2014 Laptops Roundup

It wasn't exactly a banner year for laptops at CES. Hell, the "Best of CES" award for PCs ended up going to a desktop, and was nearly upstaged by an all-in-one running Chrome OS. Still, that didn't stop some companies (especially Lenovo) from trotting out new models. From a simple Haswell refresh to a dual-OS hybrid, we've rounded up every laptop announced at the show. Couldn't keep up with all the news the first time? Get ready to catch up right here.

Lenovo Ideapad Y40, Y50, Z40 and Z50

Don't say we didn't warn you about the refreshes. In addition to unveiling a new line of laptop/tablet hybrids (more on that in a moment), Lenovo also made slight tweaks to its performance Y series and its multimedia Z line. Most notably, the 15-inch Y50 now has a 3,840 x 2,160 screen configuration, along with an optional touchscreen and backlit keyboards -- all things you won't find on the smaller Y40. With the Z series, the specs are more similar between the Z40 and Z50: Either way, you get an optional NVIDIA 840M GPU, along with Haswell processors, up to 16GB of RAM and a 1,366 x 768 display (upgradeable to 1080p). Finally, wrapping up, Lenovo also refreshed its existing Flex 14 and 15 laptops with AMD processors. And... that's it. They otherwise have the same Yoga-like design as the current models.

Lenovo Miix 2

 

Last year at CES, Lenovo nearly stole the show with the ThinkPad Helix, a laptop/tablet hybrid that you could use with the screen facing away from the keyboard. Fast-forward a year, and the Miix 2 series is basically the same design, except: A) it's a consumer product; B) it doesn't allow for pen input; and C) it's much sleeker than the original Helix was. Available in two screen sizes, 10 and 11 inches, you get a 1080p screen on either model, though the 11-incher runs on a much more powerful chip (Core i5 versus Intel Bay Trail on the Miix 2 10). Performance aside, they're more alike than they are different: Both offer an eight-hour battery, optional 3G, JBL speakers and a full-sized USB port on the dock itself. 

Lenovo Yoga 2

Remember when Lenovo's Yoga line consisted of just two models: an 11-incher and a 13-inch model? Those were the days. After releasing the ThinkPad Yoga and high-end Yoga 2 Pro a few months earlier, Lenovo is back with the mid-range Yoga 2 series, which effectively replaces the original Yoga 11 and Yoga 13. Starting with the 13-inch model, the screen resolution is now 1,920 x 1,080, instead of 1,600 x 900, and it also steps up to a backlit keyboard and eight-hour battery. Still, the Yoga 2 Pro goes up to 3,200 x 1,800 for not much more money ($1,199 versus $999 for the Yoga 2 13). Also, the Yoga 2 Pro offers solid-state storage, whereas the Yoga 2 makes do with spinning hard drives. As for the 11-inch model, it now runs full Windows, thanks to an Intel Bay Trail processor, meaning it should be more powerful (and also more versatile) than the now-discontinued Windows RT version.

Samsung ATIV Book 9 2014 Edition

Though this technically falls into the "refresh" pile, Samsung's ATIV Book 9 2014 Edition still made it into our Best of CES finalist round, mostly thanks to its superior sound quality. With support for lossless formats (via the headphone jack or a compatible speaker), the ATIV Book 9 brings richer, more studio-like sound -- a meaningful improvement over what you'd get on most other laptops. Indeed, we hope this is a harbinger of better things to come throughout Samsung's PC lineup, if not the rest of the industry.