Best laptops of CES 2023 (so far)

Acer Swift 14
(Image credit: Acer)

CES 2023 is officially here, flooding in with the next generation of laptops that offer the latest innovative designs, 13th Gen Intel chips and Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 Series mobile GPUs. It's an exciting time to be a tech nerd, as all of our favorite laptops are getting sweet upgrades, and some brands are even putting out brand new ideas.

Here's the best laptops that we've seen so far at CES 2023. 

LG Gram Ultraslim

LG Gram Ultraslim

(Image credit: Future)

When LG announced the new Gram Ultraslim, there were claims that it's the slimmest current-gen laptop model on the market. But I was skeptical. However, when I got to touch, hold and feel the Ultraslim myself at CES 2023, I was blown away.

First of all, let's discuss its heft — or lack thereof. It's so light, if you blindfolded me and told me I was holding an empty binder, I would have totally believed you. The LG Gram Ultraslim weighs only 2.2 pounds. For comparison, the M2 MacBook Air weighs 2.7 pounds.

The LG Gram Ultraslim is more than its featherweight chassis, of course. It also packs a 15.6-inch, 1080p OLED display with 400 nits of brightness. It comes with a 13th Gen Intel Raptor Lake Core chip and Intel Iris Xe graphics. You can choose between DDR5 RAM configurations of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB. You can also select whether you'd like 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of SSD storage.

HP Dragonfly G4

HP Dragonfly Pro laptop

(Image credit: Laptop Mag)

Engineered for work professionals, the HP Dragonfly G4 is the world’s first business laptop to facilitate the use of two cameras at once. Multi-camera software lets you simultaneously stream one video of an object while the other camera stays on you. Auto Camera Select's intelligent AI helps you maintain eye contact by recognizing which camera you're facing. 

And what's more, Smart Sense keeps your PC cool and quiet running while intuitively providing higher performance as needed. Intelligent Hibernate conserves battery life by automatically shifting the laptop to sleep when idle. It wakes back up quickly when you're ready to use it again.

Built rugged to military-specs, it packs a 13.5-inch (1920 x 1200) non-touch display at 400 nits. Potential owners can bump the screen up to a 3K2K OLED for an even more immersive viewing experience. Powered by Windows 11 Pro, it runs the latest Intel 13th Gen CPU alongside up to 32GB of RAM and Integrated graphics. Solid state drive storage capacity on this model goes up to 2TB.

Asus ROG Flow X13

Asus ROG Flow X13

(Image credit: Asus)

The 2023 ROG Flow X13 chassis has had a complete redesign, shrinking its footprint by 10mm (0.4 inches) while keeping its 15-inch keyboard layout and increasing battery capacity from 62Wh to 75Wh. That's not all, as the hinge allows for more airflow, while the aluminum lid now sports "gravitational waves" that adds more grip for carrying. Plus, it weighs a light 1.4kg (3 pounds).

As for what's under the hood, this 13-inch gaming laptop packs a punch. You can expect an  AMD Ryzen 9 Zen 4 processor, up to a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with 8GB GDDR6 video memory, up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and up to 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD for storage.

Acer Swift Go

Acer Swift Go 14

(Image credit: Acer)

Let’s talk about one of their greatest selling points: the display. Acer Swift Go boasts a screens designed to deliver true-to-life, vibrant picture at a peak brightness of 500 nits. The screen supports a DCI-P3 color gamut coverage of 100%; it’s also VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certified. Those who spend hours upon hours working on their laptop will appreciate the TÜV Rheinland EyeSafe display certification, which ensures the reduction of blue light. Plus, you can enjoy an aspect ratio of 16:10, which makes the screen appear taller for more vertical screen real estate.

The Swift Go laptops will be packed with 13th Gen Intel Core H-series CPU, and as a cherry on top, they’re verified as Intel Evo laptops, which means that they’ve been tested to meet certain quality standards regarding battery life, connectivity options, internal components, and more. The 14-inch model weighs less than 2.8 pounds while the 16-inch model weighs about 3.5 pounds. It’s featherweight galore!

Asus Zenbook Pro 16X OLED

Asus Zenbook Pro 16X

(Image credit: Asus)

The Asus Zenbook Pro 16X OLED is the latest innovation from one of the best laptop companies around. Asus has committed to OLED displays, 13th Gen Intel Core CPUs, and RTX 40 Series GPUs. But out of all the big updates, the most significant is a reinvented System-on-Module (SoM) design. That means the motherboard core area of the Zenbook 16X is dramatically smaller than last year’s model. 

That leads to improved cooling efficiency, lower running temperatures, and the ability to pack more GPU components in there and reach a higher Thermal Design Power (TDP) value. Translation: a lot more power potential. You can squeeze more performance out of the Intel Core i9-13905H processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Laptop GPU, 32 GB of fast LPDDR5X DRAM, and up to a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD.

The 3.2k 120Hz OLED display with a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut is a welcome upgrade as well.

MSI Modern 14

MSI Modern 14

(Image credit: MSI)

MSI has nailed the aesthetic of Modern 14 with its lovely Beige Rose hue. To top off gorgeous looks, it boasts a modern 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processors, alongside the latest Intel Iris Xe graphics. You won't be able to do any gaming on these laptops, but their potential for productivity is nothing to scoff at. It can also be built with up to 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM.

It's also MIL-STD-810G certified, meaning it's been tested against vibration, shock, low pressure, high pressure, high temperature and low temperature damages. The keyboard offers 1.5mm of travel, alongside the automatic-backlight that will turn off after 10 seconds of not being used. If the user touches the keyboard, it will come back on, making for an eco-friendly design. The Modern 14 is 12.6 x 9.1 x 0.76 inches and weighs 3.08 pounds.

Alienware x16

The Alienware x16 is your best choice if you're looking to pour as much cash as possible on something that can be described only as an absolute beast. The laptop boasts a full metal chassis, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos compatibility, and a six-speaker configuration. 

Beyond that, it can be built with a Intel Core i9-13900HK processor, Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card, 4TB of SSD storage, 32GB of RAM, and a 2560x1600 QHD+ display with 240Hz refresh rate. Its high-end configurations will be the first to launch at $3,099, while additional options will come at a later date with the entry version starting at $2,149.

Rami Tabari
Editor

Rami Tabari is an Editor for Laptop Mag. He reviews every shape and form of a laptop as well as all sorts of cool tech. You can find him sitting at his desk surrounded by a hoarder's dream of laptops, and when he navigates his way out to civilization, you can catch him watching really bad anime or playing some kind of painfully difficult game. He’s the best at every game and he just doesn’t lose. That’s why you’ll occasionally catch his byline attached to the latest Souls-like challenge.