Laptops

Asus is launching various Vivobooks and ExperBooks at Computex, but I’m most interested in the Zenbook 14 with a base-level Snapdragon X1-26-100. It’ll come in AMD and Intel configs too, but the Qualcomm version will start with a lowly 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD.

Nvidia says it’s working with everyone to get software ready for RTX Spark laptops this fall, but as for Adobe, Premiere is getting a whole new video pipeline to take advantage of Spark’s up-to-128GB of unified memory, and Nvidia says Photoshop is “transitioning from 5 percent to 100 percent GPU accelerated processing.” Just ask AI agents to transform your images, too.

MSI is making limited edition versions of the Prestige 14 Flip AI Plus with two different van Gogh paintings on the lid: Starry Night and Starry Night Over the Rhône. I think I prefer last year’s Great Wave edition, but these are also lovely.

MSI has made ridiculous dragon-themed laptops before, but this one takes the cake. Announced at Computex, the Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Draco Epic takes the standard 18-inch Titan gaming laptop but adds the new flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus CPU, a 240Hz 4K screen, and a massive dragon design that’s etched and anodized right into the lid.

MSI is announcing new versions of its Venture business laptops and Katana gaming laptops for Computex. Both have new designs, but MSI shared few details — not even availability or pricing. The key facts we know so far is that the Venture will get Intel Panther Lake chips and the Katana will have older Intel Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs and up to an RTX 5070 GPU.

Acer is leading off its early Computex announcements with a new 2-in-1 laptop, the Swift Spin 14 AI. It’ll pack Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus and X2 Elite chips when it arrives in the US in August (July for other regions), and it’ll also include a stylus stored its chassis. Neat.

This is Acer’s Aspire Go 15 AG15-Q31P, a budget laptop built on Qualcomm’s just-announced Snapdragon C platform. Acer didn’t share its price or release date by the time I wrote these words, but Qualcomm says the platform unlocks roughly $300 laptops — despite RAMageddon. Corners cut, surely. The specs we know are here.

MediaTek shared in a blog post that it will have chips in Google’s upcoming Googlebooks, joining Intel and Qualcomm. Interestingly, it mentions bringing Dimensity smartphone chips, not the Kompanio chips it already had in Chromebooks (and were quite good).

Intel chips won’t be the only CPUs powering Google’s new Android-based laptops. Qualcomm also confirmed on Wednesday that it’s working on Googlebooks, but, like Intel, hasn’t given any details about the specific chips the laptops will feature:

When it announced the new Googlebook laptops yesterday, a few commenters noticed the name seemed familiar, but only one realized just how familiar.

Lenovo is announcing a new ThinkPad X13 Gen 7, launching this month with Intel Panther Lake and AMD Gorgon Point chips. The X13 starts at $1,499 and weighs as little as 2.03 pounds / 0.93kg. Lenovo also boasts the X13 scores a 9/10 repairability rating from iFixit.

Samsung has announced the Galaxy Book 6 Edge, but so far only for France. There’s no price for the slim laptop yet, which will launch in early May with 512GB or 1TB storage, a Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite processor, and a 16-inch 120Hz OLED screen.

Buying it on its own from Framework, the GPU costs $1,199.00 — a $500 jump from the 8GB variant, which costs $699.00. As part of a full laptop order, the gap between them is $500, too.

Super cool to see how Apple’s videos come together. Here’s the actual introduction video from March, if you want to compare.

The dual-screen Zenbook Duo I reviewed in January was said to cost $2,399.99 with an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H. Now preorders are open, but a base model costs $2,499.99 and the 388H configuration I tested will be $2,699.99. Ouch.