10 Hottest Laptops At CES 2014

CES 2014: A Hotbed For Innovative Laptops

This year's 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show featured a bevy innovative laptops and two-in-one hybrid notebooks that will soon be hitting retail and sales channels. Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, Sony and Toshiba each either released completely new notebook models or made major updates to existing laptop families. Some notebooks announced at this year's CES are already shipping.

Here is a look at the top 10 notebooks announced this year at CES 2014.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon

With the X1 Carbon Touch Lenovo has refined its sturdy top-of-the-line featherweight Ultrabooks. At CES, Lenovo announced it has updated its X1 family with Intel's Haswell Core i7 low-powered, high-performance processor. It shaved the thickness of the notebook from 0.074 inches down to 0.68 and dropped its weight 0.1 points to 2.8 pounds. Lenovo claims it is the lightest 14-inch laptop in the world. The system ships with 512 GB of solid-state drive storage and comes with a choice of displays, among which the options include an HD 2,560-x-1,440 or a lower-res 1,600-x-900 display, as well as a touchscreen option.

Business-friendly features include the ability to dock the notebook to Lenovo's OneLink Dock Pro docking station ($179), which includes USB ports, audio and Ethernet connections, as well as DisplayPort and DVI video outputs.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon starts at $1,300 and will go on sale in late January.

Lenovo Yoga 2

Last year Lenovo made a splash with its Yoga line of laptops that could stand, tent and fold into a tablet thanks to a dual-hinge design. This year, Lenovo updated the line with new Yoga 2 models that come in 11- and 13-inch sizes.

The base 13.3-inch model will run $1,000 and includes Intel's fourth-generation Core i5 processor, integrated Intel HD graphics, up to 8 GB of DDR3 memory, and an advertised battery life of 8 hours on a single charge. The 11-inch Yoga 2 will run $530 and comes with a 6-hour battery life. The 13-inch model is available later this month, whereas 11-inch model will be available starting in February.

Vizio Thin + Light

Vizio also used CES to announce it had updated its Thin + Light line of laptops, pulling back the curtain on its newest 15.6-inch touch-friendly system, which touts Intel's Core i7 Haswell processor and Intel’s Iris Pro graphics solution. Vizio also updated the Thin + Light with the latest wireless protocol 802.11ac, and it sports one HDMI and two USB 3.0 ports, but no SD Card slot.

The laptop tips the scales at 5 pounds and measures 0.68 inches thick. Vizio hasn't released pricing or availability, but previous Thin + Light laptops go for around $1,000.

Asus Transformer Book Duet TD300

Most hybrid notebooks deliver both a tablet and notebook in one device, but Asus ups the ante with a convertible that has the ability to go from being a Windows 8.1 laptop to an Android 4.2.2 tablet. The Transformer Book Duet TD300 is a 13.3-inch hybrid with a speedy Intel Core i7 processor under the hood with 4 GB of memory, as well as 128 GB of storage when in tablet mode and 1 TB when in laptop mode.

The Duet weighs in at a hefty 4 pounds, measures 1.1 inches thick and delivers a very average 8.1 hours of battery life in Windows mode and 6 hours as an Android tablet. Asus is being tight lipped on availability and pricing.

Sony Vaio Fit 11A Flip

Sony at CES 2014 showcased a new Vaio Fit 11A Flip hybrid Windows 8.1 laptop-tablet. The 2.82-pound notebook sports an 11.6-inch Triluminos HD touch display and an Intel Bay Trail-M quad-core processor. The notebook's display flips backward along a hinged spine located on the back of the display, which is designed to transition the laptop into a slate with the keyboard ending up on the inside.

Sony's MSRP for the laptop is $800, and the company says the Fit will be available February 2014.

Samsung Ativ Book 9

Building on the success of its existing Ativ Book family of laptops, Samsung brings improvements (albeit incremental) to its latest Ativ Book 9 system. The big appeal here is with the introduction of Samsung Link and SideSync 2.0 proprietary technologies. Together the two new technologies turn the Ativ into a cloud hub for video and music storage on a laptop. The SideSync 2.0 software allows users to marry a Galaxy handset to the Ativ for tasks such as receiving and answering text messages from a PC. The services will also allow users to access Ativ's One's cloud-based music library from their Galaxy phones or tablets.

What else is new with the Ativ notebook line? The Book 9 now sports Windows 8, a 15.6-inch (up from 15-inches) 1,920-x-1,080 resolution display, an Intel Core i5 or i7 ultra-low voltage processor, and an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400 card. There's been no word on pricing and availability.

Hewlett-Packard Pro x2 410

Hewlett-Packard's Pro x2 410 is a two-in-one Windows 8.1 hybrid that consists of a tablet that snaps into a full-sized notebook-class keyboard base. Unlike other two-in-one hybrids, HP is targeting business users with this notebook, packing security features such as Trusted Platform Module (TPM) for both enhancing overall device security as well as storing RSA encryption keys.

The 420 can be configured with Intel's Core i3 or i5 processor, and it weighs 3.8 pounds as a notebook and sports an 11.6-inch touch display that can pop off and function as a 1.8 pounds tablet. The HP Pro x2 410 is available now starting at $900.

Hewlett-Packard 350 G1

With a starting price of $400, Hewlett-Packard is targeting budget-conscious consumers and businesses with its 350 G1 laptop. It's a fair price for a 15.6-inch laptop with a crisp 1,366-x-768 pixel display, dual-core Intel Celeron processor, 2 GB of DDR3/1600 memory, and a 320-GB hard drive. Shell out a little more, and it can be upgraded to a dual-core Intel Pentium or an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processor with 8 GB of memory and up to 1 TB of storage.

The HP 350 G1 is available now, with the base configuration starting at $400.

Toshiba Tecra W50

Toshiba is touting its Tecra W50 as the "world's first" 15.6-inch 4K-capable laptop "designed for professionals working with graphically intensive applications." The 3,840-x-2,160 pixel, 15.6-inch display is powered by Intel's fourth-generation Core processor and Nvidia's Quadro K2100M GPU with 2-GB memory. Toshiba has been mum on the Tecra series workstation's weight and pricing. But judging from its current Tecra lineup that starts at $800 and tops out at $2,000, it could cost a pretty penny for the privilege of viewing 4K content.

Toshiba said the 4K Tecra W50 will be available mid-2014.

Toshiba Satellite P50t

Toshiba's Satellite P50t features the same gorgeous 4K, 3,840-x-2,160 pixel, 15.6-inch display, but unlike the Tecra W50, the Satellite P50t has touch capabilities. As with the Tecra, the Satellite runs Windows 8.1 and is powered by Intel's fourth-generation Core CPU and integrated Nvidia Quadro K2100M GPU with 2 GB of memory. There's been no word on pricing for the Satellite, but Toshiba's top-of-line P50 (no touch display) runs just north of $1,100.

Availability for the P50t is scheduled for mid-2014, Toshiba said.