Speaker 1: It’s early in the year, but I’ve already got my wishlist of most anticipated laptops of 2022. Some of these are inform by news that was announced early in January at the CES show. Other ones are based on my own speculation about what I expect to see. And of course I’m saving room for surprises later this year.
Speaker 1: I think big picture wise for laptops in 2022, I anticipate that [00:00:30] a lot of them are going to have better webcams, full HD webcams, and frankly, they should have had those for years. And we’re still not realistically gonna see it in everything this year, but I’m still putting that on my must have list. I think we’re also gonna see a lot more products with integrated 5g laptops, tablets, hybrids, and we’re also going to see devices that have GPUs in them and maybe are not pitched specifically as gaming laptops because there’s a lot of graphics muscle out there to go around, but not everyone wants to be pegged as a gamer.
Speaker 1: [00:01:00] Number one on my anticipated laptops list for 2022 has got to be a new MacBook air. Now the last version of the MacBook air, we saw a little more than a year ago. It took the same basic look and feel of the air, but added Apple’s new M one chip replacing the Intel processors. That was great. But since then we’ve had new MacBook pro laptops that added even better chips, the M one pro and the M one max, and those added those full HD [00:01:30] webcams. So we could come back and see a refreshed air this year that might have an M two chip or maybe the M one pro or M one, max, hopefully that higher resolution webcam that apples slowly putting in all its computer. And maybe at this point, a new design because the old one has been around for a couple of years. Now,
Speaker 1: The Dell X PS 13 plus is also on my most anticipated list. I get a chance to see this in person just [00:02:00] before CES and is a really cool looking laptop up a new take on that classic X vs 13, which has always been one of my favorite, super portable 13 inch windows laptops. An interesting risk that this model is taking is getting rid of the headphones check. Even apple. Hasn’t done that yet for MacBooks, although maybe they will. So I’d be very interested to see how people react to that. They’re also getting rid of that function bar button row at the top. They’re replacing it with something that is kind of like the MacBook pro touch bar that doesn’t exist anymore. So it’s these [00:02:30] backlit touch sensitive function, key buttons, and it saves you some space and lets it make it a little bit thinner.
Speaker 1: I think it’s probably gonna be fine, but some people may object to not having that tactile sensation, especially on the escape key, but I really love the minimal look at this XBS 13 pro it even gets rid of the indented touch pad. There’s just a long piece of glass along the front edge of it. And the touch pad part goes from like, you know, past the space bar on this side to past the space bar on this side. Uh, but there’s no differentiation. You can’t actually see it. You just have to [00:03:00] kind of feel for it and develop some muscle memory for it. So between the no headphone Jack, the touch style function keys, and the lack of a discernible touch pad, this system is taking a lot of risks, but I think it looks very cool. And it’s great to try something new and different. You may love it. You may hate it, but you’re definitely gonna think it looks cool.
Speaker 1: I’m also looking forward to seeing the suits fold 17 now flexible screen laptops where the actual screen folds. These have [00:03:30] been around the computers for a couple of years now, but restricted to just a very small handful of systems and some prototypes that we’ve seen. But on the phone side, flexible screens are slowly becoming more useful. We’re finally getting into the second and third and fourth generation of these where they might actually be practical and people will use ’em as their main phones. The hook in this case is that this model is going to start with a big 17 inch basically of tablet screen that folds in half. And when you do that, you can use it as a smaller screen laptop, about a 12 and a half for 13 inch [00:04:00] screen laptop. That’s the size would be folded over, or you just keep the 17 inch screen fully open and prop a little Bluetooth keyboard in front of it. And there are a few other ways you can flip it around and bend it and use it. Now, will this actually work in real life? I think we’re gonna have to wait and see how the usability is compromised by having this big screen. That’s also folding screen, but if it’s even halfway decent, I think this is gonna be a big cult hit.
Speaker 1: One system I definitely [00:04:30] want to see is the HP elite dragonfly Chromebook. Now we’ve made the case for years that frankly, most people don’t need anything other than a Chromebook for regular, every computing for education stuff. We’ve really proven that one area where that has not really happened is in business and professional laptops. And that’s largely because you need extra apps on there where you need some, you know, it security stuff on there and they just won’t sign off on Chromebooks. Well, this dragonfly Chromebook is the first Chromebook that supports Intels [00:05:00] a Vero form. And that’s something it departments use to remotely manage your laptop and do security and updates and things like that. And frankly, it’s a, it’s a must have for some companies. So if you have a Chromebook that has that, you’ve crossed one of the major objections off the list. I’m also interested in this because it’s part of the dragonfly line, which is a really nice looking slick HP business line. It previously has been windows laptops, but not, they have a Chromebook version as well. And I think it’s going to be notable because it’s gonna be a high [00:05:30] end, very professional looking Chromebook. That’s targeted at businesses rather than everyday. You know, people surfing the web at home or students
Speaker 1: For now. I’m rounding off my list with the alien wear X 14. Now this is not gonna be the most powerful gaming laptop you see this year. It’s not even gonna have the most flashing lights. What it does do is [00:06:00] bring back a concept again from a few years ago where some companies were making smaller 13 inch gaming laptops. And I always thought these were really great because they let you have something that was portable and you can kind of get away with using as your everyday take around with your laptop. But it also had enough gaming muscle to be a gaming laptop as well because there are slim 15 and 17 inch gaming laptops out there, but it still have a really big footprint. You can’t really put ’em in your bag and take ’em to the coffee shop with you or on the tray.
Speaker 1: Now inside the slim 14 inch laptop, you can get up to an Invidia 30, [00:06:30] 60 GPU. That’s not the top end of the scale, but for a 13 or 14 inch laptop, it’s really good. And it also has a 1 44 herd screen you’d want that higher refresh rate for a lot of gaming. The jury is still out, or we have not heard really a lot yet about what the battery life is gonna be. I think that’s gonna be a big determining factor, whether this is gonna work for you or not. If the battery life works out, the price is not too high and the performance is decent because this is a 14 inch screen in what’s basically a 13 inch size its laptop body, and very thin. This could end up [00:07:00] being a really great hybrid of a gaming laptop and a travel laptop. And I’m looking forward to checking it out in person more so than I did a month or two ago when I got to get a really quick sneak peek at it.
Speaker 1: If you’d like to find out more about any of these laptops, check out the details in the description below. Now, we’re still early into 2022, but so far, these are the laptops that have jumped out at me at the ones I’m really looking forward to seeing. That’s why I’m calling them my most anticipated. I’m sure new systems will get added to the list as the year goes on. And I think what we’re gonna see a lot of is [00:07:30] the themes of devices intended for our hybrid work, from home work, from the office lifestyle, things built around making video community occasion easier and, uh, better looking because we’re all in these zoom meetings and other web meetings all day long. And of course, things that combine, uh, GPU and 5g and wr world laptop design. So we get some of the newest technology in things that are familiar to us, basically clamshell laptops, which we’re all still using. I think it’s a good place to end it. All right. I will see you later.
