Best of IFA 2019: Top New Laptops, Tablets and Peripherals
For four days, the Laptop Mag crew has been zigzagging all across Berlin for IFA 2019 to fins the hottest new laptops, peripherals and tablets for your viewing pleasure. Here are the best gadgets we spotted on the show floor, from stunning productivity behemoths to innovative gaming laptops that offer slim designs and blisteringly fast displays.
Best in Show: Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro X
If you're looking for the ultimate productivity laptop, look no further than the Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro X . This is a 17.3-inch machine wrapped in a 15.6-inch sized chassis that sports a 16:10 display. If that isn't enough room for you, the StudioBook Pro X has a second display on board, Asus' ScreenPad 2.0, built into the touchpad. Now combine that with beefy specs like an Intel Xeon E-2276M processor, an Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 graphics card and 128GB of RAM. You're not going to want this one to pass you by. — Rami Tabari
Best Gaming Laptop: Acer Predator Triton 500
A 144-Hertz refresh rate, psssh! That's so passe. The new hotness is gaming laptops with 300Hz. The Acer Predator Triton 500 is one of the first to market with the new panel, which promises buttery-smooth graphics. The panel only has 1 millisecond of latency, which in a first person shooter, is the difference between victory and defeat. In addition to the groundbreaking display, the notebook has a powerful 9th Gen Core i7 processor. — Sherri L. Smith
Best Workstation: Asus ProArt StudioBook One
Asus' ProArt StudioBook One is the first laptop to boast an Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 GPU, so it's no surprise that it wins our Best Workstation award. If that's not enough to get your content creating buzz flowing, then its gorgeous 15.6-Inch, 4K, 120Hz panel will. Like the ROG Mothership, all of its components are stored in the back, and like the ROG Zephyrus, the underside of where the components are lift up to aid cooling. That way, if you need this champion in your lap, your nethers won't get torched from all that power. — Rami Tabari
Best Peripheral: Acer Thronos Air
If we had to pick the ultimate dream gaming chair, it would be the Acer Thronos Air. Priced at an “affordable” $14,000, the Air is half the price of the original Thronos ($30,000). Despite the cut in costs, this baby is still fully encased in aluminum, sports an adjustable monitor arm that holds up to three displays and the chair is motorized, which means it can be up to 130 degrees inside the cabin and 180 degrees outside. The most important feature that made our jet lagged souls happy was the four massage balls rotating with heat and cold settings on our backs. I mean, it’s a massage gaming chair, need I say more? — Rami Tabari
Best 2-in-1: Lenovo Yoga C940
Lenovo took one of our favorite 2-in-1 laptops from 2018 and made it even better. The biggest change to the new Yoga C940 is the addition of a 15.6-inch model. That larger version packs up to a Core i9 CPU and discrete GTX 1650 graphics while the 14-inch model was updated with 10th Gen Comet Lake chips. Lenovo also tweaked the design of the Yoga C940 by streamlining the soundbar hinge and adding a notch above the display to make the lid easier to open. On top of all that, the Yoga C940 offers a bunch of useful features, which include a stylus garage, a webcam cover and a fingerprint reader. — Phillip Tracy
Best Innovation: Razer Blade Stealth 13 Graphics Edition
Eight years ago Razer created the thin-and-light gaming market. Today, the company is looking to revolutionize the way we work with the Razer Blade Stealth 13 Graphics Edition. As the world's first gaming ultrabook, it also be the most powerful thanks to its powerful Intel 10th Gen CPU and Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU. Because you should never have to choose between work and play. — Sherri L. Smith
Best Business Laptop: Asus Pro B9
Asus is making an aggressive play on the business space with the new Pro B9 laptop. Weighing an unbelievable 1.9 pounds, it's the world's lightest business laptop. But despite its ultra lightweight chassis, the notebook still has some serious performance chops thanks to an Intel 10th Gen processor and up to a pair of 1TB PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration. Hopefully, the system can last longer than eight hours on a charge. If it can, it has a healthy chance of becoming the new king of business laptops. — Sherri L. Smith
Best Tablet: Lenovo Yoga Smart Tab
Lenovo's Yoga Smart Tab earned its Yoga namesake by flipping in some form or another. What's unique to this tablet is that it has a back panel that not only acts as kick-stand but as a hanger as well, thanks to the hole in the center. So if you're buying a tablet specifically for your kitchen, you can hang this baby up and enjoy the freedom of going hands-free, thanks to the built-in Google Assistant. What also makes the Yoga Smart Tab so special is that it has a cylinder hinge that allows you to stand it up in portrait mode. On top of that, it has two relatively large speakers on either side of the hinge, so you'll have no problem hearing it while you're cooking. — Rami Tabari
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