All the laptops that piqued our interest at CES 2025
CES is filled with wild and wacky curios, to be sure, but there are also plenty of good old-fashioned laptops. Every year the big chipmakers announce new products and the big computer manufacturers unveil new laptops that take advantage of updated CPUs and GPUs. All told, companies announced nearly two dozen upcoming laptops at this year’s conference. Some are bulky beasts made for gaming, while others are thin beauties intended for portability. The vast majority of them are filled to the brim with the AI tools that everyone loves so very much.
Here are all of the laptops that piqued our interest at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, just in case you need to start saving some money for a purchase later this year.
ASUS Zenbook A14
The ASUS Zenbook A14 is the MacBook Air competitor of our dreams. It weighs less than 2.2 pounds, which is actually a half a pound lighter than the Air. When it comes to specs, it actually outclasses Apple in nearly every category. There’s a 14-inch OLED screen, up to 32 hours (!) of battery life and up to 32GB of RAM. It’s also covered in a nifty ceramic coating that feels great to hold.
It comes in two versions. There’s one that includes a Snapdragon X Plus CPU and 16GB of RAM, which starts at $900. The higher-end model features a Snapdragon X Elite chip and 32GB of RAM, starting at $1,100. The laptops will be available on January 13.
Lenovo Thinkbook Plus Gen6
Just because laptops have been around for decades doesn’t mean that companies can’t get a bit weird with them. Case in point? The Lenovo Thinkbook Plus Gen6. This is a laptop with a rollable screen that expands and contracts with the push of a button. Lenovo first introduced this as a concept device, but now it’s a real upcoming product.
The 14-inch OLED display instantly transforms to a 16.7-inch panel, which effectively adds an extra 50 percent of screen real estate. The brightness is adequate, at 400 nits, and the performance looks solid. It comes with Intel’s Core Ultra 7 CPU, up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. It’s also weirdly light, given the tech, at 3.6 pounds. We don’t have official pricing or availability yet, but it’s expected to cost somewhere around $3,500 and should hit store shelves this spring.
Lenovo ThinkPad X9
We called the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 “the least ThinkPad ever” for good reason. This new iteration ditched the long-standing carbon fiber frames and Trackpoint nubs found with classic models in favor of a more minimalist approach. It’s available in 14-inch and 15-inch versions, and both of these feature OLED displays. These laptops are powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 processors, which means that you can’t upgrade the RAM because it’s soldered on. However, the SSD and battery are easily replaceable. Both models should be available in February, with a starting price of $1,400 for the 14-inch model and $1,550 for the 15-inch version.
MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition
The MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition adds some seriously-cool aesthetics to the most powerful laptop the company makes. There are a ton of unique design traits here, including a hand-drawn dragon on the lid that was acid-etched into the aluminum. As for specs, this laptop includes top-of-the-line components including next-gen Intel HX processors, NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPUs, PCIe Gen 5 SSD storage and Wi-Fi 7. There’s a massive 18-inch mini LED display and low-profile Cherry MX switches on the keyboard. MSI has yet to reveal pricing or availability on this one.
Razer Blade 16
The Razer Blade 16 laptop is extraordinarily thin, at 0.59 inches. That makes it 32 percent slimmer than the 2024 model. There’s a 16-inch QHD display with a 240Hz refresh rate and a response time of 0.2ms. The computer also includes the AMD Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 processor and one of the brand-new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs. There isn’t a release date yet, other than soon, nor is there a launch price. Last year’s model started at $2,700, so we can expect something in the same range.
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro
Samsung unveiled an updated line of Galaxy Book laptops at CES. There’s the Galaxy Book5 Pro, which is available in 14-inch and 16-inch screen options, along with the Book5 360 with a 15-inch display. All of these computers are equipped with Intel’s newest Arrow Lake Core Ultra processors and have been built for AI tasks. To that end, Samsung has touted a long list of on-device AI circles, like its own version of Google’s Circle to Search. These laptops also include on-device photo upscaling and more.
The Book5 Pro is a standard laptop, while the Book5 360 is a 2-in-one with a 15-6-inch AMOLED touch display. There’s no pricing yet on any of these models, but the company has said they’ll be available for purchase in February.
ASUS Vivobook 14 and 16
Just like the ultralight Zenbook A14, the refreshed Vivobook 14 and 16 laptops ship with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip. These are mid-grade computers that offer up 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The company says that the internals have been updated to allow for 44 percent more performance than the last-gen models. The battery also got an upgrade and now will last nearly 20 hours per charge.
Both computers make use of the company’s not-at-all creepy “AI camera” which detects whether you’re sitting in front of the screen or not. The ASUS Vivobook 14 and Vivobook 16 are available to pre-order now for $700 and $750, respectively.
Lenovo 10th-gen Legion Pro 7i
The tenth-generation Legion Pro 7i is a serious upgrade over its predecessors and should be a great option for gaming on-the-go. It supports up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, with an updated cooling system that enables 250W thermal design power. The laptop also supports up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor. On top of that, you can add up to 64GB of RAM. There’s a 16-inch OLED display with a 240Hz refresh rate and a 1ms response time.
It’s a beefy machine, however, coming at six pounds. The Legion Pro 7i will be available sometime in March, with a starting price of $2,400.
Alienware Area 51
It’s been years, but Alienware’s Area 51 branding is back in a big way. The Alienware Area 51 laptops are the company’s latest flagship gaming devices. They are available in two display sizes, 16- and 18-inches, and support up to Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPUs, 64GB of RAM (at up to 7200 MT/s, the highest of any Alienware laptop), 12 TB of PCIe Gen 5 SSD storage and next-gen NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPUs. Both models can handle up to 175 watts of total graphics power with an additional 105 watts reserved for the CPU. There’s also a glass bottom to help with thermal regulation.
They should be available sometime in the next couple of months. However, the laptops are launching in high-end configurations that start at $3,200, with less expensive “entry-level” models coming later in the year.
ASUS ROG Flow Z13
The ASUS ROG Flow Z13 is a 2-in-1 hybrid that could absolutely shine as a gaming tablet. It supports up to a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU with unified memory. The 70Whr battery should get up to 10 hours on a single charge and the IPS panel boasts an impressive 180Hz refresh rate and up to 500 nits of brightness. This machine also integrates with the company’s new XG Mobile graphics dock for a nice little upgrade in the visuals.
The Flow Z13 is expected to start at around $2,000 for a version with a Ryzen AI Max 390 chip or $2,200 when configured with a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU. We don’t have a release date yet.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/all-the-laptops-that-piqued-our-interest-at-ces-2025-194424146.html?src=rss
CES is filled with wild and wacky curios, to be sure, but there are also plenty of good old-fashioned laptops. Every year the big chipmakers announce new products and the big computer manufacturers unveil new laptops that take advantage of updated CPUs and GPUs. All told, companies announced nearly two…
