HP, Acer, and Asus unveil new laptops

If you’re in the market for a new laptop, but don’t want to take the Mac route, there’s a lot of new hardware debuting at CES 2019.

There are a lot of new laptops being unveiled at CES 2019 from the HP, Acer, and Asus. From HP we have the EliteBook x360 830 G5 2-in-1 laptop that is aimed at the business user who values privacy.

Cornerstone to the EliteBook x360 830 G5 2-in-1 is that the 13.3-inch display can be optionally kitted out with HP’s Sure View integrated privacy feature.  By tapping the F2 key the user can activate a polarizing filter that dramatically limits the display’s viewing angle.

For the ultra-paranoid, there’s also a webcam slider.

Powering this display is some high-end tech, including processors up to an 8th Gen Core i7 CPU, up to a 2TB of SSD storage, and up to 32GB of RAM. There’s a good selection of ports too, including two USB-C ports, two USB 3.1 inputs, an HDMI, a headphone jack, a SIM card slot, and an optional Smart Card reader.

The only downside is the graphics, which is limited to the Intel UHD Graphics 620 GPU.

The EliteBook x360 830 G5 2-in-1 will go on sale in March, but as yet no pricing has been announced.

The HP Spectre x360 15 also gets an upgrade, in the form of an OLED display, although beyond that, and an expected availability date of March, we don’t know much else about this system.

For those who like Chromebooks, HP has its first AMD-powered system. The HP Chromebook 14 AMD will feature AMD’s A4 or A6 processor with integrated Radeon R4 or R5 graphics. Beyond the new silicon, these are pretty standard Chromebooks, featuring 1,366×768-resolution 14-inch display, 4GB of memory and 32GB of storage.

The Chromebook 14 AMD will be available this month, with prices starting at $269.

From Acer we have the updated Swift 7, where the company took the world’s thinnest clamshell laptop and made it smaller (and a shade thicker). The previous Swift 7 came in at 8.98mm thick, while the new one goes up to 9.95mm, but Acer has slashed its footprint by shrinking the bezel down to 3mm, giving it a screen-to-body ratio of 92 percent.

Another interesting aspect to the Swift 7 is that it’s one of only a few laptops to make use of Gorilla Glass 6 for the display.

Prices start at $1,699 for a system kitted out with Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, with the specs expandable to 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

From Asus we see new TUF gaming laptops featuring AMD’s new 3000-series Ryzen CPUs and Radeon discrete graphics. Aimed at those looking for a budget gaming laptop, the FX505 and FX705 feature AMD’s new Ryzen 5 3550H CPU and Radeon RX 560X discrete graphics.

Despite being budget systems, these laptops can be kitted with up to 32GB of RAM, and meet military-grade MIL-STD-810G standards for toughness, tested to withstand extreme environments, ambient vibration, and accidental knocks.

The Asus FX505 and FX705 are slated to ship in March, but as yet no pricing has been announced.