Image Source: Visual China

Blue Whale News, January 8 (Reporter Zhai Zhichao) At CES 2025, the integration of AI technology with PCs emerged as the focal point of market attention, as both domestic and international PC vendors showcased their latest innovations.

In terms of products, Lenovo unveiled the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6, the pioneering AI PC featuring a rollable screen that extends from 14 inches to 16.7 inches. NVIDIA's new gaming laptop boasts RTX 50 series graphics cards and DLSS 4.0 technology, enhancing frame rates by almost 50% for games like Cyberpunk 2077. HP's Elitebook series leverages AI tools to significantly boost efficiency in email writing and presentations. ASUS's ROG Flow X13, a 2-in-1 laptop, seamlessly combines gaming with portability, offering AI-optimized game graphics that are crisp and vibrant.

Behind the dynamic updates and iterations by PC vendors lies the relentless advancement of AI technology and escalating consumer demands. According to research reports, it is projected that by 2026, the adoption rate of AI laptops in large enterprises will surge from less than 5% in 2023 to approximately 30%.

Upon examining the new PC products at this exhibition, Blue Whale News reporters observed a shared understanding among vendors regarding key product features. They emphasize enhancing AI computing power and prioritizing local AI processing to ensure data privacy. Additionally, they recognize the importance of differentiated competition, leveraging their unique strengths to innovate in product form factors, AI application scenarios, and hardware configurations.

Performance, Privacy, and Efficiency

In recent years, the PC sector has undergone a profound transformation due to AI technology, with several significant traits gradually becoming benchmarks for industry development.

Foremost among these is robust AI performance, now a standard feature of every AI PC. A closer look at the hardware cores reveals that nearly every device is equipped with high-performance AI chips or processors. For instance, Intel's Core Ultra 200H series processor boasts an impressive computing power of up to 99 TOPS. AMD's Ryzen AI Max + 395, with its 50 TOPS NPU, excels in AI processing tasks. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X series chips are equally formidable, endowing laptops with remarkable AI computing potential.

An electronics enthusiast shared with Blue Whale News reporters, "Applications like real-time speech recognition, image and video processing, and smart offices are flourishing. Without powerful computing capabilities, PCs will lag when running various AI tasks, failing to meet our desire for efficient and intelligent experiences."

Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Intel's interim co-CEO and product CEO, stated unequivocally, "Intel will continue to drive the development of the AI PC portfolio in 2025, consistently enhancing AI performance to meet users' demands for smarter PCs."

Simultaneously, vendors share another understanding in their product design philosophy—emphasizing local AI processing capabilities. For example, Lenovo's Xiao Tian Assistant can learn Word or PPT document content locally. Local processing not only improves data processing speed and reduces network latency but also allows users to obtain AI processing results more promptly. Furthermore, it enhances privacy protection, mitigating potential data leakage risks during cloud transmission and storage.

A senior domestic data security expert emphasized this point during an interview with Blue Whale News reporters, "In the current environment where data security is paramount, local processing of AI tasks is undoubtedly a crucial means to protect user privacy. This is the primary reason why major vendors attach such importance to local AI processing capabilities."

Moreover, enhancing user experience and office efficiency remains a relentless pursuit for vendors. In the business office sector, HP's Elitebook series leverages AI-powered tools to effortlessly handle complex tasks like efficient presentations and personalized emails. ASUS's VivoBook 14 with Snapdragon features the StoryCube one-stop AI multimedia center, simplifying file organization. Market research data strongly supports this effectiveness, with office efficiency improving by an average of 40% after using AI PCs with these functions.

An engineer long involved in office software development expressed, "We are dedicated to integrating AI technology into office scenarios to free users from cumbersome work and allow them to focus more on core business."

Aspiration for Differentiated Breakthroughs

Currently, the AI PC industry exhibits a vibrant and positive development trajectory, with new technologies and products continuously emerging. However, the path of industry development is not without challenges. Behind this seemingly prosperous facade, hidden currents persist, and competition among major vendors has intensified.

A PC industry researcher revealed to Blue Whale News reporters, "Currently, to capture the commanding heights of the emerging AI PC field, major vendors are sprinting full force in multiple dimensions, including technology research and development, market promotion, and user experience optimization."

In terms of product form factor innovation, Lenovo stands out with the rollable screen laptop ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 and the world's first YOGA Air 14 Aura AI Yuanqi Edition featuring under-screen camera technology. The unique design of the rollable flexible display and astonishing high screen-to-body ratio demonstrate Lenovo's courage to break traditional boundaries.

Luca Rossi, Executive Vice President of Lenovo Group and President of the Intelligent Devices Group (IDG), stated, "Lenovo is committed to breaking technological boundaries and delivering a new user experience through innovative product form factors, transcending the limitations of traditional PCs." In contrast, vendors like Dell, HP, and ASUS have primarily refined traditional laptop or all-in-one form factors, steadily enhancing performance and functionality. Such prudent moves aim to minimize R&D risks and costs.

The focus on AI application scenarios also reveals a trend towards differentiation. Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 AIPC excels in office areas such as document processing and meeting minute generation. HP's Elitebook series focuses on office scenarios like efficient presentations and personalized emails, supporting professionals in the workplace. ASUS's ROG Flow X13 2-in-1 laptop and Thunderobot's ZERO series gaming laptops take a different approach, deeply integrating AI technology with gaming performance, leveraging AI to optimize game graphics settings, and creating an immersive gaming experience for players.

Notably, there are significant differences in hardware configuration and performance focus. HP's Omnistudio X series all-in-one is equipped with Intel's Core Ultra 200V series NPU, boasting a computing power of up to 47 trillion operations per second, making it adept at graphics processing and multitasking. ASUS's "Lightest Copilot+PC" has other strengths, prioritizing thinness and portability with relatively balanced performance to meet users' dual needs for portable travel and daily use.

In an interview with a hardware analyst who participated in CES 2025, Blue Whale News reporters noted, "Examining the new products released by major PC vendors at this CES, the crux lies in 'competition.' However, this 'competition' is not chaotic. Vendors have their own strategies. They meticulously weigh and choose based on keenly captured market demand, coupled with their brand and technology positioning, striving to accurately meet the personalized needs of different user groups in terms of performance, portability, and numerous other key factors. Naturally, this 'competition' brings more and better choices to consumers."