CES 2026 will bring faster, stranger laptops. Just don’t expect them to be cheap

Qualcomm takes on high performance

Qualcomm announced its next-generation Snapdragon X2 chips all the way back in September 2025. It was an early announcement, and Qualcomm said none would ship until well into 2026.

Now 2026 is just around the corner and CES will undoubtedly be packed with new Snapdragon X2 designs. The most extreme designs will have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme with 18 CPU cores, an improved X2-90 integrated GPU, and 228 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

As previously reported by PCWorld’s Mark Hachman, initial tests of the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme in Cinebench 2024 found it could reach a multi-core score of 1,967. That’s over twice the speed of a Microsoft Surface Laptop with the Snapdragon X Elite, and also roughly twice as fast as AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370.

This is only one test, though, and it was conducted on a reference design provided by Qualcomm, so it remains to be seen how this will translate to real-world results. Still, it seems likely that laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme will be top performers, at least in multi-threaded CPU benchmarks.

Qualcomm will also have more mid-range X2 Elite variants, and I expect we’ll see every major laptop maker show off multiple Qualcomm-powered designs.

What about Intel and AMD chips?

Of course, Qualcomm won’t have CES 2026 all to itself. We’ll also see a wide range of laptops with new Intel and AMD silicon inside.

Intel looks to be the more aggressive of the two companies. Like Qualcomm, Intel hosted a preview event for its upcoming Panther Lake architecture in fall of 2025. High-end processors based on the architecture will have up to 16 CPU cores, and Panther Lake chips will be released as “Intel Core Series 3.”

GPU performance seems to be a particular focus. Intel says the best Panther Lake chips will have up to 12 Xe3 graphics cores and provide up to 50% better performance over Intel’s Lunar Lake architecture, which was already a leader in integrated graphics. That could put Intel in a strong position for shoppers who want a mid-range laptop that deftly balances gaming with productivity performance.

AMD has been more reserved about its upcoming Gorgon Point chips. While AMD has provided vague roadmaps of the company’s future plans, no specifics were released in the run up to CES 2026.

On the unofficial side of things, we’ve seen leaks that suggest Gorgon Point will be a relatively minor refresh of existing Strix Point chips. CPU core counts and GPU counts are expected to be similar or identical to prior models, though we may see clock speed increases and NPU upgrades. The first benchmark leaks also hint at modest performance improvements. These AMD chips are likely to be released as the Ryzen AI 400 series, with leaks pointing to model names like Ryzen AI 9 465.

Weird laptop designs

CES and weird laptops go hand-in-hand, as the convention is a venue for ambitious laptop makers to try out new concepts. (Only Computex tends to see more oddball designs.) In recent years, though, a new trend has emerged: the weird laptop concepts at CES are coming to store shelves as fully formed—and often rather good—consumer laptops.

Recent examples of this trend include Lenovo’s Rollable OLED laptop, dual-screen laptops from Asus, and glasses-free 3D displays in Acer laptops. What’s remarkable is that these ideas didn’t just make their way to retail laptops—they’re good! The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Rollable and Asus Zenbook Duo both won PCWorld’s Editors’ Choice award.

The laptops we’ll see at CES 2026 are still under wraps, of course, but I think there’s still plenty of room for manufacturers to improve on OLED panels, both in refresh rate and brightness. And then there are flexible OLED panels, an area that’s yet to be fully explored.

I also expect Windows laptops to become more luxurious, even at lower price points. This is a trend driven primarily by Asus, Dell, and Lenovo, who have shown a particular aptitude and willingness to pursue more premium materials (such as Ceraluminum by Asus). Obviously, premium designs are always a perk—I’m just expecting them to gain even more traction, perhaps as a way for laptop makers to compensate for a hugely worrying problem that’ll cast a long shadow over CES 2026.

Laptop prices aren’t going down

If you haven’t heard, RAM prices are skyrocketing. The AI data center boom has created huge demand for memory, and memory makers have pivoted to fulfill that demand, leaving consumers in the cold. Small PC maker Framework has already raised RAM pricing, and credible rumors suggest larger laptop makers are about to do so as well.

Most laptops that’ll be announced in January at CES 2026 won’t show up in stores until at least February, and many won’t even appear until May or June. I expect laptop makers will play it safe and refuse to announce pricing specifics until very close to launch.

Pricing may also impact the amount of memory in laptops. I certainly expect 16GB and 32GB configurations to remain the norm, but 64GB and higher will be reserved for only the most expensive, highest-performance machines. I’m doubtful that rumors of downgrades to 8GB of RAM will prove true, but budget configurations could certainly be pushed in that direction if the current price hikes persist.

The AI-driven memory shortage is also affecting the prices of SSDs, which then puts even more pressure on laptop prices. That could make it extremely difficult to find reasonably priced laptops with more than 1TB of SSD storage, making 256GB and 512GB options more common.

It’s an unfortunate situation. Qualcomm’s continued commitment to laptops means more choice for consumers, which would normally drive prices down. Yet increased memory pricing puts pressure on all laptops, no matter the hardware inside. Once CES 2026 is over, we’ll have a better idea how the pricing chaos could shake out through next year—and I don’t think it’s going to be encouraging.

Further reading: 6 laptop trends we’re excited about right now