CES 2025 Day 1: New laptops from Lenovo, Snapdragon X for desktops, Wi-Fi 7 routers, and more

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(Image credit: Lenovo)

CES 2025 is in full swing, and the announcements from some of your favorite hardware manufacturers are pouring in. Yesterday, we saw the announcement of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, new laptop CPUs from Intel, and a fresh slate of enthusiast processors from AMD.

Today’s announcements are just as exciting, with fresh systems from Lenovo, new hardware from Razer, new Wi-Fi 7 routers, and various odds and ends from every corner of the tech sector.

Lenovo unleashes new handhelds, 2-in-1s, and laptops

The handheld gaming PC market has been surprisingly active in the past couple of years, and Lenovo is keeping interest alive with its Legion Go S. This new handheld PC is powered by AMD’s newly announced Ryzen Z2 processor or the familiar Ryzen Z1 Extreme. You no longer get detachable controllers (a la the Nintendo Switch), but you do get an 8-inch 1200p 120 Hz display, up to 32GB of DDR6-6400, 1TB of storage, and a 55.5 WHr battery. The Legion Go 2 is available with either Windows 11 or SteamOS and will be priced from $499.

Lenovo is also ways looking for new ways to innovate in the portable space, and its latest line of Yoga convertibles is no exception.

The Yoga Slim 9i has learned a trick we've previously seen on Android smartphones: a camera mounted under the display. The 32 MP webcam is embedded in the display near the top bezel and is not visible when the camera is not in use. However, when you enable the camera, the pixels above the camera become transparent enough to provide enough light to function as a webcam.

In addition to the trick webcam, the Yoga Slim 9i is powered by a Core Ultra 7 258V processor, up to 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. It also has a 2880 x 1800 display with a 120 Hz refresh rate. Pricing starts at $1,849.

The Yoga Slim 9i is joined by the Yoga Book 9i (Gen 10), which features dual 14-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED displays mounted to a 360-degree hinge. Prices start at $1,999 for this system, which can be equipped with a Core Ultra 7 255H Intel Evo Edition CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. If you prefer a more value-conscious 2-in-1 ultraportable, the Yoga 9i Aura Edition starts at $1,599 and includes a 14-inch 120Hz OLED display paired with a Core Ultra 7 259V processor.

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Other new systems from Lenovo include the ThinkPad X9, which is available in 14- and 15-inch display sizes. It's MIL-SPEC 810H rated for durability, and 2.8K OLED displays are available across the board. Intel Core Ultra 7 processors are available, as are up to 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs and up to 32GB of RAM.

Finally, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 goes fully wild, thanks to its ability to expand its 14-inch display to 16.7 inches. It achieves this thanks to a rollable display that unfurls vertically. The display resolution jumps from 2000 x 1600 to a maximum of 2000 x 2350 in its fully extended position.

Once you get past the trick display, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6's other components are standard fare (Core Ultra 7 Series, up to 64GB LPDDR5x, 66 WHr battery). However, the system won't come cheap, thanks to its $3,499 starting price.

New Wi-Fi 7 routers from Asus and Netgear

Artificial intelligence (AI) is creeping into every sector of the hardware world, and wireless routers are no exception. Asus is even going so far as to put an actual dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) onboard its ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI Wi-Fi 7 routers. Asus claims that the NPU helps to "enhance" local processing speeds and reduce latency for gamers, resulting in overall increases in efficiency. There's also an onboard Micro Control Unit (MCU), which takes over primary tasks when the network is at idle.

The Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI gaming router with Wi-Fi 7

Other routers on deck from Asus include the RT-BE58 GO, a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 travel router with 4G/5G support, and the ZenWiFi BD5 Outdoor, which extends your wireless coverage outdoors (it's IP65 rated for water and dust resistance and supports POE).

Netgear also introduced a new router for CES: the Orbi 870. The Orbi 870 slots between the Orbi 770 and Orbi 970 and offers a tri-band Wi-Fi 7 setup and up to 9,000 square feet of coverage. The router features one 10 Gbps WAN port along with 4 2.5 Gbps LAN ports. Each satellite is equipped with four 2.5 Gbps LAN ports. A two-node system is priced at $999, while a three-node system will set you back $1,299.

Snapdragon X Elite desktops invade CES

For decades, the PC desktop market has traditionally been a two-horse race, with Intel and AMD vying for top honors. However, 2024 saw a newcomer in the form of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X family of Arm processors for laptops. While there have been previous attempts to creep into the PC market with Arm-based processors, Snapdragon X is the most credible threat to date.

Now, Snapdragon X is heading to the desktop with thanks to companies like Lenovo with its ThinkCentre Neo 50q QC and IdeaCentre Mini x. Not to be left out, Geekom also showed off the QS1 Mini PC, which measures just 135.5 x 115.5 x 34.5 millimeters and runs the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 processor.

Everything else....

We can't possibly go into extra detail on every single product that we saw at CES in this wrap-up article, so we'll direct you to our extensive coverage from Day 1 with the following stories.

Brandon Hill is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware. He has written about PC and Mac tech since the late 1990s with bylines at AnandTech, DailyTech, and Hot Hardware. When he is not consuming copious amounts of tech news, he can be found enjoying the NC mountains or the beach with his wife and two sons.

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