The 10 best laptops of CES 2025: These notebooks knocked our socks off
The annual Consumer Electronics Show is always a massive event that sees dozens of laptops announced, but CES 2025 was especially notable. Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm all made significant hardware announcements, and those announcements meant every laptop maker had a hoard of refreshed, upgraded laptops to show.
But the show wasn’t just about the hardware. CES 2025 also saw Lenovo debut the world’s first rollable OLED laptop, a serious new MacBook Air competitor from Asus, and a flagship gaming laptop that seems a bit too obsessed with Skyrim.
Much like we did with our roundup of the best monitors at the show, these are the best laptops of CES 2025.
Acer Aspire Vero 16
Acer
Acer found an unusual way to generate headlines at CES 2025: it made a laptop out of oyster shells. Well, partially, at least. The Aspire Vero uses up to 70% “PCR and bio-based materials” in its chassis. Basically, it’s made of recyclables and gunk.
It’s a bit odd, then, that the Aspire Vero 16 is among the more appealing entry-level laptops at the show. The chassis isn’t fancy, but the PCR materials provide the laptop with a unique look and texture. It’s not flashy, but it stands out.
Materials aside, the Aspire Vero 16 is a simple, versatile machine. It has Intel Core Ultra 200H processors, up to 32GB of memory, and up to 1TB of storage. It’s affordable, too, at $799.99 to start. Look to see it hit stores in Q2 2025.
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 16-inch
Samsung
Samsung brought its latest flagship Galaxy Book, the Galaxy Book5 Pro, to CES 2025. It packs an Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor with an NPU capable of up to 47 TOPS. RAM starts at 16GB and runs up to 32GB, while storage starts at 256GB and runs up to 1TB. Expect lengthy battery life, as well, as Samsung is quoting up to 25 hours (for the 16-inch model).
As with prior Galaxy Book laptops, the display is a highlight. The Galaxy Book5 Pro has a 3K 120Hz touchscreen. It’s perhaps not as unique as it once was, since many competitors are adopting OLED, but still looks great. Connectivity is solid, too, with a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, and even a MicroSD card slot.
Pricing is to be announced, but the wait won’t be long, as Samsung says the laptop will ship in February.
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus 6 Rollable
Matt Smith/Foundry
The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus 6 Rollable is the first consumer laptop (or tablet, or smartphone) to ship with a rollable OLED display. The display is 14 inches when retracted but, with the touch of a button, a motorized roller on the hinge expands the display vertically to 16.7 inches diagonally (that’s a 50 percent increase).
While the rollable feature is innovative, the laptop otherwise looks and feels refreshingly normal. An unsuspecting observer might not notice anything different about the laptop until the display unfurls. The Rollable is as powerful as other 14-inch business laptops, too, as it has Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 processors and can equip up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of solid state storage.
There’s just one catch: the price. Lenovo says the Rollable will retail at $3,499 in June of 2025.
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i
Matt Smith/Foundry
Lenovo’s new flagship gaming laptop, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, received an extensive refresh with a new look for CES 2025. The highlight, I think, is the new RGB-LED lighting that lines the Legion logo and the exhaust vents. Flashy lighting is nothing new for gaming laptops, but the Legion Pro 7i’s RGB-LED lights are bright, vibrant, and well-integrated into the chassis. I think they look awesome.
Lighting aside, the Legion Pro 7i relies on Lenovo’s typical strategy in the gaming space: it delivers good bang for the buck. The laptop has up to Intel Core Ultra 9 275H processors and up to Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics. Lenovo also boasts about the Coldfront Hyper cooling system, which is promised to support a total system TDP of 250 watts.
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i will retail at $2,399 in March 2025.
Asus Zenbook A14
Matt Smith/Foundry
The Asus Zenbook A14 is the company’s first laptop to use its unique ceraluminum finish, which bonds a ceramic exterior to an aluminum interior, across a laptop’s entire chassis (instead of just the display lid). It’s also built from magnesium-aluminum alloy, a common and lightweight material.
The result is a slim, portable laptop with a look and feel unlike anything else on the market. Picking up the machine reminded me of handling a premium notebook or a slim hardcover book. The Zenbook A14 weighs about 2.1 pounds and measures about six-tenths of an inch thick.
Inside, the laptop relies on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X or X Elite processor, depending on the model, and is equipped with up to 32GB of RAM and up to 1TB of solid state storage. Asus says the 70 watt-hour battery can provide up to 32 hours of battery life (though that, I’m sure, is a best-case scenario).
The Zenbook A14 is my overall pick of the show. It’s attractive, portable and, perhaps best of all, affordable at a starting price of $899. However, the entry-level model won’t ship till March. A higher-end model will be sold through Best Buy for $1099 starting January 13.
Asus ROG Flow Z13
Asus
The 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13, like its predecessors, is a unique gaming-focused PC tablet that tries to mesh portability with high-end gaming performance.
This time around, however, it packs AMD’s radical new Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, which combines 16 Zen 5 CPU cores and 40 powerful RDNA 3.5 graphics CUs on a single chip, then tosses in a 50 TOPS NPU for good measure. The chip’s unified design can dynamically share the tablet’s memory (up to 128GB of RAM) between processing and graphics tasks as needed.
We weren’t to test the chip on the CES 2025 show floor, but its specifications are intriguing, and it seems better suited for a Windows tablet device than the Nvidia RTX 40-series discrete GPUs found in prior models.
The ROG Flow Z13 starts at $1999.99, but you’ll need to spend $2,199.99 to snag the Ryzen AI Max+ 395. Availability is expected in Q1 2025.
Asus Chromebook CX14
Matt Smith/Foundry
CES 2025 felt like a light year for Chromebooks, with most laptop makers having few or no ChromeOS devices to show, but the Asus Chromebook CX14 caught my attention.
That’s mostly thanks to its design. Prior iterations already looked good and, this year, Asus showed off several new colors (Quiet Blue, Misty Grey, and Fabric Blue), each with its own textured finish. These options are a fun touch to an already solid ChromeOS line-up. It’s also easy to pack with a thickness under eight-tenth of an inch, and it tips the scales a hair over three pounds.
The hardware is less exciting. The Chromebook CX14 will ship with an Intel Celeron N4500 processor. RAM starts at 4GB (up to 16GB) and storage starts at 32GB (up to 128GB). Thankfully, though, it ships with a 1080p display and a good mix of connectivity which includes a USB-C port for charging the laptop.
The Asus Chromebook CX14 starts at $199.99. Availability wasn’t announced.
Razer Blade 16
Razer
Razer came to CES 2025 with a new, slimmer Blade 16 that the company boasts is “the thinnest Razer laptop ever designed” at just 0.59 inches thick. This is said to be achieved through innovations in the vapor chamber cooling system.
Despite its slim profile, the Razer Blade 16 will continue to boast powerful hardware. It supports AMD Ryzen AI processors up to the Ryzen AI 9 370 HX and can handle Nvidia’s most powerful new mobile GPU, the GeForce RTX 5090. It will also ship with a QHD OLED display that can hit a refresh rate of up to 240Hz. I think that, as with prior models, the Blade 16 will be a popular choice among gamers and professionals who want a lot of performance in a slim machine.
Upgrades aside, the Razer Blade 16 looks a lot like prior models—which is probably how Razer fans would prefer it. Pricing remains to be announced, and availability is expected in Q1 2025.
MSI Stealth A16 AI+
Matt Smith/Foundry
The MSI Stealth line-up is secretly among the best options for people who want a powerful do-it-all laptop for work and play, and the new MSI Stealth A16 AI+ reinforces that. The revised model receives several upgrades, the most important of which is new Nvidia RTX 50-series hardware up to the RTX 5090. MSI also equips the laptop with a new QHD OLED display, which is nice, as the prior model had an IPS display when I reviewed it (and it was the laptop’s biggest weakness).
True to its name, the Stealth A16 AI+ looks subtle despite its powerful hardware. The laptop measures less than eight-tenths of an inch thick and weighs under 4.5 pounds. It also lacks the flair found on MSI’s gaming laptop, instead opting for a classy but understated look. The laptop is even equipped with a massive 99 watt-hour battery. MSI didn’t quote battery life when I asked, but if the prior model is any indication, it should last about eight to 10 hours in lighter workloads.
Price and availability are not announced but expect to hear more in Q1 2025.
MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth
Matt Smith/Foundry
MSI isn’t one to shy away from extreme laptop design, but it went all-out at CES 2025 with the Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth. This gigantic, thick beast of an 18-inch laptop has a gorgeous, textured display lid that feels like an ode to Skyrim (or, perhaps, the latest God of War titles). I guarantee it looks even more wild in person than in pictures, but it’s not a concept. This laptop is going to retail.
Beneath the new exterior, however, it’s still a Titan 18 HX. Which is good, because the Titan 18 HX is an excellent laptop. As expected, this model has hardware upgrades that include up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics, four M.2 SSD slots (one of which is PCIe 5), and an 18-inch 4K Mini-LED screen with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. MSI said RAM goes up to 96GB.
Pricing and availability weren’t announced but I expect that, as with prior models, it will soar north of $5,000. And if you’re not really into dragons, don’t worry. MSI will still offer a new Titan 18 HX with a less lavish design.