Thunderbolt

The latest 13.3-inch business laptops from Fujitsu are among the thinnest and lightest on the market, with profiles close to 0.60 inches and weights of at most 1 Kg. Both models feature Intel's Tiger Lake-U CPUs, with the U9311X sporting a 360-degree touchscreen and pen, and the U9311 coming in the traditional clamshell design that weighs only 884 grams.

The Summit E15 is supposed to make life difficult for the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme and Dell XPS 15 top dogs. To do this, MSI uses the most current technology: Tiger Lake, Turing, USB 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, and PCI Express 4.

The ThinkPad X1 series has already been updated by Lenovo, but not the regular T & X series ThinkPad laptops. A listing at the TCO certification site reveals the first details about the upcoming ThinkPads: The X13 Gen 2 adopts the taller 16:10 aspect ratio, like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The bigger T series meanwhile continues to use wider 16:9 screens.

Another GPD Win 3 gameplay video has been posted online that’s a little different to the usual examples GPD shares. This time around, the Win 3 handheld console/mini laptop was turned into a PS3 portable thanks to the use of an appropriate emulator, and it was put through its paces via an action-packed turn on God of War III.

The thinnest ThinkPad laptop ever is available for purchase: The ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga is orderable in the USA since yesterday. The mark-up for early adopters is hefty however, as the 3:2 convertible with its Titanium top cover costs nearly $3,000.

AMD's support for USB4 and Thunderbolt is scheduled to arrive in early 2022, and, until then, laptop OEMs are trying out alternatives. One solution would be to implement a new type of connector, like Asus has done on its new ROG Flow X13 laptops. Lenovo, on the other hand, is exploring something more simple in the form of a cable that connects external video cards to the M.2 slot inside the laptop.

Lenovo updates the inexpensive ThinkPad L series without a big announcement. Both the new Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Gen 2 and ThinkPad L15 Gen 2 are optimized for enterprise customers. They keep the same design as their predecessors, but contain the new Intel Tiger Lake chips.

A lot of Intel’s hopes for 2021 are pinned on Tiger Lake-H. After all, Intel has to put something up against the Ryzen 5000 CPUs. The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 comes with only a Tiger Lake-UP3 chip. However, it can draw up to 35 watts of power for a significant period of time, showing the world what a Tiger Lake chip can achieve with such a high TDP.

Unnamed 8-core Tiger Lake-H processors from Intel have been producing incredible 1-core scores on UserBenchmark in HP ZBook Studio G8 and HP ZBook Create G8 laptops, although the multi-core scores were quite poor. The mysterious Intel Tiger Lake-H chips recorded a base clock of 3.1 GHz in the benchmark entries.

The ZenBook Duo series is aching for a panel provider who can mass produce OLED displays in the form factor that Asus needs. The IPS ScreenPad for the UX482 works better than it did on the UX481, but its core viewing angle disadvantages remain.

Initially supposed to hit the market in mid-2020, the DisplayPort 2.0 monitors got delayed by the global pandemic and are now expected to become available in the second half of 2021. DP 2.0 is clearly superior to HDMI 2.0, as it offers an 80 Gbps bandwidth that can support 4K resolutions @240 Hz with uncompressed HDR color depth or 16K @60Hz with DSC.

The ThinkBook 14s Yoga doesn't attract attention by setting performance records but rather with its good ergonomics. The Lenovo engineers have focused on low emissions, good stamina and a decent keyboard. The touchscreen display can be used both with your fingers and with the included Smart Pen.

XMG has announced that the 2021 iterations of its PRO and NEO 15/17 laptops will have new, slim cases in addition to new specs. The NEO 15 and 17 also boasts fresh Ryzen 9 5900HX or 7 5800H AMD platforms, while the PROs stick with a Core i7 processor so as to be among the first on the market to combine RTX 3000 graphics with Thunderbolt 3.

The new ChromeBook CX9 and Flip CX5 models from Asus powered by the latest Intel Tiger Lake-U CPUs show that the Chrome OS laptops can easily match the performance of the traditionally more powerful Windows-based systems. The new premium-grade CX9 business laptop comes with enhanced security features and two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, while the Flip CX5 focuses on an expanded cloud-connected gaming experience.

In the past, bright displays and ThinkPads did not come hand in hand. Now, finally, another model cracks the 600-nit mark. The panel in the P15s, which is the brightest in the ThinkPad series, is also used in other workstation-grade ThinkPads.

The 2021 Blade 15 and Blade Pro series will carry on the same chassis designs as previous generations. Instead, the biggest gen-to-gen changes will be the new high refresh rate display options and mobile Ampere GPUs.

The refreshed models still feature the Comet Lake-H CPUs, as they are limited to Thunderbolt 3 connectors. However, Gigabyte is now offering upgraded professionally calibrated displays, as well as the newly released RTX 3000 mobile GPUs, plus redesigned thermal management. The new AERO laptops are also among the first to feature HDMI 2.1 connectors.

Lenovo has launched two new docking stations at CES 2021. One connects to a notebook via a USB Type-C cable, while the other requires a Thunderbolt 4.0 port. Both docks can power 4K displays and charge peripherals at up to 100W. Their pricing and availability will be revealed at a later date.

Update | Lenovo does not just updates their high-end ThinkPads of the X1 series: The new ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 is the biggest redesigns of the series since 2017. Together with the convertible sister ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 6, the new X1 Carbon uses screens in the 16:10 aspect-ratio for the first time. And that is not the only change.

In the year 2021, Lenovo expands its high-end series ThinkPad X1 with another model. The new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga is thinner than all other ThinkPads and at the same time the first 3:2 ThinkPad. It also is one of the few laptops to utilize Titanium metal as a chassis material.

After a long drought in terms of Windows tablets, Lenovo introduces a new competitor to the Microsoft Surface Pro for business customers. The new Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable contains the newest Tiger Lake CPUs and has a Thunderbolt 4 port.

At CES 2021, Intel has unveiled the Tiger Lake-H 35 W processors for ultraportable gaming laptops. With the introduction of these processors, Intel is not only offering further market segmentation among gaming laptops but also is looking to take on AMD's Renoir Ryzen 7 4800HS and the Ryzen 9 4900H in single-core performance. The new Tiger Lake-H35 processors led by the Core i7-11375H Special Edition can boost up to 5 GHz and also offer resizable BAR support with NVIDIA's upcoming Ampere mobile GPUs.

Asus uses the most current technology in the ZenBook 14: A Tiger Lake processor, GeForce MX450 graphics core, 16 GB of working memory (quad-channel mode), and Thunderbolt 4. A 63-Wh battery ensures a good battery life.

The new 15.6-inch XPG Xenia Xe ultrabooks can be powered by either an i7-1165G7 coupled with 16 GB of LPDDR4x-4266 RAM or an i5-1135G7 coupled with 8 GB of RAM. There is no dGPU option and the prices seem a bit spicy, but at least ADATA is including a touchscreen and 2x Thunderbolt 4 connectors.

Lenovo has improved the CPU performance of the current ThinkPad X1 Extreme, but the Intel CPU is still inferior to AMD's current processors. The X1 Extreme Gen3 is a very good multimedia laptop and we especially like the excellent keyboard, but there is still room for improvements for upcoming iterations.

Dell's new business mid-rangers have a brand new design as well as Intel Tiger Lake. There are many changes happening for the new Dell Latitude 5320, Latitude 5420 and Latitude 5520. One is especially interesting: Dell is getting rid of its equivalent to the ThinkPad TrackPoint.

The VivoBook scores points with a Tiger Lake processor, 16 GB of RAM (dual-channel mode), a GeForce MX350 graphics core, and a Thunderbolt 4 port. This is complemented by good battery life. The display is not convincing, though.

The Intel version of the IdeaPad Slim 7 may not be as fast as the AMD version, but it makes up for this with Thunderbolt 3 support should users want to connect GPU docking stations. Users on the lookout for an upper mid-range Ultrabook will find a lot to like about this Lenovo.

The smart-looking Samsung Galaxy Book Flex2 5G has appeared in a couple of official videos from the South Korean OEM, including an unboxing video. The Galaxy Book Flex2 5G is the new name for the Galaxy Book Flex 5G, which was actually launched in September. The convertible features an Intel Core i5-1130G7, i5-1135G7, or i7-1165G7 chip.