Enterprise laptops gain a focus on conferencing, while gaming systems get more powerful and some very usual updates.
Image via Microsoft As usually happens at this time of year, all of the big PC vendors (and lots of smaller ones as well) announced updates to their lines of PCs at this week’s virtual CES 2021 show. Every year, this is driven largely by chip technology refreshes, and that’s certainly a part of what we’re seeing this year, with Intel announcing its 11th Gen Core (« Tiger Lake ») vPro Procesors for the business market, and its Tiger Lake-H Mobile Processors for Gaming, and mobile processors for gaming, AMD announcing competing Ryzen 5000 Mobile processors, and Nvidia bringing its latest GeForce RTX 30-series (« Ampere ») graphics to laptops. One difference this year is that many of the new designs have been influenced by the changes in work brought by the pandemic. Many of the vendors talked about a new hybrid remote/office model for working, with features such as improved webcams, noise-cancelling microphones, and improved audio. I mostly focus on enterprise machines (see my roundup of the various enterprise lines), which I’ll do here, but I’ll mention some of the other machines that caught my eye as well. Dell Latitude 9420 2-in-1 Dell announced a large number of changes to its enterprise line last week, and followed with consumer updates this week. On the enterprise side, the firm is offering a lot more features for better audio and video conferencing, displays to reduce blue light, and 5G options; as well as the expected support for 11th Gen Core (« Tiger Lake ») processors. All of these are on display in the Dell Latitude 9420, a 14-inch laptop with a 16:10 aspect ratio, available either as a laptop with a FHD+ (1920 by 1280) display or a convertible 2-in-1 with a QHD+ (2560 x 1600) display. New features include SafeShutter, which automatically opens or closes the webcam when you launch particular applications along with secure camera and mic mute keys. Other features for video conferencing include two top-firing speakers and another two bottom-firing speakers for a full surround sound effect, as well as four noise-cancelling microphones to reduce background noises. This model includes a ComfortView Plus display to reduce Blue Light, as well as a 5G option. Dell was one of the first to move to 16:10 displays with smaller bezels, which give you a bit more vertical space than the now standard 16:9 ratio. Dell also updated its premium Latitude 7000 series with 13-,14-, and 15-inch models, known as the 7320,7420, and 7520. The 13- and 14-inch versions are also available as 2-in-1s. There’s also the more affordable Latitude 5000 series (5320,5420,5520), with the 13-inch also available as a 2-in-1. They don’t have all the bells and whistles of the 7000 series, but have been redesigned to look more modern. (Here are my reviews of last year’s Latitude 9510 and 7410 laptops). Latitude 7320 A new entry is the Latitude 7320 detachable, a tablet with an optional keyboard that fits into the 7000 series, and follows in the pattern set by the Microsoft Surface Pro. Dell also upgraded its Precision 3560 mobile workstation. Optiplex 7090 On the business desktop side, the big news is the updates to Dell’s OptiPlex 3090 and 7090, which are designed to fit into the back of specific monitors, creating what Dell calls « a modular all-in one. » On the gaming side, Dell’s Alienware brand is updating its m15 (15-inch) and m17 (17-inch) laptops with Nvidia’s RTX 30 Series mobile GPUs. The new models feature faster RAM, and the availability of a 360Hz 1080p display for the m17, for those who want the fastest refresh. For desktop gamers, Dell has announced a new Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 with AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs, up to the 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X, with either Nvidia RTX 3000 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics. HPElite Folio HP made a big push on its lighter business machines in its CES announcements. The most unusual machine may be the Elite Folio, a more commercial version of the Spectre Folio, the interesting leather-like-bound notebook it introduced in 2019, with its « pull-forward » screen that you can place in front of the keyboard, or use as a tablet, with an included pen. The Elite Folio is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx platform, with optional 5G connectivity. More conventional but still flashy are updates to the Elite Dragonfly, a 13.
