latch to upgrade your memory to 6400MHz memory easily and PCIe Gen 5 storage or even clean out your intake fans. While laptops still don’t match the upgradeability of a desktop, we love seeing manufacturers offer easier access for simple upgrades.

Release and availability wrap-up

The Strix Scar 18 is a monster desktop replacement laptop with top-line specs and it commands a price to match. The Strix Scar 18 (2025) G835 is $3,299 and it’s expected to ship by March 31, 2025.

Lenovo continues to churn out high-quality and reasonably affordable Android tablets despite fairly limited competition from top-tier companies.

The Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus is a perfect example, which is why it earned our best tablet of CES 2025. While there are limits to what you can do with an Android tablet versus a Windows or macOS laptop, the included keyboard and stylus make it a compelling laptop replacement if you are doing productivity work and web browsing.

The nearly 13-inch tablet will also make for an excellent streaming companion. That's not all Lenovo has in store for you, though; read on to find out what else won us over.

Best Tablet of CES 2025: Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus

Why it wins

On-device AI for a tablet? Yes, please. Lenovo unveiled the new Yoga Tab Plus at CES 2025, claiming a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and in-house large-language models to support "Lenovo AI Now." That's just a smattering of what's inside the 12.7" tablet that has 900 nits of brightness and claims a 144Hz refresh rate with 100% DCI-P3 color.

In hand, the Yoga Tab Plus feels as impressive as previous models — elegant, robust, and inspiring. Made for and marketed to creatives — artists, writers, editors, and more — the Tab Plus looks beautiful, and on-device AI for faster local processing means its 10,200mAh battery might just last longer, ensuring creatives can reach flow state on the go without looking for an outlet.

Release and availability wrap-up

Unlike many of the products we saw at CES, the Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus is shipping now. Currently, there is just one configuration available for $699.

Our prestigious best laptop of CES 2025 selection goes to HP this year for its outstanding ZBook Ultra G1a.

This is largely driven by the AMD Ryzen AI Max chipset found inside, our pick for the Best in Show for CES 2025. While we'll have to get it in our labs to see precisely how it stacks up against the typically 7+ pound competition in the workstation market, there's every indication that the HP ZBook Ultra G1a will hold its own, weighing under 4 pounds.

HP's putting the MacBook Pro 14 M4 on notice with this release, offering Windows users their own portable powerhouse for creative and AI endeavors.

Best Laptop of CES 2025: HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a

Why it wins

We cannot often praise a workstation laptop as the best of CES. Windows workstations are typically a niche product category, and innovation between generations often just means iterative hardware updates and increased panel options.

However, this CES had an absolute gem of a powerhouse workstation that offers incredible power thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI Max chipset in a compact form factor. The HP ZBook Ultra 14 g1a weighs less than 4 pounds, but thanks to its Ryzen AI Max chipset, the ZBook 14 can run intense Black Magic DaVinci Resolve workloads like auto-transcriptions in just moments.

While the HP ZBook Ultra 14 is an AI PC workstation with access to Copilot+ AI, the true beauty of this machine is not just its AI capabilities but its massive on-package memory that can boost performance across all three hardware accelerators.

Release and availability wrap-up

HP has not released pricing or availability on the ZBook Ultra 14 G1a yet, but we expect to see models available by March 31, 2025.

While I wasn't a part of Laptop Mag's outbound team to CES 2025 this year, I'd like to imagine that its booth was visible to all in attendance within The Venetian Expo center in Las Vegas, Nevada, guided by an aurora borealis-like glow of colors as the company's peripheral parishioners extol its prime directive: There's no such thing as too much RGB.

In my eyes, Razer is defined by three key things: powerful gaming hardware (as with the recently revealed Razer Blade 16), a wide spread of high-performance and forward-thinking peripherals and accessories (with the company's Project Arielle concept a prime example), and glorious swatches of Chroma RGB.

At CES 2025, Razer revealed a tight packaging of the latter two company values by unveiling its new Monitor Stand Chroma. Part ergonomic laptop or monitor stand, part USB-C hub, part cable management solution, and part disco for your desktop, Razer's latest dive into desktop accessories has a huge amount of potential for modest setups and is available to order now for $199 through Razer's online store.

Razer Monitor Stand Chroma: The illumination of organization

Perhaps taking inspiration from Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, Razer's Monitor Stand Chroma comes in any color you like, as long as it's electrochemically bonded matte black. Though, its Chroma RGB does offer a praising prism of customizable colors to be shone on anything tucked into its serviceably sized storage nook.

The stand's remappable Chroma RGB button allows users to cycle through available presets quickly, but as with most Chroma products released by Razer, these options can be tweaked and customized to your liking through the Razer Synapse app, even changing the function of the switch entirely.

Its anodized aluminum build can support devices up to 44 pounds in weight, making it not just a solid solution for your primary monitor but also a decent plinth for your laptop too — as long as it can straddle the stand's 19.7 x 8.27 x 3.09-inch dimensions, anyway.

However, Razer's stand isn't all about the ergonomic benefits of raising your monitor a few inches into the air, something proven to help improve posture and reduce strain on the neck, shoulder, and back (while leaving your setup looking "fly as all hell"). The stand also incorporates a small USB-C hub, capable of supporting a single external monitor via HDMI, and a small selection of Type-A and Type-C USB peripherals (full rundown shown below).

• (Host) 1 x USB Type-C port
• 1 x Remappable Chroma RGB button
• 2 x USB 3.2 Type-A ports
• 1 x USB 3.2 Type-C port
• 1 x HDMI 2.0 port

Great for small setups, but even better when paired with a docking station

As stated, Razer's stand is of fantastic value to those running a minimalist or smaller setup, offering neat cable management, a tidy little storage nook, ergonomic improvements, and the impeccable flair of the brand's Chroma lighting.

However, the Monitor Stand Chroma's port selection is a little on the short side, making it an ideal companion to work with the Razer Thunderbolt 4 Dock Chroma — a similarly RGB-laden accessory ready to host the stand and other Thunderbolt/USB-C peripherals while providing your laptop with a considerable 90 watts of Power Delivery and 40Gbps data transfer rates.

I reviewed Razer's docking station in June 2024, giving it four out of five stars and a spot in our roundup of the best laptop docking stations. While its lack of legacy ports suitable for USB dongles or cables commonly used by gaming peripherals was an issue, pairing both the Thunderbolt dock and monitor stand makes for an impressive combo that's sure to please.

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Handheld gaming has reached new heights since the Asus ROG Ally launched in 2023, with new competitors like the Lenovo Legion Go, MSI Claw, Zotac Zone, Acer Nitro Blaze, and Adata XPG Nia.

In short, it's an explosive moment for handheld gaming.

For proof, look no further than CES 2025, which has given us a new prototype for the Lenovo Legion Go 2 alongside Acer's absolutely enormous 10.95-inch Nitro Blaze 11.

In all of that handheld gaming PC goodness, however, there's one major gaming hardware manufacturer that has yet to enter the fray: Alienware.

Alienware's UFO gaming handheld: Where is it?

Alienware isn't the only major gaming hardware manufacturer that has yet to invest into the handheld scene. Another company is Razer, which has only gone so far as creating Android handhelds like the Razer Edge, or controllers for phones like the Razer Kishi.

But even if Alienware isn't alone, it's an especially fascinating case considering the company showcased a handheld gaming prototype all the way back in 2020, making it five years now since we've seen the Alienware UFO.

During CES 2020, we were blown away by Alienware's Concept UFO, as the device promised to let gamers play PC games from the comfort of a handheld device. To be clear, this was two years prior even the Steam Deck was announced back in January 2022.

Kevin Turchin, who's currently Dell Director of Product Development, but at the time of the Alienware Concept UFO's unveiling was Dell Director of Engineering, claimed "We actually view [the UFO] as the first of its kind." He continues “When we look at the balance that we've achieved between performance and portability it does allow [us] to have a product that we view can be potentially viable in the market looking forward."

Turchin was correct, as he predicted the explosive growth in popularity that handheld gaming PCs would see in the years to come.

At the time of the Alienware UFO Concept, Dell Consumer Product Reviews Manager, Raymond Watkins, claimed "We want to take it further, and how it's received at CES I think will help shape that conversation." He later said "If we got a thumbs up today I don't think it'd be eighteen months for us to get it on the shelves." Watkins is now Senior Manager of Marketing at AMD.

Of course, the Alienware UFO never got off the ground. Eighteen months went by without any updates on its existence, and three and a half years after CES 2020, the Asus ROG Ally launched in June 2023.

So what about now? Alienware just unveiled all of its CES 2025 announcements, and the Alienware UFO was nowhere to be seen. It's been five years now, but Alienware still hasn't brought the UFO back. So what gives?

Jackie Thomas at IGN asked General Manager of Alienware, Matt McGowan, why the company has no handheld. McGowan claims that "We're continuing to look at that category," but he claims "there are deficiencies," specifically highlighting battery life and the want for better graphics. He claims "When that inflection point comes, we want to be there."

It seems as if the UFO wasn't good enough to match the company's standards, and even now, the technology isn't at a strong enough point to satisfy Alienware. Hopefully that will change in the next few years, but at the very least, lots of exciting developments are happening from companies like Asus, Lenovo, Acer, and more.

Alienware has a chance to monitor the market, learn from the mistakes of its competitors, and then swoop in with the ultimate gaming handheld when the time is right. Until then, be sure to check out more of our CES 2025 coverage to get the latest on all things tech.

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The right gaming monitor may fix common PC gaming issues like lag and choppy performance. No matter how good your computer's hardware is, a mediocre display can ruin your gameplay.

Thankfully, the new HP Omen G2 gaming monitor lineup comes in with the assist.

HP is putting its best foot forward for 2025, announcing the next generation of its top-rated Omen gaming monitors.

On Monday at CES 2025, HP announced its latest Omen G2 gaming monitor offerings. Among them are the HP Omen 32x smart gaming monitor, the HP Omen 27 gaming monitors with refresh rates of up to 280Hz, and the ultrawide curved HP Omen 34c G2.

Over the previous models, these new displays have higher refresh rates, vibrant factory color calibrations, and new panel technology.

If you want the best gaming experience, especially when playing fast-action fighting or first-person shooter games, consider HP's family of 2025 Omen G2 gaming monitors.

The 180Hz HP Omen 27 G2 FHD Gaming Monitor is priced at $249 and will be available in May at HP.com and participating retailers. Its QHD sibling, the HP Omen 27q G2, costs $299 and lands in April 2025. Boasting the highest refresh rate from the series, the HP Omen 27qs QHD gaming is expected in June, priced at $449.

For big-screen gamers, the 34-inch curved HP Omen 24c G2 launches in June for $449. Finally, the HP Omen 32x Smart Gaming Monitor with TV streaming capabilities via Google TV costs $749 and is slated for an April release.

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Lenovo makes some of our favorite laptops here at Laptop Mag, and at CES 2025, we got to check out the company's new Yoga lineup before it hits the shelves.

Of all the laptops Lenovo just announced, I'm most excited to see how well the Yoga Book 9i Gen 10 performs in testing. In last year's Yoga Book 9i review, we gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars and our Editor's Choice award and dubbed it a "near-perfect productivity laptop."

I've had the chance to test this laptop out myself, and it truly does level up your productivity when you're on the go. It's like taking a two-monitor desktop setup with you.

This year's Yoga Book 9i is upgrading from two 13.3-inch displays to two 14-inch OLED PureSight displays, which gives you even more gorgeous screen real estate to work with. It's also gaining the latest Arrow Lake 255H processor and a larger battery.

But enough about the Yoga Book 9i. Let's dive into the rest of Lenovo's upcoming Yoga laptops and see what each one has to offer.

Lenovo's new 10th generation Yoga laptops

In addition to the 10th Gen Yoga Book 9i, here's the rest of the new Yoga lineup at a glance:

• Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (14")
• Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition (14")
• Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (14")
• Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 (14" and 16")

The Yoga Slim 9i is powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 chip with a 48 TOPS NPU, finally earning itself the title of a Windows 11 Copilot+ PC, and Lenovo claims up to 17 hours of battery life. It'll also be a camera-under-display (CUD) laptop, making it the first laptop to feature a 98% screen-to-body ratio.

The Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition gains a brighter OLED display, and a new Aura Edition Yoga Slim 7i is added to the lineup, equipped with a Copilot+ PC-capable Intel processor. Both Aura Edition laptops include exclusive features, like attention mode, wellness tools, shield mode, and more.

Last, but not least, the lightweight Yoga 7i 2-in-1 Gen 10 will be available as a 14-inch laptop or a 16-inch laptop, and both should have Copilot+ PC worthy battery life in addition to its beloved flexible convertible form factor.

Lenovo also debuted its first on-device AI tablet at CES 2025, called the Yoga Tab Plus. This AI-powered tablet will feature a 12.7-inch anti-reflection PureSight Pro display with up to a 144Hz refresh rate and 900 nits max brightness, sound tuned by Harman Kardon, and a large 10,200mAh battery.

Laptop Mag is on the ground this year at CES 2025 from January 7 to January 10, and so far, we've seen a lot of tech to get excited about this year, from new AI-powered laptops like these from Lenovo to impressive smart glasses and Nvidia's new RTX 50-series GPUs. Be sure to check back in for updates throughout the week.

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When it comes to concept flexing, Razer is always ready to pull up to CES with something interesting to show, be that the triple-screened Project Valerie gaming laptop, an RGB-laden N95 respirator to tackle the Corona Virus with pure gamer chic, or Project Fiona — a handheld gaming PC that looks like it fell out of Optimus Prime's chest, ready to light the Autobot's darkest hour.

The company has once again turned up with the goods at CES 2025, revealing Project Arielle, a gaming chair concept designed to keep players cool under pressure or warmly satiated during cozy game sessions.

However, on the surface, Project Arielle lacks the same kind of bold vision we've become used to from Razer concepts, leaving me to wonder if Razer even realizes how well its concept and the Razer Freyja haptic gaming cushion could combine to deliver incredible sensory immersion in today's top games.

Knowingly or not, Razer's Project Arielle is potentially inching the company toward something far greater: at-home 4D gaming.

Keep cool and carry on

Built upon the "exceptional breathability" of Razer's Fujin Pro mesh gaming chair, the elevator pitch for Project Arielle would probably be something along the lines of "Air conditioning for your butt."

Making use of an integrated fan system powered by a whisper-quiet, three-phase, brushless DC motor and energy-efficient PTC heaters, Arielle is capable of raising or lowering temperatures on-demand — capable of reducing the perceived temperature by up to 5°C or bringing the heat with up to 30°C of warm air delivery.

The concept is solid, offering a handy way to keep your temperature well-regulated across ultra-tense, sweat-heavy rounds of Call of Duty: Warzone, or providing a toasty nest to cozy into during your stay in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

However, while comfort is key, immersion is king, and Razer's Project Arielle could be capable of so much more if it could only adopt similar functionality to Razer's Chroma RGB lighting to react to on-screen action.

Imagine if you will the feel of the sun beating on your back as you wander the tropical island of Guarma in Red Dead Redemption 2, or the chill from Alien: Isolation's narrow retro-futuristic corridors abetting your intensely beating heart, with the only reprise being the electrical shock you feel after wetting yourself when the Xenomorph leaps out of a nearby vent with a hankering for the taste of Warrant Officer.

A match made in immersion heaven

While the potential of what Project Arielle could eventually become goes beyond temperature controls for your tush, the experience could be pushed even further by pairing the gaming chair with Razer's Freyja — a haptic gaming cushion (based on CES 2024's Project Esther concept, and shown below) powered by six Sensa HD haptic motor actuators to deliver tactile feedback synced to in-game actions.

Razer's accessories could combine to provide a genuine at-home 4D gaming experience, allowing you to feel the breeze on your shoulders and the pounding of horse hooves through your core as you ride into battle, or the warmth of a bustling underground Berlin rave with the pulsing of bass rippling through your chest in Hitman World of Assassination.

What's next?

I can speculate endlessly about the possibilities of Project Arielle, but it remains to be seen what Razer will do with the concept following CES 2025. While Project Esther made it to a full release via Razer Freyja, there's no announcement on Arielle following suit just yet. However, if Project Arielle makes it that far, I can only hope that Razer will have found a way to integrate it into the gaming experience further.

Razer doesn't make games, but it excels at crafting hardware that enhances the experience of playing them. Project Arielle deserves no less of a shot at this task.

Perhaps we'll have to wait for this 4D entertainment godsend to arrive, and at CES 2026 we'll be reporting on further coincidental steps towards an obvious outcome.

How about an RGB-laden spray bottle to simulate in-game splashes or an odor diffuser that really lets you soak in the radioactive wasteland populated by Fallout's unwashed masses? Perhaps a 200,000-lumen strobe light to give your Rainbow Six Siege flashbangs a little extra "pop."

Regardless, it's been another bold and vividly RGB-fitted showing from Razer at this year's CES 2025, and we look forward to seeing what the rest of the year holds in terms of releases.

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