CES 2024 Mobility: The Future of the Laptop

CES 2024 Mobility: The Future of the Laptop

PC makers talk products. That’s what they develop, and that’s what they sell. They don’t typically think about their press releases as an amalgam of disconnected features that roll up into various devices with little insight about why features arrive in one device and not another. Buyers also purchase a product, not a feature. But for buyers, most purchases start with a list of desirable features and then the search begins for which devices encompass the most desired features at the best price.

The aggregate list of features, then, becomes a critical insight from a conference like CES. This post is going to attempt to outline the key feature innovations that will likely spread across the market, depending on their adoption. Lenovo clearly states that some of the devices shown at CES are concepts, not products.

While some of those ideas may not be ultimately implemented as they were shown today, if I think they will be features of future laptops, I will list them here.

I will also list features that don’t necessarily appear in new laptop announcements but do appear as accessory features in anticipation of PCs, laptops and other devices adopting them.

CES 2024 Mobility: Future Laptop Features

Removeable display. Lenovo’s Thinkbook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid ships with a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display. Pull on the display, and it lifts off the keyboard and instantly becomes an Android tablet. The PC, under the keyboard, continues to work as a PC. If it is connected to an external display, Windows handles the loss of the main display just as it would with a headless PC running multiple monitors. With only minor software changes, Lenovo ensures that work on the Android tablet becomes available to the PC when the screen rejoins its keyboard.

The ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid offers some intriguing use cases for pen-based computing that 2-in-1 laptops don’t, including the ability to focus on an optimized pen-based OS for work that needs a pen while leaving the PC intact, continuing to offer PC-bound capabilities. With this laptop, people don’t need to make a choice between modes.

Functional trackpads. The Acer Swift Go 14 will ship with a trackpad that includes controls. The Swift Go 14 focuses on YouTube, but it doesn’t have to. The trackpad, when not being used as a trackpad, is just empty space. Although Apple just dropped its touch bar, the trackpad offers a more intriguing adaptive space.

AI software. Yes. AI is everywhere all at once. And Lenovo isn’t going to be left out. They demonstrated a generative AI chatbot aimed at managing the computing experience. Type in commands like “set to max performance” to invoke the CPU booster. For those of us who used to send commands via a terminal prompt, (and sometimes still do), this is more a modification of syntax than a revelation. AI’s Achilles heel on the laptop is the lack of voice-to-text, or more futuristically, direct voice commands.

I don’t think we know yet how generative AI will provide real user power. What we do know is that much of the cloud-based AI forces businesses to curtail its use because of privacy and intellectual property (IP) issues. AI running on local machines will eliminate that issue. The downside, as Lenovo pointed out, is that their on-device AI is limited to local content (and, by extension, I would think in-house servers mounted to behind-the-firewall computers).

Most current local AI will not process cloud-based content like that stored on OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box or iCloud. That limits the value of on-board AI as a tool for information management and discovery. I think that’s where the real value lies, but privacy, security, and IP complicate the value of AI turning information worker content into actionable insights, making it more findable and useable.

Years ago, I wrote about a concept encapsulated in the phrase, “information will find you.” Technology is moving in that direction, but we are a far way from realizing AI that consistently, and in all contexts, manages the last mile of automation.

On the adaptive front of AI, HP is announcing AI that understands location context and hunkers down security when away from a home or office. They are also using AI to optimize the performance of the laptop and the camera. Acer is also showing AI-enhanced hardware with Acer PurifiedView’s AI-boosted conferencing features, including BackgroundBlur, Automatic Framing, and EyeContact.

Attachable accessories. Apple shipped the iPad Pro with pins and magnets that directly connected to keyboards. That provided an underutilized idea. Apple’s higher-end iPad Pro keyboard employs Bluetooth®, not pins. Lenovo demonstrated a conceptual laptop that included MagicBay, demonstrating cameras, storage and even displays that attach at the top of the built-in display via the pins and magnets. Lenovo introduces magnetic accessories on the ThinkBook 16p Gen 5.

GPU Integration. There are two aspects to GPU integration. First, many high-end laptops will start shipping with discrete GPUs like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, or higher, like the RTX 4060 or 4090. That’s a general feature that will be common across high-end laptops. Lenovo offers another level of GPU integration via their new TGX port on the ThinkBook 14/Gen 6+.

Here is the description of the external GPU capability from the Lenovo press release:

“The ThinkBook Graphics Extension is an intelligent graphics solution that connects to the ThinkBook 14 i Gen 6+ via the TGX port. Built leveraging the innovation synergies between Lenovo and NVIDIA, the TGX dock supports up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX desktop GPUs, which can significantly boost AI computing power in association with the Intel Core Ultra processor and harness exclusive AI features.

NVIDIA RTX GPUs excel at parallelized work required to run generative AI models such as Stable Diffusion accelerated by NVIDIA TensorRTTM that help users generate images based on input text and images. The combined intelligence delivered by Lenovo, NVIDIA and Intel will transform the way users work and play. The TGX is also an ideal shared solution for hot desk environments in the workplace, where users can plug in their ThinkBook laptop14 and access the extra power needed for graphics intensive or AI-based tasks when needed.”

The TGX interface allows for full-speed interactions between the CPU and the GPU, which offer significant performance improvements over Thunderbolt-based GPU solutions.

On-chip AI processing. Apple started the neural processor with the M1 chip; though Intel had acquired neural processing chip capabilities, the neural features didn’t show up in the core until the new Ultra Core. As AI becomes pervasive, laptops with on-device neural processing will come from Intel Core Ultra and chips from AMD and Qualcomm.

The chargeable stylus. The LG Gram Pro ships with a chargeable stylus. Most PC makers have yet to figure out elegant ways to integrate a full-sized stylus. Although Apple surprisingly released a USB-C chargeable stylus recently (an odd choice), the future is all wireless charging, and the faster device makers move to wireless, integration full-sized stylus options, the more quickly writing and drawing will become more common.

Folding displays. HP’s Spectre Foldable 17-cs0097nr demonstrated the role displays may play in the future with a 17-inch display that folds in half, becoming a traditional clamshell with its keyboard and unfolding to spread itself horizontally with a massive display.

Thunderbolt 5. At Unveiled, I held a couple of new Thunderbolt 5 hubs. I have yet to see a Thunderbolt 5 laptop or PC. I know they are in the works. Accessory makers benefit from early adoption by launching devices that will be useful as PC makers adopt the new standard. Of course, Thunderbolt 5 is fully backward compatible with Thunderbolt 4 devices. What buyers won’t see is cheaper Thunderbolt docks, just faster ones, as those listening to the Thunderbolt standard still need to pay their dues to Intel and Apple.

Personalization. Finally, Lenovo addresses personalization with the ThinkBook 14 Gen 4, which includes an e-ink top shell that can be personalized with images and animation. I think this could go even further by offering insight into the state of the device through just a glance (such as a message like, “low battery”).