CES 2021 will be nothing like CES 2020.
Angela Lang / CNET
This story is part of CES, where our editors will bring you the latest news and the most popular articles from the all-virtual CES 2021.
Many of us have drastically changed the way we work in 2020, leaving the office behind and working mainly from home. The idea of having a work computer in the office and a personal computer at home also went out the window, and now we are looking for our devices to do more and serve in various roles, which is the boundary between consumer and calculators further fade.
But due to the long development cycle of new laptops, desktops and tablets, no computer manufacturer could take these colossal shifts realistically and manufacture them in new products in time for CES 2021. But what they can do is move the story and the new or updated products that are more suited to current reality.
Put another way, expect to see a lot of business laptops at CES 2021.
One of the best in 2020, the Dell Latitude 9510.
Josh Goldman / CNET
Everything works, no game
A year ago, at CES 2020, we saw many prototypes, experimental designs and new game consoles – many products with a fun consumer focus. This year it will be a little quieter.
Instead of first-generation folding screens and colorful gaming equipment, the focus will be on laptops with better webcams, better microphones and better security features. Basically the things your IT department would look for on a new laptop. It may not be that flashy, but it’s what many people need right now.
If we learned anything in 2020, for example, it was that most laptops have really bad webcams. Spend enough hours a day at Zoom meetings and it starts to get very important. Models with enhanced hardware, or at least enhanced software to polish the camera image digitally, will get a huge marketing push. Physical shutters for webcam will continue to become popular.
Not so much for 5G, which just started filtering in laptops last year. Since Wi-Fi at home replaces the need of many workers for reliable travel connections, I doubt we will see 5G antennas in every laptop. instead, it’s just an option on a handful of higher end enterprise systems.
A very Chromebook year
The other great thing we learned in 2020 was that Chromebooks can solve most of our laptop problems. Do you need a cheap and reliable laptop for a distance learning child? Chromebook! Do you need a computer for parents or grandparents that you do not need to fix? Chromebook!
Especially with so many families needing a separate device for each household member, especially one per student, Chromebooks saved the day in 2020.
Chromebooks have been part of the mix at every recent CES, but I suspect we’ll be bringing this to the fore this year, especially given the uncertainty surrounding the rollout of COVID vaccines and the moving target for any return to ‘normal’.
Every computer maker wants to get $ 250 Chromebook business out of the cheap basement, so look for slightly upgraded models. Honestly, a $ 500 Chromebook can offer a much more premium experience in design, materials, and performance than a $ 500 Windows laptop, so this is now my ChromeOS sweet spot.
No updates are expected on the Alienware computer concept of the handheld game.
Sarah Tew / CNET
For computer games, a rebuilding year
We’re in the middle of a big, new era in video games. Unfortunately for PC hardware fans, all the excitement lies around the next generation consoles, the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X.
This new cycle, which takes place every seven years or so, places tentatively sealed lounge cabinets at the top of the playground. After all, with $ 500 (or $ 300 for the smaller Xbox Series S), you get beam tracking, HDR lighting, and other high-end GPU tricks that were previously only available on much more expensive gaming computers.
But the clock is already ticking on the PS5 and XBX. The hardware inside is amber frozen, slowly aged and doomed to get further behind PC hardware annually. That said, I would not expect too much more, and the official CES topic page for games currently looks very sad.
At least one big jump is expected. At least according to informed speculations, we’ll see laptop versions of Nvidia’s 3000 series graphics cards. It makes for more powerful gaming laptops – maybe even some that can make Cyberpunk 2077 look good …