Laptop Articles

LAS VEGAS--Intel's CES 2013 press conference lacked the hard sell of last year's version, which was almost entirely devoted to all things ultrabook. But even as the grand ultrabook experiment -- a massive branding campaign to create a new laptop category from thin air -- shared the stage with smartphones, Atom chips, and tablets, the ultrabook idea continues to be one of the most influential ones I've seen in many years of laptop-watching.

The catch is, it's the ultrabook's ideas that have spread to nearly every corner of the laptop ecosystem, not the name itself. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Sensing a trend at this year’s CES? While touchscreens may have been an option for rarified Windows 8 products back in October, it looks like there will hardly be a Windows PC product around in mid-2012 without touch in some configuration or another.

The Dell Inspiron laptops of 2012 were largely forgettable: big, ridiculously thick and pre-Windows 8, they felt like a downturn from the previous year. The 2013 Inspiron and Inspiron Rs, codenamed “Oak,” seem like a return to form: slimmed-down bodies, improved specs all around, and--of course--optional touch.

The new 14, 15 and 17-inch Inspiron and … Read more

LAS VEGAS--We've seen plenty of laptops with screens that detach to form tablets. In the wake of Windows 8, it was practically a requirement that ever major PC maker have one of these systems, usually called hybrids or convertibles. But, nearly every example had the same quirk -- an awkward detachable hinge that made the traditional clamshell form look odd.

Still others were hampered by low-power Intel Atom processors. While better than their Netbook forebears, they still don't provide the same processing kick as a full Core i5 or i7 Intel CPU.

The Asus Transformer Book, first announced … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Go big, add touch. Sony's subdued CES formula in a nutshell.

Sony's latest Vaio T Series 15 is a new, larger ultrabook with 1080p, sporting a 10-finger multitouch display. It joins the fray of a seemingly endless run of touch-enabled laptops at this year's CES that continue to be announced with knee-jerk predictability. Sony's also adding a touch-screen option to the Vaio T 14 that's already on sale.

Yes, having touch on a Windows 8 laptop is better than not having touch, but it's hard to get excited at all about its presence … Read more

LAS VEGAS--One of the highlights of Intel's CES press conference was a design concept for an ultrabook featuring the upcoming fourth generation of Intel Core i-series processors.

While concept designs such as this rarely make the transition into shipping products, many of the ideas and details do, and you could very well see something reasonably similar-looking when the next-gen Haswell Intel CPUs make their way into systems.

At the press conference, this slim, white ultrabook, with scooped-out sides and edge-to-edge glass over the display, was easily the closest thing to a buzzworthy new consumer product Intel showed off (also … Read more

One thing we're seeing more and more of is Windows 8 touch-screen laptops that manage to hit very reasonable prices. Joining the crowd is HP's new Pavilion TouchSmart Sleekbook, a 15.6-inch almost-ultrabook that starts at $649.

Before the new Windows 8 era, where touch screens quickly became standard equipment for many laptops, having a touch screen was an expensive option found on only a handful of specialty systems. Even the very first Windows 8 laptops we managed to get our hands on were all in the $1,000-plus category.

The holiday 2012 season brought touch to midprice … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Sure, you've heard about touch. Lenovo's ThinkPad Edge, thankfully, adds at least one other wrinkle to its CES-debut update: OneLink, a cable system intended to reduce clutter and provide a single consolidated connection to external docks and devices.

That sounds a lot like Apple's Thunderbolt, and in a way it is: OneLink will work with the ThinkPad OneLink Dock, providing a one-cable connection to extra HDMI and audio ports and four extra USB ports. OneLink, Lenovo promises, will also charge laptop and mobile devices, although whether or not those devices will also need OneLink isn't … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Touch, anyone?

Two of Lenovo's IdeaPad lines will be joining the touch fray this year: both the IdeaPad U310/410 and IdeaPad Z400/500 have multitouch screens. Much like USB 3.0, HDMI, and solid-state drives were in previous years, touch seems to be the de rigueur Windows laptop upgrade of early 2013.

The IdeaPad U310 and U410 Touch ultrabooks, previously reviewed by CNET, are thin notebooks with more than a passing resemblance to a MacBook. The new 2013 versions are equipped with up to a third-gen Intel Core i7 processor and dedicated Nvidia graphics in the U410 … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Vizio, a relatively new entrant into the PC space, is taking a less-traveled approach by releasing a standalone Windows 8 slate, called the MT11X-A1. Up until now, most of the Windows 8 tablet-style devices we've seen have been laptops that fold into quasi-slates, or else hybrids that allow their screens to pop off from laptop bodies.

This 11.6-inch system deviates from the norm in other ways, too. All of the other Windows 8 hybrids and convertibles we've seen run Intel Core i-series or Atom processors. The MT11X runs a low-power AMD Z60 (which, on paper, seems … Read more