Your Guide to the Best New Laptops Unveiled at CES 2022

Your Guide to the Best New Laptops Unveiled at CES 2022

CES 2022 was really the laptop show. There has been a number of kick-ass TVs, some wicked car tech and a handful of strange things on show, but laptop-makers this year really brought the goods.

There’s a dozen articles on Gizmodo Australia showcasing the laptops revealed at CES 2022 this week, so here’s a wrap up of the standouts to us. Starting with the consumer market.

Consumer laptops showcased at CES 2022

ASUS

Zenbook Space Edition Laptops ces 2022
Image: ASUS

I have to start with my favourite. The ASUS Zenbook 14X Space Edition. I love it so much. The whole premise of this thing is sending ASUS back to the 90s when it sent the P6300 into orbit. We may have just suffered through the year the billionaires travelled to space, but ASUS wants you to know it made it there first. This thing reallllly packs the goods, but all I want to do is put it in a freezer and have a play.

ASUS also wowed us with upgraded Zenbook 14s during CES 2022 and it also gave us a 17-inch folding (!!!) laptop. The foldable laptop is freaking huge and surely defies physics.

Dell

Dell XPS 13 Plus laptops ces 2022
Image: Dell

Another CES and another bad ass XPS laptop from Dell in 2022, this time the XPS 13 has received a makeover, and an extra word. The XPS 13 Plus debuted this week. The trackpad is gone, at least visually, keyboard is cleaner and it packs a 12th Generation Intel Core i7-1280P processor.

Lenovo

Photo: Lenovo
Photo: Lenovo

Staying true to the idea that vegans love telling you they’re vegan, I’m choosing Lenovo’s ThinkPad Z-series laptops as my favourite of theirs from CES 2022. Because I’m vegan, and so is this leather, if that wasn’t clear.

Lenovo’s new ThinkPad Z13 and Z16 are all about modernising the business laptop by using unique materials and colours with a focus on sustainability.

Another frontrunner is the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which despite us labelling it boring, we quite like it. Lenovo also used CES 2022 to launch three new 2-in-1 laptop models: the Yoga 9i, Yoga 7i and Yoga 6. Oh, and a ThinkBook Plus, which is a dual-screen device with a comically wide main screen and a secondary screen build into the deck.

Acer

Photo: Acer
Photo: Acer

Acer now makes some of the best Chromebooks on the market, ranging from the premium Chromebook Spin 713 to the super affordable Chromebook R11. It clearly knows it’s on to something and is releasing three new Chromebooks this week at CES: the Chromebook Spin 513, Chromebook Spin 315 and Chromebook Spin 314.

After dropping the three new Chromebooks, Acer decided to make another CES 2022 laptop announcement. Acer revealed it was teaming up with National Geographic to prove it’s committed to a sustainable future. The Aspire Vero National Geographic Edition (AV15-51R) is a special edition of its Acer Aspire Vero laptop.

HP

HP CES 2022 laptops
Image: HP

HP’s new laptops are comprised of Windows laptops and Chromebooks, with varying price points and specs. Leading the charge is the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, which is quite impressive. It’s the first Intel vPro (based on the Intel Evo platform) Chrome OS laptop and features a haptic trackpad. The HP Elite Dragonfly G3, which features a “lighter than air” design (meaning it weighs just about 1 kilogram), with a focus on being highly portable, is also worth a shout out. Internally, you’ll find an Intel 12th-gen processor and 32GB of DDR5 memory, along with up to 2TB of storage capacity.

HP announced so, so many laptops at CES 2022, these include the HP Elite x360 1040 G9, the HP EliteBook 1040 G9, the HP EliteBook 800 G9 Series PCs, the HP EliteBook 600 G9 Series PCs, the HP ProBook 400 G99 Series PCs, the HP ZBook Firefly 14 G9 and the HP ZBook Firefly 16 G9

TCL

laptops ces 2022
Image: TCL

You probably know TCL for its value-friendly TVs and smartphones, but now you might come across the company the next time you’re searching for a new laptop. TCL entered the laptop game at CES 2022 with the Book 14 Go, an inexpensive 14.1-inch clamshell laptop designed for students. It’s fine.

TCL also revealed the NXTPAPER, an 8.88-inch tablet with a paper-like colour E Ink display that could handle video. I like this thing but this is a laptop wrap-up, so I must move on.

Gaming laptops from CES 2022

Alienware

laptops ces 2022
x14. Image: Dell

All I heard from Alienware on the laptop side of things at CES 2022 was ‘thin, thin, thin’.

The Alienware x14 is is the thinnest gaming laptop yet, borrowing design cues from the Alienware x15 and x17 but fits all of its components into a 14-inch frame that weighs about 2 kg and measures just 0.57 inches thick.

Alienware announced it was also refreshing the larger models with the debut of the Alienware x15 R2 and x17 R2. The duo was updated with the latest 12th Gen Intel Core processors with DDR5 support along with Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics. If you prefer power or portable, Alienware also revealed it was refreshing its m15 R7 and m17 R5 Ryzen Edition gaming rigs.

ASUS ROG

Image: Asus laptops ces 2022
Image: Asus

Another banger from ASUS this year was its Zephyrus Duo 16. Revealed at CES 2022, ASUS ROG gave us the next version of its flagship dual-screen laptops purpose-built for gamers and content creators. The primary screen was expanded to 16 inches and comes in three 16:10 configurations. It measures 0.8 inches thick and weighs 3 kg. With all that space, you get plenty of ports, though.

This year at CES 2022, the Taiwanese laptop maker also debuted a 1 kg tablet version called the ROG Flow Z13 and supercharged Zephyrus G14 and G15 beasts.

MSI

Image: MSI
Image: MSI

The star of MSI’s updated gaming notebook lineup is the new 17-inch Stealth GS77, which not only gets support for Nvidia’s new RTX 3070 Ti and 3080 Ti GPUs, but also features MSI’s new Liquid Thermal Pad cooling tech, which uses liquid metal thermal paste to improve heat transfer away from the laptop’s CPU.

Then there are also the new GE76 and GE66 Raider laptops, the new Vector GP76 and GP66 laptops, as well as a special edition collaboration with Ubisoft, the Crosshair 15 Rainbow Six Extraction edition laptop, which features a unique keyboard and lid design to match the latest Rainbow Six title.

Lenovo Legion

Photo: Sam Rutherford laptops ces 2022
Photo: Sam Rutherford

Putting out gaming rigs with top-notch performance is a never-ending battle, so at CES 2022, Lenovo gave its Legion gaming laptops a full refresh with new tech and even beefier performance. There’s the new Intel-based Legion 5i and 5i Pro and the AMD-based Legion 5 and Legion 5 Pro. In addition to more aggressive styling and prominent branding, Lenovo’s big upgrade is the addition of a new 2560 x 1600 240Hz display with G-Sync — something that Lenovo claims is the first of its kind on a 16-inch notebook.

Acer

Screenshot: Acer
Screenshot: Acer

Acer is clearing its digital shelves and stocking them with new gaming laptops. The Taiwanese laptop maker this week revealed refreshed versions of the Nitro 5, Predator Helios 300 and Triton 500 SE, each equipped with the latest Intel or AMD CPUs and Nvidia GPUs.

Razer

Image: Razer laptops ces 2022
Image: Razer

Razer is often labelled the Apple of gaming, and while it isn’t a perfect analogy, the company’s deliberate approach to updating its Blade laptops isn’t unlike what you see with MacBooks. At CES 2022, the company chose again to refresh its lineup instead of making any groundbreaking changes.

This year’s Blade 14, Blade 15, and Blade 17 are powered by AMD Ryzen 6000 series processors or Intel 12th-gen H-series chips along with Nvidia RTX graphics, including the latest RTX 3080 Ti GPU.

Happy new laptop shopping, folks.


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