Laptops

PCs still have a prominent place at the Consumer Electronics Show and Lenovo pulled out all the stops at CES 2016 with a collection of new desktop and portable models. Included in Lenovo’s CES presentation were the world’s thinnest convertible laptop, gaming gear (including a curved gaming monitor) developed in partnership with Razer, and a compact desktop PC with a built-in projector. Here are all the details on Lenovo’s CES showcase.

The display is one of the most important features to consider when choosing a new laptop. The display is the way you’ll be interacting with that laptop, so getting it right is critical. Resolution, size, aspect ratio, glossy or matte, touchscreen support, viewing angles, brightness, colour accuracy, response times—there are a lot of factors to consider. Pick a laptop with the wrong display and you’ll quickly dread using it. But at the same time, if you want a portable PC for casual use, you also don’t need to pay extra for a professional grade display. Buying a laptop? Here’s what you should know about displays.  

Samsung is releasing three variants of its new Galaxy Book, bringing a different look and feel to its laptops that promises to be more versatile.

 The new HP Spectre laptop is a beautiful marriage of luxurious design and raw horsepower that stands out from the crowd.

The Dell XPS 13 Plus is an ultra-compact powerhouse with a brilliant display, 12th gen Intel CPU, and modern touches like a seamless trackpad.

Samsung is making strides to make better laptops, and the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 continues the 2-in-1 design that helped spread the word.

Lately I’ve been on a bit of a kick with gaming laptops. They’ve really been coming in to their own as of late. There are so many great options and people’s interest in having enough PC muscle to game, in a laptop form factor is definitely increasing. For most people something like an Ultrabook or Chromebook is basic enough to get work done day to day, but when you want to do multimedia creation, or enjoy the latest PC games without having to sacrifice on graphics or performance, a gaming PC is tough to beat. If you can get the power of a gaming PC with the mobility of a laptop you’ll have something that has been the dream of many gamers for years. These days it’s not that farfetched and you have a few options. The latest model I’ve looked at is the Electra 3 from Eurocom. I’ve been a big fan of Eurocom’s laptops in the past so I was curious if this latest model would continue their winning streak.

As you no doubt know, when it comes to trying to pack the performance needed to undertake serious video gaming in a laptop, it comes down to a very tricky balance between speed and portability. Try to shove too much power in a gaming laptop and for all intents and purposes, it ceases to be a portable PC —heavy, bulky and with little battery life. Go too far in the other direction, though, and you end up with something that’s svelte but unable to play games on anything but the lowest settings. I just spent some quality time with a gaming laptop that manages to strike the perfect balance: the Eurocom M3. It’s a compact, lightweight laptop with the power to chew through pixels and polygons while keeping frame rates high. Eurocom says the M3 is the most powerful 13-inch notebook ever made and everything I’ve seen supports that claim.

Microsoft set the standard for convertible laptop PCs when it released the Surface Pro 3. But the success of the latest Surface also opened the door for competition from other PC makers. The HP Envy x2 is a great example of how this class of ultra-portables just keeps getting better. With features like an even bigger 13.3-inch display, dual BeatsAudio speakers and a backlit keyboard, the HP Envy X2 is worth a look for anyone considering a Windows 8.1 convertible PC.  

LG is showcasing a refreshed line of gram laptops at CES 2023, most notable of which is the new Ultraslim, LG’s slimmest gram laptop to date.