CES 2024: 5 wild laptops that made our jaws drop
CES 2024 has been a wild ride, giving us insight into the most cutting-edge tech startups and big brands have to offer.
This year, however, the laptop category has caught our eye, delivering funky and snazzy systems that stimulated conversation among our peers for days. Here are the wildest laptops we've seen at the world's most popular tech showcase.
1. Asus Zenbook Duo
The Asus Zenbook Duo is a dual-display devil of a laptop that commands attention. Imagine having this beautiful monstrosity sitting on your desk.
Long story short, the Zenbook Duo is the successor to a laptop that also had a dual-display design, but unlike the new Zenbook Duo, the second display only took up about half of the deck.
However, for the new-gen laptop, Asus said, "Screw it! Go big or go home!" Now, the second display is equally as large as the main display; both feature 14-inch, OLED panels with 3K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate.
This beast of a laptop can transform into a number of different postures, from having a book-like mode that lets you interact with apps side-by-side to lay-flat mode for sharing content with colleagues.
What I love about Asus, a laptop OEM, isn't afraid to take risks. After all, one of the downsides of innovation is that it may come with negative feedback and poor critical reception. However, Asus doesn't seem to let that deter it.
2. Acer Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs Edition
If you look closely, you may find that the arms of the astronaut below are sticking out of the panel. No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. What you're seeing here is a 3D laptop at work.
Acer isn't new to the 3D laptop market. It even has some systems that can handle 3D gaming and supports over 70 titles and counting. However, the Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs isn't designed for 3D gaming; it's best for 3D entertainment and content creation.
When I was a kid, seeing anything in 3D required me to wear a funky pair of glasses. Now, with the Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs Edition, you can chuck the glasses to the side and enjoy 3D in all of its glory with your naked eyeballs.
3. Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 14
ThinkBook 13x Gen 14 features Lenovo's Magic Bay tech on the lid that lets you attach an interesting variety of accessories to it.
For now, the ThinkBook 13x Gen 14 supports tame Magic Bay objects like a 4K camera.
However, Lenovo has been cooking up other Magic Bay concepts, and some of them were definitely on the zany side, including an aromatherapy attachment (e.g., a thingamajig that can emanate fumes from essential oils), a fan, a robot companion, and a lightweight tablet.
4. Acer Swift Go 14
Acer has been stepping it up with year with the envelope-pushing laptops.
For CES 2024, it also released a bizarre laptop that has a touchpad that doubles as media controls.
Interestingly, the Swift Go 14 can "detect" whether YouTube — or any other media platform of its ilk — is playing on your display. Consequently, the touchpad will light up with media controls that let you play, pause, skip and rewind.
5. MSI Cyborg 14
Gaming laptops are typically clunky, unwieldy and heavy, but not the MSI Cyborg 14. When I picked it up, I was expecting significant heft, but to my surprise, it shockingly light. In fact, it's as light as my M2 Pro MacBook Pro, my daily driver.
You shouldn't expect any impactful performance from this gaming laptop. It is designed to be light and compact, and that trade-off is the "performance oomph" of the more beastly gaming laptops. However, the Cyborg 14 makes for an excellent travel companion for gamers who need some entertainment during long flights or commutes.
Cyborg 14 comes with up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU as well as up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU.
Kimberly Gedeon, at Mashable since 2023, is a tech explorer who enjoys doing deep dives into the most popular gadgets, from the latest iPhones to the most immersive VR headsets. She's drawn to strange, avant-garde, bizarre tech, whether it's a 3D laptop, a gaming rig that can transform into a briefcase, or smart glasses that can capture video. Her journalism career kicked off about a decade ago at MadameNoire where she covered tech and business before landing as a tech editor at Laptop Mag in 2020.
