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CES 2014: Laptops roundup
It wasn't exactly a banner year for laptops at CES. Hell, the "Best of CES" award for PCs ended up going to a desktop, and was nearly upstaged by an all-in-one running Chrome OS. Still, that didn't stop some companies (especially Lenovo) from trotting out new models. From a simple Haswell refresh to a dual-OS hybrid, we've rounded up every laptop announced at the show. Couldn't keep up with all the news the first time? Get ready to catch up right here.
Lenovo unveils line of low-cost 'Miix 2' convertibles, refreshes its Flex, Y and Z series laptops
Well, this is a little confusing. After releasing the Miix 2, an 8-inch Windows tablet, Lenovo is announcing two more products called the Miix 2, except these aren't even tablets, but rather, detachable laptops. True to their name, the Miix 2 10 and 11 have 10.1- and 11.6-inch screens, respectively, and come with both a tablet and keyboard dock. In particular, as you can see in the photo above, you can insert the tablet with the screen facing either in or out -- yep, just like on last year's ThinkPad Helix, not to mention Lenovo's growing Yoga line. Either way, you get a 1,920 x 1,080 IPS display, an eight-hour battery, dual 5MP/2MP cameras, optional 3G, a microSD slot, micro-HDMI, JBL speakers and a full-sized USB port on the dock. Aside from screen size, the biggest difference is in processing power: The 10-inch model uses a low-power Intel Bay Trail processor with up to 128GB of storage, whereas the bigger guy packs a more powerful Core i5 chip. What's more, that model goes up to 256 gigs of space, not 128. The Miix 2 10 is slated to arrive in March, starting at $499, with the 11-incher following in April for $699.
Velocity Micro unveils three Ivy Bridge desktops, starting at $849
From Acer and HP to Maingear, PC makers across the board are releasing Ivy Bridge desktops before the family of CPUs makes its much-anticipated debut on notebooks. Velocity Micro is following suit, with the announcement of three customizable PCs powered by Intel's third-generation Core processors. Starting at $849, the Vector Z70 comes standard with a 500GB, 7,200RPM hard drive, 4GB of RAM and a 2.6GHz Intel Pentium G620 CPU (upgradeable all the way to a Core i7 processor, clocked at 3.4GHz). The $999 Edge Z40 is a middle-of-the-road model, shipping with a 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 GPU, a 2.8GHz Intel Core i5-23000 and 1TB of storage spinning at 7,200 RPM. On the premium side, the Raptor Z90 is a full-on gaming machine, with GeForce GTX 680 graphics and an Intel Core i7-3770 CPU, plus eight USB 3.0 and four USB 3.0 connections. All three systems are immediately available -- click through to the product pages for the complete configuration options.
