The best laptops of CES 2013 – The Verge

Dell fixes terrible XPS 13 screen with new 1080p panel, introduces ‘essentials’ Latitude 10 tablet

2013-01-09T16:21:25-05:00

Dell XPS 13 1080p hands-on

Dell made a move last week that we were very happy to see - it decided to add a new, 1080p option to its otherwise-excellent XPS 13 ultrabook. We've had the opportunity to gaze upon the new display here at CES, and we're glad to report that not only has Dell bumped the resolution up from the unspectacular 1366 x 768 on the original model, but it's also addressed panel quality issues. We immediately noticed that colors were far more accurate on the updated display, and whites are now closer to true white instead of the blueish hue present on the lower-res screen. There's a reason why it all looks so much better: the panel's color gamut has be …

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LG and Gigabyte show off unique tablet and ultrabook form factors at CES (hands-on)

2013-01-08T16:31:25-05:00

gigabyte convertible ultrabook

LG's H160 may seem like a typical Windows 8 tablet, but its form factor is anything but. The 11.6-inch device, on display here at CES, combines an Ultrabook-like body with a convertible slider design, making for a rather unique user experience. LG's sliding Clover Trail tablet comes with a spring-loaded hinge that, when released, triggers a pop-up keyboard. That differentiates it from similar devices such as the Asus Eee Pad Slider or Samsung Series 7 Sliding PC, both of which require users to manually pull out their keyboards. The H160's keyboard, by contrast, can be accessed with the push of a button.

Originally announced in October, the …

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LG’s Z360 ultrabook may just be its best yet (hands-on)

2013-01-08T14:59:26-05:00

LG Z360 ultrabook (new)

We're finally starting to see more and more ultrabooks with high resolution displays, with LG's Z360 joining the roster with a 13.3-inch 1080p IPS panel. It looks absolutely gorgeous, with great viewing angles, an extremely high brightness, and vibrant colors. The rest of the ultrabook is nothing to sneeze at either. It's very thin at 13.6mm, the build quality is good, and the weight has been kept down to 1.15kg - that's almost as light as a 11-inch MacBook Air. LG is using one of Intel's new fourth-generation Core processors. The standard configuration will come with a Core i5 processor, but there will be options for Core i3 and Core i7 too. …

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Samsung’s Series 7 Chronos and Series 7 Ultra hands-on

2013-01-07T23:02:22-05:00

samsung series 7 chronos ultra

Last week Samsung announced two additions to its flagship lineup, the new Series 7 Chronos and Series 7 Ultra, and we're taking a look at both here on the floor at CES 2013. The Series 7 Chronos is a powerful "desktop replacement" that contains a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, a Radeon HD 8870 graphics card with 2GB of memory, 16GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of hard drive space. We spent some time with the 5.18-pound, 20mm thick machine, and were impressed by the laptop's snappy performance and overall build quality. The 15.6-inch display is sharp with a minimal amount of glare, and the optional 10-point touchscreen performs wonderfully on Wi …

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Hands on NEC’s incredibly light, incredibly thin 12.8mm ultrabook

2013-01-07T17:06:02-05:00

Gallery Photo: Hands on NEC's world's thinnest 12.8mm thick ultrabook

It's thin. And light. The successor to the LaVie Z with the incredibly airy magnesium-lithium alloy frame we pined for at Computex last year, this LaVie X is just 12.8mm thick and weighs about 3.5 pounds, yet still supports a Core i7 ultra-low voltage processor and has a 15.6-inch, full HD 1080p IPS display. We could easily pick it up with one hand, and though the keyboard feels incredibly shallow, they respond quickly to action. While it's not quite as light as the amazing LaVie Z, which barely budged the scale at 2.2 pounds, it sure is light for a 15-incher. Shame we'll probably never see this laptop outside its home country of Japan. Take …

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OLPC XO-4 convertible laptop is faster than ever and coming soon (hands-on)

2013-01-06T21:08:08-05:00

Gallery Photo:

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) may not be ready to show off its XO-4 convertible laptop just yet, but chip manufacturer Marvell is demoing it at CES today all the same. The 7.5-inch tablet-laptop hybrid has an infrared touchscreen and is powered by a dual-core Marvell processor that the company says is "miles faster" than before. It'll arrive with either 1GB or 2GB of RAM and 4GB or 8GB of storage, and runs Linux (Fedora 18) with a custom software overlay that OLPC says is "designed for kids fingers." It's finished in the typical white and green OLPC style, along with chunky rotating colors. Marvell told us that it wasn't able to reveal pricing …

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Lenovo ThinkPad Helix tablet / laptop hybrid gets a power-up when it docks

2013-01-06T19:01:13-05:00

Gallery Photo: Lenovo ThinkPad Helix hands-on pictures

Did you think you'd seen every possible way a laptop and tablet could merge? Lenovo's ThinkPad Helix is here to show you otherwise. Rather than simply flipping head over heels, twisting in place, or detaching from a battery-laden slate of keys, the ThinkPad Helix is a powerful tablet that actually gets more powerful when you combine it with its keyboard docking station - think Mighty Morphin Power Rangers but with Lenovo's trademark rack of keys rather than giant robotic animals.

Not only does the 11.6-inch Windows 8 touchscreen tablet come with a bright 400-nit screen at full 1080p resolution, with up to a Core i7 processor, 8GB of memory, 25 …

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Lenovo revamps 11-inch IdeaPad Yoga with Intel processors, full Windows 8 operating system (video)

2013-01-06T18:59:59-05:00

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S

Lenovo's backflipping IdeaPad Yoga 13 garnered a good bit of praise, but when the company launched a smaller, cheaper version of the touchscreen Wintel laptop, it chose to use the hamstrung Windows RT operating system and an ARM-based Nvidia Tegra 3 chip instead. You won't have to choose between size and capabilities forever, though, because Lenovo's introducing the IdeaPad Yoga 11S today. The Yoga 11S maintains the attractive $799 starting and design of the original 11-incher - adding only a smidgen of thickness and weight - but brings back the Intel Core processor (up to an i7) and full Windows 8 operating system necessary to run desktop ap …

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