CES is always packed with new laptop announcements, which act as a barometer for the year’s upcoming releases. The show has proofs of concept demonstrating what could potentially happen in the future. 2026 will soon bring us new chip options from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. While I’m excited to see how the latest horse racing shakes out, some of the new designs and form factors showcased at the show are easily more appealing.
A myriad of new models from Asus, Lenovo, Dell, MSI, Acer and HP were shown. Here’s my short list of all the ones I’m looking forward to testing – or hope to Happen Opportunity to test in the future.
I like OLED and I enjoy a good gaming laptop. The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo is a gaming laptop based on the excellent Zephyrus G16, but with Two Full size OLED display. Sign me up.
The original Zephyrus Duo was a strange experiment with a two-screen laptop. The bottom display used to be a decent-sized bar across the bottom, but now for 2026 the second screen takes up the entire bottom half of the laptop, as it was always meant to be. Asus took the dual-screen design it originally established a few years ago with the productivity-focused ZenBook Duo and translated it to the Zephyrus gaming laptop. This is going to create tradeoffs, as the new Zephyrus Duo will likely cost more than the standard Zephyrus G16 while not being as powerful, but in return you get two 16-inch OLEDs with a 120Hz refresh rate for a multi-monitor setup that you can take on the go.
The 2026 Zephyrus Duo looks very promising as a combination gaming laptop and power-user-friendly multiscreen workhorse. There really isn’t anything else like it. Now let’s keep our fingers crossed that this unique laptop doesn’t command a uniquely high price.
Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable Concept
I immediately became a fan of the rollable laptop when I saw Lenovo’s concept become a reality at last year’s CES, and it proved its worth when I reviewed it. But I, and I’d wager many of you, wondered if a laptop screen that stretched horizontally might be even better. Lenovo’s Legion Pro rollable concept proves there’s something to it, because I couldn’t help but smile as I watched this gaming laptop expand from 16 inches to an ultrawide 24 inches before my eyes.
The concept was still rough around the edges, with noisy motors that would sometimes stutter, resolution that didn’t adjust with the changing size of the screen, and a huge panel gap in the lid. But if it all pans out, and I hope it does someday, this could be my ideal gaming laptop. You get the immersion and multitasking benefits of an ultrawide monitor on demand, and you can hide it and take it with you. It’s unlike anything else, and I’m really trying to take it beyond the proof-of-concept stage. I want another moment like last year where we get a chance to say, “And you can own it if you want.” However, I still shudder to think what it might cost.
I wasn’t a fan of haptic trackpads and their simulated clicks when Apple started putting them in MacBooks about 10 years ago, but at some point I got the ability to click anywhere from corner to corner on their surface. Now, Acer’s new Swift 16 AI has the largest haptic trackpad with stylus support, and because of that it’s one of the most interesting offerings from Acer at CES.
We don’t know how much the Acer Swift 16 AI will cost (an unfortunate trend for some laptop companies at CES 2026), but I’m curious to see where this model in particular lands. That football field of a haptic trackpad, combined with a generous port selection (which Swift is generally known for) and an OLED display, it has a lot of potential if the price is right.
I’m very relieved that Dell succumbed to last year’s pressure and resurrected the XPS line. I don’t want to give too much credit, as I found many flaws in the previous XPS models I tested. But things are already looking more promising with the new XPS 14 and 16 (they even have nice new lid logos). The physical function row is back, the seamless haptic trackpad now has some nice carved lines to inform you of its limitations, and these machines are very thin. The thinness does bother me a bit, as there have been many XPS laptops in the past that have struggled with heat, but we’ll have to see when the time comes to test.
The new XPS models also have a unique feature: variable refresh rate screens that go as high as 120Hz and as low as just 1Hz. It’s the kind of technology that has helped phone screens stay butter-smooth during scrolling, along with saving battery life when viewing static elements like documents. And the feature will be on the base-model XPS 14 and 16 with lesser IPS displays as well as the brighter configurations with brighter tandem OLEDs. I’m keeping my expectations low, especially because there are no discrete GPU options like previous XPS generations, but for the most part this XPS revival looks good.
lenovo thinkpad rollable xd concept
Yes, it’s another rollable Lenovo concept, but a ThinkPad with a rollable screen is a big deal. This is Lenovo’s bread-and-butter business laptop line, and the concept here isn’t to reinvent the wheel, but to potentially expand its offerings. That flexible OLED screen you see there, wrapping around its own lid, stretches upward from a standard 13.3 inches to an extra-tall 15.9 inches.
I agree with the commenters that the outward-facing screen can make a workhorse laptop more fragile, even with something as simple as throwing it in your bag. But the exciting thing here is that Lenovo is constantly looking at how it can provide a rollable form factor. Since the ThinkPad keeps the rollable XD motor and flexible OLED in the lid, it may one day be offered as a display configuration for the regular ThinkPad. Whatever this means as rollable form factors become more common (and ideally, cheaper) sounds good in my book. And that transparent lid that shows the mechanics of the extendable screen at work? Chef’s Kiss!
It’s probably obvious to you that I love large displays, and at 2.65 pounds the Asus ZenBook A16 is one of the lightest 16-inchers around. It also has one more thing that’s near and dear to my heart: a full-size SD card reader. This is a rare find in thin and light devices these days, and it makes the life of a photographer like me a lot easier.
But the A16 has other attractive factors besides my personal love of card slots: it has an OLED with a 2880 x 1800 resolution and 120Hz refresh, a solid selection of ports, and it can be configured with Qualcomm’s highest-end Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip. I think this would be an expensive spec, but it might be worth it for someone who needs a larger Windows laptop. feel Big – and whose battery life should be equally big and in charge.
MSI really made a stir in the looks department for its non-gaming laptops this year. The new Prestige models look like something you wouldn’t be embarrassed to bring to the office, and they’re actually quite sleek overall. The sophisticated design of the new Stealth 16 creator/softcore gaming laptop also looks great (even if it stands out just for the sake of it). Little Secret). It has some typical MacBook Pro vibes, but offers lots of ports (including Ethernet). It comes standard with a 240Hz OLED display, Intel’s new Panther Lake chips, and Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs. Last year I tested the absolutely over-the-top MSI Titan, and I’m eager to review something from MSI that’s more subdued than its usually gaudy gaming laptops.
Asus’ TUF line is the lowest-priced range of its gaming laptop offerings. They’re designed to be as cheap as you can get an Asus laptop with a discrete Nvidia GPU. But there is a new TUF A14 coming with AMD Strix Halo – yes, integrated Graphics. And it looks very interesting.
Last year’s Asus ROG Flow Z13 proved that integrated graphics can be great. Now in 2026, we will see a TUF with integrated graphics in a fairly compact chassis. Ideally, it should be an affordable (well, affordable-)Ish) gaming laptop that’s also good at other laptop-y things like battery life. But the Strix Halo isn’t known for being an affordable chip. Maybe the new version that AMD is making will help, but we’ll have to hope that Asus is able to achieve a price that makes sense for this little guy.
The Eliteboard G1a “Keyputer” is essentially a headless laptop that plugs into a regular HP keyboard. I was ready to write it off as a fun quirk for boring suits and IT guys – even if it is reminiscent of the old days of the Commodore 64. But I will level with you guys: I have no idea Why our silly little video on this thing is making waves on social media. (Is this my shirt? Tell me this is my shirt.)
Should I review Eliteboard once it’s available? Something tells me I’ve already answered my own question as I type this.
Photography Antonio G. By Di Benedetto/The Verge
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