According to the Digital Trend technology report, premium laptops outperform the standard design factor every year, and this year is no different with experiences ranging from small second screens to new proprietary outlets for energy efficiency.
These may or may not qualify for our best laptop lists, but they are worth considering for being very different and the only laptop to pick up the otherwise stiff and light 13 “laptop and add a 12” e-ink display on the cover. We know about the integration of technology in 2021, and it is unique to fans of low-power e-ink technology and easily readable in bright lights.
As a laptop, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 is similar to the ThinkBook 13x, a thinner and lighter device aimed at smaller businesses with a 16:10 primary display and 12-inch e-ink screen with 2560 x 1600 resolution with the same aspect ratio. Both screens are stylus enabled, with the stylus sliding on the docking board on the side of the laptop, keeping it charged. The e-ink screen is slightly slower than other stylus-enabled monitors, but it works, and it’s like writing on a piece of paper.
You can use the e-ink screen to read ebooks and any other information that does not require a fast update rate – e-ink will be slow to switch from one image to another. Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio plays its part in Microsoft’s Surface Line innovations.
The Surface Teasable Tablet, now in its eighth generation with the Surface Pro 8, launches a new form factor. The latest in the Surface Book 3 laptop series with cut-out displays. We now have the Surface Laptop Studio, which has a 2-in-1 convertible, retractable design and a traditional clamshell laptop similar to a tablet. The Surface Laptop Studio did not initially incorporate this design. That distinction also goes to the HP Specter folio, where it is repeated on the HP Elite folio (see below), and the Acer’s ConceptD 9 and others in this series use the forward pull design.
But in 2021 Microsoft created the only all-metal version that incorporated faster components to make a laptop that could meet the needs of productive users and creators. The Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15 UX582 OLED screens were a huge success in 2021, and Asus adopted the technology that no one else has – and is more controversial than most. The ZenBook Pro Duo 15 UX582 takes the company’s love of OLED, amplifies it, and adds a second OLED display to the top of the keyboard, adding many features that add a beautiful basic OLED panel.
Aimed at creators, the ZenBook Pro Duo comes with a fast Intel H-Series CPU and unique GPU, making it powerful enough to handle challenging creative workflows.
The second OLED display is very useful for controlling complex applications like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro, with applications that extend the interface and provide new ways to get the job done. HP Elite Folio The HP Elite Folio is another laptop with a forward-forward 2-in-1 design, similar to the spec Surface Studio laptop above.
But this piece is about demo laptops, and what distinguishes the Elite Folio is that its hinge is made of “vegetarian skin” (i.e. polyurethane). It gives a softer, warmer, more inviting feel than the cool, hard metal feel of Microsoft’s design. The Elite Folio is a portable laptop with a slim design built around a 13.3-inch display and Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 ARM processor (slightly suppressed by vegetarian skin texture). This limits its performance to unwanted productivity workflows and increases battery life, although unlike some other ARM laptops. Asus ROG Flow x13 The Asus ROG Flow x13 is one of the few 13-inch gaming laptops that makes it a different kind of device.
Packing high quality components in such a small chassis is an engineering achievement and Asus was able to match the ROG Flow x13 with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS processor to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti for extreme CPU performance. The ROG Flow x13 is a fast entry-level gaming laptop packed with a compact chassis that shares with the Razer Blade Stealth 13. But Asus has a twist – an external PCIe interface that integrates with the (expensive) XG Mobile GPU case that comprises the Nvidia GeForce RTX3080. This puts the ROG Flow x13 in a class based on mobile gaming power and scalable performance.
