PC users to see a need for speed
Industry looks to embrace a 5G future
While it has been a challenging week on the general news front, for those interested in the PC business, it’s been an incredible one.
While the overall amount of detailed product news from this year’s CES show is lower in most categories than in years past, the PC-related introductions have been coming out at a torrential pace – likely due to the category’s recent success.
On top of that, several impressive debuts from big PC chip suppliers including AMD, Intel and Nvidia mean significantly faster and more power-efficient machines are on the near horizon. Finally, we’ve started to see the PC industry really embrace 5G as a critical new technology for its latest laptops. To put it succinctly, it’s a good time for PCs.
Hardware changes
From a device perspective, things officially kicked off last week with launches designed both for business and work-from-home situations, as well as consumer-focused applications, such as gaming, learn-from-home and more.
First up was Dell’s introduction of several new business-focused Latitude notebooks, including the Intel 11th generation Core CPU-powered 9420 and 9520, both of which offer optional 5G support.
Samsung debuted the second edition of its Intel-powered Galaxy Chromebook 2, which, at $549, is roughly half the price of the version it first brought out last year.
Microsoft also surprised many with an updated version of its Surface, dubbed the Surface Pro 7 Plus, featuring removable SSD storage, which doesn’t offer 5G, but is the first Intel-powered Surface Pro to offer LTE connections in nearly four years.
5G comes to your lap (top)
Both Lenovo and HP debuted ultrathin and lightweight 5G-equipped laptops at the show, along with a huge
number of other 5G-capable designs. In fact, during the AMD keynote delivered by CEO Lisa Su, Lenovo’s chairman Yang Yuanqing made a point to emphasize the company’s commitment to bringing 5G to a majority of its product lineup this year.
A recent example is its ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga, which at just 11 mm in depth, is the thinnest ThinkPad the company has ever introduced.
The newest lightweight, 5G-capable offerings from HP are the expanded Dragonfly series, including the Elite Dragonfly G2 and the Elite Dragonfly MAX, which offers a 5MP webcam and extra microphones for improved performance during video calls.
The desk experience looks bigger, brighter
In addition to PCs, several vendors offered enticing new large-screen monitors.
As many of us who are working/ learning/gaming at home have discovered, the benefits of big displays are as enormous as their sizes suggest.
Dell, for example, showed off a 5K x 2K resolution 40” curved monitor, as well as Microsoft Teams-certified 34inch, 27-inch and 24-inch models. HP, for its part, had 32-inch, 27-inch and 24inch borderless displays, as well as 27inch and 24-inch models with integrated USB-C ports, making it easy to connect multiple peripherals.
On the component front, what has been fascinating is how the increased competitiveness of AMD, for both its CPU processors and GPU graphics chips, has triggered strong counter reactions from Intel on the CPU (and soon, GPU) side, and Nvidia on the GPU side. It’s a textbook example of how strong competitors can move an industry forward at a rapid pace – best of all, it’s something from which we can all benefit.
At its news conference, Intel introduced four new lines and 50 (!) versions of its 11th generation Core mobile processors, including some targeted specifically for business, some for gaming and some for overall productivity in ultrathin designs.
In addition, the company unveiled its Evo vPro platform for enterprise PCs that combines the business-focused security benefits of vPro with the customer experience and system responsiveness-focused requirements of its new Evo-branded consumer PC platforms.
AMD answered with the debut of its new Ryzen 5000 series mobile CPUs, with more than a dozen different varieties targeted toward high-performance applications (the H-Series) as well as thin ultramobile designs (the U-Series). In addition to faster performance, the company said the new chips could last up to 21 hours on a single charge for movie playback.
Gaming update
Finally, tapping into the tremendous interest in PC gaming, Nvidia unveiled both a new low-cost desktop GPU, called the GeForce RTX 3060 (priced at $329), and a new range of laptop-focused GPUs based on its latest Ampere architecture that the company is calling the GeForce RTX30 Series, all of which support its real-time ray-tracing technology.
All told, the CES announcements included an extensive range of new PC options, which clearly highlights how much activity and innovation continues to occur in PCs – a market that some had written off as nearly dead just a few years back.
Add in the benefits of 5G connectivity, and it’s clear there will be vibrant PC market for many years to come.
USA TODAY columnist Bob O’Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, a market research and consulting firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. His clients are major technology firms including Microsoft, HP, Dell, Samsung and Intel.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.