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  1. All the laptops that piqued our interest at CES 2025

    CES is filled with wild and wacky curios, to be sure, but there are also plenty of good old-fashioned laptops. Every year the big chipmakers announce new products and the big computer manufacturers unveil new laptops that take advantage of updated CPUs and GPUs. All told, companies announced nearly two dozen upcoming laptops at this year's conference. Some are bulky beasts made for gaming, while others are thin beauties intended for portability. The vast majority of them are filled to the brim with the AI tools that everyone loves so very much.

    Here are all of the laptops that piqued our interest at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, just in case you need to start saving some money for a purchase later this year.

    The ASUS Zenbook A14 is the MacBook Air competitor of our dreams. It weighs less than 2.2 pounds, which is actually a half a pound lighter than the Air. When it comes to specs, it actually outclasses Apple in nearly every category. There’s a 14-inch OLED screen, up to 32 hours (!) of battery life and up to 32GB of RAM. It’s also covered in a nifty ceramic coating that feels great to hold.

    It comes in two versions. There’s one that includes a Snapdragon X Plus CPU and 16GB of RAM, which starts at $900. The higher-end model features a Snapdragon X Elite chip and 32GB of RAM, starting at $1,100. The laptops will be available on January 13.

    Just because laptops have been around for decades doesn’t mean that companies can’t get a bit weird with them. Case in point? The Lenovo Thinkbook Plus Gen6. This is a laptop with a rollable screen that expands and contracts with the push of a button. Lenovo first introduced this as a concept device, but now it’s a real upcoming product.

    The 14-inch OLED display instantly transforms to a 16.7-inch panel, which effectively adds an extra 50 percent of screen real estate. The brightness is adequate, at 400 nits, and the performance looks solid. It comes with Intel’s Core Ultra 7 CPU, up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. It’s also weirdly light, given the tech, at 3.6 pounds. We don’t have official pricing or availability yet, but it’s expected to cost somewhere around $3,500 and should hit store shelves this spring.

    We called the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 “the least ThinkPad ever” for good reason. This new iteration ditched the long-standing carbon fiber frames and Trackpoint nubs found with classic models in favor of a more minimalist approach. It’s available in 14-inch and 15-inch versions, and both of these feature OLED displays. These laptops are powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 processors, which means that you can’t upgrade the RAM because it’s soldered on. However, the SSD and battery are easily replaceable. Both models should be available in February, with a starting price of $1,400 for the 14-inch model and $1,550 for the 15-inch version.

    A cool laptop.
    Engadget

    The MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition adds some seriously-cool aesthetics to the most powerful laptop the company makes. There are a ton of unique design traits here, including a hand-drawn dragon on the lid that was acid-etched into the aluminum. As for specs, this laptop includes top-of-the-line components including next-gen Intel HX processors, NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPUs, PCIe Gen 5 SSD storage and Wi-Fi 7. There’s a massive 18-inch mini LED display and low-profile Cherry MX switches on the keyboard. MSI has yet to reveal pricing or availability on this one.

    A laptop.
    Razer

    The Razer Blade 16 laptop is extraordinarily thin, at 0.59 inches. That makes it 32 percent slimmer than the 2024 model. There’s a 16-inch QHD display with a 240Hz refresh rate and a response time of 0.2ms. The computer also includes the AMD Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 processor and one of the brand-new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs. There isn’t a release date yet, other than soon, nor is there a launch price. Last year’s model started at $2,700, so we can expect something in the same range.

    A laptop.
    Samsung

    Samsung unveiled an updated line of Galaxy Book laptops at CES. There’s the Galaxy Book5 Pro, which is available in 14-inch and 16-inch screen options, along with the Book5 360 with a 15-inch display. All of these computers are equipped with Intel’s newest Arrow Lake Core Ultra processors and have been built for AI tasks. To that end, Samsung has touted a long list of on-device AI circles, like its own version of Google’s Circle to Search. These laptops also include on-device photo upscaling and more.

    The Book5 Pro is a standard laptop, while the Book5 360 is a 2-in-one with a 15-6-inch AMOLED touch display. There’s no pricing yet on any of these models, but the company has said they’ll be available for purchase in February.

    A laptop.
    ASUS

    Just like the ultralight Zenbook A14, the refreshed Vivobook 14 and 16 laptops ship with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip. These are mid-grade computers that offer up 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The company says that the internals have been updated to allow for 44 percent more performance than the last-gen models. The battery also got an upgrade and now will last nearly 20 hours per charge.

    Both computers make use of the company’s not-at-all creepy “AI camera” which detects whether you’re sitting in front of the screen or not. The ASUS Vivobook 14 and Vivobook 16 are available to pre-order now for $700 and $750, respectively.

    A laptop unfurled.
    Lenovo

    The tenth-generation Legion Pro 7i is a serious upgrade over its predecessors and should be a great option for gaming on-the-go. It supports up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, with an updated cooling system that enables 250W thermal design power. The laptop also supports up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor. On top of that, you can add up to 64GB of RAM. There’s a 16-inch OLED display with a 240Hz refresh rate and a 1ms response time.

    It’s a beefy machine, however, coming at six pounds. The Legion Pro 7i will be available sometime in March, with a starting price of $2,400.

    Two laptops.
    Sam Rutherford/Engadget

    It’s been years, but Alienware’s Area 51 branding is back in a big way. The Alienware Area 51 laptops are the company’s latest flagship gaming devices. They are available in two display sizes, 16- and 18-inches, and support up to Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPUs, 64GB of RAM (at up to 7200 MT/s, the highest of any Alienware laptop), 12 TB of PCIe Gen 5 SSD storage and next-gen NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPUs. Both models can handle up to 175 watts of total graphics power with an additional 105 watts reserved for the CPU. There's also a glass bottom to help with thermal regulation. 

    They should be available sometime in the next couple of months. However, the laptops are launching in high-end configurations that start at $3,200, with less expensive “entry-level” models coming later in the year.

    A laptop.
    Engadget

    The ASUS ROG Flow Z13 is a 2-in-1 hybrid that could absolutely shine as a gaming tablet. It supports up to a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU with unified memory. The 70Whr battery should get up to 10 hours on a single charge and the IPS panel boasts an impressive 180Hz refresh rate and up to 500 nits of brightness. This machine also integrates with the company’s new XG Mobile graphics dock for a nice little upgrade in the visuals.

    The Flow Z13 is expected to start at around $2,000 for a version with a Ryzen AI Max 390 chip or $2,200 when configured with a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU. We don’t have a release date yet.

    This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/all-the-laptops-that-piqued-our-interest-at-ces-2025-194424146.html?src=rss

  2. The AC Future drivable, self-sustaining home transforms to be larger than your first apartment

    The "AC" in AC Future stands for Amy and Cindy, founder Arthur Qin's two daughters. That's just one of the bits of info I gained at the company's CES event in which we got a first look at the new AC Future Ai-TH transformable home. This is yet another nattily appointed answer to the housing crisis we've seen on the 2025 show floor. It comes in three models: a deliverable pod (Ai-THu), a pullable trailer (Ai-THt) and a road-ready EV RV (Ai-THd). Press and prospective buyers got to tour the EV prototype this week (but we had to take our shoes off first). 

    A shot of the sink and cutting board for the AC Future Ai-TH transformable home
    Amy Skorheim / Engadget

    Thanks to pull-out sections at the rear and both sides, the bus-sized RV transforms into a 400-square-foot, one bed, one bath apartment, complete with a living room, kitchen with full-sized fridge, two burner induction range and microwave, along with an uncramped stall shower and washer/dryer in the bathroom. The full HVAC system, paired with high-efficiency insulation keeps the unit temperate. 

    All that amounts to one heck of a power draw, which AC Future answers with a roof covered in solar panels. I was told all three models of the Ai-TH can generate around 25 kWh of energy in a day. For reference, the average American house uses around 30 kWh daily. The home can also be plugged in if sunlight isn't enough, and there was talk of wind-generation options for customers in cloudy climates. 

    All models of the Ai-TH will also come equipped with atmospheric water generation that can suck between 13 and 15 gallons of water per day out of thin air. That's much less than the 200 or so gallons American houses use for non-landscaping needs, so the Ai-TH also recycles gray water and, of course, has a holding tank. In theory, these units can act as fully self-sustaining living pods, gathering what's needed from the world around them. 

    Because this is CES 2025, where the unofficial model is "Stick some AI in it!" there's a whole-home proprietary AI assistant called Futura to turn on your lights, manage your resources and handle other management tasks. There was even a demo set up outside the RV letting people "meet" "her."

    At last year’s CES, AC Future, barely two years old at the time, showed off the idea for the Ai-TH. The fully equipped prototype we saw was built in collaboration with Hydra, an automotive design and prototyping studio out of Southern California. Models that go into production will have components coming from a huge range of suppliers; I was told there are three partners lined up for the EV motors alone. 

    AC Future says this is “aimed at addressing the affordable, sustainable and mobile housing crisis worldwide.” And any talk of addressing the housing crisis has to include some discussion of price, unless we're counting on some trickle-down economics-style solutions. The static base model will start at $98,000, the trailer model will go for $138,000 and up and the drivable version starts at $298,000. 

    AC Future's COO told me production would begin as soon as they left Vegas (the whole team was at CES) and reservations are open now. 

    This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/the-ac-future-drivable-self-sustaining-home-transforms-to-be-larger-than-your-first-apartment-193758718.html?src=rss

  3. Sony's Afeela 1 feels like a PlayStation 4 in the PS5 era

    While there's plenty of automotive news to go around at CES 2025, far and away, the talk of the show is the Afeela 1. Again. For five years now, Sony has been showing off some variation on this same theme, first as the Vision-S in 2020, then the Vision-S 02, before adopting the unfortunate rebranding to Afeela in 2023, and this year finally to Afeela 1.

    Along the way, the car lost what little interesting styling it had while sticking true to some specifications that sounded good five years ago. Everything just feels a bit off, not the least of which is its starting price: $89,900.

    I got a chance to get up close and inside the car, a demo that began with another explanation of what Afeela means. It's a sort of overwrought portmanteau for the words autonomy, augmentation, and affinity.

    This year's Afeela 1 is little changed from last year's numberless show car. The only significant visual update is found in the sensor pod protruding from the leading edge of the roof. A LiDAR module now stands proud, along with a couple of cameras on either end, staring in opposite directions, chameleon-style.

    While the bug-eyed look is not particularly charming, it is the only bit of visual character in an otherwise bland design. The lone other external talking point is the display embedded in the leading edge of the hood. This "media bar" is another thing that seemed novel and fun a few years ago on a concept car.

    There39;s a noticeable seam where two displays meet on the grille-mounted displays.
    There's a noticeable seam where two displays meet on the grille-mounted displays.
    Tim Stevens for Engadget

    It's supposed to welcome you to the car or provide messages to those around you. But it's hard to read from afar, and up close you can see the unfortunate seam down the middle where two panels were somewhat crudely joined together to form the thing.

    To open the driver's door, you either tap a button in the app or press a small button embedded in the pillar. There are no door handles to pull, not even a token fin like on the Ford Mustang Mach-E. I couldn't help asking what do you do if you park in an ice storm and the door is frozen shut. I wasn't given much of an answer.

    Those doors open to a space that's every bit as understated as the exterior except for one thing: the dashboard-spanning display. It's vibrant and clear and about the only thing in here that reminded me that this is a Sony product. Well, that and the DualSense controller that you can pair to the car and then fire up PS Remote Play while you charge.

    And you'll need something to do because the maximum charge rate of the Afeela 1 is 150 kW for its 91 kWh battery, which provides an estimated 300 miles of range. Compare that to a cheaper Lucid Air, which can charge twice as quickly and cover over 400 miles on a charge, and you begin to see the real problem with this thing.

    That display plus the ambient lighting within the car are all comprehensively customizable, with the same sorts of themes available on the PS5. I sampled the Ghost of Tsushima and Fortnite themes, each of which splayed the interior in the proper series of colors, adding a splash of personality to the otherwise vanilla surfaces.

    The interior display is one of a few interesting aspects of the Afeela 1.
    Tim Stevens for Engadget

    That big display is the major talking point, but look a little lower and you'll spot the world's largest volume knob situated between the seats. It's bigger than the iDrive knob on most modern BMWs, yet only controls the output of the 28-speaker, Dolby Atmos-enabled sound system.

    The software interface, meanwhile, looked largely unfinished, little more than a two-row grid of oversized boxes representing apps, settings and car controls. Given the width of the display, vital controls can easily stretch beyond the driver's reach, leaving you to drag the whole array back to the left to get what you need.

    After so many years of seeing what Sony's first car would really look like, I couldn't help feeling disappointed when I climbed out. But not nearly as disappointed as I was when looking down the spec sheet again.

    There are two trims of Afeela 1, the $89,900 Afeela 1 Origin and $102,900 Signature. The latter has larger wheels (21-inch vs. 19), a rear-seat entertainment system (displays embedded in the headrests plus an HDMI input) and additional cameras. The Origin, meanwhile, is only available in black.

    Seriously.

    The cheapest Afeela 1 trim only comes in black. The other one only comes in white, grey and black.
    Tim Stevens for Engadget

    Why Sony would even think about launching a $90,000 car that is only available in black is beyond me. Spend the $13,000 more for the Signature model, and you still only get three forgettable shades: white, gray and black again.

    In the Origin we have a car that costs $20,000 more than a Lucid Air Pure but has considerably less range and slower charging speed. Go for the $102,900 Afeela 1 Signature trim, and you're now spending more than a Porsche Taycan, which admittedly has less range but looks far better and will almost assuredly be the more engaging drive.

    Five years ago, Sony's vehicular aspirations made for an odd but intriguing project. Now, it all just seems misguided. How will it feel in another 12 months when the first cars start rolling off from Honda's Ohio factory? That's anyone's guess, but I can't imagine tomorrow's market will look any more kindly upon this vehicular curiosity.

    This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/sonys-afeela-1-feels-like-a-playstation-4-in-the-ps5-era-184620132.html?src=rss

  4. Target Darts is bringing tech smarts to the game

    If there’s one thing that sucks the fun out of darts, it’s the mandatory math you have to do in order to work out how well you’re doing. That’s the malady British manufacturer Target Darts, making its first trip to CES, is solving with its Omni automatic scoring system, saving your beer-drenched brain. 

    Omni is a halo that magnetically attaches to a compatible board, equipped with four 1080p cameras and an LED light strip. When you throw your darts, the system uses computer vision to identify where they ended up on the board.

    From there, the scores will be represented on a nearby computer or tablet, and can even be output to a big TV in the vicinity. Even better, is that you won’t just have your score tracked, but you’ll hear a pre-recorded voice telling you how many points you need to score on your next throw, just as you see in a professional match.

    Omni isn’t out just yet, but when it launches, players will be able to use it in conjunction with Target Darts' existing Virt camera. That’s a pair of webcams — one facing the board, one facing the player — that enables darts fans to play against real people online either with friends, or with similarly-ranked strangers.

    During the various shelter-in-place orders in force during the COVID pandemic, the UK's professional darts league actually operated like this for several months. Amusingly one star player, Gary Anderson, was unable to take part in a tournament because his home Wi-Fi wasn't fast enough to keep up. 

    Target Darts’ Omni scoring system will start shipping on January 31, and in the UK is priced at £449.95 (around $556). If you’d like to pick up a model in the US, you’ll have to find a reseller, a list of which is available on the company’s website.

    This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/target-darts-is-bringing-tech-smarts-to-the-game-183015898.html?src=rss

  5. The WeWalk Smart Cane 2 could be one of AI's few good use cases at CES 2025

    WeWalk introduced a new version of its smart cane for people with visual impairments at CES 2025, bringing a redesign that addresses many of the first model’s shortcomings and adds AI features and more advanced sensors from TDK. It’s positioned as an alternative to the traditional foldable white cane. Co-founder Kursat Ceylan, who has been blind since birth, says Smart Cane 2 can make mobility easier and safer, offering features like turn-by-turn navigation and obstacle detection, along with a ChatGPT-powered voice assistant that puts on-demand information in users’ hands without the need for them to also juggle a smartphone.

    The WeWalk Smart Cane 2 has a slimmer handle than its predecessor, which should make for a more comfortable grip, and the company says it’s now about as lightweight as a standard white cane. It has tactile buttons to be more user-friendly, doing away with the touchpad of the previous model that some people found to be difficult to use. Ceylan says it can be used in different weather conditions, not just when it’s warm and dry (WeWalk describes the new cane as “rainwater-resistant”).

    “You can fold and unfold it when you need it. There's a speaker, a microphone, obstacle detection technology and a flashlight to make visually impaired people more visible at night. And also it has motion sensors in itself to provide a more accurate navigation experience,” Ceylan explained.

    Under the hood, the WeWalk Smart Cane 2 has an ultrasonic time-of-flight sensor, an inertial measurement unit with six-axis motion tracking, a pulse density modulated microphone and a barometric pressure sensor from electronics company TDK. When it detects something ahead, it alerts the user with both haptic and audio feedback, according to Ceylan.

    He demonstrated this in the very cramped, noisy environment of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and I was able to hear over the crowd when the cane told him he was approaching an obstacle — in this case, a carpeted step marked with yellow and black tape that I saw multiple CES attendees stumble over during our conversation. It also can connect to headphones via Bluetooth.

    An tablet is positioned on a stand on a white table displaying detailed information about the sensors inside the smart cane. A monitor behind the tablet shows co-founder Kursat Ceylan walking on a path and gripping the handle of the cane. a caption at the bottom says
    Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget

    Paired with your smartphone, it can give navigation instructions and information about your surroundings, as well as public transportation options. “You can hear the names of stores and restaurants you are passing by,” he says. In Starbucks, where he isn’t able to read the menu, he says he might ask the assistant if they sell chocolate croissants.

    “You don't need to hold your smartphone anymore while you are going somewhere,” Ceylan said. “You can put it into your pocket and then you can get all the information through your WeWalk smart cane.” There is a smartphone interface for those who want to use it, though, which he held up through the demo so I could see what was going on on the other end. Unlike the vast majority of products I’ve encountered at CES this year that seem to include AI or ChatGPT for no real reason other than the fact that they can, this actually felt like a situation where it makes sense and could even be pretty beneficial.

    Since it’s brand new, we don’t yet know how all of this will translate to real-world use. Pre-orders are now open for the WeWalk Smart Cane 2, and the first wave is expected to start shipping before the end of this month. There are two price models: $850 for the smart cane plus a subscription for the voice assistant that costs $4.99 per month, or $1150 altogether with no additional subscription fee for full use of the AI. WeWalk Smart Cane 2 is available internationally.

    The London-based startup also has a partnership with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) that kicks off in February, when the organization will start using the WeWalk Smart Cane 2 for its cane training program. The goal is to gather meaningful data for instructors so they can really understand how people are using mobility canes (AI-enabled or otherwise), and help them get the most out of the tools. That, Ceylan says, “is so important, because the better you get around, the better you engage in life.”

    This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/the-wewalk-smart-cane-2-could-be-one-of-ais-few-good-use-cases-at-ces-2025-182020074.html?src=rss