The most exciting laptops of 2022 might not be the ones you’ll actually buy. In some cases, these are devices that push the boundaries of what’s possible – or even practical – by experimenting with different form factors and next-gen technology.
Then there is the special. cutting-edge design that truly anticipates your needs as a laptop user. These often end up being the best laptops you can buy. Will any of these new laptops in 2022 strike that balance? I can’t wait to find out.
Dell XPS 13 Plus
One of the most controversial new laptops at CES this year, the Dell XPS 13 Plus is the kind of device designed to get people talking. This is a laptop that swaps the XPS brand for something that’s both more experimental and more familiar. Gone is the “woven” carbon fiber material made famous by the last five years of XPS laptops. In its place is a much more conventional all-aluminum chassis, with a darker color option and a lighter color option.
However, the controversy around the design is mostly about the ports and the keyboard. You only get USB-C here – even a headphone jack hasn’t been included. This is enough to discourage some people. But to take it a step further, the XPS 13 Plus also replaces the standard function keys with capacitive touch buttons. No, it’s not a Touch Bar, but it does provide haptic feedback in the same way.
The seamless glass on the palm rests, combined with a new haptic trackpad, is visually stunning. Just like the overall design itself. Add one of Intel’s new 28-watt P-series processors and you have a laptop that I can’t wait to test and explore further.
Macbook Air
The MacBook Air M1 was a great laptop when it launched in late 2020 – and it still is. But it used the exact same chassis as the pre-M1 MacBook Air, and rumors of a redesign piled up. Most reports point to a new design that takes inspiration from the 24-inch iMac, which sports white bezels, a number of bright color options, and an extremely thin chassis.
With design cues taken from the late 2021 MacBook Pro, we might even see the ultrathin bezels and webcam notch rolling out on this new MacBook Air as well. These are just rumors and conjectures, but it’s clear that Apple is working on a major redesign of the MacBook Air (which may end up being renamed MacBook), and it’s one of the most anticipated new laptops from 2022.
Asus Zenbook 17 times
Foldable screens tend to draw crowds, and the Zenbook 17 Fold is the latest and most exciting of the bunch. That’s because it uses a larger 17-inch screen, making it a huge tablet. However, when folded into laptop mode, you have a full 12.5-inch 3:2 screen to work with. It’s big enough to feel like a legit laptop replacement, unlike the ThinkPad X1 Fold, which looked more like a netbook 15 years ago.
Screen and hinge quality, of course, are also important factors in a device like this. Have foldable laptops caught up with the latest foldable phones in terms of durability? We will have to wait and see.
Microsoft Surface 5 Laptop
The Surface Laptop is one of the lines that Microsoft has been constantly updating every year since its launch in 2017. This inevitably means that we can expect the Surface Laptop 5 to launch in 2022, but what is it? who makes such a long-awaited version?
Well, the Surface Laptop’s design has remained unchanged for the past five years, and while it’s still sleek, it needs an overhaul. After seeing what Microsoft has achieved with the Surface Pro 8, I’m thrilled that those same features are rolling out to the company’s flagship laptop as well. I’m hoping for thinner bezels, better performance, an improved webcam, and maybe even Thunderbolt support. Microsoft has also experimented with different processors on its Surface devices, whether using AMD on some models or even its own ARM-based chips on others.
With an increasing number of processor and graphics options available, we hope the Surface Laptop 5 will continue to lead the way in more choice and better performance.
Asus ROG Flow Z13
The ROG Flow Z13 is the only gaming laptop I included in the list. Its radical design is too interesting not to mention here, combining a discrete GPU in the form factor of a Surface Pro. That’s right – the Flow Z13 really is a 2-in-1 tablet, with a kickstand and detachable keyboard.
But it’s the idea that Asus has packed an RTX 3050 Ti and an AMD Ryzen 5000-series processor into a tablet that makes me curious. It seems impossible. Based on the success of last year’s ROG Flow X13, I’m cautiously optimistic about the power of the Flow Z13. With this device, Asus has created the smallest gaming laptop ever. If it can pull off a similar feat with the Flow Z13, I’d be willing to count it among the most impressive PC gaming innovations of 2022.
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus 3rd Generation
OK, let’s end with something downright weird. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 does two things I haven’t seen before. First, it has a 21:10 aspect ratio screen, which essentially makes it an ultra-wide laptop. As if that wasn’t bold enough, the device also integrates an 8-inch touchscreen into the keyboard, just to the right of the keyboard itself.
That makes it a unique laptop, and you can probably imagine how you could use all that extra screen. The ultra-wide panel, for example, would be ideal for having two windows open side by side. The touchscreen, on the other hand, is perfect for note taking and illustration, especially since it sits on a flat surface, unlike writing directly on the laptop screen. . The system also treats the second screen the same as an external monitor, meaning the possibilities are endless for what you could do with it.
