Rounding up the best laptops at CES 2013 is a weird assignment. Sure, we’ve done it before, but it’s different this year. There are no freaking laptops anywhere at CES 2013.
To be fair, we expected as much. An onslaught of laptops and convertibles rained down during the Windows 8 launch. That news meant we wouldn’t see a regular amount of laptop announcements at CES this year. That leaves us with just some spare details about refreshes and minor products. Here’s a brief rundown of the pittance of laptop news to come out of Vegas:
- Dell updated its Inspiron line of laptops and showed a version of its solid XPS 13 with a 1080p screen.
- Samsung leaked this out just before CES, but its Series 5 Ultra and Series 7 Chronos both received spec bumps.
- Lenovo upgraded the Yoga 11 from an RT device to a full fledged Windows 8 laptop. It also announced the Helix, a Windows 8 convertible running on an Intel Atom (Clover Trail).
- Toshiba refreshed its midrange laptops, and announced that its Qosmio line will get touch.
- Sony’s T-Series got touch for its 14-inch model, and full HD for its 15-inch model. Oh, and the Duo 11 got a new colour.
- Acer showed some new screen tech in its ultrabooks, but that won’t be available for a while.
That’s not alllll of the news to come out of the show, but it’s a good representation of the general tone and tenor. Compared to last year, when CES revealed the XPS 13, the Yoga, a stunning redesign of the Series 9, the Aspire S5 and a bunch of other ultrabooks, this year was a total dud. But that’s only because PC makers shot their wads back in October.
We’re sure we’ll be seeing new stuff later in the year (and probably at next year’s CES).
All that said, if we haaad to pick some “Best Ofs”, they would be the XPS 13 with 1080p and the Lenova Yoga 11, which won’t get an official release in Australia. The XPS was already very good when it debuted in 2012, and the panel Dell stuck on it is beautiful.