2023 was somewhat of a boring year for the best laptops. While devices like the HP Spectre Fold offered interesting designs and the MacBook Pro M3 lineup raised the bar for performance and efficiency, 2023 felt like most companies were in a holding pattern — offering little more than basic component refreshes. Thankfully, it looks like we're getting much more exciting systems this year.
At CES 2024, I got to see a slew of upcoming laptops. While there was a fair share of updated machines, there was also a new crop of notebooks featuring Intel’s new AI-focused Meteor Lake chip. I'm still not entirely sold on "AI," but I have to admit that AI laptops (as some manufacturers have dubbed them) are at least something new to potentially get excited about.
This year promises to keep me busy with all the new laptops coming our way. Here are the 7 laptops I’m most looking forward to in 2024 ... along with an honorable mention.
7 laptops I can't wait for
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid
The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 is a 2-in-1 laptop in the most literal sense. Its display is a fully functional Android tablet while its keyboard base (hybrid station) is a Windows 11 laptop featuring an Intel Meteor Lake CPU.
You can snap off the display to use it as a tablet while keeping the hybrid station connected to an external monitor. You can also switch between Android and Windows modes with the press of a button.
Though somewhat pricey at $1,999, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 seems like a great value given its versatility.
Asus Zenbook Duo
Up until now, Asus Zenbook Duo laptops have been a weird experiment — squashing the keyboard and touchpad further down the deck with a letterbox-sized touchscreen display. At CES 2024, Asus has channeled the likes of the aforementioned HP Spectre Fold and Lenovo Yoga Book 9i and refined the entire formula with some impressive upgrades and a sleek design for the new Asus ZenBook Duo 2024.
With two 14-inch OLED panels, you’re getting a fantastic viewing experience and a range of ways to use the laptop — be it stacking two displays on top of each other for a vertical workstation or opening it like a book.
As for power, Asus is keeping up with the cutting edge by packing its Zenbook Duo with Meteor Lake. That means you can spec this with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H — sure to keep everything zippy and really turbo boost its AI capabilities with the built-in NPU.
The best part? This Swiss Army Knife of a laptop starts at $1,499 — which drastically undercuts the competition while offering a physical touchpad unlike anyone else.
Acer Swift Go 14
The Acer Swift Go 14 was one of the first "AI laptops" released late last year but it's a notebook I'd recommend people check out in 2024.
As we said in our Acer Swift Go 14 review, this laptop has media controls that appear automatically on the touchpad when you need them. It's a simple thing that's both functional and cool. This is a feature its 16-inch counterpart lacks, which gives people more incentive to opt for the $749 14-inch model.
On top of that, you’ll find that the new Swift Go 14 is future-proofed with Wi-Fi 7 — which is super helpful for when the transition from 6E (finally) happens. The OLED panel is bright and color, and the QHD webcam has plenty of AI smarts for a sharp picture and a nice depth effect.
Of course, the Meteor Lake CPU with its built-in NPU can handle most AI tasks. This makes for an overall solid system at an affordable price.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
We've heard "the Windows MacBook Pro" used a lot in our industry. These claims usually fall flat, but the 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is the first serious contender to take this mantle.
It starts by ditching the Anime Matrix display for a far more refined slash lighting system, surrounded by a seriously sleek aluminum construction. This CNC-milled shell reduces the weight and thickness and feels uber-premium to the touch.
Open it up, and you’ll find the drop-dead gorgeous ROG Nebula display — a 14-inch OLED display that offers a 120Hz refresh rate, 0.2ms response time, and G-SYNC for eliminating screen tearing.
Under the hood, you’ll find up to an AMD Ryzen R9 and RTX 4070 GPU for not just peak gaming performance. Not only is this a seriously good gaming laptop, it is a fantastic all-rounder with power to boot.
Dell XPS 16
We won’t blame you for thinking the new Dell XPS 16 is just a larger version of the Dell XPS 13 Plus. After all, this laptop shares the former’s compact, minimalist design — just without the “Plus” moniker. That could be a selling point or turn-off, depending on how you felt about the XPS 13 Plus’ design. The Dell XPS 16, for better or worse, replaces the Dell XPS 15 OLED.
Aside from sharing the same design as the XPS 13 Plus the most notable thing about the Dell XPS 16 is its inclusion of a Meteor Lake CPU — which features a NPU to accelerate AI-driven tasks performed on the laptop. Because of that, Microsoft Copilot and other AI programs should run better on this notebook than on Windows 11 laptops with processors lacking an NPU.
If you didn’t like the capacitive touch function keys and disappearing trackpad the Plus is infamous for, you won’t be won over by the new XPS line, which all now look like the XPS 13 Plus. If you like the design, the Dell XPS 16 features a large 16.3-inch InfinityEdge display and can be configured with up to an RTX 4070 graphics card — which is a boon for both gamers and creatives.
HP Omen Transcend 14
The HP Omen Transcend 14 is a gaming laptop that doesn’t look the part. Though it sports RGB lighting on its keyboard, you could easily mistake this machine for an ultraportable. In fact, HP is marketing it as “the world’s lightest 14-inch gaming laptop.” It’s a fetching machine that won’t look out of place at the office or home.
Other than its design, the HP Omen Transcend 14 separates itself from the best gaming laptops by packing a Meteor Lake chip. This processor’s NPU can handle the processing necessary to run a streaming application like OBS while the laptop’s CPU and GPU can focus solely on whatever game you’re playing. This could be a selling point for those who stream to platforms like Twitch.
Even if the AI functionality doesn’t live up to the hype, we’re still getting a sleek and elegant device with the HP Omen Transcend 14. If you want to play video games in public without being ridiculed, this is the notebook to get.
MSI Titan 18 HX
If you want a gaming laptop that screams "Go big or go home!" then look no further than the MSI Titan HX. This beast packs a 14th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU and a top-tier RTX 40-series GPU with a ridiculous level of power going to both in the form of 270W. That is some serious power!
The Titan 18 HX comes with an 18-inch 4K 120Hz mini LED display, which provides a super high resolution, gorgeous color gamut and a high contrast ratio. Plus, you can spec this beast up to ridiculous levels with 128GB of DDR5 RAM and 6TB of storage.
And taking a page out of the Dell XPS 13, 14 and 16 playbook (but making it better), there is no clearly defined touchpad. But thanks to RGB lighting, the touchpad glows in lock-step with the colors appearing on-screen. It makes for a surprisingly immersive experience that even the most serious of gamers will love.
Honorable mention
MacBook Air M3
Apple hasn’t officially announced the MacBook Air M3, but with the latest chip already in the MacBook Pro M3 and iMac M3, its inclusion in the Air is inevitable. Rumor suggests we could see the MacBook Air M3 as soon as January. If not then, sometime in early 2024.
MacBook Air laptops are arguably the best MacBooks for most people due to their slim lightweight design and affordability. To that end, I expect Apple will eventually release an updated model featuring the Apple M3 chip.
I'm a fan of both the 13- and 15-inch M2 MacBook Airs. Because of that, I'm eager to get my hands on an M3 version of Apple's thinnest laptop. Again, there's no official word about this notebook, but it's just a matter of time until we see the next iteration of Apple's popular MacBook Air.
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