2025 has arrived, and you know what that means: CES is right around the corner!
CES 2025 officially kicks off on Tuesday (January 7) and runs through next week, but the big news is already leaking as companies around the world pack up to head to Vegas.
Every Intel Core 200 laptop CPU has been leaked, for example, and Lenovo's first 'rollable laptop' just got leaked before the world shut down for the holidays. But there's still a lot of things we don't know about what to expect from this year's Consumer Electronics Show, so as some of Tom's Guide's own gear up to cover the event next week I thought it might be interesting to see what they're most excited to see at the show.
Personally, I think the potential for us to be introduced to new Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards is what I'm most excited about at CES 2025, but I'd love to see some novel new applications of AR and wearable tech as well.
And since I'll be covering it remotely this year I'm hoping a decent chunk of my CES time will be spent getting to grips with whatever new Apple Intelligence features I can access on my MacBook Pro running macOS Sequoia while our team of experts is in Vegas checking out the future of tech!
VR and XR all day
As much as I'm excited to see Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs steal the show, I'm most looking forward to the innovations VR and XR have to bring to the showfloor.
The announcement of Android XR and the upcoming Samsung XR headset have me buzzing about the possibilities of more accessible and (hopefully) affordable VR and XR devices. And with the success of the Meta Quest 3S this year, along with James Cameron randomly revealing his partnership with Meta, there's bound to be more advances in VR gaming, XR apps and more.
Heck, even another look at the wild Roto VR Explorer will do. Here's hoping we get a taste of more to come in the VR space at CES 2025.
Revolutionary power for laptops
New laptops are an inevitability at CES, and for many years, we've seen small spec bumps and the occasional redesign here and there.
For 2025, however, we're getting something big — everything we've seen over the past six months is building up to something special and the stars are aligning on a big step up in three key areas:
Raw horsepower: We're already seeing rumors and leaks of all the new Intel chips coming to CES, which are sure to continue to boost performance and battery life. But amongst the new processors, what has grabbed my attention the most is what AMD is up to. Integrated graphics have been on the up-and-up, but we could see a new Strix Halo APU that is better at gaming than an RTX 4060!
Gaming prowess: Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs are looking like the worst kept secret of CES 2025 with leaks all over the shop. While I am psyched for the potential power to drive incredible visual fidelity in the next wave of AAA games, the next-gen DLSS 4 looks set to make amazing in-game visuals accessible to all with improved AI-driven upscaling and even neural rendering capabilities.
Value for money: The rumors have been a little quieter about this, but Qualcomm seems to have been quietly working on a new lower-tier entry into the Snapdragon X chip family. Gizmochina reported on this back in November, and it could do the thing I've wanted to see for a while — bring Copilot+ PCs to the masses.
Gaming handhelds are gonna be big
Gaming handhelds have grown in popularity since the Steam Deck arrived, with big-name companies like Asus and Lenovo releasing their own systems. At CES 2025, I expect these companies and others to unleash refreshes or brand-new machines.
Rumors and alleged leaks say that Lenovo will unveil the “Legion Go S” as a potential budget-friendly version of the current Legion Go. Other rumors suggest this machine will run on SteamOS, which would be a huge game change since Windows 11 doesn’t exactly work well with handhelds. The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is currently available, but we might hear about other configurations. We could also learn when the Acer Nitro Blaze 7 will be released.
With so many companies releasing handhelds, I’m sure we’ll get some good tidbits of information or hands-on time with some new devices at CES 2025. I’m especially interested in any handhelds running on SteamOS since that operating system is already optimized for such machines. If you’re nuts about gaming handhelds like I am, be sure to keep an eye on CES 2025 (and our coverage!) as we’re likely to get some interesting news.
Keyboards for days
As a custom keyboard enthusiast (read: nerd), I’m excited to see what Keychron has to announce at CES 2025, or rather Keychron’s spun-off gaming brand: Lemokey. Specifically, I want to see a true gaming keyboard from the young brand.
Lemokey has released some great boards so far, including the Lemokey P1 Pro we tested in the summer. So far though, Lemokey boards have just been reskinned Keychrons with OEM profile keycaps, a Windows-bias out the box, plus a gamer-focused aesthetic. Now, life as a jerry-rigged Keychron is hardly terrible, as it means beautiful typing, 1,000Hz polling, QMK firmware, and bags of modding potential (not a given in the gaming sphere). But Lemokey boards have never felt like true gaming keyboards — they’re literally productivity decks shoehorned into a gaming brand.
This has led to Lemokey boards feeling behind the curve versus the best gaming keyboards of 2024, like the NuPhy Air60 HE, Wooting 60HE+ and even the Keychron K2 HE. All of those pack Hall Effect switches, which bring incredible gaming functionality like custom SOCD resolutions (one being the famous ‘Snap Tap’) and Rapid Trigger. Without magnetic switches, we’ve been testing Lemokey boards and wondering what the incentive is for gamers to buy them over the competition.
In autumn this year I spoke to Keychron’s COO, Paul Tan, and this topic was very much on his radar. He spoke of an upcoming board in 2025 with not only Hall Effect switches — expected, given the number of Keychron decks already running HE switches — but also 8,000Hz polling. 8K polling is little use for typists and office workers, so to my mind this can only be a Lemokey launch. Finally, we might get a proper gaming keyboard from Lemokey, and where better to announce it than CES?
Mini PCs are going to blow you away
Smaller PCs are having a moment right now, and at CES this year I’m expecting to see all kinds of tiny computers."
One thing that we haven’t seen a lot of when it comes to mini PCs and handheld gaming PCs is Wi-Fi 7 support. With some likely new additions to the best Wi-Fi 7 routers on the show floor at CES this year, I hope there are some new devices to take advantage of Wi-Fi 7’s faster speeds and lower latency.
Smaller PCs are having a moment right now, and at CES this year I’m expecting to see all kinds of tiny computers from handheld gaming PCs for playing on the go to mini PCs designed to replace big bulky desktops. On the handheld gaming front, I’m really looking forward to seeing what Zotac shows off as its follow-up to the Zotac Zone as its first Steam Deck competitor really impressed me at Computex last year. As for mini PCs, the one I’m most excited to get to see in person is the recently leaked ROG NUC 2025 after I reviewed its predecessor, the Asus ROG NUC 970 last year.
Although the verdict is still out on AI-powered laptops, we’re going to see the first round of mini PCs powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X and X Elite chips. Geekom has already announced the first one and I expect Minisforum, Beelink and other mini PC makers to follow suit.
Besides sheer power and better graphics, I’m going to be on the lookout for mini PCs with unique form factors like the AtomMan G7 Ti I just reviewed.
We always see lots of concepts that may not actually come to be, and I think this is where we could potentially see some really cool ideas. After testing the pocketable Khadas Mind mini PC, I’ll be on the lookout for other, smaller mini PCs that are just as easy to take with you.
The future of wearables
Finally, last year’s CES delivered our first look at the Amazfit Helio smart ring, a device that’s proven to be the best affordable alternative to the Oura Ring. Here’s hoping CES 2025 will reveal additional finger-based trackers that can compete with the big boys, including not just Oura but Samsung, too.
This will come as little surprise given my position as TG’s wearable tech guru, but I’m most excited to check out all the new rugged smartwatches at CES 2025, particularly rumored product releases from Garmin and Amazfit. I’m a sucker for a tough-built, fitness-focused wearable, particularly those designed for use in extreme mountain settings, and these two brands make some of the best ones around.
I’m also looking forward to demoing at least a few pairs of the ‘AI-powered’ smart glasses. Seeing that the product category is particularly in vogue this January — with countless brands touting ground-breaking new shades — I’m certain that my opportunities to don all the fancy, high-tech specs I fancy will be sufficiently ample. Moreover, as someone not fully sold on the idea that smart glasses can/will enhance my life in a meaningful way, I’m looking forward to having my socks potentially knocked off in Vegas.
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