The best laptops we examined at CES 2025

The brand new CPUs, GPUs, and laptops introduced at CES this week set the tone for Home windows computer systems within the yr to come back — and to this point, 2025 is trying fairly promising. There are a bunch of recent notebooks I’m excited to check out after they come round, a lot of that are gaming-focused because the launch of Nvidia’s RTX 50-series playing cards is ushering in an onslaught of graphics-heavy refreshes and upgrades.

There are lots of new laptops coming from Dell, Alienware, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, MSI, and Razer. Many could boil right down to chip bumps and slight refreshes, however there are some which are betting huge on new concepts, thinness, uncooked energy, and over-the-top accouterments. Listed below are those I’m most excited for.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6

I’ve already written and mentioned rather a lot about Lenovo’s concept-turned-buyable-product that’s the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6. It’s the best laptop computer we noticed. It’s our outright finest in present for CES 2025. And it’s additionally potential when it comes time to overview one later within the yr that the challenges of Lenovo attempting to graft software program performance for its rollable show onto Home windows could also be a bridge too far.

However the way in which that Lenovo allow us to deal with it like a standard laptop computer (closing it with its lid nonetheless prolonged, packing it into a good backpack) exhibits promise that this may not simply be a fragile beta check of a product coming to market.

Listening to the ThinkBook’s motors fireplace up and seeing its display screen develop and shrink is an expertise you simply don’t get wherever else proper now. It’d turn into one other area of interest like Lenovo’s dual-screen Yoga E-book 9i or Asus’ copycat ZenBook Duo, nevertheless it’s a novel try and do one thing distinctive. We’ll must see if Lenovo sticks the touchdown.

Apple discovered the arduous manner with the MacBook Professional years in the past that prioritizing thinness over all the pieces else ends in too many sacrifices. However Asus is right here with a really skinny laptop computer that’s an extremely gentle 2.18 kilos and is utilizing it to as soon as once more come on the MacBook Air. (The identify itself is a lifeless giveaway should you simply squint.)

I’m not going to child myself and assume that is actually going to be a “MacBook Air killer,” particularly with an Arm-based Snapdragon X processor that has fewer cores than ones already launched, nevertheless it would possibly nonetheless be a slick laptop computer that’s so gentle it feels prefer it barely provides something to your backpack. And given the strong battery life we’ve seen on much more highly effective Snapdragon chips, it’s potential the lower-power processor within the A14 will make it a battery champ.

Razer’s system with its high-end Blade laptops has at all times boiled right down to feeling and looking somewhat like a MacBook Professional — however for Home windows and gaming as a substitute of simply content material creation (although it could possibly do this, too). The brand new Razer Blade 16 is trying to trim the fats from the last-gen mannequin, going again to a thinner chassis that also gives loads of ports and high-end specs like RTX 50-series GPU choices, a stunning OLED show, and a change to AMD CPUs (a primary for the Blade 16). Razer’s vibrant inexperienced brand on the lid will at all times be polarizing, however I’m intrigued to see if this new configuration can work out for each graphics-demanding video games and inventive workflows.

There are lots of laptop computer gentle exhibits at CES, however nothing is sort of as showy as Asus’ redesigned Strix Scar gaming laptops. The Strix line has at all times been huge, with beefed-up gaming specs and plenty of RGB, however for 2025, it’s getting a brand new 360-degree wraparound gentle strip. And in its most “however wait, there’s extra” sense of showmanship, it additionally has Asus’ programmable AniMe dot-matrix show from older Zephyrus fashions.

This may be the gaming laptop computer I’m most excited to check out as a result of along with seeing what its RTX 50-series GPUs can do within the newest AAA video games, I ponder what number of hours of my time I can lose to placing dumb stuff on the Strix’s lid.

Simply. Look. At. This. Factor.

MSI’s restricted Titan Dragon Version is such an outlandish creation, however I discover it arduous to not admire its ridiculousness. The ludicrous gaming laptop computer has an enormous dragon design and a 3D-printed dragon medallion underneath glass in its palm relaxation that’s adorned with Norse runes throughout.

However I’ll be trustworthy: I’m itemizing it right here as sort of a purple herring. Whereas MSI will probably promote out of the few Dragon Editions it’s making for its loyal followers, it would even have a daily Titan A18 HX AI laptop computer matching its identical wild specs in a dragon-free design. And transfer one step right down to MSI’s Raider, and also you get most of the specs of the Titan in a barely extra typical gaming laptop computer. That could also be the actual one to check and get a extra palatable style of MSI’s boisterous designs.

I do know, I do know. It’s a China-only launch, and it wasn’t new for CES. However I acquired to see Asus’ Aidol 14 Air Perfume Version and its collaboration variant with Anna Sui on the present, and it was simply so dang charming. It isn’t only a dressed-up rose gold or lavender laptop computer made to pander to sure demographics, it really looks as if a well-specced and thought-out product. Asus took one in all its Vivobooks and constructed a magnetic diffuser puck into its lid, designed to dispense an oil-based perfume because the laptop computer runs and warms the important oil. Sure, Asus is hoping to promote folks important oil packs each 30 to 90 days, however reps from the corporate had been upfront which you can simply use your personal oils.

Is it completely pointless? Sure. However you realize what? It’s additionally enjoyable and smells nice.