CES 2017 kicked off this week with a great show featuring the latest and greatest in consumer tech. A lot of hype has been surrounding this year’s event, as we wait to see what the biggest industry brands have spent the last year working on. Now we finally know, and day one featured plenty of goodies to get excited about. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.
Dell’s 4 Inspiron and Alienware Laptops
First up is Dell, who are releasing not one, but four new gaming laptops that promise a lot of punch for a much smaller price tag.
The Inspiron 15 7000 is the thinnest and lightest of the four. It is also one of many coming products to feature Kaby Lake, the code name for the new quad-core Intel Core i5 processor. Graphics wise, it will hold a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, which alongside a 4K UHD 13″, 14″ 15″, or 17″ display and 4 GB RAM means it will provide a hell of a gaming experience. Onboard storage comes in 512 GB to 1 TB. Prices start at just $799, believe it or not.
Three Alienware laptops were also on display. Coming with 13.3″, 15″ or 17″ models, it uses many of the same features as the Inspirion 15 7000. But what sets all three apart is that fact that they have been optimized to run virtual reality games. It could be the first laptop to really take advantage of that technology on such an integrated scale. Because of that, these babies clock in at a heftier $1000 – $1300.
Lenovo’s Legion Laptops and Alexa Speakers
Most of us were expecting Lenovo to go with a new Yoga device, or maybe a phablet. Those seem to be the big news items coming from the brand for the past few years, and their biggest hits. Instead they unveiled a new series of laptops, and some smarthome, Alexa run speakers. The laptops, named the Legion Y520 and Y720, each appeal to a different kind of gamer: the first for the more casual player who needs a multi-purpose device that can run most games, the second for the hardcore gamer that needs the highest end graphics and processing power available.
You can get the Core i5-7300HQ or the Core i7-7700HQ CPU in the Y720, which are the latest Intel processors and a big win for high resource gamers that need a device that won’t lag under the weight of the newer games. It also sports the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics chip, whereas the Y750 has the GeForce GTX 1050. Virtual reality gamers will want to go with the heavier duty model. Casual gamers will be thrilled with the lesser of the two.
The Alexa capable speakers were a bigger surprise than the laptops. There isn’t that much to say about them: they are similar to Echo, they run Amazon Alexa, and their use Lenovo’s Smart Assistant. But for $129, they are a pretty cool addition to the smarthome line.
ASUS’s Desktops and Laptop Updates With Intel Processors
Another brand getting on Intel’s latest bandwagon is ASUS. They have updated several of their current line with the newest processor chip, and also released new ZenBooks, a Transformer Pro 2-in-1, and a Zen AiO desktop as part of their line.
What people are probably going to notice most about the ASUS lines is not that they have released new products, but that they are almost indistinguishable from the old ones. The only real difference is the new processor, which to be fair is a big leap in performance. They seem to be going by the adage of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, which may or may not be a positive in the end. Certainly fans of ASUS won’t be crying about the improvement, but it definitely made their showing at CES less impress than some of their competitors.
HP’s Sprout Pro Touchscreen Laptop
HP Sprout was a desktop that really shook up the creative world a couple of years ago. But in a time when virtual reality was struggling for relevance thanks to its largely proof-of-concept placement in the tech world, it didn’t get the recognition it richly deserved. Now the Sprout Pro is here, and it may finally be its time to shine. This creative process desktop has the Intel quad-core 2.9GHz Core i7-7700T processor on board, along with a 1920×1080 touchscreen and 1TB PCIe SSHD.
This isn’t really a PC for gamers (the GPU could be better). It is more for people who see the value in taking a 3D object and converting it into a 2D – 3D image, so very much for creatives. Hopefully with its connection to VR and augmented reality people will begin to see how cool this desktop really is. The CES unveiling did a lot to push for interest.
All in all, this was a good first day with some cool new releases to gawk at.
