CES 2015: 10 Sizzling Laptops From The Show Floor

Lookin' At Laptops

Laptops roared at CES 2015 thanks to Intel, which juiced its line of Broadwell processors Monday with 17 SKUs, each optimized for notebooks, 2-in-1 PCs and tablets. Every major laptop OEM updated their lineup of laptops and showed them off here at CES 2015. Nearly all the laptops CRN spotted take advantage of Intel's power-sipping Broadwell CPUs that first and foremost allow OEMs to extended their laptops' battery life.

Here is a look at the best laptops from Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, MSI and Toshiba that CES had to offer.

Lenovo's Featherlight Laptop

Lenovo wowed CES attendees with a sneak peek at its upcoming featherweight laptop called LaVie Z that claims to be the "world's lightest" laptop at 1.72 pounds. The Broadwell-based laptop is designed in partnership with NEC, and achieves impressive low weight because of its use of a lithium-magnesium alloy case, NEC representatives said.

Lenovo said the laptop will be available later this year in a 13-inch clamshell and convertible model that uses Lenovo's Yoga hinge and weighs 2.04 pounds.

Dell Claims Thinnest Bezel Laptop Screen On A 13-Inch XPS

Dell introduced a tiny and mighty XPS 13-inch laptop it claims has the smallest notebook bezel among its competitors. According to Dell, that razor-thin bezel allows it to pack a 13-inch display on a body of a laptop that normally ships with an 11-inch screen.

Dell is able to accomplish this with a thin 5.2mm bezel. The laptop has 15 hours of battery life, which Dell said is the longest of any 13-inch notebook. The XPS can also be configured with an UltraSharp Quad HD+ infinity display for $800.

Toshiba Portege z20t 2-In-1 Boasts 17-Hour Battery Life

Toshiba unveiled a Portege z20t 2-in-1 PC at CES that can run for 17 hours under normal use between charges. It achieves this milestone by embedding a battery in the PC's detachable keyboard. Battery longevity is also aided by the fact the 2-in-1 is running Intel's latest power-sipping Core M Broadwell processor.

Toshiba said the PC will come in three configurations with the base configuration starting at $1,400 and a fully loaded version with new Broadwell Core M 5Y71 chip priced at $1,700.

HP Beefs Up ZBook Line With Broadwell

Hewlett-Packard introduced two new workstation-class Ultrabooks, the ZBook 14 G2 and the ZBook 15u. HP claims its new workstations are one of the lightest 14-inch workstations around. weighing 3.77 pounds. Besides featuring Intel's latest fifth-generation processor Broadwell-U, the laptops include high-end AMD FirePro graphics.

Lenovo Carbon X1

Lenovo's flagship ThinkPad Carbon line of laptops received a Broadwell bump this week with the release of the X1. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook may look similar to last year's model, but look closer an you'll notice the updated version has a thinner and lighter chassis (weighing 2.8 pounds) and measuring 0.7 of an inch thin.

Lenovo said thanks to Intel's more energy-efficient chip design, this latest model Carbon has 10 hours of battery life -- a one-hour improvement over the last Carbon model.

Acer Gives Its Chromebooks Big 15-Inch Screen And Broadwell Bump

Acer unveiled a 15-inch Chromebook at CES that feature Intel's latest Broadwell 5th Generation Intel Core i3 processor. Acer's latest offering stands out from the Chromebook pack by upping the screen size to 15 inches in a market where most Chome-OS notebooks top out at 12 inches.

Acer's Chromebook 15 will come in two flavors: either 3 GB or 4 GB of RAM and 16 GB or 32 GB of SSD storage while it also comes with a USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 port, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI output, SD card reader, and an HD webcam. Acer said the Chromebooks will be available later this month with a starting price of $250.

Samsung Shows Off Its 12-Inch Series 9 Laptop

At CES Samsung showed off its 12.2-inch Series 9 Ultrabook (2015 edition) that hopes to one-up Apple MacBook Air in terms of style and slimness. The Series 9 laptop, officially unveiled days before CES but shown for the first time on the CES showroom floor, weighs in at 2 pounds, has an Intel Core M Broadwell processor, and claims 12 hours of battery life.

Samsung's base configuration is $1,200 for an Ultrabook with an Intel Core M-5Y10c Broadwell processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 128-GB SSD.

Dell Updates Inspiron Line With RealSense Tech

Dell chose CES to refresh its Inspiron line of laptops with new Broadwell processors. As part of that refresh, Dell added Intel's RealSense technology to a number of its Inspiron family of PCs. RealSense enables a PC's sensors to "see" objects in 3-D and recognize hand gestures so users can navigate and use their PC without touching it.

The Inspiron 15 5000 laptop with a RealSense 3-D camera is available now for $750.

MSI GT80 Titan: Gaming Notebook

While most PC makers focused on refreshing their business and consumer PC lines, MSI used CES as a springboard to launch its 18.4-inch GT80 Titan laptop, billing it as the "world's lightest" gaming rig. The laptop, which has a base configuration price of $3,500, sports standout features such as a mechanical keyboard, dual GeForce GPUs, Intel Core i7 processor, 24 GB RAM, and a "super RAID" configuration of two 128-GB M2 SATA SSDs plus a 1-TB 7200 HDD.

HP Delivers Panache To Its EliteBook Folio Line Of Business Laptops

Business laptops typically lack the luster of their consumer brethren. But HP breaks the mold with its EliteBook Folio 1020 laptop that brings flare and style to a fashion-starved all-business category. The laptop that goes toe-to-toe with the Apple MacBook Air in the look and feel department, starts at $1,200 for Intel's latest fanless Core M processors, solid-state hard drives, and a 12.5-inch display.

Add an extra $200 and users will be able to add a touch screen and a beefier processor.