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More OEMs unveiled new mini PCs at CES 2025 than in previous years. Here are the compact computers that stood out from the crowd. While at CES 2025, I was able to check out the latest hardware from various OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). Usually, at these shows, you'll see a range of laptops, some powerful desktops, graphics cards, and monitors. But nestled between these more common devices, I also came across more mini PCs than usual — and just about all of them featured AI processors. Mini PCs have obviously been around for a while now, but this increase got me thinking about the newest technologies and SoC (system on a chip) offerings. Because of these latest advances, companies have finally gotten to a place where they can put a greater deal of power within a small form factor, which results in more balanced yet inexpensive computing alternatives to desktops. So, which devices were shown at CES? Let's dive in and discuss the mini PCs I'm most excited about and what makes them stand out from the crowd. Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini X and ThinkCentre Neo 50q — The first Snapdragon X SoC mini PCs These Windows on ARM AI mini PCs offer up to 45 NUC TOPS. (Image credit: Windows Central) First off, Lenovo announced the world's first mini PCs that feature Snapdragon X chips in the form of the IdeaCentre Mini X and ThinkCentre Neo 50q. Both devices feature AI-boosting (neural processing units) and can output 45 TOPS, which makes them AI PCs ready to handle Copilot+ capabilities. Additionally, since Snapdragon uses Arm architecture and these mini PCs run Windows 11, these are also both Windows on Arm devices. At this point, neither Lenovo AI mini PC offers a Snapdragon X Elite SoC. But it's possible that such a configuration could launch in the future. The Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini X releases in April 2025 and will have a starting price of $659.99. Meanwhile, the Lenovo IdeaCentre Tower launches this June and should start at a $699.99 MSRP. Geekom QS1 — The first Snapdragon X Elite mini PC Lenovo might technically be releasing the world's first mini PCs with Snapdragon X chips, but Geekom has the first mini PC with a Snapdragon X Elite chip. (Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central) Now, we already discussed that Lenovo officially has the world's first mini PC with a Snapdragon X SoC. That said (as noted in our CES 2025 awards,) Geekom has revealed that it will later release the world's first-known Snapdragon X Elite-powered mini PC that runs Windows 11 Pro. This, of course, makes it another Windows on Arm AI mini PC. According to Geekom, this upcoming device reaches up to 45 NUC TOPS, comes with the expected integrated Qualcomm Adreno GPU (graphics processing unit), offers a dual-channel LPDDR5x with up to 64GB, and storage for up to 2 NVME Gen 4 SSDs. As with most Geekom mini PCs, it also features a slew of ports to meet your various connection needs. The price and expected release date for the Geekom QS1 is currently unknown. HP Z2 Mini G1a — An extremely powerful mini PC The HP Z2 Mini G1a is small compared to a desktop but beefy compared to many other mini PCs. (Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central) There are a slew of ports to meet your various connection needs. (Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central) Despite it's larger size for a mini PC, the Z2 Mini G1a can still be mounted to the back of a monitor or under a desk. (Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central) While there are many mini PCs that come in small, squat casings, the shape of the HP Z2 Mini G1a is more like a compressed desktop. Despite its somewhat large size (for a mini PC), HP has designed it to be mounted behind your monitor or under your desk. As for the use case, HP's website describes the HP Z2 Mini G1a as a device that can "tackle workflows previously not possible on a mini workstation," such as accelerated render times within 3D creative programs. What this all means is that this should be a rather powerful little computer, if not the most powerful mini PC out there. To help with this heftier workload, it features an AMD Ryzen AI Max Pro Series processor capable of up to 50 NPU TOPS, with an integrated AMD Radeon graphics card, up to 128GB RAM, and up to 8TB SSD. It also has a healthy range of ports to keep up with your various connection needs. The HP Z2 Mini G1a is expected to release sometime in Spring 2025 and likely has a hefty price tag. MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2M — A Copilot+ mini PC The MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2M has a power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader and a Copilot button. (Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central) It offers dual LAN ports and can be mounted behind a monitor. (Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central) MSI revealed two new mini PCs at CES 2025: the Cubi NUC AI+ 2M and the Cubi NUC AI 1UM. While both look good, the former is more intriguing for me. With more and more AI mini PCs coming to market, it's not too surprising to see that the new MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2M features a Copilot button (and a power button/fingerprint reader) right on the front. Due to that Copilot button and the Intel Core Ultra 258V processor within it, this mini PC technically meets the necessary requirements to be labeled as a Copilot+ PC, or rather a Copilot+ mini PC. According to MSI, the Cubi NUC AI+ 2M can reach up to 115 NPU TOPS. What's more, this mini PC features a built-in D-Mic and speaker as well as two Thunderbolt 4 ports, dual 2.5G LAN ports, and support for up to three displays. The release date and pricing are yet unknown. Acer Revo Box AI — An AI mini PC with a an easy-access fingerprint reader The Arcer Revo Box AI features a white casing that stands out compared to the usual black or grey casings. ( Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central) A fingerprint reader is located on the top of the mini PC for easy access. (Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central) There are a decent number of ports on the Revo Box AI, but only one USB-C port. (Image credit: Rebecca Spear / Windows Central) Acer is yet another company that has jumped back into mini PCs with its latest Revo Box AI. This small AI computer stands out with its white casing, where most competitors are silver or black. But one of the things I like most about this design is that the fingerprint reader is on the top of the device and easier to reach than options with a power button/fingerprint reader on the front. It's packed with an Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor with an NPU that can reach up to 48 TOPS, and an integrated Intel Arc graphics card. Otherwise, it features up to 32GB LPDDR5X, and up to 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. Expansion-wise, it has one M.2 2230 WLAN slot and two M.2 2280 SSD slots. It also offers Wi-Fi 7 and a decent range of ports, although it would be better if it had more than one USB-C connection. This mini PC is expected to launch sometime in Q2 2025 with a starting price of $799.99. Several AI mini PCs to choose from this year Mini PCs have been around for a long time but have quietly been gaining in popularity over the last few years. This is partially evident by at least a couple of OEMs revealing their first new mini PCs in years at CES 2025. With both AI and non-AI options releasing over the next few months, these compact computers are decently powerful alternatives to the full desktops and laptops competing for consumer attention. If you want something less expensive that can hide away for a more minimalist look in 2025, then mini PCs might just be the answer for you this year. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Paul's Hardware (1.5M subscribers) January 13, 2025 Video length: 6m 45s 0:00 Welcome to Zotac at CES 2025! 0:21 Zotac RTX 5080 / RTX 5090 Amp Extreme Infinity 2:15 Zotac RTX 5080 / RTX 5090 Solid 3:29 Zotac RTX 5070 Ti Solid Core 3:57 Zotac RTX 5070 Solid prototype 4:54 Zotac Zone next-gen handheld gaming PC prototype Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Paul's Hardware (1.5M subscribers) January 13, 2025 Video length: 5m 11s 0:00 Welcome to LG Ultragear at CES 2025! 0:41 Motorized Bendable 45-inch 5Kx2K GX9 OLED Gaming Monitor (45GX990A) 2:32 45-inch 5Kx2K GX9 OLED (45GX950A), 800R fixed curvature 3:31 39-inch GX9S (39GX90SA) 3440x1440 240Hz 800R Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

What's a January without CES? This year's event was held from January 7 to 10, and as you've probably come to expect, it did not fail to deliver on showcasing the latest technological innovations. At CES this year, we saw concept cars, gaming devices, smart glasses, and of course, AI was everywhere, like Samsung's Vision AI and this wearable that sticks to your head. What's a CES without a device with an out-of-this-world display? So here's a rundown of some of the devices with the most interesting display tech shown at CES, in no particular order. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable Laptop Lenovo showcased a laptop with a rollable display. This laptop, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, costs $3,499 (yes, it's not just a prototype), and expands vertically from 14 inches to 16.7 inches. Now, if you're wondering, "Haven't I heard of this before?" you'd be right. The last time Lenovo showcased this display tech, it was at the 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC). Back then, it was just a concept. The rollable display is made possible thanks to Samsung Display, with plans from the company to mass-produce these panels in April this year. LG's Bendable 5K2K OLED Gaming Monitor LG gave us a look at the UltraGear GX9 series, which featured a monitor with a 45-inch bendable 5K2K OLED display. If you don't like the curvature of the display, no worries. You can keep the screen flat if you like; it is bendable, after all. KOORUI's "World First" 750Hz Gaming Monitor Still on the theme of monitors, KOORUI has introduced the G7, a gaming monitor with an impressive 750Hz refresh rate. They say these monitors will be mass-produced this year. The 24.5-inch model uses a TN panel but overcomes the usual color limitations of TN panels by incorporating advanced Quantum Dot (QD) film technology. Samsung Foldable and Slidable OLED Displays Samsung Display 18.1-inch foldable panel This list would be incomplete without Samsung. Displays are something it excels at, so much so that they supply the displays in iPhones. At CES, we saw an 18.1-inch foldable touchscreen monitor that unfolds to offer the screen size of two tablets and folds into a 13.1-inch laptop display. The Slideable Flex Duet, an 8.1-inch OLED panel that expands to 12.4 inches, the Slidable Flex Solo, a 13-inch OLED panel that extends to 17.3 inches, and the Slidable Flex Vertical, a 5.1-inch OLED screen that extends to 6.7 inches. These are some of the most interesting display tech showcased at CES this year. Which one are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

This year's Consumer Electronics Show revealed a gigantic list of cutting-edge tech, and we're picking the best of the bunch. As ever, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opened its doors to the public in the earliest weeks of 2025, but not before allowing the media to sneak in beforehand. Our team traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, to get face time with manufacturers and go hands-on with the latest technology from each, including cutting-edge laptops, gaming handhelds, and practically everything else that runs (or supports) Windows. Practically every brand you could think of was in attendance one way or another, and our eager Windows Central colleagues split up in search of the most exciting technology that could shake up the industry throughout this year. After all, iterating on specifications is fine, but showcasing interesting and unique devices will always catch our eye and often win awards. On that point, let's hand out our 15 awards for CES 2025, separating the latest winners by category. Best laptop: ASUS Zenbook A14 The new Zenbook A14 in "Zabriskie Beige." (Image credit: Windows Central | Daniel Rubino) We've recommended the best Windows laptops of each year for as long as I can remember, and our top picks almost always break above the $1,000 range. ASUS looks to change all that with the Zenbook A14, an ultra-lightweight laptop powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X (or X Plus) that starts at only $899. Previously codenamed "Zenbook Air," until ASUS' lawyers firmly rejected it for obvious 'fruit-related' reasons, it only weighs a baffling 2.18 lbs (0.98kg) thanks to a unique blend of 'Ceraluminum' coating across its entire chassis that previously appeared in its high-scoring Zenbook S 16. Despite the almost hollow-feeling construction, ASUS squeezes a 70WHr battery into the Zenbook A14 and boldly claims "up to 32 hours of offline video playback." I remember when ASUS already managed a real-world 14+ hours in its Snapdragon X-powered VivoBook S 15, so there aren't many reasons for me to doubt the implied metric. It'll be available on Jan. 13, 2025 direct from ASUS for $1,099 with the new Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) chipset; oddly enough, the more tempting $899 entry-level pricing will actually be at Best Buy in March, and that model will feature the slightly more powerful Snapdragon X Plus (X1P-42-100). In an interesting twist, ASUS told us they're making a version with Snapdragon X Elite, a higher-resolution 120Hz display, and 32GB of RAM. There are no details on pricing or which market that one will come to, but we're sure it'll be killer. Best gaming handheld: Lenovo Legion Go S Lenovo Legion Go S running Valve's SteamOS. (Image credit: Windows Central | Zachary Boddy) An exciting shift is happening in the category of PC gaming handhelds, and it's being led by Lenovo and Valve. Rather than sticking to its Windows-based guns with an iteration on its well-received Legion Go from 2023, Lenovo is splitting its new Legion Go S into two categories: one with SteamOS and the other with Windows 11. Importantly, this new variant is dropping the detachable controllers of its predecessor in favor of a sleek redesign with a slightly smaller 8-inch, 16:10 IPS LCD display running at 120Hz with Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support. While it might seem strange for Windows Central to celebrate a win for Valve's Linux-based operating system, the dream is for Microsoft to be strong-armed into improving Windows 11's performance and its overall user experience in the expanding handheld category. Besides, Windows and Linux have played nicely for years, and dual-booting is always an option for enthusiasts. Either way, the Legion Go S with Windows 11 looks great in white, but the SteamOS model has us more excited for the category, expected in May 2025 with a starting price of $499.99. Best gaming laptop: Razer Blade 16 (2025) The redesign includes a new keyboard with deeper, more tactile, and more durable keys. (Image credit: Windows Central | Zachary Boddy) Razer's gaming laptops rarely disappoint, but the company's choice for a design overhaul on the new Blade 16 is something to celebrate. Reducing its entire chassis by 32% compared to last year's Blade 16 means this redesign is the thinnest Razer Blade laptop ever. Plus, it marks a shift from Intel chips to AMD as it features the same Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 as ASUS' creator-centric ProArt P16 (2024.) It also makes this the first Copilot+ PC from Razer (and its first AI PC in general.) The processor switch-up means that RAM will now be soldered and non-replaceable, but this new Blade 16 supports up to 64GB at a massive 8,000MHz, a huge improvement over the 5,200MHz in its predecessor. Unfortunately, we don't expect to see this new variant until sometime in the first quarter of the year, so the full range of specs can't be verified just yet, but all signs point to an across-the-board improvement powered by . Refining to potential perfection, the new Blade 16 is extremely exciting. Best 2-in-1 laptop: ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2025) The Flow Z13 looks better than ever, with a window peeking into its internals. (Image credit: Windows Central | Zachary Boddy) At a glance, you'd be forgiven for mistaking ASUS' new ROG Flow Z13 (2025) for one of Microsoft's Surface Pro 11 variants. That's not a bad thing, as the company's Director of Technical Marketing, Sascha Krohn, described this redesigned 2-in-1 as a "Surface Pro for gamers" when I saw a sneak preview of a sample unit about a month before CES. It's a 13.4-inch tablet powered by a range of AMD processors, up to the new Ryzen AI MAX+ with its RDNA 3.5 integrated GPU. It's wrapped in a CNC-milled aluminum chassis that measures barely 13mm in thickness and weighs 1.2 kg (2.64 lbs), but the focus will undoubtedly be on its potential for gaming performance. A built-in kickstand helps differentiate it from the latest gaming handhelds, like Acer's ridiculously huge Nitro Blaze 11, but it comes in a traditional 2-in-1 laptop format with its detachable keyboard reminiscent of ASUS' ProArt PZ13 that I tested earlier this year. If you snubbed the Surface Pro 11 for its gaming performance, the ROG Flow Z13 is for you, starting at $1,999.99 with a release date to be confirmed. Best mini PC: Geekom QS1 Pro Geekom QS1 on display at CES 2025. (Image credit: Windows Central | Rebecca Spear) Standing out from the crowd, Geekom unveiled the world’s first Snapdragon X Elite-powered mini PC (technically, Lenovo announced the world's first Snapdragon X mini PCs as Geekom's won't be out until later), opting for the X Elite (X1E-80-100) running at 4.0 GHz — no small feat for a pint-sized PC. It's the first time we've seen Windows on ARM running on a desktop device, and Geekom has suitably impressed us over and over again with its previous miniature Windows desktops, so the QS1 should be no exception. Featuring up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM running at 8400MHz and space for two M.2 SSDs (one 2280 and one 2242) supporting up to 2TB of storage space each, the QS1 also supports the latest USB 4 standard with a USB-C port. The 'Pro' in its name refers, at least partially, to its choice of Windows 11 Pro for its operating system with a built-in fingerprint reader for secure Windows Hello logins. It's an impressive spec sheet and a refreshing sign of advancement in the category after Qualcomm canceled its official Snapdragon X Elite devkit, and I'd be eager to get my hands on it. Best All-in-One PC: HP OmniStudio X (2025) The OmniStudio X 2025 refresh shares the same appearance as the 2024 model. (Image credit: Windows Central | Rebecca Spear) HP refreshed its All-in-One PC lineup with the first-ever device in the category that's also a Copilot+ PC. The OmniStudio X (2025) builds on the well-reviewed OmniStudio X from last year by placing Intel Core Ultra 200V processors inside. That chip paves the way for the device to be a Copilot+ PC and powers AI features like Windows Recall, advanced Windows Studio Effects, Click To Do. Third-party apps can also take advantage of the All-in-One's NPU, running at 47 TOPS. Our list of the best Windows AIO will likely gain a new member when the HP OmniStudio X ships. The device is configurable with up to Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and 2TB of Gen4 NVMe SSD storage. 27-inch and 32-inch models will be available with either 4K or 1080p displays. Those screens have an anti-glare coating, support for HDR 600, and good color coverage as well. The All-in-One also has an HDMI-in port, allowing you to use the All-in-One as an external monitor, which is almost unheard of in All-in-One PCs these days. Best Ultrabook: Yoga Slim 9i 14 (Gen 10) 4K at 120Hz with 750nits brightness, Dolby Vision, and 100% of the most common color gamuts. This OLED screen is phenomenal. (Image credit: Windows Central | Zachary Boddy) Lenovo's Yoga Slim 9i has been a shining example of a high-quality Ultrabook for years, with each generation iterating close to perfection. The "luxurious" Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 10) is no exception, standing out as arguably the shiniest laptop we've ever seen. It's coated in a "cat eye-like 3D sheen" with curved edges and a "PureSight Pro" OLED touchscreen, but the most interesting part is actually hidden behind this panel. Not only does the front-facing camera feature a massive 32MP sensor, the first of its kind, but it's completely hidden underneath the display when it's inactive. When you need it, the camera appears like a small notch, much like the front screen of modern smartphones. Unfortunately, it doesn't support Windows Hello facial recognition, but Lenovo provides a fingerprint sensor on the keyboard as an alternative secure login. Starting at $1,849, it's expected to launch in February. Best GPU: NVIDIA Blackwell GeForce RTX 50 Series NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 on display at CES 2025. (Image credit: Windows Central | Zac Bowden) NVIDIA's CEO, Jensen Huang, visited this year's CES to deliver a keynote speech on everything his company is planning for 2025, including more AI expansion and even robotics. As interesting as that might seem to some, there was an undeniable expectation for him to announce specifications and pricing for the next generation of GeForce RTX graphics cards, which he indeed delivered. While the outlandish claims of "4090 performance" from the $549 RTX 5070 can't be confirmed just yet, the upscaling benefits of DLSS 4 are surely the crux. Best of all, the RTX 50 Series cards have actually slimmed down compared to their extra-chunky RTX 40 Series predecessors, especially at the high end, which helps custom PC builders breathe at least one sigh of relief. Power draw will be another story, but PSU manufacturers are already increasing the average wattage with new models. It'll be an extremely exciting time when we get our hands on the new cards, particularly the all-powerful 5090, with the 50 Series landing in February. Best business laptop: HP EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i) We're actually looking forward to this EliteBook. (Image credit: Windows Central | Zachary Boddy) Going hands-on with a pre-production sample of the HP EliteBook Ultra 14 (G1i) before CES started proved to be an eye-opening experience. With sleek rounded corners and a deep blue chassis reminiscent of premium consumer-focused Ultrabooks, the new EliteBook Ultra 14 features a high-end haptic touchpad and a gorgeous OLED display. It's an all-around winner with versatile Thunderbolt 4 ports alongside a USB-A holdover and Intel's latest Core Ultra (Series 2) processors under the hood. Naturally, being a business laptop, HP focuses its attention on the NPU-driven boosts to security and Intel vPro certification. Still, a 9MP front-facing webcam pairs with a quad-speaker system and dual noise-canceling microphones to promise a premium experience in video meetings that doesn't feel like a cheap afterthought. Plus, two biometric login options support Windows Hello with facial recognition and a fingerprint sensor, which should please security-conscious system admins. Prices will start at $2,019 when it drops later this month. Best innovation: Lenovo ThinkBook Plus (Gen 6) The ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 features a 14-inch display that unrolls to extend the screen to 16.7 inches. (Image credit: Windows Central | Zachary Boddy) Lenovo has always been on the forefront when it comes to innovating display technology. The company's Yoga Book 9i features two displays and the ThinkPad X1 Fold has a massive folding screen. So, it should come as no surprise that Lenovo pushed the limits of the laptop form factor once again with its ThinkBook Plus Gen 6. That laptop has a rollable screen that allows the display of the PC to expand vertically. Lenovo has played around with rollable display technology for years, including a concept device seen in 2022 and a prototype showcased in 2023. But the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 is a bona fide product you can order. The laptop has a 14-inch display that can extend all the way to 16.7 inches if you push a button or wave your hand. An Intel Core Ultra 7 and Intel Arc Xe2 graphics power the new laptop, but the main draw of the device is its unique form factor, and the main driver behind the PC's price tag. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 will cost a whopping $3,499 and start shipping in Q1 2025. Best desktop processor: AMD Ryzen 9950X3D AMD Ryzen 9000 Series unveiled at CES 2025. (Image credit: AMD | Windows Central) AMD gave us a first look at its Ryzen 9000 “Zen 5” processors at Computex 2024, following up with the launch of new desktop chips in August 2024. It wasn’t until October 31, 2024, that we got our first taste of AMD’s Zen 5 X3D desktop CPUs in the form of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D with AMD’s exclusive 3D V-Cache technology. Not only did it “slam dunk” on Intel’s K-series Core Ultra Series 2 chips, but it quickly became the most coveted CPU for PC gamers. AMD’s 3D V-Cache directly improves gaming performance, so that comes as little surprise. Also unsurprising is the announcement of a new Ryzen 9 9950X3D chip at CES 2025. While the Ryzen 7 remains the best option for gamers, the new 9950X3D takes the abundance of stacked cache and adds to its regular unstacked cache made for creative work. So far, there’s no mention of pricing, but we expect to see it well ahead of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s $479 MSRP. Best laptop processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Snapdragon X plaque on display at CES 2025. (Image credit: Windows Central | Daniel Rubino) Following the revolutionary ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus processors, Qualcomm unveiled yet another addition to its range with a simplistic 'Snapdragon X' title. Technically, it's a slimmed-down version of the 8-core X Plus chip, but with a max 3.0 GHz clock speed for the CPU and a GPU running at 1.7 TFLOPS. However, the same neural processing unit (NPU) remains, running at 45 TOPS and qualifying Snapdragon X devices as Copilot+ PCs and AI PCs with local processing. Above all, the most notable part of Qualcomm's new processor is its target audience of “students, freelance workers, and budget-conscious consumers” since it'll power laptops starting in the $600 range. That's stripping the 'premium only' reputation of Copilot+ PCs away and opening the doors to the budget-conscious user who craves a modern device. It's an interesting addition to our awards because it's the opposite of the usual 'fastest-ever' chips, focusing instead on expanding the category in the direction of affordability. Best handheld processor: AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme AMD Ryzen Z2 Series unveiled at CES 2025. (Image credit: AMD | Windows Central) PC gaming handhelds are growing at an incredible rate, with a wealth of manufacturers getting involved since Valve's Steam Deck legitimized the category. Kick-starting a new era of Windows-based handhelds with the Ryzen Z1 and Z1 Extreme powering some of our favorites like ASUS' ROG Ally X and Lenovo's Legion Go, AMD's follow-ups were revealed (slightly early) as the Ryzen Z2 Series at CES. The Ryzen Z2 Extreme is the top model of this new category and acts as the chip to push portable performance even higher with a higher TDP limit and graphical spec bump. While we don't have concrete details about specific devices that will use the new Z2 Extreme processor, the real-world proof of its last-gen equivalent is enough to have me excited for this new variant to power my obsession with handheld PC gaming. Integrated graphics will be a big deal in 2025, and AMD is leading the pack. Best gaming PC: Maingear Apex Force MAINGEAR's liquid-cooled APEX FORCE gaming desktop. (Image credit: MAINGEAR | Windows Central) MAINGEAR is always at the top of my list of recommendations. Built by hand in New Jersey with in-house support, they feel like they were built at home rather than on an assembly line. The company showed off two top-of-the-line pre-built desktops at CES 2025; the APEX RUSH is a refresh, but the APEX FORCE is completely new. The latter uses a Phanteks NV9 case, dual 420mm radiators, and dual custom cooling loops. It’s one of the best-looking pre-built PCs I’ve ever seen, and loop upkeep is easy with dedicated panels that reveal drain/fill ports and the pump. You can customize everything right down to the cabling with tubing materials, color, fittings, sleeves, and more. The FORCE is expected to arrive with NVIDIA’s latest RTX 5000 GPUs, the latest chips from AMD and Intel, and up to 96GB of DDR5 RAM in Q1 2025. Best sustainable laptop: Acer Aspire Vero 16 Acer's Aspire Vero 16 laptop is "carbon neutral." (Image credit: Acer | Windows Central) The new Aspire Vero 16 (AV16-71P) from Acer is an intriguing laptop that the company says will remain carbon neutral throughout its lifecycle, including “raw material, manufacture, distribution, use, and disposal.” Acer says that it's using high-quality carbon credits to offset any outstanding carbon emissions, which can't hurt, right? It makes these bold statements thanks, at least in part, to a clever redesign of its laptop. The Vero 16 now uses 70% more recycled materials than before in its chassis, including post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic and oyster shells (seriously.) It’s also had the walls of its chassis shaved down, and the touchpad is made from plastic pulled from the ocean. Despite all this, it looks like any other laptop save for the speckled finish. It’ll be available with Intel’s new Core Ultra H-Series 2 processors and up to 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM, expected to debut in April 2025, starting at $799.99. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Paul's Hardware (1.5M subscribers) January 10, 2025 Video length: 12m 00s 0:00 Welcome to ASUS at CES 2025 0:23 ROG Crosshair X870E Apex, ROG Maximus Z890 Hero BTF 3:20 ROG Ryujin 4 AIO Liquid Cooler 4:05 New Intel B860 and AMD B850 Motherboards 6:19 ASUS RTX 50 Series GPUs - ROG Astral RTX 5090, Astral LC 8:50 ROG Strix / TUF / Prime Gaming RTX 5070, 5070 Ti 10:56 ROG NUC 2025 - with up to an RTX 5080 Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Paul's Hardware (1.5M subscribers) January 9, 2025 Video length: 15m 05s 0:00 Welcome to Gigabyte at CES 2025! 0:25 Aorus Radeon RX 9070 XT Elite and RX 9070 Gaming OC 2:29 Aorus RTX 5070 Master, Eagle Black/White, Gaming OC 5:27 Aorus RTX 5080 Aero OC, Master, Windforce 7:06 Aorus RTX 5090 Gaming OC, Master, Xtreme Waterforce 9:41 Motherboards - B850 Aorus Elite Wifi7 Ice, Aorus Gaming X Wifi6E 11:00 Workstation Mobos - W790 AI Top, TRX50 AI Top, Z890 Xtreme AI Top 12:29 OLED Monitors - MO32U, MO272Q, FO27Q5P 500Hz Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

AMD just can not seem to settle on a naming scheme for its discrete graphics cards. The company is once again overhauling what it's going to call its new GPUs. At CES today, alongside new desktop and laptop CPUs and APUs, Team Red has previewed its upcoming RDNA 4 discrete dedicated graphics cards. AMD went from referring to its cards under HD 7000 series branding to R7/R9 200 series to RX 400 series to RX 5000 series (RDNA 1) in the span of a decade. After sticking to RX 6000 (RDNA 2) and RX 7000 (RDNA3), AMD is tweaking the brand again slightly. The company did not dive super-deep into the micro-architectural advancements of the new design since this is a preview. And the highlight is mainly the new naming scheme headlined by the RX 9070 XT which will likely be the flagship of this generation. The company did add that it has made significant improvements to the compute units to boost both IPC (instructions per clock/cycle) as well as the frequency itself with new optimized compute units, with a major focus on AI performance improvement with 2nd Gen AI accelerators as well as improved ray tracing throughput with 3rd gen ray accelerators. The display and media blocks on RDNA 4 has also been upgraded with a new 2nd Gen Radiance Display Engine. RDNA 3 (RX 7000 series) introduced the ability to process Generalized Matrix Multiplication (GEMM) operations and AMD cards relied on this to hardware-accelerate matrix multiplications, which is one of the basis of AI/ML, with the help of Wave Matrix Multiply Accumulate (WaveMMA or WMMA) instructions. In gaming, do not expect this to compete with Nvidia's upcoming RTX 5090 or even 5080. Leaked benchmarks (via All the Watts!! on X) have suggested that we are roughly looking at RX 7900 XT or RTX 4070 Ti levels of performance with the 9070 XT and AMD's own slide might be agreeing with it. But that was always the plan it seems as AMD is going for scale this time over performance crown as the company wants to expand its market share. Jack Huynh, AMD's Senior Vice President & General Manager, Computing and Graphics Group, confirmed this strategy in an interview with Tom's Hardware. Thus AMD will not go toe to toe with Nvidia at the high end this time. As for why AMD is bringing a new name again, the company says it's updating it to RX 90_0 such that it aligns with the Ryzen 9000 series and also because it will be skipping the RX 8000 series to keep that reserved for RDNA 3.5-based GPUs. The naming scheme is also trying to be similar to Nvidia's way of calling things and this certainly appears to be a smart move given that the average Joe is much more likely to be familiar with Nvidia's cards since Team Green has stuck to the same branding for a very very long time. Thus, as discussed above, AMD is aligning the RX 9070 series with Nvidia's _070 series and the upcoming RX 9060 series with Nvidia's _060 series. Finally, AMD says that AIB (add-in-board) RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 variants will start becoming available in Q1 2025 itself. No information on pricing was revealed today. Aside from the hardware itself, AMD also shared some info about features and software. Radeon is finally getting AI-based image upscaling with FSR 4 and it is exclusive to RDNA 4. Speaking of AI, there are also some new AI features that will be baked into Adrenalin drivers which are meant to help in user workflow. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

AMD had plenty of new hardware to show off at CES 2025 from both its CPU and GPU sides. Alongside it, the company also unveiled the next generation version of its upscaling tech, FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), which is finally taking the machine learning route much like Nvidia. The fourth official iteration of AMD's upscaling solution is being developed for graphics cards from AMD's latest RDNA 4 architecture. This means that unlike previous versions of FSR, this one will be exclusive for customers of the company's new generation of RX 9000 series graphics cards. As such, the new RX 9070 XT and the RX 9070 will support FSR 4 and all its ML-powered upscaling features thanks to the new hardware's "supercharged AI compute" from AMD's 2nd generation AI accelerators. AMD says this will mean "high quality 4K upscaling" for supported games, though no exact performance numbers nor comparisons have shown up just yet. FSR 4 will work hand in hand with the company's existing frame generation solution as well as Anti-Lag 2 for low latency gameplay as well. For those in the dark, upscaling tech has the game rendering at a lower resolution and using algorithms for image enhancement, lessening the impact of the lowered resolution on the screen but offering improved performance. So far, AMD has utilized spatial and temporal upscaling with filters for achieving its image upgrades, while Nvidia's DLSS and Intel's XeSS tech leaned on machine learning using AI models for image quality improvements. With AMD now also going the same route, FSR 4 users may be in for a big jump in image quality. It potentially becoming an AMD graphics hardware exclusive solution much like Nvidia with DLSS may be a sticking point for some though. However, FSR 3 and frame generation should still be offered as a platform and generation-agnostic solution for games going forward. At the same time, AMD is going all-in on AI with a new driver feature for Radeon hardware users. Dubbed AMD Adrenalin AI, this will let players generate images, summarize local documents, and even ask AMD-related questions from a dedicated chat AI, straight from the driver Radeon Settings app on Windows. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Valve's Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, and Lenovo Legion Go are the biggest releases in the handheld gaming segment in recent years, and all of them have AMD chips inside them. The RDNA 3-based Ryzen Z1 Series of processors delivered a massive amount of power for handheld PCs in 2023, and now it's almost time for the highly anticipated sequel: the Z2 Series. Officially unveiled at CES 2025, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Series of processors will come in three flavors and are slated to become available in the first quarter of 2025. Like its previous generation, the Z2 Extreme will be the highest performing chip from the trio, touting 8 cores and 16 threads, a 5.0 GHz max boost, 24MB of cache, and a configurable TDP of 15-35W. This will have 16 graphics cores. The standard Z2 is next. This has the same 8-core, 16-threaded configuration, even a higher 5.1 GHz max boost, and the same 24 MB cache. However, its configurable TDP is between 15 and 30W, while 12 graphics cores are powering it. Lastly, the Z2 Go, a chip clearly meant for much lower-end handheld products compared to the last two. It cuts down the cores to 4 and threads to 8. It has a 4.6 GHz max boost, 10 MB of cache, and 15-30W of configurable TDP range. This version will ship with 12 graphics cores. AMD calls the handheld gaming segment a "significant and growing TAM" (Total Addressable Market), with even more OEMs joining in on designing hardware centered around its chipsets. ASUS, Lenovo, and other companies that are keen on jumping into the handheld gaming segment—which may include Xbox soon—are expected to use these Z2 chips for their next-generation devices. While the Steam Deck has been the most popular device in the handheld market, its release was also in 2022. It's high time that Valve brings out a Steam Deck 2. If it does happen in 2025, this AMD platform may exactly be what Valve plans on using. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

At CES 2025 today, AMD debuted its new Ryzen 9 9955HX3D mobile 3D V cache-based processor, alongside the 9950X3D and 9900X3D desktop chips. It also unveiled Ryzen 200 series CPUs for the mainstream. Besides those, AMD also expanded its Ryzen AI 300 series APU lineup today that so far comprised of the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, 370, and 365 and their corresponding PRO counterparts. On one hand, the company is bringing more affordable AI chips with the new Ryzen AI 7 (PRO) 350 and Ryzen AI 5 (PRO) 340. On the other hand, it is also debuting more powerful Ryzen AI Max and Max+ SKUs. In case you have not been following, an NPU needs to do over 40 TOPS which is the threshold for qualifying Microsoft's Copilot+ PC requirement. Thus the newly released Ryzen 200 series for example does not qualify since they top out at just 16 TOPS. Going forward, the company is dividing its AI PC chips into three classes: Halo, Premium, and Advanced. The new Max and Max+ SKUs will comprise the Halo segment, the Ryzen AI 9 will be the Premium tier, and finally, the Ryzen AI 7/5 will belong to the Advanced class. The new Max+ parts are being touted very highly as AMD claims performance leadership over the likes of Nvidia RTX 4090, Apple M4 Pro, and Intel Ultra 9 288V across various tasks. For example, the company says that its new Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU is on average 2.6 times faster than Intel 288V in rendering and around 1.4 times faster in (synthetic) gaming. Compared against Apple's 14-core M4 Pro, AMD expects better performance on the Max+ 395 in rendering with Blender, Corona, and V-Ray, with V-Ray showing the most favorable result. Finally, the Max+ 395 has been compared against Nvidia RTX 4090 where AMD once again claims victory as the Max+ is said to be 2.2 times faster in AI processing (in tokens/second) on LM Studio. The company boasts about the 395 here claiming it as "the World's first Copilot PC+ processor to run 70B LLM". AMD added that its Max APU can allocate up to 96 GB of memory to the integrated 40 CU RDNA 3.5 graphics portion out of the total 128 GB of memory that is available to it. If you are wondering how the new Ryzen AI Max+ APUs are so powerful, that's because it has 16 Zen 5 cores on the CPU side, just like the Ryzen 9955HX(3D), and it also packs 40 RDNA 3.5 comput units (CUs), and finally a 50 TOPS capable XDNA 2 NPU. What is interesting with the Halo Copilot+ (Max and Max+) class of AMD Ryzen AI processors is that these SKUs feature a "new memory interface" which the company refers to as "Unified Coherent Memory Architecture." Thanks to this new interface, the Ryzen AI Max and Max+ APUs enjoy a memory bandwidth of up to 256 GB/s. The image above shows the full Ryzen AI 300 Max and Max+ lineup as well as their availabilities. Aside from performance data of the Max+ APU, AMD has also shared how it expects the Ryzen AI 7 350 to compete against Intel and Qualcomm. According to the provided figures, the company expects the 350 APU to be up to 49% better than the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100, and up to 78% faster than Intel Core Ultra 7 258V. You can check the full specs and availability of the Ryzen AI 350 and 340 in the image above. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

At its CES 2025 event today, AMD unveiled its flagship X3D processor of this generation, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. This succeeds the 7950X3D and has a similar core configuration. As such, the 9950X3D packs 16 Zen 5 cores, 144 MB of total cache including 128 MB of 2nd Gen 3D V-cache. Eight of the cores will be on the core complex die (CCD) optimized for core clocks, while the other eight will be on the 3D V-cache CCD. The TDP has been raised though from 120 watts to 170. AMD 9950X3D showing dual CCDs at top and I/O die at bottom AMD's X3D chips incorporate a special sauce called the 3D V-cache (vertical cache) that stacks a ton of cache vertically on top of each other to drastically increase the amount of last-level cache (LLC) or L3 in a rather small footprint as workloads like games absolutely love it. AMD launched its 2nd Gen 3D V-cache last year with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The company has provided a performance comparison of the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D against the 7950X3D and the Intel Ultra 9 285K. Against its Intel competition, AMD claims the 9950X3D can offer up to 64% faster gaming performance in case of titles like Watch Dogs Legion. Across 40 games, the company says its new 16 core X3D part is on average 20% faster than Intel's 285K. AMD tested these at 1080p to eliminate GPU bottlenecks (read our dedicated article here to understand why it's important) on Windows 11 24H2 with VBS enabled. AMD has also provided gaming data against the 7950X3D. It looks like folks will have a harder time justifying this upgrade as the company shows an 8% improvement across 40 titles. However, in some games, users can expect to see massive gains like in the case of Counter Strike 2 where 58% bump is claimed. While AMD did not directly compare the Ryzen 9950X3D with the 9800X3D today, the firm has in the past shared gaming performance data of the latter vs the Intel 285K. The table below shows the performance of the 9800X3D vs 9950X3D using the Intel 285K as baseline since it's at 100% in both the charts: Ryzen 9800X3D Ryzen 9950X3D Counter Strike 2 128 125 Hogwarts Legacy 126 120 AotS Escalation 110 103 Cyberpunk 2077 159 136 Far Cry 6 153 145 Watch Dogs Legion 155 164 CoD Black Ops 6 147 127 It looks like the 9800X3D remains the fastest gaming CPU overall although the 9950X3D is also close behind. There are exceptions to this and we have bolded all such interesting cases. In terms of content creation performance, AMD claims that the new 9950X3D is 10% faster than the 285K and 13% faster than the 7950X3D respectively across 20 applications. The new AMD X3D CPU is especially better in rendering apps (like Corona and Blender) vs its 7000 series predecessor. meanwhile against the Intel 285K, the largest differentials are seen in Adobe Photoshop and 7-Zip. Aside from the 16 core 32 thread 9950X3D, AMD also unveiled the 12 core 24 thread 9900X3D. Spec-wise it is nearly identical to the 7900X3D though the boost clock is down by 100 MHz at 5.5 GHz. Thus the Ryzen 9 9900X3D also has 140 MB of total cache with 128 MB of L3 (3D V-cache). In terms of availability, AMD expects the Ryzen 9950X3D and 9900X3D to be out on shelves in Q1 2025 although no particular dates were disclosed. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Alongside the launch of Ryzen 9950X3D and 9900X3D desktop processors, AMD today at CES 2025 also unveiled a new X3D mobile CPU codenamed "Fire Range". If you recall, the company did launch an X3D CPU for laptops previously with the Ryzen 7945HX3D but it remained highly elusive. Thus the new Ryzen 9 9955HX3D is AMD's second X3D CPU for laptops and notebooks. Specwise the new part remains identical to the 7945HX3D with 16 cores 32 threads 144 MB of total cache, but the CPU architecture has gone from Zen 4 in the 7945HX3D to Zen 5 in 9955HX3D. AMD has not detailed the performance of the 9955HX3D but simply is calling it "the world's best gaming and content creation mobile processor." Aside from the 9955HX3D, AMD has also announced a couple of non-X3D parts in the form of 16 core 9955HX and 12 core 9850HX. Since these do not have the 3D V-cache, the total cache on these two are 80 MB and 76 MB respectively. The TDP of all three CPUs is set to 54 watts. Besides high-core count mobile workstation parts, AMD is also announcing new Ryzen 200 series mainstream processors for notebooks comprising four, six and eight core SKUs. These are different from the Ryzen AI Max/+ and 300 series APUs meant for Copilot+ PCs. At the top of the lineup we have the Ryzen 9 270, Ryzen 7 260, and 250, which are the octa-core parts. Following that, we have Ryzen 5 240, 230, and 220, which are hexa-cores. There is a single quad-core SKU in this lineup in the form of the Ryzen 3 210. The TDP of these chips is configurable and the PRO variants (as well as their non-PRO counterparts) are the more efficient ones with cTDP of 15 to 30 watts. Meanwhile, the rest of the lineup features a cTDP of 35 to 54 watts. Except the Ryzen 220 and 210, all the other models have an NPU that is rated at 16 peak NPU TOPS. AMD says the Ryzen 200 series mobile will be available in Q2 of 2025. Meanwhile, the high-core count 9000 series mobile parts will be launched sometime in this half of the year (H1 2025). Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The physical connector is, confusingly but expectedly, the same. We've all had a good seven years to figure out why our interconnected devices refused to work properly with the HDMI 2.1 specification. The HDMI Forum announced at CES today that it's time to start considering new headaches. HDMI 2.2 will require new cables for full compatibility, but it has the same physical connectors. Tiny QR codes are suggested to help with that, however. The new specification is named HDMI 2.2, but compatible cables will carry an "Ultra96" marker to indicate that they can carry 96GBps, double the 48 of HDMI 2.1b. The Forum anticipates this will result in higher resolutions and refresh rates and a "next-gen HDMI Fixed Rate Link." The Forum cited "AR/VR/MR, spatial reality, and light field displays" as benefiting from increased bandwidth, along with medical imaging and machine vision. Examples of how HDMI 2.2's synchronization abilities will benefit home theaters. A visualization of how far HDMI has come in bandwidth, from 1.0 to 2.2. A bit closer to home, the HDMI 2.2 specification also includes "Latency Indication Protocol" (LIP), which can help improve audio and video synchronization. This should matter most in "multi-hop" systems, such as home theater setups with soundbars or receivers. Illustrations offered by the Forum show LIP working to correct delays on headphones, soundbars connected through ARC or eARC, and mixed systems where some components may be connected to a TV, while others go straight into the receiver. HDMI 2.2 is not a real thing you can buy into yet, as both cable and device manufacturers have not received the full specification yet and need time to build supported components. As to whether you need to buy into HDMI 2.2, that's another issue. You can already get uncompressed 8K, 60HZ video signals with 8-bit color depth or compressed 10K at 120Hz with 12-bit color depth through a top-flight HDMI-2.1b-compliant cable. It's the rare home system that needs more than that right now, let alone one that has any content to actually play at those rates. The Forum, perhaps knowing the deep grief that is trying to buy a "high speed" cable in modern times, wants people to look for an "Ultra96" badge on cable packaging. In addition, one can scan a QR code and see that a cable has been certified and is not counterfeit. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The new year is here, and so is the first major event in tech, the CES 2025. The event is scheduled to begin on January 7th, but we already have announcements lining up. In a blog post, Google announced that it is bringing Gemini to the Google TV platform. For starters, Gemini AI is an artificial intelligence model developed by Google that can understand and respond to voice commands in a more conversational manner. This means that users can ask their TVs questions or give commands using everyday language, making interactions feel less robotic and more like a conversation with a friend. Users will be able to interact with their Google TVs using simpler and more casual phrases. For instance, you could simply ask, "What are the newest movies from Disney?" and the AI would understand your request and provide relevant results. Newer Google TV devices, such as the Google TV Streamer also come equipped with far-field microphones that would allow users to communicate with the TV from across the room without needing a remote control, or saying "Hey Google" every time. Google also gave a preview of a new ambient experience that makes the use of proximity sensors, the same ones on your phone that would turn off the screen whenever you'd pick up your phone and hold it against your ear. The ambient experience would include personalised widgets like weather updates and news when not actively being used. The TV would also show AI-generated screensavers and artwork when it is left idle, part of the new "always-on" mode. Gemini will also significantly improve content recommendations on Google TV since it can analyze user preferences and viewing habits. Using this data, it will then suggest shows and movies that align with users' tastes. Google says that Gemini will be rolling out later this year on select Google TV devices, including those from Sony, Hisense, TCL, and more. Keep watching out the space for more CES 2025 coverage. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Expect plenty of laptops, TVs, and smart home gadgets — and a lot of new places to stuff AI. It’s time for the biggest tech show of the year. CES 2025 officially kicks off next week, with most of the industry’s biggest names gathering in Las Vegas to announce new products and demonstrate some of the most exciting tech they have coming throughout the year. CES is traditionally a show about TVs, laptops, and smart home tech. But it’s increasingly become a big show for cars, wearables and health tech, and a whole lot more. This year, expect one abbreviation to show up a lot across every single category: AI. The AI hype cycle is rolling straight into 2025, and there’s certain to be AI popping up on the next generation of TVs and cars, like it or not. The show officially starts on Tuesday, January 7th, but you can expect announcements to start coming out on Sunday and Monday ahead of the show floor opening and a day of press conferences. Here are the big beats we’re expecting to see at the show. TVs LG’s wireless TV tech is expanding to its QNED models this year. Image: LG I’m expecting two prevailing trends for TVs at CES 2025: screens will keep getting bigger, and AI features are going to be everywhere — to the point of being inescapable. Consumers have been gravitating toward larger TVs over the last several years (we’re talking 75 inches and up), so get ready to see some giant OLED and Mini LED models from Samsung, LG, TCL, Hisense, and others. And you can bet that practically every TV maker will be dialing the AI-powered tricks up to 11 this year. They’ve already done so with automatic picture and audio settings. But considering how popular ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and other AI assistants have become, it’s only a matter of time (maybe just days) before chatbots find their way to your next TV. Expect the buzziest news to come from Samsung and LG. But I’m very curious to see what Panasonic has in store after a successful return to the US TV market last year. – Chris Welch Smart home CES 2025 will be the year of the smart home gadget. I’m anticipating an avalanche of new product announcements from companies like Aqara, Nanoleaf, Tapo, Reolink, SwitchBot, Shelly, Lutron, Lifx, Flic, and Cync, all of whom are exhibiting this year. I hope to see some real innovation — products that take the smart home to the next level — especially now that there’s the foundation of Matter, a unified connectivity standard they can leverage. One area I expect to see a lot of new products with exciting features is smart locks. With the new Aliro standard launching next year, this space is ripe for disruption. Easier, more seamless ways to deal with locks and security is a universal need that will also help bring the benefits of home automation to more people. Another trend I anticipate we’ll see on the show floor is new ways to control your smart home. Following the success of Amazon’s Echo Hub, I think we’ll see a slew of new touchscreen interfaces that connect to your smart home devices and offer a way for anyone in the home to control lights, locks, shades, and more without their phone or voice. We may see more screens than we really want to — Samsung has already teased its new “screens everywhere” initiative and is putting a touchscreen on all its appliances. Another big theme will be robotics. Robot vacuums have been innovating at warp speed over the last few years, with many now capable of almost fully autonomous operation to sweep and mop your floors. With Ecovacs, Roborock, Dreame, Narwal, and more at the show, I anticipate we’ll see robot vacuums reach new heights. Finally, home energy management will be an overarching theme across the smart home at CES. I’d expect most product announcements to have some focus on energy use and / or conservation, but more importantly, I think we’ll see announcements around new Home Energy Management Systems — platforms that will leverage AI to orchestrate the way your home uses energy to help you both conserve energy and save money. This is one of the most compelling reasons to add connectivity to your home, no matter how much fun color-changing lights are. – Jennifer Pattison Tuohy Auto The Honda Zero concept from CES 2024. Image: Honda I think it’s safe to say that this year’s CES is looking like the sleepiest one yet from a transportation perspective. Most of the world’s major automakers are sitting this one out, and most of the transportation-themed announcements have, well, already been announced in some capacity. Just look at the Afeela, Sony and Honda’s joint EV project: we’re expecting some updates about preorders and the customer experience, but this is the third show that we’re seeing the forthcoming vehicle make an appearance. That doesn’t mean there won’t still be some exciting news. Honda is getting ready to share more details about its Honda Zero lineup, teasing two new vehicles that are sure to fill our quota for sleek, aerodynamic sedans with cool, cyberpunk-inspired lighting motifs. BMW is the other major manufacturer with big CES plans this year. The German automaker plans on showing off the “Neue Klasse” platform that it’s been teasing for a couple of years, including its new panoramic iDrive display and a brand-new operating system. To be sure, with the threat of tariffs and reduced incentives hovering over the EV market, it’s not surprising to see fewer plug-in vehicles on display at the show. But a number of commercial vehicle manufacturers, including John Deere and Oshkosh, are planning on making big announcements that should whet your appetite for battery-powered machines. – Andrew J. Hawkins Laptops The Windows laptop space has seen a flurry of exciting changes over the past year, with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm all releasing excellent new mobile CPUs across 2024. We’ll likely see a plethora of Intel Arrow Lake chips come to laptops and a range of new AMD offerings at the show, but the real story of CES is likely to be all about graphics: the entire PC space feels like it’s about to blow up with the anticipated launch of next-gen Nvidia GPUs. This year’s show will offer an opening volley of gaming and content creation laptops built around Nvidia’s new 50-series discrete GPUs — and I’m hoping it means a sizable leap in performance over the 40 series instead of just an iterative upgrade with higher costs. Or maybe you won’t even need a discrete GPU in your laptop at all for above-average gaming performance, as leaks have indicated AMD will have a beefy new Strix Halo processor with integrated graphics rivaling what Nvidia’s RTX 4060 GPU can do. As much as I love top-of-the-line, cutting-edge GPUs (like ones ending in the number 90), I also dig the idea of better performance trickling down to thinner and lighter machines. Graphics may be the big story, but one other thing’s for certain: we’re going to keep hearing a whole lot of fluff about “AI PCs,” and it’s likely to continue not amounting to much outside of humdrum auto-generated work emails and problematic chatbots. Sure, live translations are nifty, but the most interesting AI stuff coming to laptops at CES 2025 is likely to be whatever Nvidia has in store for its next-gen DLSS. – Antonio G. Di Benedetto Gaming A leaked image appears to show Lenovo’s SteamOS-powered handheld. Image: Evan Blass (X) It’s going to be a big year for PC gaming at CES this time around. One of the biggest announcements of CES will be next-gen GPUs from both Nvidia and AMD. We’re expecting Nvidia to unveil its RTX 50-series graphics cards at a special GeForce keynote on January 7th. Nvidia’s next-gen GPUs have been heavily leaked and are tipped to include a new “neural rendering” feature and “advanced DLSS technology.” Nvidia might be ready to unveil as many as five new cards at CES, including the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5070, and even an RTX 5090D for China. AMD is also likely to announce its new RDNA 4 GPUs at CES, too. Rumors suggest a Radeon RX 9070 XT will appear at the show, but it’s more likely to compete with Nvidia’s current RTX 4080 than the upcoming RTX 5080. The RX 9070 XT could also launch alongside FSR 4, AMD’s latest upscaling technology that’s expected to be fully AI-powered to compete more closely with Nvidia’s DLSS. It wouldn’t be a CES without new gaming laptops and the latest CPUs from Intel and AMD. Rumors suggest we could be about to see Intel’s Arrow Lake-H series of laptop processors paired with RTX 50-series GPUs in a variety of laptops at CES. If that pairing is accurate, then we’re bound to see a mountain of gaming laptops along with it. If you’ve been waiting to upgrade your monitor to OLED, then expect to see a lot more options during CES, too. Asus, Samsung, and MSI have all announced the first 27-inch 4K OLED 240Hz monitors, MSI has a 500Hz 1440p OLED monitor, and ASRock even has 520Hz IPS monitors for those that still want to play at 1080p. With new GPUs on the horizon, it’s a great time to pair them with the next generation of OLED technology. Finally, if you’re interested in PC gaming but don’t want to spend big on a dedicated rig or gaming laptop, handhelds could be about to get even more appealing. It looks like Lenovo is about to launch its own SteamOS handheld, and it has invited both Valve and Microsoft to a special gaming handheld event at CES. Microsoft’s “VP of Next Generation” will be in attendance, just as it looks like Windows will have to battle SteamOS for PC gaming on handhelds. – Tom Warren Smartphones CES isn’t a phone show anymore, but I’m going to be on the lookout for not-phones — I think they’re going to be hot this year. Not-phones let you do things you’d normally tap around on your phone screen to do — only, well, not on your phone. Glasses with cameras, gadgets without screens, that kind of thing. It seems like we’re discovering that maybe Phone doesn’t have to do everything under the sun. We can have other gadgets for when we don’t want Phone, like a compact camera, a little e-ink tablet that runs all your favorite reading apps, or a silicone case that turns your Apple Watch into an iPod. The key thing is that they don’t replace your phone wholesale; they just complement it. Oh, and there will be lots of AI, naturally. AI refrigerators, AI roller skates, AI pants, I don’t know. Personally, I’d like to see some AI gadgets that are genuinely useful but don’t try to do too much — more Meta Ray-Bans and less Humane AI Pin. I still think phones are going to remain undefeated as the AI gadgets of the future, but I also think there’s room for some not-phones, too. I hope so, anyway. – Allison Johnson Wearables The Xreal One takes a simple approach to AR by just mirroring another screen right in front of your eyes. Image: Xreal It’s looking like this is another year where smartwatches take a back seat to more niche wearables. I’m certain we’ll see some updated smart rings, but I think smart glasses, AR headsets, and AI wearables will dominate the show floor. Nothing quite on the scale of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, Rabbit, or Humane. Think smaller, established companies in the space showing off what’s new and gutsy startups eager to push boundaries. Either way, smart glasses and AI wearables built some real momentum in 2024, and that’ll likely be reflected at CES 2025. On the health front, I’m expecting to see some continuing trends from the past few years. Stuff like OTC hearing aids, remote health monitoring, and at least a few wacky concepts that’ll almost certainly be vaporware. After all, it’s not CES unless a handful of companies claim they’ve cracked the code to noninvasive blood glucose monitoring. And speaking of AI, I’m definitely expecting to see more health tech companies tacking on ChatGPT-like chatbots to existing devices or services. Beauty tech and other categories geared toward women have also been gaining steam in recent years. L’Oréal’s been spearheading this movement, and I’m curious to see how the category will fare this year after a lot of buzz at 2024’s show. – Victoria Song Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

CES 2025 is still several weeks away, but we already have a confirmation that Nvidia will attend the event. The official CES website has revealed that Nvidia has scheduled a keynote on January 6, 2025, where Jensen Huang, Nvidia's CEO, will unveil "the latest in technology." The company will also have a booth showcasing its tech from January 7 through January 10. While there is no official word on what Nvidia may unveil at CES 2025, the company may showcase the next generation of its desktop graphics cards, the RTX 50 series based on the Blackwell architecture, the successor to Ada Lovelace, which powers the RTX 40 series of graphics cards. As usual, the new lineup will likely debut with the top-tier versions, namely the GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080. These rumors align with recent reports that Nvidia has discontinued its most powerful consumer graphics card, the RTX 4090 and that the RTX 4080 will be discontinued next month. For reference, the RTX 40 series was unveiled over two years ago, on September 20, 2022, at the GPU Technology Conference. Nvidia's CES 2025 keynote will take place on January 6, 2025, at 6:30 PT. You can read more about the scheduled event on the official CES website. Source RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. 2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of September): 4,292 news posts