CES 2025 has been an absolute laptop battleground. From innovative form factors to supercharged specs, it’s been good to take a glimpse at the future.
But how about the here and now? Because the best MacBooks are dominating the market, no matter what Windows makers seem to try. But we have new Zenbooks and Vivobooks from Asus, which I gotta be honest, may make some people reconsider. Let me explain why.
Qualcomm storms ahead
As you can read in my hands-on Asus Zenbook A14 review, this is the next iteration of that Copilot+ PC vision. Snapdragon X chips have pulled off some stunning feats in terms of performance and power efficiency.
But what if you followed suit by putting it into an impossibly thin and light form factor? Well, you get a MacBook Air killer — packing an OLED display and up to a (claimed) 32 hours of battery life.
Versatility in the lineup
Of course, the Zenbook series is larger than that, and these are all getting updates too:
- Easily the greatest dual-screen laptop I’ve tested, the Asus Zenbook Duo, is seeing an update to the latest Intel core Ultra Series 2 chips. This should hopefully help with the battery life and make the graphical performance zippier for when multitasking GPU-intensive apps.
- Zenbook S16 and Zenbook 14 get the jump to new chips from AMD — the mid-range Ryzen AI 7 350 to be specific — which should bring these down to a lower price point.
What this means is a greater level of choice in the experience over the MacBook too.
Snapdragon flips the script
And finally, there’s the new Vivobook 14. Yes, there's a 16-inch model too, but I will be honest, I’m more interested in the 14-inch model for one key reason — value for money.
Up until this point, there’s been a price premium on Copilot+ PCs that has put them closer in cost to Apple laptops. But now, with the new Snapdragon X chipset, we’ve got some low-cost competition in the AI laptop space that should drive the cost down.
That’s where the less-than $600 Vivobook 14 comes in. Sure, you can feel that cheapness in some areas, but not in the places that matter as this is still a solid machine in the hand with a great keyboard and touchpad.
Watch your back, Apple!
Apple’s onward march with new laptops continues, but you won’t see much in the form of hardware changes from them because, if we’re being honest, the Cupertino crew haven’t really needed to.
That’s down to the solid build quality and premium durability which many Windows laptops just don’t have. But with ceraluminum, a variety of choice and price points on Asus’ side, could this be the year where Apple truly gets a challenger?
More from Tom's Guide
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- 'AI laptops' hype is not what you think — PC makers won't like me revealing this secret
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