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| PC World - 15 Jan (PC World)Intel, AMD, or Qualcomm. Which do you want powering your PC? If you don’t prefer any of them, you might have another option soon — and the name will be quite familiar. According to industry rumors, Nvidia is hoping to hop on the Arm-powered PC train for the larger consumer mass market later this year.
It’s been a while since Nvidia’s Arm offerings have made headlines for consumers. At the moment, the company is still best known for its Tegra processors, with which it attempted to break into the mobile market over a decade ago, and which still power the Nintendo Switch and the Nvidia Shield set-top box. (Rumors have also pointed to a Nvidia chip for the highly anticipated Switch successor.)
But with Qualcomm charging into Arm-powered Windows laptops, and recently mini PCs, and with Nvidia sitting on a massive hoard of industrial wealth thanks to the AI boom, it looks like the latter is hoping for some serious expansion beyond its bread-and-butter GPU business.
So sayeth a leaker on Twitter/X, spotted by Tom’s Hardware. According to the short (machine translated) report, Nvidia will partner with extensive Arm producer MediaTek to create a new series of processors. The first batch will be named the N1 for the fourth quarter of 2025, followed by the N1X in 2026, though both of those names could be placeholders. Both will, reportedly, be made with Windows on Arm in mind, the kind of thing you’d find in laptops and mini PCs.
The report says MediaTek is expecting to ship three million of these new Nvidia Arm processors in 2025 and 13 million in 2026. That’s extremely optimistic… but considering Nvidia’s market dominance over the last few years, I wouldn’t bet against them.
The leaker “HaYaO” issued this report on January 2nd, a few days before the start of CES 2025, where Nvidia debuted its Project Digits Arm-powered mini PC (pictured above). Nvidia calls the platform powering the hardware the GB10 Superchip, an all-in-one design with a Blackwell AI-focused GPU (the same architecture in the RTX 50-series) designed for high-end AI applications. This is most definitely not a consumer product, as consumers aren’t really in the market for a $3,000 mini PC. There’s no indication that it’s even intended to run Windows out of the box.
But the fact that Nvidia plans to bring Project Digits to market indicates that the company is indeed investing heavily in Arm-based processor tech, if not necessarily standard PC design. And though Microsoft and Qualcomm’s initial push for Arm PCs with Copilot+ branding has been a bit of a dud, that doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way. Nvidia’s branding power alone could push these products into higher markets, even if it isn’t aiming for gamers.
We’ve known for a while that other Arm chip vendors like MediaTek are eager to enter the PC market now that Windows on Arm is much more available, and Qualcomm’s exclusivity deal reportedly expired sometime in 2024. (MediaTek already sells some laptop-focused designs for Chromebooks.) At the moment, just about any company would jump at the chance to partner with Nvidia, especially on the lucrative chance to get sell huge volumes of PCs to consumers and businesses.
If you’ve been hoping for something to break up the duopoly of PC processors, 2025 might just be one for the books. We’ll be keeping a close eye out for any more indicative news coming down the pipe. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 15 Jan (PC World)The one thing I expected to see at CES was a flood of laptops with Thunderbolt 5 connections attached. Yet, as far as I could tell, there wasn’t a single one.
Thunderbolt 4? Sure. Laptops with that specification were commonplace. But laptop makers don’t seem to be embracing Thunderbolt 5 yet, even though Intel officially announced the Thunderbolt 5 specification in late 2023 for shipment in 2024.
It’s now 2025, and Thunderbolt 5 was essentially a no-show at CES.
Why? From my conversations at the show, device makers blamed two things: first, the continued lack of Intel chipsets with integrated Thunderbolt 5 inside. But they also pointed to the stalled transition to 8K content. Without it, device makers say that consumers seem happy enough with the capabilities Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 provide.
Thunderbolt uses the USB-C port found on PCs, with Thunderbolt 4 routing up to 40 Gbps across it. Thunderbolt 5 can transmit up to 80Gbps (or, in certain cases, to 120Gbps) worth of data. That has typically translated into two 4K displays’ worth of data at 60Hz resolutions in the case of Thunderbolt 4, or three 4K displays at 144Hz, in the case of Thunderbolt 5. Thunderbolt 5 also allows for two 8K displays at 60Hz.
And that’s the problem: the lack of 8K. Hardware makers describe it as a chicken-and-egg problem: Without 8K broadcast content, there isn’t a market for 8K displays. And without 8K displays, hardware capable of rendering 8K content just isn’t as valuable. Nvidia’s older GeForce 4090 cards supposedly can render and capture in 8K, but our review didn’t test that capability. Content creators can edit and export 8K video using the card, but 8K gaming is still more of a curiosity than a reality.
That’s not to say that there weren’t any Thunderbolt 5 devices at CES at all. LG launched a 6K display with a Thunderbolt 5 connection, Asus announced a Thunderbolt 5 eGPU, and LaCie launched Thunderbolt 5 SSDs. But LG’s display didn’t take advantage of Thunderbolt 5’s 8K capabilities, and anyone hoping to use the Asus eGPU needs a Thunderbolt 5 connection on their laptop, too. Thunderbolt 5 requires an ecosystem, and there’s a gaping hole where the laptop is. Lousy early Thunderbolt 5 experiences haven’t helped.
Some dock makers, like OWC, were showing off Thunderbolt 5 hardware, but there might not be the frantic rush to the market that some might have expected.Mark Hachman / IDG
It’s almost an economic problem
Bernie Thompson, the chief executive at dock maker Plugable, said that the laptop dock industry has adapted to accommodate several trends. On one hand, technologies like Thunderbolt 4 and 5 supply increasing throughput. Technologies like Display Stream Compression use software compression to increase that data “supply” even further.
There should be a complementary “demand” element to it, too, but there isn’t. The hoped-for transition to 8K content is verging on its fifth year. And while there is a vociferous segment of the gaming audience who wants to push to higher refresh rates, a substantial chunk of the market — business users — don’t care about anything beyond standard 60Hz displays, he said.
“All of this is adding up to the headline feature of Thunderbolt 5 — the 80-120 [Gbps] support — solving a problem that is only a problem for a portion of the market, but probably not the majority of the market,” Thompson said. “And if Thunderbolt 5 were free, integrated in with the chipset and if it were completely devoid of any compatibility questions, then you would have a fast Thunderbolt 5 adoption. But I think that there are challenges in both areas.”
“And so the current 40-gig solutions like Thunderbolt 4, cover the scenarios that a high percentage of the market care about,” Thompson added.
Although some dock makers have released Thunderbolt 5 docking stations, others, like Plugable, don’t plan to release theirs until later this year.
One of the appealing features of Thunderbolt 5 is the support for external GPUs. But you’ll still need a laptop connector to connect to.Asus
“8K is not happening”
Although Thunderbolt 5 is essentially the 80Gbps version of the industry-standard USB4 v2 (which is being branded as just “USB 80Gbps”), the Thunderbolt trademark is owned by Intel, which manufactures its own chipsets for PCs with Thunderbolt inside. At CES 2025, Intel launched the Core H and Core HX processors based upon its Arrow Lake desktop chips — and like its predecessors, these chips integrate Thunderbolt 4, not 5. (Intel provides a discrete Thunderbolt 5 chip that laptop makers can optionally buy and fit into laptops.)
I began reporting this story after I interviewed Intel executives on their new chips, and a company spokesman was unable to respond by press time to a question about when Thunderbolt 5 would be integrated within PC chipsets and therefore move mainstream.
However, Abdul Ismail, the chief technical officer of the USB Implementor’s Forum (and a senior principal engineer for Intel), said his estimate was widespread USB 80Gbps / Thunderbolt 5 adoption was not until 2027 or so. He, too, used the chicken-and-egg metaphor.
“To me, that’s a chicken-and-egg thing,” he said during a CES meeting, noting that the average user doesn’t need Thunderbolt 5’s capabilities at this point in time. “The host guys are going to put it in because it’s going to become a checklist item at some point in time, right? But I think that it’s going to be two-year’s time that you’ll see it as a requirement to have 80 gigs.”
Thunderbolt’s chief competition agreed. While Thunderbolt is the foundation of the best Thunderbolt docks, the DisplayLink protocol powers the best DisplayLink docks. Executives at DisplayLink and Synaptics, its parent company, argue that DisplayLink can do more with less, via compression, than Thunderbolt can. But even they agree that the cable between devices is no longer the gating factor, whatever it is.
A bit surprisingly, DisplayLink is arguing that it’s time to dock phones again. Mark Hachman / IDG
“So I guess up until this point, until Thunderbolt 5 and [DisplayPort] 2.1, the GPUs could generate more pixels than we could transport and the display could consume,” said Jeff Lukanc, senior director of product marketing of video interfaces at Synaptics. “But now with DP 2.1, and Thunderbolt, 5, the connection far exceeds the GPU. So you don’t need that much bang. I think the answer is, the link is now ahead of either end, and we’ve got a couple years before this big catch-up.”
According to Lukanc, display makers are not going to invest in making 8K displays smaller. “So if the 8K is going to be a four-foot display, and it’s not going to fit on your desk, 8K is not happening,” he said. “What is happening is refresh rate.”
From what his business customers have told him, Lukanc said, “I’ve been told to plan on 165Hz for the next five years” with 4K displays.
PC gaming, meanwhile, could set an accelerated pace toward 8K content, hauling a more widespread adoption of Thunderbolt 5 in its wake. A source at one gaming PC maker said that we should be measuring adoption by GPU generation first and foremost. The Nvidia GeForce 30-series ushered in 4K gaming, but it was only in the 40-series where 4K gaming became more consistent, at 144Hz refresh rates.
For 8K? “If I had to guess, I’d say the [GeForce] 60, 70 series,” the source said. “Yeah, I think we’ll see early adoption in the 60 series, and 70 is where we’ll see — I don’t want to say mainstream, but more people will utilize it. By the 80 [series], it’ll be cheaper, where actual people can actually utilize it.”
But for now, however, it appears that Thunderbolt 5 won’t arrive on your PC any time soon. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | RadioNZ - 14 Jan (RadioNZ) But firms remain cautious about hiring and investment. Read...Newslink ©2025 to RadioNZ |  |
|  | | PC World - 13 Jan (PC World)If you’re tired of staring at that same old Windows interface, it’s time for a serious upgrade. Microsoft Windows 11 Pro is here to change your PC experience, blending a sleek new interface with AI-powered tools that will make your everyday tasks faster, smarter, and way more efficient.
And you can grab it for just $19.97 (regularly $199). That’s less than your weekly coffee budget for a lifetime license.
Think better multitasking, next-level gaming, and rock-solid security wrapped in a modern, intuitive design. Oh, and did we mention Copilot AI? It’s like having a digital assistant built right into your PC.
With Snap Layouts, virtual desktops, and enhanced search tools, Windows 11 Pro helps you stay organized and efficient, whether you’re working from home, running a business, or managing your side hustle. It’s like Marie Kondo for your digital workspace—clean, intuitive, and endlessly useful.
Then there’s security. Biometric logins, BitLocker encryption, and Smart App Control ensure that your data stays safe. In a world where online threats are lurking everywhere, having Windows 11 Pro’s advanced security features is a no-brainer.
Don’t miss the chance to upgrade to MS Windows 11 Pro for just $19.97 (reg. $199).
Microsoft Windows 11 Pro – $19.97
Get It Here
StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | ITBrief - 13 Jan (ITBrief) Lenovo has introduced two new ThinkCentre desktop PCs, the M90a Pro Gen 6 and neo 50q QC, enhancing business productivity with AI-driven features and security. Read...Newslink ©2025 to ITBrief |  |
|  | | PC World - 13 Jan (PC World)The annual Consumer Electronics Show is always a massive event that sees dozens of laptops announced, but CES 2025 was especially notable. Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm all made significant hardware announcements, and those announcements meant every laptop maker had a hoard of refreshed, upgraded laptops to show.
But the show wasn’t just about the hardware. CES 2025 also saw Lenovo debut the world’s first rollable OLED laptop, a serious new MacBook Air competitor from Asus, and a flagship gaming laptop that seems a bit too obsessed with Skyrim.
Much like we did with our roundup of the best monitors at the show, these are the best laptops of CES 2025.
Further reading: The best PC and home tech of CES 2025
Acer Aspire Vero 16
Acer
Acer found an unusual way to generate headlines at CES 2025: it made a laptop out of oyster shells. Well, partially, at least. The Aspire Vero uses up to 70% “PCR and bio-based materials” in its chassis. Basically, it’s made of recyclables and gunk.
It’s a bit odd, then, that the Aspire Vero 16 is among the more appealing entry-level laptops at the show. The chassis isn’t fancy, but the PCR materials provide the laptop with a unique look and texture. It’s not flashy, but it stands out.
Materials aside, the Aspire Vero 16 is a simple, versatile machine. It has Intel Core Ultra 200H processors, up to 32GB of memory, and up to 1TB of storage. It’s affordable, too, at $799.99 to start. Look to see it hit stores in Q2 2025.
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 16-inch
Samsung
Samsung brought its latest flagship Galaxy Book, the Galaxy Book5 Pro, to CES 2025. It packs an Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor with an NPU capable of up to 47 TOPS. RAM starts at 16GB and runs up to 32GB, while storage starts at 256GB and runs up to 1TB. Expect lengthy battery life, as well, as Samsung is quoting up to 25 hours (for the 16-inch model).
As with prior Galaxy Book laptops, the display is a highlight. The Galaxy Book5 Pro has a 3K 120Hz touchscreen. It’s perhaps not as unique as it once was, since many competitors are adopting OLED, but still looks great. Connectivity is solid, too, with a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, and even a MicroSD card slot.
Pricing is to be announced, but the wait won’t be long, as Samsung says the laptop will ship in February.
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus 6 Rollable
Matt Smith/Foundry
The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus 6 Rollable is the first consumer laptop (or tablet, or smartphone) to ship with a rollable OLED display. The display is 14 inches when retracted but, with the touch of a button, a motorized roller on the hinge expands the display vertically to 16.7 inches diagonally (that’s a 50 percent increase).
While the rollable feature is innovative, the laptop otherwise looks and feels refreshingly normal. An unsuspecting observer might not notice anything different about the laptop until the display unfurls. The Rollable is as powerful as other 14-inch business laptops, too, as it has Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 processors and can equip up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of solid state storage.
There’s just one catch: the price. Lenovo says the Rollable will retail at $3,499 in June of 2025.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i
Matt Smith/Foundry
Lenovo’s new flagship gaming laptop, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, received an extensive refresh with a new look for CES 2025. The highlight, I think, is the new RGB-LED lighting that lines the Legion logo and the exhaust vents. Flashy lighting is nothing new for gaming laptops, but the Legion Pro 7i’s RGB-LED lights are bright, vibrant, and well-integrated into the chassis. I think they look awesome.
Lighting aside, the Legion Pro 7i relies on Lenovo’s typical strategy in the gaming space: it delivers good bang for the buck. The laptop has up to Intel Core Ultra 9 275H processors and up to Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics. Lenovo also boasts about the Coldfront Hyper cooling system, which is promised to support a total system TDP of 250 watts.
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i will retail at $2,399 in March 2025.
Asus Zenbook A14
Matt Smith/Foundry
The Asus Zenbook A14 is the company’s first laptop to use its unique ceraluminum finish, which bonds a ceramic exterior to an aluminum interior, across a laptop’s entire chassis (instead of just the display lid). It’s also built from magnesium-aluminum alloy, a common and lightweight material.
The result is a slim, portable laptop with a look and feel unlike anything else on the market. Picking up the machine reminded me of handling a premium notebook or a slim hardcover book. The Zenbook A14 weighs about 2.1 pounds and measures about six-tenths of an inch thick.
Inside, the laptop relies on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X or X Elite processor, depending on the model, and is equipped with up to 32GB of RAM and up to 1TB of solid state storage. Asus says the 70 watt-hour battery can provide up to 32 hours of battery life (though that, I’m sure, is a best-case scenario).
The Zenbook A14 is my overall pick of the show. It’s attractive, portable and, perhaps best of all, affordable at a starting price of $899. However, the entry-level model won’t ship till March. A higher-end model will be sold through Best Buy for $1099 starting January 13.
Asus ROG Flow Z13
Asus
The 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13, like its predecessors, is a unique gaming-focused PC tablet that tries to mesh portability with high-end gaming performance.
This time around, however, it packs AMD’s radical new Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, which combines 16 Zen 5 CPU cores and 40 powerful RDNA 3.5 graphics CUs on a single chip, then tosses in a 50 TOPS NPU for good measure. The chip’s unified design can dynamically share the tablet’s memory (up to 128GB of RAM) between processing and graphics tasks as needed.
We weren’t to test the chip on the CES 2025 show floor, but its specifications are intriguing, and it seems better suited for a Windows tablet device than the Nvidia RTX 40-series discrete GPUs found in prior models.
The ROG Flow Z13 starts at $1999.99, but you’ll need to spend $2,199.99 to snag the Ryzen AI Max+ 395. Availability is expected in Q1 2025.
Asus Chromebook CX14
Matt Smith/Foundry
CES 2025 felt like a light year for Chromebooks, with most laptop makers having few or no ChromeOS devices to show, but the Asus Chromebook CX14 caught my attention.
That’s mostly thanks to its design. Prior iterations already looked good and, this year, Asus showed off several new colors (Quiet Blue, Misty Grey, and Fabric Blue), each with its own textured finish. These options are a fun touch to an already solid ChromeOS line-up. It’s also easy to pack with a thickness under eight-tenth of an inch, and it tips the scales a hair over three pounds.
The hardware is less exciting. The Chromebook CX14 will ship with an Intel Celeron N4500 processor. RAM starts at 4GB (up to 16GB) and storage starts at 32GB (up to 128GB). Thankfully, though, it ships with a 1080p display and a good mix of connectivity which includes a USB-C port for charging the laptop.
The Asus Chromebook CX14 starts at $199.99. Availability wasn’t announced.
Razer Blade 16
Razer
Razer came to CES 2025 with a new, slimmer Blade 16 that the company boasts is “the thinnest Razer laptop ever designed” at just 0.59 inches thick. This is said to be achieved through innovations in the vapor chamber cooling system.
Despite its slim profile, the Razer Blade 16 will continue to boast powerful hardware. It supports AMD Ryzen AI processors up to the Ryzen AI 9 370 HX and can handle Nvidia’s most powerful new mobile GPU, the GeForce RTX 5090. It will also ship with a QHD OLED display that can hit a refresh rate of up to 240Hz. I think that, as with prior models, the Blade 16 will be a popular choice among gamers and professionals who want a lot of performance in a slim machine.
Upgrades aside, the Razer Blade 16 looks a lot like prior models—which is probably how Razer fans would prefer it. Pricing remains to be announced, and availability is expected in Q1 2025.
MSI Stealth A16 AI+
Matt Smith/Foundry
The MSI Stealth line-up is secretly among the best options for people who want a powerful do-it-all laptop for work and play, and the new MSI Stealth A16 AI+ reinforces that. The revised model receives several upgrades, the most important of which is new Nvidia RTX 50-series hardware up to the RTX 5090. MSI also equips the laptop with a new QHD OLED display, which is nice, as the prior model had an IPS display when I reviewed it (and it was the laptop’s biggest weakness).
True to its name, the Stealth A16 AI+ looks subtle despite its powerful hardware. The laptop measures less than eight-tenths of an inch thick and weighs under 4.5 pounds. It also lacks the flair found on MSI’s gaming laptop, instead opting for a classy but understated look. The laptop is even equipped with a massive 99 watt-hour battery. MSI didn’t quote battery life when I asked, but if the prior model is any indication, it should last about eight to 10 hours in lighter workloads.
Price and availability are not announced but expect to hear more in Q1 2025.
MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth
Matt Smith/Foundry
MSI isn’t one to shy away from extreme laptop design, but it went all-out at CES 2025 with the Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth. This gigantic, thick beast of an 18-inch laptop has a gorgeous, textured display lid that feels like an ode to Skyrim (or, perhaps, the latest God of War titles). I guarantee it looks even more wild in person than in pictures, but it’s not a concept. This laptop is going to retail.
Beneath the new exterior, however, it’s still a Titan 18 HX. Which is good, because the Titan 18 HX is an excellent laptop. As expected, this model has hardware upgrades that include up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics, four M.2 SSD slots (one of which is PCIe 5), and an 18-inch 4K Mini-LED screen with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. MSI said RAM goes up to 96GB.
Pricing and availability weren’t announced but I expect that, as with prior models, it will soar north of $5,000. And if you’re not really into dragons, don’t worry. MSI will still offer a new Titan 18 HX with a less lavish design. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | RadioNZ - 13 Jan (RadioNZ) More than three quarters of a survey of more than 200 business leaders say economic uncertainty is their primary business concern. Read...Newslink ©2025 to RadioNZ |  |
|  | | PC World - 11 Jan (PC World)The annual Consumer Electronics Show is always a massive event that sees dozens of laptops announced, but CES 2025 was especially notable. Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm all made significant hardware announcements, and those announcements meant every laptop maker had a hoard of refreshed, upgraded laptops to show.
But the show wasn’t just about the hardware. CES 2025 also saw Lenovo debut the world’s first rollable OLED laptop, a serious new MacBook Air competitor from Asus, and a flagship gaming laptop that seems a bit too obsessed with Skyrim.
Much like we did with our roundup of the best monitors at the show, these are the best laptops of CES 2025.
Acer Aspire Vero 16
Acer
Acer found an unusual way to generate headlines at CES 2025: it made a laptop out of oyster shells. Well, partially, at least. The Aspire Vero uses up to 70% “PCR and bio-based materials” in its chassis. Basically, it’s made of recyclables and gunk.
It’s a bit odd, then, that the Aspire Vero 16 is among the more appealing entry-level laptops at the show. The chassis isn’t fancy, but the PCR materials provide the laptop with a unique look and texture. It’s not flashy, but it stands out.
Materials aside, the Aspire Vero 16 is a simple, versatile machine. It has Intel Core Ultra 200H processors, up to 32GB of memory, and up to 1TB of storage. It’s affordable, too, at $799.99 to start. Look to see it hit stores in Q2 2025.
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 16-inch
Samsung
Samsung brought its latest flagship Galaxy Book, the Galaxy Book5 Pro, to CES 2025. It packs an Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor with an NPU capable of up to 47 TOPS. RAM starts at 16GB and runs up to 32GB, while storage starts at 256GB and runs up to 1TB. Expect lengthy battery life, as well, as Samsung is quoting up to 25 hours (for the 16-inch model).
As with prior Galaxy Book laptops, the display is a highlight. The Galaxy Book5 Pro has a 3K 120Hz touchscreen. It’s perhaps not as unique as it once was, since many competitors are adopting OLED, but still looks great. Connectivity is solid, too, with a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, and even a MicroSD card slot.
Pricing is to be announced, but the wait won’t be long, as Samsung says the laptop will ship in February.
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus 6 Rollable
Matt Smith/Foundry
The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus 6 Rollable is the first consumer laptop (or tablet, or smartphone) to ship with a rollable OLED display. The display is 14 inches when retracted but, with the touch of a button, a motorized roller on the hinge expands the display vertically to 16.7 inches diagonally (that’s a 50 percent increase).
While the rollable feature is innovative, the laptop otherwise looks and feels refreshingly normal. An unsuspecting observer might not notice anything different about the laptop until the display unfurls. The Rollable is as powerful as other 14-inch business laptops, too, as it has Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 processors and can equip up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of solid state storage.
There’s just one catch: the price. Lenovo says the Rollable will retail at $3,499 in June of 2025.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i
Matt Smith/Foundry
Lenovo’s new flagship gaming laptop, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, received an extensive refresh with a new look for CES 2025. The highlight, I think, is the new RGB-LED lighting that lines the Legion logo and the exhaust vents. Flashy lighting is nothing new for gaming laptops, but the Legion Pro 7i’s RGB-LED lights are bright, vibrant, and well-integrated into the chassis. I think they look awesome.
Lighting aside, the Legion Pro 7i relies on Lenovo’s typical strategy in the gaming space: it delivers good bang for the buck. The laptop has up to Intel Core Ultra 9 275H processors and up to Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics. Lenovo also boasts about the Coldfront Hyper cooling system, which is promised to support a total system TDP of 250 watts.
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i will retail at $2,399 in March 2025.
Asus Zenbook A14
Matt Smith/Foundry
The Asus Zenbook A14 is the company’s first laptop to use its unique ceraluminum finish, which bonds a ceramic exterior to an aluminum interior, across a laptop’s entire chassis (instead of just the display lid). It’s also built from magnesium-aluminum alloy, a common and lightweight material.
The result is a slim, portable laptop with a look and feel unlike anything else on the market. Picking up the machine reminded me of handling a premium notebook or a slim hardcover book. The Zenbook A14 weighs about 2.1 pounds and measures about six-tenths of an inch thick.
Inside, the laptop relies on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X or X Elite processor, depending on the model, and is equipped with up to 32GB of RAM and up to 1TB of solid state storage. Asus says the 70 watt-hour battery can provide up to 32 hours of battery life (though that, I’m sure, is a best-case scenario).
The Zenbook A14 is my overall pick of the show. It’s attractive, portable and, perhaps best of all, affordable at a starting price of $899. However, the entry-level model won’t ship till March. A higher-end model will be sold through Best Buy for $1099 starting January 13.
Asus ROG Flow Z13
Asus
The 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13, like its predecessors, is a unique gaming-focused PC tablet that tries to mesh portability with high-end gaming performance.
This time around, however, it packs AMD’s radical new Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, which combines 16 Zen 5 CPU cores and 40 powerful RDNA 3.5 graphics CUs on a single chip, then tosses in a 50 TOPS NPU for good measure. The chip’s unified design can dynamically share the tablet’s memory (up to 128GB of RAM) between processing and graphics tasks as needed.
We weren’t to test the chip on the CES 2025 show floor, but its specifications are intriguing, and it seems better suited for a Windows tablet device than the Nvidia RTX 40-series discrete GPUs found in prior models.
The ROG Flow Z13 starts at $1999.99, but you’ll need to spend $2,199.99 to snag the Ryzen AI Max+ 395. Availability is expected in Q1 2025.
Asus Chromebook CX14
Matt Smith/Foundry
CES 2025 felt like a light year for Chromebooks, with most laptop makers having few or no ChromeOS devices to show, but the Asus Chromebook CX14 caught my attention.
That’s mostly thanks to its design. Prior iterations already looked good and, this year, Asus showed off several new colors (Quiet Blue, Misty Grey, and Fabric Blue), each with its own textured finish. These options are a fun touch to an already solid ChromeOS line-up. It’s also easy to pack with a thickness under eight-tenth of an inch, and it tips the scales a hair over three pounds.
The hardware is less exciting. The Chromebook CX14 will ship with an Intel Celeron N4500 processor. RAM starts at 4GB (up to 16GB) and storage starts at 32GB (up to 128GB). Thankfully, though, it ships with a 1080p display and a good mix of connectivity which includes a USB-C port for charging the laptop.
The Asus Chromebook CX14 starts at $199.99. Availability wasn’t announced.
Razer Blade 16
Razer
Razer came to CES 2025 with a new, slimmer Blade 16 that the company boasts is “the thinnest Razer laptop ever designed” at just 0.59 inches thick. This is said to be achieved through innovations in the vapor chamber cooling system.
Despite its slim profile, the Razer Blade 16 will continue to boast powerful hardware. It supports AMD Ryzen AI processors up to the Ryzen AI 9 370 HX and can handle Nvidia’s most powerful new mobile GPU, the GeForce RTX 5090. It will also ship with a QHD OLED display that can hit a refresh rate of up to 240Hz. I think that, as with prior models, the Blade 16 will be a popular choice among gamers and professionals who want a lot of performance in a slim machine.
Upgrades aside, the Razer Blade 16 looks a lot like prior models—which is probably how Razer fans would prefer it. Pricing remains to be announced, and availability is expected in Q1 2025.
MSI Stealth A16 AI+
Matt Smith/Foundry
The MSI Stealth line-up is secretly among the best options for people who want a powerful do-it-all laptop for work and play, and the new MSI Stealth A16 AI+ reinforces that. The revised model receives several upgrades, the most important of which is new Nvidia RTX 50-series hardware up to the RTX 5090. MSI also equips the laptop with a new QHD OLED display, which is nice, as the prior model had an IPS display when I reviewed it (and it was the laptop’s biggest weakness).
True to its name, the Stealth A16 AI+ looks subtle despite its powerful hardware. The laptop measures less than eight-tenths of an inch thick and weighs under 4.5 pounds. It also lacks the flair found on MSI’s gaming laptop, instead opting for a classy but understated look. The laptop is even equipped with a massive 99 watt-hour battery. MSI didn’t quote battery life when I asked, but if the prior model is any indication, it should last about eight to 10 hours in lighter workloads.
Price and availability are not announced but expect to hear more in Q1 2025.
MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth
Matt Smith/Foundry
MSI isn’t one to shy away from extreme laptop design, but it went all-out at CES 2025 with the Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth. This gigantic, thick beast of an 18-inch laptop has a gorgeous, textured display lid that feels like an ode to Skyrim (or, perhaps, the latest God of War titles). I guarantee it looks even more wild in person than in pictures, but it’s not a concept. This laptop is going to retail.
Beneath the new exterior, however, it’s still a Titan 18 HX. Which is good, because the Titan 18 HX is an excellent laptop. As expected, this model has hardware upgrades that include up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics, four M.2 SSD slots (one of which is PCIe 5), and an 18-inch 4K Mini-LED screen with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. MSI said RAM goes up to 96GB.
Pricing and availability weren’t announced but I expect that, as with prior models, it will soar north of $5,000. And if you’re not really into dragons, don’t worry. MSI will still offer a new Titan 18 HX with a less lavish design. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
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