Although on-device AI was big at CES, there were plenty of budget-friendly machines to see as well.
If you’re holding out for a new machine, there are plenty to choose from now that CES 2024 has come to an end. As always, laptop makers have used it to showcase the many devices set to launch in the months ahead — including those best suited for students.
While artificial intelligence (AI) was the headline feature this year — music to the ears of any coders looking for new laptops — manufacturers still introduced plenty of new features beyond it. From slimmer machines with fantastic battery life to more affordable powerhouses, CES 2024 showcased machines set to come out in the months ahead that will rival some of the best laptops for students — and we can’t wait to get our hands on them. We’ve picked out a few that impressed us the most.OMEN Transcend 14
HP has long been releasing OMEN gaming laptops with a focus on packing them with the most powerful components. Finding that sweet spot that makes them easy to carry while also retaining power levels has been a challenge, but that’s one the company has overcome with the OMEN Transcend.
The CES 2024 debutant weighs just 3.5 pounds (1.59kg), but also packs an RTX 4070 GPU for powerful graphic tasks like video editing. You can get up to 2TB of storage and 32GB of RAM, too.
That’s one factor that makes the OMEN Transcend 14 ideal for students with a much larger budget. But what makes it ideal is its on-device transcription capabilities. The device puts an end to recording audio from a lecture and spending hours poring over the file trying to transcribe it, thanks to this machine’s AI-powered transcription feature and live video captioning.
We expect the OMEN Transcend 14 to go on sale in the next two or three months, but, starting at $1,600, it’s definitely on the pricier side.Acer Swift Go 14
From a powerful laptop that maxes out your budget to one that costs roughly half as much, the Acer Swift Go 14 is a more-than-capable machine that starts at $749.
There’s no real focus on AI, rather it’s a machine that boasts solid specs alongside a 2.
