Although today is the first day of the conference, there is plenty to catch up on from the past 24 hours. Monday night was busy with both AMD and Nivida hosting events with product launches.
AMD's CEO Dr Lisa Su unveiled a whole host of new AI chips – many of which we will find in this years laptop and computing offerings. These were Ryzen AI 400 series processors, which also include AMD's first Copilot+ processors for desktops. The Ryzen AI 400 chips will feature 60 TOPS XDNA 2 NPUs, which is up from the 50 to 55 TOPS in Ryzen AI 300 hardware.
Nvidia announced the launch of its next-generation Vera Rubin superchip – one of six chips that make up its Rubin platform. Vera Rubin combines one Vera CPU and two Rubin GPUs in a single processor. The Rubin platform is for agentic AI, advanced reasoning models, and mixture-of-experts (MoE) models, the tech giant said.
The computing vendors have also started CES early, with new models from Dell, HP, Asus, and Acer already on show...
The biggest news from Dell is the return of the XPS… One year after its reported demise.
Jeff Clarke, chief operating officer at Dell Technologies, revealed three new models of XPS, with the brand now taking a central position in the company’s laptop offerings. Although the XPS will be restored as a consumer-focused brand, rather than the commercial one it was originally.
The reasoning behind the return is that “branding matters” and that the company had “listened” to its customers, according to Clarke. Essentially, the XPS brand is back from the dead by popular demand. The all-new XPS will come in 14in, 16in, and 13in models with Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors and built-in Intel Arc graphics with 12 Xe cores. These will also be the “thinnest yet” with both the 14in and 16in models measuring just 14.6mm.
Read our full story of the XPS return here.
HP’s CES offerings have included the HP EliteBook X G2i 14in – already reviewed by ITPro – and the HP EliteBoard, an AI PC fiendishly disguised as a keyboard.
Acer has arrived at CES with updates to most of its laptop brands, including new AI models of the Swift. There are 16 and 14in models for the Swift AI, and the same for the Swift Edge AI. Each has a new haptic touchpad – the largest in the world, according to Acer. Regardless of size, the touchpads are the most eye-catching addition for the Swift range, with new LED-based controls aimed at creators. You can quickly change volume or skip through a video, all within the trackpad.
Acer has also announced a new Aspire 14 AI and Acer Aspire 16 AI available with new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors. These models feature a “thin-and-light” chassis and user-centric designs, again with large touchpads – very much a theme for Acer, this year. These Aspire models will be available with OLED, touch, and non-touch display options.
A closer look at the trackpad on the Acer Swift 14 AI
Overnight, Samsung announced three new laptop models: the Galaxy Book6 Ultra, the Galaxy Book6 Pro, and the Galaxy Book6. We will be visiting the Samsung booth shortly to get a look at these new models….
More from HP as it has just launched new updates for its Workforce Experience Platform (WXP) with new employee device management features. The updates are designed to eliminate the costly friction points in hybrid work by giving IT teams proactive control over an entire fleet. These include out-of-band remote connect, an industry first (according to HP), and integration of firmware-level remote control in a single, accessible platform. Unified printer management – an area HP specializes in – and also custom alerts, with tailored monitoring.
Ahead of CES, ITPro spoke with Larry Meadows, the head of product strategy at HP, regarding its WXP updates.
“The Workforce Experience Platform is HP’s software as a service for fleet management and employee experience,” Meadows told ITPro. It’s focused on helping IT leaders identify how well the IT investment is perfromaning and what are the areas for improvement in order to limit or minimize any disruption to employee productivity throughout the day.”
“I deliberately use the phrase IT investment and not PCs, because while we do cover PCs, we also cover collaboration rooms, video endpoints, printers, and IP telephones. As well as software applications… What we’re trying to do is put together a more comprehensive view of how you can manage that. As opposed to having to bounce between different portals. Which many companies do today.”
The Expo center in the Venetian is extremely busy...
Lenovo comes to CES as the official partner of the upcoming FIFA World Cup and, as such, there's a lot of FIFA-branded products. Like these ThinkBook soccer button caps...
ITPro spoke with Daryl Cromer, the VP and CTO of Lenovo PCs and Smart Devices. We asked him what we can expect from Lenovo Tech World later today:
“It will be the greatest show at CES,” he said.
“Let me explain why it’s the greatest show. You will see industry leaders across PCs, server, tablet, chips, OS’s, all come together on stage. So it’s an industry event, and you’ll hear from the CEOs of everyone and anyone. The thought leaders of the world, right now, will be on stage. So that’s huge..."
Slight pause in updates as tech companies are spread out across the Las Vegas Convention Center and all strips most famous hotels... we are now running up the Boulevard to reach the Wynn hotel to see Samsung's new laptops.
The time has come to head over to the Sphere for Lenovo Tech World...
Understandably, there is a long queue to enter the Sphere... which gives us time to talk about Samsung's three new laptops: the Galaxy Book6 Ultra, Galaxy Book6 Pro, and Galaxy Book6.
All three will be available, in Grey or Silver, in select markets later in January. There will also be a Galaxy Book6 Enterprise Edition with features optimized for managed IT environments, sometime in April.
We're in the Sphere...
We're expecting FIFA and the upcoming World Cup to feature heavily here this afternoon...
While we wait for Lenovo Tech World to begin, we have a moment to discuss Asus and its extensive update of its laptop brands at CES.
This includes the Asus ExpertBook Ultra, which ITPro saw ahead of the event.
This was part of a wider refresh of its main brands – Zenbook, Vivobook, ProArt, and ROG. The ExpertBook Ultra, however, replaces the B9 model as the top commercial offering from Asus. And as the name suggests, it's a laptop with all the best specs the hardware giant can offer; it's ultra durable, ultra fast, ultra cool, and ultra reliable (according to Asus, that is).
The Ultra is made for modern work and the wear and tear of doing your job in different places. The lid and chassis are scratch-resistant, protecting it from the kind of damage you get from repeatedly taking it in and out of a rucksack. The keys have an anti-smudge layer, and the screen is protected with Gorilla Glass Victus.
We get underway with a flashy video that welcomes on stage Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing...
Yuanquing begins with a little on AI and how Lenovo will use it to bring the digital and physical world's together.
And, in the space of a few minutes, we have our first guest on stage...
First of the big announcements is Lenovo Qira...
Qira, the personal “AI super agent” will work across Lenovo and Motorola devices, including PCs, smartphones and tablets, offering “context-aware” assistance.
Lenovo have described it as a “Personal Ambient Intelligence System”. Which could just be an attempt to differentiate it from offer assistants (like, Alexa or Siri). What is different about Qira is that it will appear as Lenovo Qira on its products but then Motorola Qira on Motorola products… which is slightly strange and confusing.
The fact that Qira works across Lenovo and Motorola’s respective devices is unusual, to say the least. Largely as it is a software shared between two different vendors. However, as Daryl Comer, the VP and CTO of Lenovo PCs and Smart Devices, told us earlier, it’s going to shared across much more.
“Its also across two other different ecosystems, Microsoft and Google,” Comer told ITPro. “Which is huge because within the Google world there will be certain things and in the Microsoft world there will be certain things, but they don’t share it well. And Qira is across different form-factors. I mean Google is great in the phone world, and Microsoft is great in the PC world, and Qira will work on both…”
Qira also works as a wearable; a type of AI assistant neckless...
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is here to talk Intel Core Ultra and Core Ultra X, both of which will feature in the new Lenovo laptops we are about to see...
Strangely, we move from Aura Edition laptops to the new Motorola Razr Fold smartphone
We are now looking at the new Motorola Signature smartphone, a premium model with a quad camera system that features four 50MP lenses...
The last product announcement on stage is the FIFA-branded Motorola Razr, which means that other models we have seen in the run-up to the event (under embargo) are not going to be discussed...
But we feel they are worth mentioning.
One is Lenovo's rollable screen laptop concept, which we covered here. This time in the form of the ThinkPad XD. Compared to previous attempts, the XD is a far more polished model, with a dual display and a sturdier, Gorilla Glass screen. It extends from 13.3in to 16in with just a swipe on the top right of the screen.
There is also a former concept that has now gone into mainstream production, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist. A laptop with a dual rotational hinge and voice control capabilities. You can knock on its lid, like you would a door, and it opens automatically.
And that is the end of the show...