Best of CES 2025: The PC and home tech that blew us away

You never know what you’re going to get with CES. Of course, we knew we’d hear a lot about AI — check — and that there’d be announcements of new CPUs and GPUs — also check. But you just never know how the all the pomp and hoo-ha of this annual mega tech event is going to pay off in the real-world, for regular consumers. Does the average PC user have something to be excited about now that the veil has come off of this year’s product launches?

If the PCWorld staff is any indication, the answer is yes! We found plenty of cool products, innovations, and advances at this year’s show that are currently available or promise exciting things ahead. Our picks don’t stop at PC hardware, either. What’s CES without an array of goods for the tech-loving lifestyle? We note a few of our favorite home-tech products, too.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

I’ve never witnessed a PC product as hotly anticipated as the GeForce RTX 5090, unveiled by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during this year’s CES flagship keynote. And this monstrous graphics card lived up to the hype, at least on paper.

The RTX 4090 is still the fastest GPU on the planet and the RTX 5090 blows it out of the water in all key areas. It has an astounding 21,760 CUDA cores — 33 percent more than the 4090, and more than three times as many as the new RTX 5070. Nvidia graced the card with an ample 32GB of memory (the most ever for a GeForce GPU) and a humongous 512-but memory bus, a high-octane combo for no-compromises 4K gaming and AI workloads alike. And Nvidia’s overhauled DLSS 4 will tap dedicated AI cores to send performance soaring even higher in supported games.

If gamers even get a chance to buy it — even at $1,999, the RTX 5090 will be a screaming deal for AI researchers with all that memory. Everyone is going to want one. -Brad Chacos

Alienware Area-51

I’m not usually one for gaming laptops, but the newly resurrected Area-51 machine from Alienware might be the one that converts me. Not only is it filled to the brim with the latest and greatest hardware, but the Liquid Teal finish gives the chassis a unique iridescent sheen and it’s to die for. I love the departure from the cliched gamer look (i.e., black exterior with hot red accents), as unnecessarily flashy designs make me wince. I much prefer understated beauty. The underside of the laptop also has a clear window, which allows you to see all of the hardware inside — this is a nice touch. 

This laptop doesn’t shove its gamer identity down your throat. Instead, it stands tall in a quiet yet confident manner. -Ashley Biancuzzo

Lenovo Legion Go S, powered by SteamOS

Valve opening SteamOS up for other PC makers is a deeply exciting development for the industry, and as the very first SteamOS-powered handheld beyond the Steam Deck, Lenovo’s Legion Go S would’ve earned its spot here for that alone. But I’m buzzing about more than the software on this.

A big part of why the Steam Deck rocks is because it’s so affordable. Most of its competitors try to carve out niches with premium hardware and features — at much higher prices. But Lenovo partnered with AMD for an exclusive license to a more affordable version of AMD’s new game-changing Ryzen Z2 chip, appropriately dubbed “Ryzen Z2 Go.” By using older CPU and GPU cores, Lenovo is able to offer the entry-level Legion Go S for just $499 — giving gamers on a budget a much-needed Steam Deck alternative. -Brad Chacos

Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini x with Snapdragon

Lenovo announced that it’s bringing Snapdragon to mini desktop PCs. Now you can finally enjoy Copilot Plus with your desktop. While both the IdeaCentre Mini x and the ThinkCentre neo 50q are set for the upgrades, it’s the Mini x model that has me most excited.

With the option for either Snapdragon X or Snapdragon X Plus chips, up to 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, you can totally trick this thing out if you want. It also comes with Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and an incredible five total USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, plus an HDMI, DisplayPort, and ethernet port. I’m not quite sure what engineering wizardry they were able to conjure up over there at Lenovo, but whatever it is, it has me excited to get a new mini desktop PC this year. -Sam Singleton

Second opinion

I’m a mini PC convert. Late last year, I ditched a massive desktop for a mini PC running an Intel “Tiger Lake” Core i7. But now I wish I had waited a few more months to purchase the Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini x instead.

The Intel mini PC runs unbearably loud at anything but the most modest power settings, whereas the IdeaCentre Mini x, complete with a super-efficient Snapdragon X processor, should run much quieter, just like its laptop counterparts.

But even more importantly, I now want a desktop with an NPU for AI workloads. During a one-hour demo with Qualcomm, they showed off a bunch of content-creation apps that directly hook into Snapdragon NPUs. My mind started conjuring how the IdeaCentre Mini x could be a gateway into a whole new world of useful AI – starting with video and image editing (which I already do) but also running on-device LLMs.

Bottom line: I’m not sure how I’ll be using hardware-supported AI in 2025, because this whole AI thing is just taking off. But I know I want the option to do so, and having that hardware in a powerful, compact mini PC is just what I’m looking for. -Jon Phillips

Asus ROG XG Mobile eGPU

When it comes to the best of CES, my vote is for the 2025 Asus ROG XG Mobile eGPU and its awesome power and versatility. As if it wasn’t enough that it harnesses the power of up to Nvidia’s top-tier RTX 5090 chip with up to 150W power, the external GPU also supports Thunderbolt 5 connectivity for exceptionally high bandwidth. That means it benefits from Thunderbolt 5’s up-to-80Gbps bidirectional data transfer speeds.

Asus claims the eGPU can hit at least 64Gbps, which surpasses USB 4 and rivals OCuLink. I’m also chuffed by XG Mobile’s other port offerings, which include HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1, 5Gbps Ethernet, and an SD card reader. It also sports better cooling than last year’s model and its design weighs just 2.2 pounds. -Dominic Bayley

Second opinion

eGPUs have been a holy grail for fans of powerful computing in a small package, and the promise of Thunderbolt 5 could breath new life into this niche category. Asus debuted the next generation XG Mobile eGPU at the show, which includes more powerful specs and a complete redesign. Gone is the proprietary XG Mobile connection, now replaced with Thunderbolt 5 — the first eGPU to do so. TB5 brings a high-end future-proofed connection to the XG Mobile that will be more widely available than the XG Mobile connection, which is a worthwhile tradeoff in my opinion.

Speaking of high-end specs, this XG Mobile rocks the latest generation GeForce RTX 50 series laptop parts, debuting with the RTX 5090. The icing on the cake is the redesigned housing with a smokey translucent plastic which is drool-enducing. Yes, this eGPU will be costly, great power comes with great responsibility cost, and Asus stands alone as the last major vendor to continue offering such eGPU options. -Adam Patrick Murray

AMD Ryzen AI Max and HP’s Z2 Mini G1a

AMD’s Ryzen AI Max, previously codenamed Strix Halo, has been causing a furor in the PC leaks community for months now, and it’s easy to see why: It has a lot in common with AMD’s vaunted Threadripper chips. Threadripper debuted as a wild “jam this thing with all the cutting-edge tech we can” enthusiast project and Ryzen AI Max lives up to that legacy. Strix Halo pairs abundant Zen 5 cores and AMD’s powerful 50 TOPS NPU with more integrated Radeon CPU cores than any chip ever seen before, with support for up to 128GB of unified memory and 96GB just for the GPU. Wild!

That insane GPU + 128GB memory configuration will make this an absolute beast for AI workloads, which demand gobs of memory and fast graphics performance. “This is something very, very special,” said Rahul Tikoo, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s client computing business, in a recorded briefing for reporters – and he’s absolutely right.

Ryzen AI Max mostly targets laptops, but the most interesting launch partner instead crams this monster chip inside of a desktop mini PC. HP’s Z2 Mini G1a comes with loads of ports, the flagship 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395, 128GB of memory, and up to 4TB of SSD storage (you can add another 4TB yourself via an empty M.2 slot) — literally the maxed-out version of AMD Ryzen AI Max. AI professionals and students are going to go nuts for this wonderfully weird machine. -Brad Chacos

Asus Zenbook A14

The Asus Zenbook A14 is the company’s first laptop to use its unique ceraluminum finish, which bonds a ceramic exterior to an aluminum interior, across a laptop’s entire chassis (instead of just the display lid). It’s also built from magnesium-aluminum alloy, a common and lightweight material.

The result is a slim, portable laptop with a look and feel unlike anything else on the market. Picking up the machine reminded me of handling a premium notebook or a slim hardcover book. The Zenbook A14 weighs about 2.1 pounds and measures about six-tenths of an inch thick, with a claimed battery life of 32 hours (!!) thanks to the Snapdragon X chip inside.

The Zenbook A14 is my favorite laptop of all of CES 2025. It’s attractive, portable and, perhaps best of all, affordable at a starting price of $899. — Matt Smith

MSI Claw 7 AI+

After a rough launch last year, no one, myself included, would have imagined that less than a year later the 7-inch version of the MSI Claw would jump so high in mindshare and excitement levels. The switch from the underwhelming Meteor Lake based Intel processor to Lunar Lake is the most notable improvement, bringing much-needed graphics horse power and battery efficiency, but that’s not the whole story. From the outside it looks like a simple processor swap, but it’s important to note that MSI listened to feedback on the physical pain points of the device.

Like many others, I couldn’t stand the squishy bumpers that had a hard time activating evenly across the hinge. On top of that, the once almost flat-topped thumb sticks have now been replaced with a deep concave center encircled by a textured outer rim. There are other subtle, yet key improvements as well, which culminates in a redemption story like we’ve not seen in the handheld arena. -Adam Patrick Murray

SteamOS

Brad has already highlighted the Legion Go S, Lenovo’s portable sequel that uses an official build of SteamOS right from Valve. And that’s exciting on its own as a consumer product. But I’m more interested in SteamOS itself. While these are early days, I think it’s entirely possible that SteamOS could become a successful gaming-focused platform all on its own…which would spell big trouble for Microsoft. Windows 11 isn’t exactly winning people over, and they might be ready to look for an alternative at last. Imagine the very real possibility of a gaming laptop running the Linux-based SteamOS, sold directly to consumers. Wild. -Michael Crider

Razer’s Project Arielle

These days, I care less about how powerful my tech is and more about how comfortable I am while using what I have. It sucks to freeze in my chair while I’m trying to game in the winter, and it’s equally miserable in the summer with sweaty back stuck to my chair. Comfort is performance, if you ask me.

And that’s why the Project Arielle gaming chair speaks to me. It has a built-in bladeless fan system for cool airflow when it’s hot and an integrated heater for warmth when it’s cold, and it’s all conveniently managed via a control panel on the chair. Say goodbye to personal ACs and space heaters. Will Project Arielle ever go mainstream? Eh, probably not. But I’m quite smitten with the concept — assuming Razer keeps the price reasonable. -Joel Lee

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable

There are so many solutions for adding extra screen space for working on the road, from extra displays to foldables and more. Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable is a special machine, hiding what is essentially a second virtual monitor behind the screen, which can be unrolled when needed.

That seems to be extremely handy as well as structurally sound, at least based on my limited hands-on time. As a guy who totes external displays or even extra notebooks to serve as extra screens, this ThinkBook is one to watch. -Mark Hachman

Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3

As a certified Android fan, I lament that Android tablets have long been unable (and often even unwilling) to compete with the iPad Mini. A small, high-quality tablet is a nut that Google and its partners just can’t crack. That’s why I’m happy to see the Legion Tab Gen 3, an 8.8-inch Android “gaming” tablet. A smaller tablet makes sense for gaming (unlike Acer’s crazy 11-inch Steam Deck-style handheld), and that focus means a more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, roomy 12GB of RAM, and an upgraded screen and cooling system. Shame about the outdated Android 14 OS (don’t hold out for timely updates from Lenovo, either), but at least someone is giving this form factor a shot. -Michael Crider

Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi

xMEMs technology looks to revolutionize earbud audio, and the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi is my first experience with such a device. Earbuds don’t work well as CES demos (yuck) so Creative sent me home with the Aurvana Ace Mimi to evaluate, and I can easily say that my first 24 hours with them have been eye opening.

For a $130 set of earbuds it features top-end clarity that sparkles and clean low-end punch that just brings a smile to my face. While it does lack a couple features compared to other options, the listening experience can be worth the trade-off if audio quality is your top priority. I’m hoping I’ll get the same smile after 24 weeks of using the earbuds as I did in the first 24 hours. -Adam Patrick Murray

Secondary screens

I love tons of monitors around me, enabling multitasking work and feeding me tons of information and video all the time. That might not be great for my mental health, to be honest…but I’m still excited to double down on it. Corsair has a newer take on its dedicated desktop widget touchscreen with the 14.5-inch Xeneon Edge. This is essentially a mini-monitor, complete with USB-C and HDMI support. But if you want something a little less functional and more flashy, Govee has animated pixel displays that can live on your wall or desktop. The Gaming Pixel Light (which looks kind of like an upgraded Light Bright toy) can also double as an animated clock, weather widget, or sports ticker. -Michael Crider

Pawport Smart Pet Door

Give your favorite four-legged friend the freedom to come and go as they choose while keeping your home safe with the Pawport Smart Pet Door, a retrofit-style device that slides in front of an existing pet door.

With help from an included Bluetooth tag, the steel-and-aluminum Smart Pet Door ($499) senses when your pet approaches, opening its doors automatically, while a sensitivity gauge keeps the doors from accidentally closing on your furry friend. You can also control the door remotely with the Pawport app, while pet “curfews” can keep your pet inside during designated hours. -Ben Patterson

Stern Pinball: Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye

I love pinball. PCWorld does not cover pinball tables. That’s not usually a problem. This year, it is.

Stern’s latest table is rad. You do not play pinball; you pick a character and then level that character up as you play pinball, amassing treasure and loot and exploring dungeons and then eventually fighting beholders and gelatinous cubes and an animatronic dragon voiced by Michael Dorn. There are ramps, hidden trap doors, the works. Nerd bliss, all for $7,000.

I played for a half hour and didn’t want to stop. Stern even offered to send us one to try out. If you see a video on our YouTube channel, you’ll know my dreams have been answered. -Mark Hachman

LIFX Luna Lamp

With its first ever smart lamp, LIFX drew inspiration from an early product: its own SuperColor Ceiling light, an eye-catching, multi-zone fixture that won our Editors’ Choice award last year. Packing in 26 discretely addressable color zones, the Luna Lamp can be mounted on a wall or placed on a flat surface, like a countertop or a bedside table.

The Matter-enabled Luna Lamp also boasts a quartet of programmable buttons that can control either the lamp’s own settings or other nearby Matter devices — even without an internet connection, thanks to Matter’s device-to-device binding functionality. It’ll be available in February for $69.99. -Ben Patterson

Plantaform Smart Indoor Garden

Not everyone has the outdoor space for a garden, and even those who do might be limited by poor weather conditions during parts of the year. The Plantaform Smart Indoor Garden offers a cool and convenient alternative for growing produce at home, while also making for a captivating indoor showpiece!

A combination of fog and plant nutrients, cleverly dubbed “fogponics,” feeds up to 15 plants at a time in the windowed chamber. An accompanying app helps you monitor your plants’ progress, reminds you to fill water reservoirs, lets you change the lighting schedule, and notifies you when it’s time to harvest. The windows are all removable for easy access to your bounty.

Sure, at $500, plus $29.99 for Plantaform’s various plant pod packs, it’s not exactly the money-saving proposition you might associate with growing your own food. But you can’t beat the prospect of having a fresh-produce garden year round, requiring minimal work, that also looks so futuristically awesome, can you? -Katherine Stevenson

Feno Smartbrush 

One of the biggest obstacles to dental care is “compliance” – ensuring that we not only brush twice a day, but that we cover every portion of our teeth and gums. So, what if you didn’t have to navigate every nook and cranny inside your mouth? Would your compliance improve? This is what makes the Feno Smartbrush so intriguing. 

You insert this strange-looking device inside your mouth, and then 18,000 bristles work in concert to deliver 250 strokes per tooth. The whole process takes only 20 seconds. The system also includes smart features like an oral scanner and an app that lets you share data with your dentist. It’s a strange concept, certainly, but Feno maintains its brushing experience beats traditional electric toothbrushes for dental health. Available for $299. – Jon Phillips 

Author: Katherine Stevenson, Managing Editor, PCWorld