CES 2024: The best laptops from the biggest tech show

CES is chalk full of both familiar tech and wild ideas, but you can always count on good laptops to make appearances, and this year didn’t disappoint. The best brands in the world were on hand to present their best, all of which you can expect to be available at various times in 2024.

Gaming laptops were just as noticeable this year, so what you have is an interesting mix that speaks to both consumption and productivity. New processors from Intel and AMD help push boundaries, as do strong graphics chips like those from Nvidia, so this group suggests it will be a good year for laptops, overall.

ASUS Zenbook Duo

Lenovo beat ASUS to release the first dual-screen OLED laptop in 2023, but the Zenbook Duo looks to come out strong from the outset. A built-in kickstand makes it easy to orient the device in either landscape or portrait, making the dual 14-inch 2K OLED touchscreens feel more intuitive and adaptable to what you want to do. They each share the same specs, including 16:10 aspect ratios and 120Hz refresh rates. And since content can flow from one screen to the other, you effectively have 19.8-inches of screen real estate to work with.

Placing the keyboard on the bottom half turns the Duo into a traditional laptop, with a thin gap protecting the screen from contact with the keyboard. With two Thunderbolt 4 ports and one HDMI 2.1 port, setting this up with a monitor should be easy. Read more about what you can expect from this nifty laptop as reported from CES.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus 5

The whole concept of a 2-in-1 takes on new meaning with something like the ThinkBook Plus 5 because it literally is two devices in one. When the 14-inch OLED screen is attached to the keyboard, you have a Windows PC running on an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, but pull them apart and the screen turns into an Android tablet running on a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor. It is possible to plug the keyboard into the screen via USB-C and use the keyboard that way, or use a special key to toggle between Windows and Android when attaching the keyboard to the screen with the magnetic latches. It’s rare to see two sets of specs on one device, but that’s exactly what you get here.

Not to be left out are Lenovo’s AI-driven laptops, like the Yoga 9i, Yoga Pro 9i and Yoga Book 9i. The latter is a direct competitor to the ASUS Zenbook Duo, while the other two are premium consumer laptops that will offer some AI features for creating contact and controlling certain features on the devices themselves. Check out the details on what Lenovo has coming up in 2024.

HP Spectre x360 2-in-1

Sticking with the AI theme surrounding CES, HP announced two new models of the Spectre x360—14- and 16-inches—that can flip back a full 360-degrees. You get an OLED panel with 2.8K resolution and IMAX certification on either one, plus a variable 48-120Hz refresh rate. Focusing on content creators to a larger degree this time, the latest Intel Core Ultra processor is on board, along with configurations that can include an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU to go with it. They also have NPUs, neural processing units built to handle the AI-driven features designed to optimize performance while you use the laptop, be it adjusting screen brightness, cooling and battery life based on what you’re doing. More is coming on the AI side based on HP’s plans. You can learn more about these impressive devices right here.

New Razer Blade 16 and Blade 14

It’s easy to look at Razer’s laptops as pure gaming machines, but that would be shortsighted given how you can harness the power inside. The Blade 16 is a beast by any measure, with impressive specs starting with the 16-inch Samsung OLED display and 0.2ms response time that’s 10x faster than the previous Blade 16. Gamers will naturally love that, but the display’s outstanding colour and contrast could prove really valuable for creative projects too. The lowest GPU you can get is an Nvidia RTX 4070 with the latest Intel Core Ultra processor for the ultimate combination in vibrancy and performance.

The Blade 14 doesn’t have an OLED panel, but is the much lighter alternative weighing only four pounds, yet still capable of running with an RTX 4070 GPU. Then there’s the Blade 18, which will be the first 18-inch laptop with a 4K display and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity capable of speeds up to 80Gbps. Read more about these new laptops from Razer right here.

MSI Titan 18 HX

Think of the Titan 18 HX as an aspirational or benchmark laptop because its price may be a little too rich for most. With a configuration that maxes out just about everything, be it the Core i9 processor, RTX 4090 GPU, 128GB of RAM and 3TB of storage, this laptop is so robust it dusts many desktop machines. The 18-inch 4K Mini LED panel shows brilliant colour and up to 1,000 nits of brightness, and you can always lower the resolution to ramp up the refresh rate for gaming. It’s also hard not to notice the RGB touchpad that lights up and reacts to what you do onscreen.

Alongside the Titan, MSI also revealed the Stealth 18 AI Studio, a fairly slim 18-inch model that really straddles the line between creating content and playing games. The combination of an Intel Core “Meteor Lake” processor, strong RTX 4070 GPU and an NPU to handle the AI features. Then there’s the Raider 18 HX, which sits between the Titan and Stealth, though leans more towards the gaming side than creator side. You can also upgrade either one of these if you want the best possible performance. MSI didn’t reveal availability for these laptops yet, but look for them to come sometime in 2024.

Dell Alienware m16 R2

What probably stands out most about the Alienware m16 R2 is that it’s 15% smaller than its predecessor without sacrificing performance. To pull that off, Dell had to alter the ventilation system by reducing its size, utilizing a thermal cooling setup that can be effective, even if it doesn’t match the bulkier one in the previous model. Another interesting feature point here is the 16-inch QHD+ panel can lean back all the way to 180-degrees, which could be useful if you plan to use it that way for any reason. It’s also one of the few laptops I’ve seen in this range that retains an Ethernet port for wired Internet connections.

For the most part, the m16 R2 is an iterative update over the previous model but it does use Intel’s latest CPU and starts with an Nvidia RTX 4070. Plus, configurations reach up to 64GB of RAM and 4TB of storage, both of which would be ideal for anyone in need of a workhorse with plenty of space to work within. This one is going to be available as early as January 2024.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus and Strix

There are a couple of new ASUS ROG Zephyrus laptops in the G14 and G16. The immediate difference beyond screen size is that the G14 runs on an AMD Ryzen 8000 while the G16 will be equipped with an Intel Core Ultra processor. The lid with an illuminating LED strip across the top is a nice visual touch for the aluminum body, as is the lighter weight when the G14 comes in at 3.3 pounds. Meanwhile, the G16 will use Intel’s Meteor Lake processor rather than the newer Raptor Lake chips, but part of the reason for that is because configurations scale up to a Core i9 and RTX 4070 for a very hybrid performance use case. Either one of these could be gaming or creator machines.

ASUS also unveiled new ROG Strix Scar 16- and 18-inch laptops, both clearly aimed at gamers as the Strix Scar line often is. Only this time you get a different chassis with the familiar RGB lighting treatment, and presumably, improved battery life because of the refined design. The Zephyrus and Strix laptops are coming as early as February 2024.

HP Omen Transcend 14 and 16

The HP Omen Transcend 14 carries an advantage out of the box in being the lightest 14-inch gaming laptop available, weighing just 3.5 pounds. That’s not to say other 14-inchers aren’t similarly lightweight, it’s just unusual to see that kind of weight loss on the gaming side. The Transcend 16 is a similar case, including a build that includes OLED displays, though it uses Intel’s Raptor Lake processors rather than the Meteor Lake ones in the Transcend 14.

Despite more svelte designs, both laptops have two USB-C ports (one with Thunderbolt 4 support), two USB-A ports and the ability to work with Wi-Fi 7. Not to mention the option to go up to an RTX 4070 GPU. There are several configuration options for both of these devices, so it largely depends on what you feel you need. Either way, both Transcend laptops can also step in for creative tasks as well.

An interesting set of laptops for 2024

This list will hardly be exhaustive by the end of the year, but all of these will be available soon. Check out all the laptops currently available now to see how they compare, and see all the cool tech coming out of CES 2024.