5 innovations in the CES 2021 notebook sector “smarter and stronger”

CES 2021 took place online, but nevertheless, a number of innovative PC technologies have emerged. In particular, innovation in the mobile field attracted attention, and Intel, AMD, and Nvidia all announced new CPUs or GPUs for notebooks. As a result, all major vendors have unveiled a new generation of cutting-edge notebook computer products. For the best announcement by product, please refer to 'CES 2021: The Most Interesting and Innovative PC Hardware Collection'.

Here, we want to go beyond specific products and highlight some of the most attractive notebook technologies unveiled during this CES. This year's CES, like the last CES, did not have many different and innovative concept PCs, which shows the difficulties the industry faced in 2020. However, we were able to confirm some features, features, and changes that indicate a bright future for notebook buyers, centering on gaming PCs that many users are interested in recently.

Asus Rogue XG Mobile

Asus ROG Flow X13 is a gaming laptop that weighs about 1.3kg and is 13 inches in size. Despite being so small and thin, Asus claims that the Flow X13 can outperform a much heavier desktop replacement notebook computer. Is it possible? Asus' ROG XG Mobile dock can be used together.

Asus ROG Flow X13 can be used with ROG XG Mobile to handle high-performance graphics tasks

Asus installed the Ryzen 9 5980HS and GeForce GTX 1650 on this product. The GTX 1650 is a dedicated graphics card that allows only moderate-level games to be enjoyed without problems. However, when you connect the Flow X13 to XG Mobile, the magic happens. The XG Mobile comes with NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX 3080 built-in and supports several useful ports. Improving notebook computer performance with an external graphics dock is not a new concept. Razor Blade Stealth was such a product. However, most of these products used large docks with very large desktop graphics cards.

Rogue XG Mobile uses Nvidia's Mobile RTX 3080 instead of a desktop graphics card. It's not upgradeable, but Asus made it a small, lightweight dock about 1kg to fit in a custom carry bag with the Flow X13. Unlike other discrete graphics solutions, it's a size and weight that can be easily carried when needed. Because of its flexible design, I usually carry only a laptop computer lightly, and I can only connect and use Rogue XG Mobile for playing games at home or for creative work that requires high performance in the office.

'Level up' of notebook computer displays

What is the most notable trend? Notebook panels are expected to be significantly 'leveled up' in 2021, mainly for game products. However, the trend is not limited to gaming laptops.

Most gaming laptops tend to offer some standard specifications. First, take a 1080p 60Hz display as an example. If you're lucky, you'll also find a 144Hz panel. There are also expensive 4K 60Hz products. All have an aspect ratio of 16:9. These specifications are becoming more and more diverse.

The upgraded laser blade offers the most impressive display

What's the most interesting change? Laptops with 1440p displays are on the market thanks to Nvidia's convincing panel makers and notebook computer makers. Last year alone, we lamented that there was no 1440p laptop computer, but at this year's CES 2021, Lenovo, Acer, Razer, and Asus announced 1440p gaming laptops. Finally, the 1440p gaming laptop appeared.

As faster displays become commonplace, most major notebook makers are expanding their options for 'faster refresh rates'. In the past, the high-speed 144Hz and 300Hz+ 1080p displays were only used in high-end products, but now they are also adopted in general notebook computers such as the MSI Stealth 15M, Alienware m17, Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, and upgraded Laser Blades. Some notebook computer products boast 240Hz 1440p, a combination of the two trends.

The display of ordinary laptops is also changing. The Lenovo Region 7 has a 16:10 aspect ratio instead of the very common 16:9, and the HP Elite Folio has a 3: 2 aspect ratio display. As the screen stretches vertically, there is more space available for working with spreadsheets. The HP Elite Dragonfly G2 is equipped with a 1,000-nit brightness display and features a SureView feature that prevents peeping from the side. The Alienware m17's 4K display supports pairing with Tobii Eye Tracking. Lenovo has partnered with TUV Rheinland to introduce a panel that reduces blue light levels to prevent eye strain. The options are expected to increase continuously.

Webcam with improved performance

Everyone uses Zum to take classes and work. Considering this, it is natural that new laptops in 2021 pay a lot of attention to webcams. This is a welcome change. Most gaming laptops still use that kind of 720p webcam, but MSI GE76 Radar Dragon Edition and Alienware's new laptops feature 1080p webcams.

The HP Elite Dragonfly Max supports a new everyday environment of video conferencing with additional microphones, audio features, and a 5MP camera

But the leader in this field is HP, which puts a lot of emphasis on the webcam performance of business notebooks. The HP Elite Dragonfly Max is equipped with a 5MP webcam with four times the pixels of a typical 720p webcam. There is a manual camera switch that disables the webcam, and it has 4 microphones instead of 1 or 2, so the audio quality is excellent. HP has also introduced a number of technologies to improve and enhance audio performance. HP Audio Boost, which reduces noise, HP Sound Calibration, which optimizes the signal for your hearing, and HP Dynamic Audio, which lets you adjust the sound quality of voice, music, and movies. For example.

On the other hand, the consumer-focused product, the HP Envy 14, uses a 720p webcam with a physical shutter. However, it supports 'HP Enhanced Lighting', a self-portrait lighting display function that can make you look better during video meetings. Because the audio needs to be as clear as video, HP has also applied an AI tool that filters out the background noise from the microphone on both notebooks and the elite Dragonfly G2 described earlier. I hope other notebook manufacturers this year will follow HP's move.

Faster but not hot gaming laptop

I won't go over the technical details here, but there is a trend for gaming laptops for hardware enthusiasts. The popularity of resizable BAR (Base Address Register) for notebooks and liquid metal compound paste for CPUs is increasing.

The resizable BAR feature gained interest as AMD introduced smart access memory to its desktop Ryzen 5000 CPUs and Radeon RX 6000 GPUs. This feature reinforces the standard PCIe specification that has not been properly utilized. The resizable BAR (and smart access memory) allows the CPU to fully use all the memory capacity of the GPU without the limit of 256MB. Performance improvements will vary greatly depending on the game, resolution, and settings. However, according to PCWorld's Radeon RX 6900 XT test results, it can deliver up to 10% performance improvement.

The resizable BAR allows the CPU to fully utilize the GPU memory

Resizable BAR is also being introduced in notebook computers. NVIDIA announced that the new GeForce RTX 30 series notebook GPUs will support the resizable BAR. Intel supports this in the new 11th-generation Tiger Lake H35 chip. AMD didn't mention smart access memory when introducing the Ryzen 5000 Mobile, but given that the desktop chip sparked this trend, it's clear that laptops will support it. Meanwhile, Nvidia said the resizable BAR will work on both Intel and AMD's newly announced chips. 

Liquid metal has become popular among desktop overclocking enthusiasts. This is because it provides a much better cooling performance than conventional thermal pastes. Unfortunately, it is not easy to introduce it into mass-produced products because of its flowing properties and reacting properties to aluminum. For laptop applications, high-efficiency liquid metal, which has a mercury-like flowing property, must be prevented from flowing into the CPU and causing failure.

Asus and Lenovo have found a way. Lenovo announced that it will be used on all gaming laptops, all regional models. Asus applies to all ROG laptops. In fact, ASUS introduced Liquid Metal even when the 10th generation of Intel mobile processors appeared.

However, it remains to be seen whether the function for 'nerd' will become a mainstream function. Laptops with Liquid Metal will have much less fan noise and will be able to use the turbo boost clock speed longer.

Surface's replaceable SSD

Surface Pro 7+'s new SSD tray

At CES 2021, Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 7+, a commercial version of its flagship convertible model. It is equipped with Intel's latest Tiger Lake chip and supports LTE. However, the noteworthy part here is that the user can replace the SSD.

Most notebook products aren't new, but the Surface has been very difficult to upgrade, just like Apple. This change could be a new trend for Microsoft. In the future, we look forward to including storage replacement in consumer Surface models.

Next-generation wifi

Although not revealed at CES 2021, there are new technologies that are expected to appear on the market in the near future. On January 7, a few days before CES began, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced its Wi-Fi 6E certification program. It is a 6GHz spectrum-based wireless technology and is a relatively uncongested band. It is expected to significantly improve the network speed that is currently using the congested 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

The Linksys AXE8400 Wi-Fi 6E router provides a 5Gbps WAN port and four Gigabit Ethernet ports

Router manufacturers have also announced Wi-Fi 6E router products. For major notebook manufacturers, only the top-of-the-line MSI GE76 Radar Dragon Edition was equipped with Wi-Fi 6E at CES. However, sooner or later, the number of products supporting this is expected to increase. For reference, there are many laptop manufacturers that boast Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, but it is not a 6GHz-based technology like Wi-Fi 6E. It has changed the branding of the existing protocol called 802.11ax, which is fast, but not Wi-Fi 6E.