The best laptops of CES 2014

For most people, gaming laptops are the modern equivalent of the old beige box. You might have or want one, but it’s not something you’d bring up in polite conversation. Portability has always played a secondary role to fitting the most power inside that laptop’s dimensions, which together with some garish design choices has made the entire category unpalatable for the mainstream consumer. Gigabyte, purveyor of desktop motherboards, graphics cards, and other gaming gear, is challenging that preconception with its new sister brand, Aorus, which is launching a flagship machine dubbed the X7.

An enormous 17.3-inch matte display is driven by not one but two GeForce GTX 765M graphics chips, making this the first GTX SLI laptop this thin. The 1080p resolution feels almost inadequate by modern standards for pixel density, but it doesn’t really degrade the gaming experience. Gigabyte has chosen to spend more of its time and money on the construction, as the X7’s shell is built entirely out of aluminum and measures only 0.9 inches (22.9mm) when closed. The weight of 6.4 pounds (2.9kg) is significant, though still minimal when judged against the typical gaming machine.

On stage at CES today, Jonney Shih proclaimed his company’s new Transformer the world’s first 4-in-1 device. By that he meant that it’s a Windows laptop and tablet as well as an Android laptop and tablet. This new 13.3-inch slate transforms both physically and virtually thanks to the company’s new dual-OS setup. A quick switch of three or four seconds is all that’s required to morph you from the Windows 8 environment into the familiar Android UI and vice versa.

The Transformer Book Duet is powered by Intel’s Haswell CPU, up to the Core i7 models, and comes with storage starting at 64GB, but extending beyond a terabyte if you’re willing to pay the price. The larger storage options will be housed within the keyboard dock, which also expands the device’s connectivity options with extra ports.

Back at Computex in June, Asus introduced its Transformer Book Trio — a computer that could function as both a laptop and tablet and dual-booted between Windows 8 and Android. Now, the company’s announcing a new version with a similar mission: the Transformer Book Duet TD300 is a convertible laptop / tablet hybrid that can dual boot between Windows 8.1 and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Beyond Asus’ earlier effort, Samsung tried this dual-boot trick last year with its Ativ Q, though the new Asus model looks more like a traditional ultrabook at first glance. It has the standard folding form factor rather than the sliding keyboard that Samsung used and looks quite a bit like Asus’ other laptops. Its 13.3-inch multitouch display features a solid 1,920 x 1,080 resolution; it doesn’t quite match the Ativ Q but should still be solid in most normal circumstances. That 13.3-inch form factor makes Asus’ new model a good bit bigger than the older Transformer Book Trio.

It’s now been exactly two years since Vizio announced it was making the bold move of entering the PC marketplace with its Thin + Light laptops and all-in-one desktop computers. While its first round of laptops didn’t quite live up to our expectations, that hasn’t stopped the company from continuing to tweak and refine the basic concept introduced back at CES 2012. Today, Vizio’s pulling back the cover on a new 15.6-inch Thin + Light laptop and a new 24-inch all-in-one that don’t change Vizio’s basic formula but still should offer improved performance for those who appreciate the company’s simple approach to the PC market.

When going back to the drawing board this year, Vizio decided to simplify its lineup — gone is the smaller 14-inch Thin + Light model as well as the larger, non-touchscreen 15.6-inch notebook that the company offered. Instead, there’s just a single 15.6-inch Thin + Light model that’s essentially identical from a physical standpoint to last year’s model. Vizio’s also decided to get rid of the 27-inch all-in-one and only offer the 24-inch model; the company told us in both cases that the remaining two computers it is offering make up the vast majority of sales.

For CES 2014 Lenovo is taking its very best ultrabook, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, and fixing the previous model’s few pain points to make an early entrant for the ultrabook to beat in 2014. The new model starts with a similar design to last year’s X1 Carbon — and that’s a good thing. As the name suggests, its body is made of carbon fiber, which offers a sturdy, light, and attractive design. But the company’s slimmed the machine down with the help of Intel’s cooler, more power-efficient Haswell processors. It’s now 0.68 inches thick (down from 0.74 before) and about 0.1 pounds lighter. More importantly, our primary gripe with last year’s model has been fixed: Lenovo promises that battery life is up by over 70 percent to roughly 9 hours. For such a premium machine that’s the kind of battery life we expect, and we’re glad that Lenovo listened to our complaints.

The new model also has a couple of other tricks up its sleeves. It’s taken a while, but Lenovo’s offering a much appreciated high-resolution screen option on the new X1 Carbon. The 14-inch, 2560 x 1440 IPS display looks great, and it’s the default if you opt to purchase the laptop with a touchscreen.