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The most interesting PCs, laptops and tablets of CES 2018

CES brought computer lovers much to gawk at, from futuristic concepts to machines you'll be able to buy in the coming months.

Daniel Van Boom
Daniel Van Boom is an award-winning Senior Writer based in Sydney, Australia. Daniel Van Boom covers cryptocurrency, NFTs, culture and global issues. When not writing, Daniel Van Boom practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, reads as much as he can, and speaks about himself in the third person.
Daniel Van Boom
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1 of 12 Sarah Tew/CNET

Dell XPS 15 2-in-1

Dell's XPS line of laptops are among the best Windows devices you can buy. Unveiled at CES 2018, the newest 15-inch XPS laptop is a 2-in-1, meaning it doubles as a tablet. Plus, it's powered by Intel's 8th-gen CPU and AMD's Vega M GPU. 

The XPS 15 2-in-1 will be available from spring, and starts at $1,299. That converts to roughly £960 or AU$1,650.  

Acer Swift 7
2 of 12 Sarah Tew/CNET

Acer Swift 7

The title for thinnest laptop in the world is constantly in flux, but right now the champion is the Swift 7, which Acer revealed at CES. This stylish laptop with a 14-inch touchscreen is just 8.98mm thick. 

It'll go on sale in April with prices starting at $1,699 and £1,599. No pricing for Australia yet, but the US price converts to AU$2,159.  

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3 of 12 James Martin/CNET

Razer Project Linda

Razer's 2018 concept prototype is Project Linda, a laptop that's powered by a phone. Here, the Razer Phone gives the laptop shell its processing power, a touchpad and a second screen. 

The company has made a habit of showing insane things at CES that never make it to market, so don't expect to be buying this one anytime soon. 

Acer Nitro 5
4 of 12 Sarah Tew/CNET

Acer Nitro 5

Not all gaming laptops need to cost a fortune, or even four figures. The Acer Nitro 5, a 15.6-inch laptop powered by an AMD Radeon RX560 GPU and an AMD Ryzen processor, starts at $799 (that roughly converts to £590 and AU$1,020). For that reasonable price, you'll also get a sizeable 512 SSD hard drive and 32GB of RAM.

It'll be released in May. 

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5 of 12

HP Spectre x360

The XPS 15 wasn't the only promising 2-in-1 shown off at CES.

HP's latest Spectre x360 is a laptop for both creatives and business types. The 15.6-inch 2-in-1 houses a quad-core 8th-gen Intel CPU and your choice of either Radeon RX Vega M or Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics, and it comes with a HP Tilt Pen stylus to take advantage of that 4K touchscreen.

Coming to Best Buy and HP.com in March, prices will start at $1,370. That converts to roughly £1,010 and AU$1,750.  

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6 of 12 Sean Hollister/CNET

Zotac Mek 1

The Zotac Mek 1 is a gaming PC that you need to poke in the eye to turn on. But beyond the gimmick of having a power button double as a robot eye, there's reason to be excited about this desktop.

Zotac's reps told CNET it'll arrive this month for between $1,200 and $1,400 (roughly £890-£1,035 or AU$1,530-AU$1,790 ), for which you'll get a 7th-gen Intel processor and an Nvidia GeForce 1070Ti.

Lenovo MIIX 630
7 of 12 Sarah Tew/CNET

Lenovo Miix 630

HP and Asus unveiled Windows 10 laptops in December that are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 processors, the same CPUs you find in high-end phones. The draw? These laptops have super battery life, apparently up to and over 20 hours.

Lenovo just joined the party, showing off its Miix 630 at CES. It's a slate-style 2-in-1, meaning it's a tablet that can connect to a dedicated keyboard to turn it into a laptop. Lenovo says its battery can last up to 20 hours. 

It's expected in the second quarter of 2018, starting at $799, which translates to roughly £590 or AU$1,020.   

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8 of 12 James Martin/CNET

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon and Yoga X1

Lenovo's also got some more traditional productivity laptops, the Thinkpad X1 Carbon and Yoga X1.

These new laptops are equipped with Intel's 8th-gen processors, but the real updates are in the 2,560x1,440-pixel displays. They've got 100 percent Adobe RGB color gamut, brightness up to 500 nits and, pending a future update, support for Dolby Vision HDR for greater brightness, contrast and color palette, a Windows first. 

HP Envy X2 Snapdragon
9 of 12 Sarah Tew/CNET

HP Envy x2

HP was one of the first companies to put a Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU into a Windows 10 machine last December. Now, it's taking that machine, the Envy x2, and putting a good ol' fashion Intel Core chip inside.

It's a touch thicker and heavier, and has around 15 hours of battery life compared to the Snapdragon model's (estimated) 20 hours, but the 7th-gen Intel processor should provide speedier performance.

Pricing and availability is not yet known.

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10 of 12 Josh Miller/CNET

Lenovo Smart Display

Google Assistant wants to outsmart Amazon Alexa, and you'll be finding it in more devices in 2018. One such device is Lenovo's $200 Smart Display. Like an Echo or Google Home smart speaker, you can use voice commands to tell the display to search the web, play music, control your smart home and more. 

The $200 model is 8 inches, and there's another 10-inch model for $250 (those prices roughly convert to £150, AU$250 and £185, AU$320). Both go on sale in summer. 

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11 of 12 Sarah Tew/CNET

Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop

Dell's Inspiron gaming line is known for offering good enough graphical grunt for the budget-conscious gamer. The new Inspiron desktops start at $800, which converts to £590 and AU$1,020, but you can now configure it with a new 8th-gen Intel processor and an Nvidia GeForce 1070 (but that'll cost ya more than $800). 

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12 of 12 Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Asus Zenbook Flip 14

Rounding out the 2-in-1 party is Asus, with its latest Zenbook Flip 14.

At only 13.9mm thick, the laptop is thin and stylish. It's got plenty of goods, too, including an Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU, an 8th-gen Intel CPU, a 512GB SSD and a nice selection of ports. Plus, it comes with the Asus Pen, an active stylus with 1,024 pressure levels.

Pricing and availability have yet to be announced.

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