The new year begins with lots of celebrations and resolutions, while heading closer towards the annual Consumer Electronic Show 2019 (CES), scheduled from the 8th to the 12th of January, 2019 at Las Vegas, USA. Several popular brands have already started making announcements and are on the verge of announcing and launching new products and services. We have a gist of some of the major product announcements that are likely to be made at the event.
Laptops
Alienware Area-51M
Dell’s Alienware series of laptops have a new friend, the latest Area-51M. Dell has done away with the very dark and black Alienware theme, offering customers a more sober, classic looking look called Legend. As expected, this is among the best gaming machines you can find, offering options of desktop-grade processors as high as Intel’s Core i9 9900K, along with 64GB of RAM and graphics card solutions that can be upgraded. Yes, upgraded! You can choose from the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, 2070 and 2080 graphics solutions to start with. The 17-inch display is impressive too, offering a refresh rate of 144Hz. The Area-51M isn’t a lightweight system; it’s a desktop replacement that you can carry around if you really want to.
Acer Swift 7
Acer throws a punch with the 2019 refresh of its all popular Swift 7 laptop and it comes with major changes this year. The 14-inch touchscreen maybe just be full HD, but it’s lined with Gorilla Glass 6 for additional versatility. The expected upgrades to core components are present in the form of the updated Intel Core i7 8500Y processor. It’s a solid dual-core powerhouse that scales up from 1.5GHz right up to 4.2 GHz with Turbo Boost so you get the benefit of power saving and brute performance. The laptop comes with options of 8GB and 16GB of RAM, as well as 256GB and 512GB SSD storage variants. Did we mention the laptop is fan-less so it has no moving parts or vibrations?
The really impressive improvements are in the form factor. The new Swift 7 is thinner, and lighter than previous models, making it one of the lightest laptops in the world. The weight is down to just 890 grams, owing to its magnesium alloy construction. There are two finishes available, namely Starfield Black and Moonstone White. The bezel is practically done away with, measuring just 2.57mm with the web camera being a pop-up that you can bring up if you need it. Other features include WiFi 5, simple speak for WiFi 802.11ac and three Thunderbolt USB 3 ports. All this goodness is going to take a while to arrive and cost a bit too. The product is expected to ship in certain regions starting April 2019, at a price of $1699 for the lower-end spec variant.
Acer Chromebook 315
Just when you thought Chromebooks were going out of fashion, Acer went out and launched their new Chromebook 315. The real unique bit about this Chromebook is that it is powered by an AMD processor. It’s one of the few Chromebooks this year to do so. The models will use either an AMD A6-9220C or A4-9120C processor when they launch in the US next month, or in Europe starting April 2019. The models use a 15.6-inch full HD display that is ample for the kind of work Chromebooks are designed for. There will be touchscreen and non-touchscreen models to choose from. There are two USB 3.1 Type-C ports for connectivity and Acer is claiming a battery life of 10 hours. The cheaper of the models start at $279.99, which translates to an estimated Rs. 20,000. Of course, there is no news of when and if these products will make their way to India, and at what price.
Acer Predator Triton laptops
Acer had teased the Predator Triton 900 back at IFA 2018. This year at CES 2019, Acer has officially announced the updated Predator line-up, which includes the older Predator Triton 500 and the all-new Predator Triton 900. The upgraded Predator Triton 500 features a 15-6 inch IPS display with a refresh rate of 144Hz, whereas the Predator Triton 900 comes equipped with a 17-inch IPS 4K G-Sync enabled display. The starting price of these laptops are $1799 and $3999 respectively.
Both the Predator Triton laptops are equipped with 8th generation Intel Core i7 processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 series graphics solutions. The Predator Triton 900 features the GeForce RTX 2080 and can be configured with 32GB of RAM. Another interesting thing about these two Predator laptops is their convertible form factor. Users can choose to use them in Ezel mode for touch screen gaming. It can also be used in a notebook mode for traditional gaming, whereas the stand mode can be used to convert the laptop to a tablet mode. Additionally, these laptops feature a built-in Xbox controller receiver, which means you can use your existing wireless Xbox controller to play games.
Asus Chromebooks
Asus has a series of standard lighter laptops and very premium rugged gaming laptops. At CES 2019, Asus unveiled two traditional laptops – the 11.6-inch compact Asus Chromebook C204 and the bigger 14-inch Asus Chromebook C403. There is also an additional Asus Chromebook Flip C214 convertible laptop meant for travellers. Considering the requirements of school students and travellers, these laptops are designed to be durable with addition to a day-long battery life. All the three laptops are equipped with a series of Intel Celeron processors along with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage for working offline.
Asus StudioBook S
Asus is a known for their slim and stylish laptops. They introduced the Asus StudioBook S at CES 2019, which they claim is one of the world’s slimmest laptops measuring just 18.4mm in thickness. The Asus StudioBook S features a nearly bezel-less 17-inch screen, which Asus calls the Nano-edge display. The 17-inch StudioBook S measures just 382 x 256 x 18.4 mm and can easily fit in a briefcase.
The Asus StudioBook S comes equipped with two processor variants. The base variant is powered by 2.2GHz hexa-core Intel Xeon E2176M processor, whereas their high-end model is packed with a 2.2GHz hexa-core Intel Core i7-8750H processor. In terms of storage, the StudioBook S can hold up to 64GB of DDR4 memory and up to 4TB of PCIe SSD storage.
One cool thing about the StudioBook S is its exclusive dual-function touchpad. The touchpad on the StudioBook can be turned into a number pad and a cursor pad, since there are switchable LEDs underneath that lit up on requirement. This feature give users a convenience of data entry, capturing screen shots, locking the system and many more shortcuts. Asus states that the StudioBook is mainly for designers, architects, animators and programmers who wish to have a compact yet powerful laptop.
