At CES 2021 Consumer Electronics Show, the world saw a lot of amazing laptops. All the big brands in the laptop space have shown a huge amount of new ideas and concepts that will inevitably set the trend this year.
Laptops based on the latest chipsets from Intel, AMD and Nvidia are moving to the next level as they offer form factors and features never seen before. Here are five upcoming laptop trends that will set the course for the industry in 2021.
Saying goodbye to screens 16:9
When Dell decided to change the aspect ratio of the screen with the release of the new XPS 13 in 2020, it was clear that serious changes. Over the past year, slowly but surely, almost every major laptop brand has moved from 16:9 to 16:10 or 3:2. The culmination was CES, where almost all models, except budget and gaming, switched to a higher aspect ratio.
At first glance, this does not seem like a big change, but the effect on the user is significant. The increase in screen real estate and vertical space is especially noticeable on new 3:2 aspect ratio laptops such as the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga.
Higher resolution and refresh rate
Thanks to the latest graphics cards Nvidia RTX 3070 and 3080 laptop gaming may have finally moved beyond 1080p. Since the release of the RTX 20 series, manufacturers of gaming laptops have been increasing their screen refresh rates more and more.
Thanks to the latest graphics cards, we finally have the ability to play at 1440p. Popular gaming models like the Razer Blade 15 now offer a 1440p version with a 240Hz refresh rate. There is even a Asus ROG gaming laptop on the market with a 4K screen and a frequency of 120 Hz.
Webcams on laptops are still terrible
Many expected that at CES 2021 will show new laptops with 1080p webcams, but that was not the case, as we saw only one such model - the MSI GE67 Raider. However, this is not the type of device that is suitable for office tasks...
Companies such as Lenovo and HP have made only small improvements, for example, by increasing resolution up to 5 megapixels and improved microphones. However, only new laptops with 720p webcams were shown at CES, which left many users very disappointed, especially amid the growing global pandemic.
Powerful Chromebooks
Moving on, only a few new Chromebooks were shown at the show, however, they all had one thing in common - incredible performance. Given that Intel has decided to port its 10nm Tiger Lake processors to Chrome OS, as well as the emergence of several new Ryzen-based Chromebooks, the future of lightweight laptops looks pretty bright.
Also noteworthy is the improvement in graphics, as both Intel and AMD processors offer the most powerful integrated graphics. This is important primarily for gaming, as well as for light media content creation tasks.
Gaming laptops keep getting better and better
Gaming laptops continue to evolve. First, they are thinner and lighter than ever. With the power of the RTX 3060 mobile graphics card and new 35-watt processors from Intel and AMD, we can expect gaming laptops to look like regular laptops in the near future. Some models are even equipped with a 14-inch screen (for example, the Predator Triton 300 SE).
On the other hand, the power of the RTX 3080 allowed Asus to develop the world's smallest external graphics dock, the ROG XG Mobile. The company has even implemented a dedicated PCIe interface that works with the latest ROG Flow X13 laptop, allowing the user to choose the desired performance of the external graphics card.
