At CES 2026, Seven Standout Windows Laptops

CES 2026 introduced some of the most exciting Windows notebooks in years, and vendors have placed big bets on lighter materials, longer battery life, creator-grade input, and bold displays. Here are the seven machines that distinguished themselves in the din — plus a trackpad titan designed for stylus-first workflows.

LG Gram Pro 17: Featherweight Without Compromise

LG attracted attention to its Gram Pro 17 with a new in-house alloy known as Aeronium, which is meant to reduce weight without giving ground on rigidity. LG is calling it the world’s lightest RTX laptop, and it throws into sharp relief how far material science has come for mobile PCs.

Under the hood, the Gram Pro 17 marries an Intel Core Ultra chip with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5050 and a high-res LCD screen, appealing to those creators who won’t compromise on performance for portability.

The 16-inch step-sibling switches to an OLED panel, adding the option of a bigger canvas or richer contrast for buyers.

Dell XPS 14 Comes Back Now Slimmer And Stronger! Read To Know More…

A slight tangent on nomenclature aside, the XPS brand is back — and the new XPS 14 looks like a mission statement for high-end Windows laptops this go-around. It runs on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 silicon, with a sharp 4K webcam and a high-density battery that Dell says can hit as high as 40 hours given ideal conditions.

Heralded as Dell’s smallest and thinnest 14-inch system in its class, the XPS 14 measures in at an incredibly light sub-3-pound weight.

The XPS 14 feels lighter than it looks with a new top cover process that uses an InfiniteEdge OLED to produce a higher screen-to-body ratio (92.9%) so every millimeter of the lid is in use without compromising strength or data protection. If last year was all about performance, this model feels like a battery and efficiency story — in a way that road warriors may actually appreciate.

Acer Swift 16 AI Sets a Trackpad Beast Loose

The boldest input redesign at the show goes to Acer’s Swift 16 AI. Its haptic supersize touchpad covers almost half the deck and serves as a drawing surface for MPP 2.5 pens (which fully charge in your laptop); the surface is coated in Corning Gorilla Glass. Yes, the stylus is included in the box — and no, it doesn’t feel like an afterthought.

The 16-inch panel hits 120Hz and covers the DCI-P3 gamut, which shows a serious creator orientation. Whether the mega-trackpad is transformative beyond art and motion work remains to be seen, but it’s among the first mainstream notebooks in years to rethink what’s under the keyboard — the lower half of a laptop chassis.

Alienware 16 Area-51: Desktop Power in Your Lap

Alienware’s Area-51 trims bulk for its 16-inch model but keeps the flagship swagger of its bigger sibling. For beefier specs, expect Intel Core Ultra HX-class processors, the latest Nvidia RTX graphics, and up to 64GB of RAM, along with a low-lag Cherry MX mechanical keyboard option that feels unapologetically gaming-first.

The star, though, is the cooling: Alienware’s Cryo-Chamber mixes cooler air into the components after significant load. For 3D pros and players that really haul their rigs, this 16-inch model looks like the sweet spot between performance headroom and an easily stuffable bag footprint.

MSI Prestige 14 AI Plus Pursues Ultralight Productivity

MSI is better known for gaming, but the Prestige 14 AI+ could be its most appealing productivity laptop yet. The chassis is about half an inch thick and less than three pounds, and MSI hasn’t given up cushy hardware goodies.

MSI is pairing an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H with a 120Hz OLED and more robust cooling. For creators who don’t require a dGPU yet still crave fast exports and on-device AI, this is the undercover MacBook Air rival designed with Windows-first workflows in mind.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist Has Purpose

Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus line has dabbled in flashy ideas before, but the Gen 7 Auto Twist finally gets functional. A motorized dual-rotation hinge allows the 14-inch 2.8K OLED to slide off to the side for easy sharing and then rotate back into vertical work — no elephantine tent modes here.

It’s got Intel Core Ultra Series 3 inside and Dolby Atmos speakers, so it reads well as a modern ThinkBook first and a clever demo second. Its narrow bezels around the hinge pull off a disorienting degree of presence when you use it in vertical orientation to read, code, or lay out documents.

Asus ZenBook Duo Goes All In on Dual OLED Displays

Dual-screen laptops tend to die on the hill of cramped secondary displays. Asus’ 2026 ZenBook Duo remedy for that comes in the form of two identically sized 14-inch OLED touchscreens, each at 3K and 144Hz with up to 1,000 nits peak brightness. A detachable keyboard makes the setup a true dual-monitor mobile rig.

Configurations go all the way up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H, and the chassis still achieves a 93% screen-to-body ratio. When closed, it is just about an inch thick and weighs a little under 4 pounds without the keyboard — trade-offs many mobile multitaskers will be willing to make for real side-by-side workspace.

Why These Seven Matter for the Next Wave of Windows Laptops

Combined, these laptops also hint at what’s next: lighter materials, OLED throughout, creator-first input, and batteries that go beyond the typical workday. IDC’s PC forecast points to an AI PC refresh cycle that is lifting demand, and these designs are obvious good fits for on-device AI with beefier NPUs and continued efficiency.

Pricing and more benchmarks are on the way, but early hands-on time indicates this isn’t just another spec bump year. From LG’s ingenious material breakthrough to Acer’s trackpad rethink and Asus’ utility dual panels, Windows laptops at CES 2026 actually seemed new — and that’s the biggest surprise of all.