Computex 2026: All the news and announcements

Just in case you were wondering, Nvidia’s RTX Spark isn’t supposed to be a one-off. The company is not just flirting with becoming the fifth high-profile vendor of consumer laptop chips to see if people bite. At Computex 2026 in Taipei, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confirmed at least two additional generations of RTX Spark are already planned. The eventual goal, he said, is to build Star Trek-like computers and and Star Wars-like droids you can order around with your voice.

“I want to talk to my laptop! I want R2-D2!” he told analysts and investors at Computex, revealing that he started working with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella “about three years ago” to build towards that goal.

Intel couldn’t catch a break. Layoffs. Shakedowns. Crashing CPUs torpedoing its reputation, sending desktop gamers fleeing to AMD. Apple and Qualcomm pushing Intel out of multiple flagship laptops. A gaming graphics card going MIA. But its Panther Lake laptop chip, the first on its all-important 18A process, turned out excellent — and a handheld version might make Intel the leader in portable gaming chips.

On Monday, I spent two hours with an MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus handheld atop Intel’s new Arc G3 Extreme. I walked away thinking that next-gen handhelds have finally arrived. The true leap in performance and battery life we’ve been waiting for, but at a high price.

Nvidia’s announcement that it’s getting into the consumer laptop chip space with RTX Spark is huge. Apple has proved for years that Arm-based chips can perform incredibly well while also delivering great battery life — at least on the Mac. In the Windows world, performance hasn’t fully matched up under Qualcomm chips, mostly in the graphics department. There’s clearly still untapped potential, and Nvidia seems to be promising to deliver it.

This could be Windows’ moment to blow us away with a new generation of supremely capable chips, much like Apple’s back in 2020, with the introduction of the M1. But why does this launch feel simultaneously exciting and fraught in 2026?

Nvidia has officially entered the world of consumer laptop chips with the RTX Spark, and several device makers already have hardware lined up for it. Microsoft, Asus, HP, MSI, Lenovo, and Dell are expected to launch RTX Spark laptops sometime this fall, and some of those partner companies have shared details about what we can expect.

The common feature shared by all of the upcoming launches is that Arm-based Nvidia RTX Spark superchip, though several variations are in the pipeline. The flagship version unveiled by Nvidia at Computex includes 20 CPU cores, 6,144 GPU cores, and 128GB of LPDDR5X memory — making it near identical to the GB10 chip inside Nvidia’s DGX Spark “personal AI supercomputer.” Other versions with as little as 16GB of memory will come later, according to Nvidia.

If you asked me what I’d change about the Xbox Ally X handheld — aside from fixing Windows, I mean — I’d tell you two key things.

First, give me a bigger, better screen. Even a little bit bigger, so games feel less claustrophobic and with less ugly bezel. Second, get rid of the “Library” button. I am so tired of an accidental press booting me out of my game and into the Xbox library without a simple way to get back.

Once upon a time, Microsoft had to write off $900 million betting an Arm-based Nvidia chip could power its first flagship Windows portable, the original Microsoft Surface. But today, it’s trying again. Microsoft and Nvidia have just announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, a computer with a new Arm-based Nvidia chip at its core.

There’s a lot we don’t know about the 15-inch Surface Laptop Ultra, such as its final specs or the foggiest idea of what it might cost. But Microsoft is promising it’s the most powerful Surface, period: “This is the most powerful thing we’ve ever made,” Microsoft Surface boss Andrew Hill replies, when we ask how it stacks up.

This fall, Nvidia will officially become a consumer PC chipmaker like Intel, AMD, Apple, and Qualcomm, putting a complete computing chip — not just graphics — into the very heart of laptops and mini-PCs. After many months of leaks, it’s finally announcing the RTX Spark, the first in a family of chips that will meet or beat the most powerful thin-and-light Windows machines ever, it claims.

“This is the most efficient PC chip ever built,” says Nvidia senior director of product management Mark Aevermann — without sharing so much as a single statistic or chart to back that up.

Computex 2026 is underway in Taiwan, and we’re expecting all manner of flashy computers with jaw-dropping prices (or no prices at all) as the entire industry navigates RAMageddon.

But for desktop PC gamers, AMD has a different pitch. It’s relaunching three old components alongside a big new promise: You won’t need to buy a new motherboard until 2030.

Dell is making good on its tease from CES and finally announcing a new XPS 13. The XPS 13 returns as a budget-friendly option, launching in July at a promotional student price of $599 — though that introductory deal only runs until September for back-to-school shopping; it’ll start at $699 for everyone else. The $599 promo exactly matches up with the MacBook Neo’s starting price, but students can actually get Apple’s budget laptop for $100 less. That means Dell has its work cut out proving that the XPS 13 is worth the extra money.

This will be Dell’s thinnest and lightest XPS to date, measuring 0.5 inches / 12.7mm thick and weighing just 2.2 pounds / 1kg. It’ll have just two USB-C ports and no 3.5mm audio jack, just like the last XPS 13 that cost much more. It sadly won’t even have a dedicated audio jack on higher end configurations set to arrive later with Intel Panther Lake chips and Thunderbolt 4 — which will go up to 32GB of RAM.