CES 2024 is well underway and we’ve seen a slew of intriguing laptops due to arrive this year. Many of the notebooks unveiled have focused on the AI capabilities provided by the Intel Core Ultra “Meteor Lake” chips. However, there are also laptops featuring Raptor Lake Refresh chips. If you’re an office worker or hardcore gamer (or both), there are plenty of laptop announcements to get excited about.
Here are 9 of the most interesting laptops we’ve seen at CES 2024 — including slim notebooks, innovative 2-in-1 devices, powerful gaming rigs and more — that may be adorning our coveted best laptops list soon.
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid
The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 is a 2-in-1 laptop in the most literal sense. Its display is a fully functional Android tablet while its keyboard base (hybrid station) is a Windows 11 laptop featuring an Intel Meteor Lake CPU.
You can snap off the display to use it as a tablet while keeping the hybrid station connected to an external monitor. You can also switch between Android and Windows modes with the press of a button.
Though somewhat pricey at $1,999, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 seems like a great value for what it offers.
HP Omen Transcend 14
The HP Omen Transcend 14 is a gaming laptop that doesn’t look the part. Though it sports RGB lighting on its keyboard, you could easily mistake the HP Omen Transcend 14 for an ultraportable. In fact, HP is marketing it as “the world’s lightest 14-inch gaming laptop.” It’s a fetching machine that won’t look out of place at the office or home.
Other than its design, the HP Omen Transcend 14 separates itself from the best gaming laptops by packing a Meteor Lake chip. This processor’s NPU can handle the processing necessary to run a streaming application like OBS while the laptop’s CPU and GPU can focus solely on whatever game you’re playing. This could be a selling point for those who stream to platforms like Twitch.
We’re still not entirely sold on AI laptops, but our brief time with HP’s notebook showed us the potential of such devices — especially for gaming. And even if the AI functionality doesn’t live up to the hype, we’re still getting a sleek and elegant device.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
Saying that a laptop is “the Windows Macbook Pro” has become quite the phrase that we see a lot in our industry. But the 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is the first serious contender to take this mantle.
It starts by ditching the Anime Matrix display for a far more refined slash lighting system, surrounded by a seriously sleek aluminum construction. This CNC-milled shell reduces the weight nicely, reduces the thickness, and feels uber premium to the touch.
Open it up, and you’ll find the drop-dead gorgeous ROG Nebula display — a 14-inch OLED display that offers a 120Hz refresh rate, 0.2ms response time, and G-SYNC for eliminating screen tearing.
Under the hood, you’ll find up to an AMD Ryzen R9 - 8945HS CPU and RTX 4070 GPU for not just peak gaming performance, but for prosumer users too. Not only is this a seriously good gaming laptop, it is a fantastic all-rounder with power to boot.
Acer Swift Go 14
Every binge-watcher’s dream is made a reality in the Acer Swift Go 14 — simple media controls that appear automatically when you need them, an OLED display, and a starting price of $749.
Not only that, but you’ll find that it’s been future-proofed with Wi-Fi 7 — super helpful for when the transition from 6E (finally) happens. Bringing the experience all together is a QHD webcam with plenty of AI smarts for a sharp picture and a nice depth effect.
Top it all off with Intel Core Ultra power with its built-in NPU for all the AI tasks, and you’ve got a solid system at an even more solid price. Make no mistake, this is one of the best low-cost ways to get into the latest and greatest.
Dell XPS 16
We won’t blame you for thinking the new Dell XPS 16 is just a larger version of the Dell XPS 13 Plus. After all, this laptop shares the former’s compact, minimalist design — just without the “Plus” moniker. That could be a selling point or turn-off, depending on how you felt about the XPS 13 Plus’ design. The Dell XPS 16, for better or worse, replaces the Dell XPS 15 OLED.
Aside from sharing the same design as the XPS 13 Plus the most notable thing about the Dell XPS 16 is its inclusion of a Meteor Lake CPU — which features a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to accelerate AI-driven tasks performed on the laptop. Because of that, Microsoft Copilot and other AI programs should run better on this notebook than on Windows 11 laptops with processors lacking an NPU.
If you didn’t like the capacitive touch function keys and disappearing trackpad the Plus is infamous for, you won’t be won over by the new XPS line, which all now look like the XPS 13 Plus. If you can get past the design, the Dell XPS 16 features a large 16.3-inch InfinityEdge display and can be configured with up to an RTX 4070 graphics card — which is a boon for both gamers and creatives.
Alienware m16 R2
The Alienware m16 R2 straddles the fence between gaming and productivity. Though it bears the hallmark Alienware logo and is bulkier than an ultraportable, this redesign of last year’s Alienware m16 is suitable for those who also want to use this machine for everyday computing.
Other than its sharp 16-inch display and Nvidia RTX 40-series GPU, the main draw of the m16 R2 is that it pack a Meteor Lake chip. This chip’s NPU (Neural Processing Unit) can perform AI-driven tasks faster than a processor lacking an NPU. In addition, pressing the F2 key instantly switches to "Stealth" mode, which uses less power than performance mode. Stealth mode also changes the keyboard’s lighting from RGB to white for good measure.
This Alienware m16 R2 could appeal to a wider audience due to its smaller footprint and subdued design (for an Alienware laptop). That it’s equally good for gaming and productivity is another bonus. From what we’ve seen, this could be one of the best laptops of 2024.
Asus Zenbook Duo
Up until now, the Asus Zenbook Duo has been a weird experiment — squashing the keyboard and touchpad further down the deck with a letterbox-sized touchscreen display. But at CES, Asus has channeled the likes of the HP Spectre Fold and Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, and refined the entire formula with some impressive upgrades and a sleek design.
With two 14-inch OLED panels, you’re getting a fantastic viewing experience and a downright awesome versatility of use cases — be it stacking two displays on top of each other for a vertical workstation like no other, or opening it like a book.
As for power, Asus is keeping up with the cutting edge by packing its Zenbook Duo with Meteor Lake. That means you can spec this with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H — sure to keep everything zippy and really turbo boost its AI capabilities with that built-in NPU.
And even better? You can snap one up for $1,499 — that drastically undercuts the competition while offering a physical touchpad unlike anyone else.
HP Spectre x360 14 2-in-1
The HP Spectre x360 14 2-in-1 has all the makings of being one of the best laptops for those looking for equal parts AI power and portability. Plus, it's pure eye candy, and we don't just mean the design — there's a 9MP camera on board that delivers great-looking images while keeping you in the frame while you move around.
As you'd expect, the HP Spectre X360 14 2-in-1 also packs Intel's latest Core Ultra chip, whose NPU is primed to deliver a range of useful AI experiences. You also get a vivid OLED display and Poly-tuned audio in a lightweight design. The Spectre X360 14 2-in-1 looks like a very impressive MacBook Pro 14-inch M3 alternative for the money, which makes it a device to keep an eye on.
MSI Titan 18 HX
Looking for the top tier gaming power? The Titan 18 HX is the one to buy — packing the 14th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU and top tier RTX 40-series GPUs with a ridiculous level of power going to both in the form of 270W. Make no mistake about it: this is a monster.
The Titan 18 HX comes with an 18-inch 4K 120Hz mini LED display, which provides a super high resolution, gorgeous color gamut and a high contrast ratio. Plus, you can spec this beast up to ridiculous levels with 128GB of DDR5 RAM and 6TB of storage.
And taking a page out of the Dell XPS 13, 14 and 16 route (but making it better), there is no clearly defined touchpad. But thanks to RGB lighting, the touchpad glows in lock-step with the colors appearing on-screen. It makes for a surprisingly immersive experience that I know even the most serious of gamers will love.
Check out our CES 2024 hub for all the latest news from the show as it happens. Follow the Tom’s Guide team in Las Vegas as we cover everything AI, as well as the best new TVs, laptops, fitness gear, wearables and smart home gadgets at the show.
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