PCs occupied a central place at CES 2022. We offer you an analysis and a summary of the major trends of the show, between the battle of processors against Apple and new folding design.
Each year, CES in Las Vegas sets major trends in the Tech industry. Two years after the start of the pandemic, the PC has resumed a central place in the lives of many people, in particular to support the transition to massive teleworking. CES 2022 was an opportunity for the PC to establish this place among the many novelties of the show to become the big trend. Here are the most interesting announcements to remember.
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Dell XPS 13 Plus: the refinement of the ultraportable
We don’t remember much, but with the XPS 13, Dell was one of the first players in tech to integrate a screen. borderless, long before smartphones. The firm is pushing the limits of what it is possible to offer in design for a classic ultraportable with the announcement of the Dell XPS 13 Plus.
Dell XPS 13 Plus // Source: Dell
The machine offers an LCD screen with ultra-thin bezels, without notch, while integrating a Windows Hello compatible RGB + IR camera above the display. Among the other innovations offered, we are entitled to a new keyboard with larger keys, with a line of tactile keys and a next-generation vibrating touchpad. A featherweight jewel of 1.24 kg.
Asus ZenBook 17 Fold Oled
If we had to retain only one PC unveiled at CES 2022, it would probably be the Asus ZenBook 17 Fold Oled. Not that we think it’s going to sell millions of copies, but it’s one of the first PCs to feature a foldable screen, which could represent one of the futures of computing. . Like what we know about the Galaxy Z Fold from Samsung, it is a PC capable of transforming itself according to the bending of the screen. The brand is not alone on the project, Intel wants to make the foldable PC the trend of 2022.
Samsung also presented its own concept of foldable screen PC, the Samsung Flex Note. In both cases, it is an ultraportable whose lower part (keyboard and touchpad) would be replaced by the second half of the touch screen, with a virtual keyboard. In this use, we could connect a Bluetooth keyboard to it to bring it closer to a more common PC. The whole point is to be able to unfold the screen to transform the device into a giant tablet, which can display presentations, video games or even series and films in SVOD.
Samsung Odyssey ARK
Samsung was present in force at CES 2022 to present many new features: screens of all kinds, the impressive switch to QD-OLED or the Galaxy S21 FE. One could also find there in demonstration the impressive Samsung Odyssey ARK: a monitor which pushes back the definition of a screen for PC.
Samsung Odyssey Ark // Source: Tim Schofield / The Verge
This 55-inch diagonal screen, which brings it closer to a television, offers several display modes. Vertically, it would be ideal for multitasking, while turning it would become perfect for video game sessions. This is the perfect example to illustrate the thinking of manufacturers: how to harmonize work at home and leisure with new hybrid products?
Alienware AW3423DW
The Alienware brand was at CES to remind us that the names of products in the PC world are still crystal clear with the presentation of, hang in there, the Alienware “AW3423DW”, all in simplicity. Joking aside, this screen has everything to please the most demanding gaming public as its technical sheet ticks all the boxes of the best specifications.
Alienware AW3423DW // Source: Dell
A 34-inch diagonal for a definition of 3440 x 1440 pixels with a refresh rate rising to 175 Hz, it’s already not bad. The best is yet to come: the screen uses a Samsung QD-OLED panel which should guarantee perfect blacks, but also nice support for HDR up to 1000 nits. The screen is Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate certified.
The processor octagon
Beyond new PC designs or screens straight out of science fiction, CES 2022 was also the battleground for one of the most important games of the year. No more two-player markets, now the battle is being played out between Intel, AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm to become the master of the PC against Apple. The release of Macs with Apple chips has shown that it is possible to offer great innovations in the field.
Acer Swift X and Intel Arc
The presentation of the Acer Swift X is a good demonstration of this new battleground. Acer will now give consumers the choice between a PC equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics chip, or an Intel Arc graphics chip.
Intel took advantage of CES to announce the arrival of its Intel Arc graphics chips in laptops as of this first quarter. The firm would subsequently like to offer graphics cards for office PCs. The challenge this time is to truly compete with AMD Radeon and Nvidia Geforce, from AI to video games. The brand particularly wants to rely on the promising Intel XeSS technology.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
2022 may be the year of the Ada Lovelace architecture and the GeForce RTX 4000s, but while waiting for what could happen at the end of the year, Nvidia has decided to push Ampere to its limits. We put all the counters to the maximum to create the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, the most powerful graphics card on the consumer market.
10,752 compute units, 24 GB of GDDR6X video memory, 450W of TDP, this is the graphics card of all superlatives. We can hardly imagine the quantities produced by NVIDIA and the actual price of the product on the market.
GeForce RTX 3050 vs Radeon RX 6500 XT: the match of accessible cards
Nvidia didn’t just have a super powerful and expensive card to present. The company also launched the GeForce RTX 3050 at $ 250 with the stated goal of helping gamers replace their GTX 900 or 1000 cards at a lower cost. Enough to run new generation games in Full HD at 60 frames per second and access new features such as DLSS and ray tracing.
On the left, an RTX 3050, on the right, an RX 6500 XT. // Source: Nvidia / AMD
AMD has not stood idly by. The firm presented the Radeon RX 6500 XT at CES, which will have to compete head-on with the GeForce RTX 3050. The price will especially be a little tighter, announced at 200 euros, and the graphics card offers the same promise: Full HD at 60 images per second on recent games. We will now have to wait for the tests to decide between them.
AMD Ryzen 6000
AMD was also present at CES to launch its new generation of Ryzen processors on laptops. Beyond a nice performance gain, always welcome, this is notably an opportunity for AMD to catch up with Intel on the technologies integrated into its platform.
From now on, AMD machines will be able to offer USB4 rivaling Thunderbolt, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 and PCI Express 4th generation. Promising processors which should allow AMD to stay within the good recommendations this year.
The 22 new Intel Alder Lake processors
Competition will be fierce between Intel and AMD in 2022. If AMD takes advantage of a performance lead, Intel may well catch up with its competitor with the 12th generation of Intel Core processors. With the Alder Lake architecture, Intel offers a hybrid architecture of a new kind and a smoothness of engraving at the height of the competition.
At CES 2022, Intel presented no less than 22 new processors that will soon be found in laptops or desktops.
Qualcomm wants to beat AMD and Intel
For several years, Qualcomm has been keen to gain a foothold in the PC market by marketing Windows-compatible Snapdragon SoCs. At CES, the brand launched the 3rd generation of its flagship, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3.
The chip is the first 5nm SoC marketed for Windows. It promises a performance increase of up to 85% compared to the previous generation. Qualcomm combines it with the Snapdragon X65 modem for a 5G speed of up to 10 Gbps. The Adreno graphics chip would offer up to 60% improvement in performance, to run games “in Full HD at up to 120 frames per second”.
We will now have to wait for the tests of the first PCs to embed all these solutions to see how AMD, Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm stand out.
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