The best laptops of CES 2014 – The Verge

Gigabyte fits a gaming powerhouse inside an inch-thick laptop

2014-01-09T07:01:00-05:00

Gallery Photo: Aorus X7 gaming laptop hands-on

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 no …

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The Transformer Book Duet combines Windows with Android, tablet with laptop

2014-01-06T17:10:52-05:00

Gallery Photo:

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 p …

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The Asus Transformer Book Duet hybrid can instantly switch between Windows and Android

2014-01-06T15:10:39-05:00

Asus Transformer Book Duet

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 …

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Vizio updates its Thin + Light laptop and all-in-one with Haswell processors, Iris Pro graphics

2014-01-06T08:00:02-05:00

Vizio Thin + Light 15-inch

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 …

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Lenovo’s latest Miix 2 tablets use magnets to convert into a laptop

2014-01-05T19:00:03-05:00

Lenovo Miix 2 laptop / tablet

Lenovo has used the Consumer Electronics Show to showcase its latest Windows 8-inspired designs previously, and this year is no different. The top PC maker is refining its Yoga range, but it's also taking a slightly different approach to detachable laptops. Lenovo is launching its new Miix 2 range with lots of magnets and modes designed to compliment the mixed PC and tablet experience of Windows 8.1. There's a choice between 10.1-inch and 11.6-inch models, and both work as a tablet that attaches to a keyboard dock. It might sound like the usual type of Windows 8 hybrid, but Lenovo is using magnets to attach the tablet to the dock instead of c …

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With the X1 Carbon, Lenovo refines its best ultrabook

2014-01-05T19:00:03-05:00

Lenovo X1 carbon

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 h …

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