The Best Laptops of IFA 2018

Held annually in Berlin, Germany, the IFA trade show provides a peek at the most exciting mobile tech coming our way soon — and that means lots and lots of great laptops. IFA 2018 had something for everyone, from paper-thin ultrabooks with nearly bezelless displays to a massive gaming monster with a foldable screen. Here are the best laptops we saw at IFA from such major players as Asus, Acer, Lenovo and Dell.

Asus ZenBook Flip 13

Asus just made its ZenBook Flip line even slimmer, if you can believe that. The company has incorporated its ultranarrow bezel design on all four sides of its 13-inch system, making for an extremely compact frame. In addition to its world-facing camera, the Flip 13 will also feature the company’s NumberPad, which is an elegant solution to the lack of a dedicated num pad on such a small laptop. And in case you were worried about power, the Flip 13 is outfitted with an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor with 16GB of RAM, SSD storage and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q GPU, making it a powerful tool for mobile professionals. — Sherri L. Smith

Acer has a knack for making ridiculously over-the-top gaming laptops, and the Predator Triton 900 is no exception. This beastly portable gaming machine has an adjustable 4K G-Sync display that you can flip around in various configurations, allowing you to get the perfect viewing angle as you go for that key Fortnite kill. The Triton 900 also features Acer’s latest Aeroblade 3D fans, which are built to keep the laptop cool even during intense fragging sessions. Acer has yet to announce a price or full specs for the Triton 900, but expect this thing to be beastly — and pricey. — Mike Andronico

Lenovo’s taking another crack at the Yoga Book and adding even more innovation. The new 2-in-1 Windows laptop, dubbed the Yoga Book C930, ditches the Wacom digitizer in favor of an E Ink display. Able to switch between a full keyboard complete with touchpad and a blank slate of sorts, the Yoga Book C930 is a great choice for people who want to work, sketch or take notes on the go. Thanks to its 7th Gen Core i5 CPU, 4GB of RAM, 256GB PCIe SSD and Intel integrated graphics, it has plenty of power to get the job done. And when you’re finished, you can just stick the bundled pen onto the C930’s magnetic cover. — Sherri L. Smith

Lenovo dazzled IFA with its aptly named extreme killing machine, which set a precedent for the X series by being the first with a discrete GPU and a 15-inch display. The ThinkPad X1 Extreme is dropping in September with an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 and sometime in December with the 8th Gen Core i9. It’s powered by an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB of VRAM, and its display comes in a glorious 4K display as well as 1080p. It also has up to 64GB of RAM and up to a pair of 1TB SSD storage. This bad boy is gunning for the top spot in the premium market, going up against the likes of the XPS 15 and ZenBook Pro 15, and we’re excited to see where it lands. — Rami Tabari

Dell gave the Inspiron lineup the 2-in-1 treatment with its new 5000- and 7000-series laptops. Better yet, it traded plastic for machined aluminum and trimmed down the Inspiron’s bezels without compromising the webcam. The Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1 is powered by the brand-new Intel Whiskey Lake-U CPUs, which promise better performance and battery life than last year’s processors. The sleek laptop launches in October with an Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU, up to 32GB of RAM and up to 128GB of SSD storage with a 2TB HDD. You will also have the option to upgrade the Inspiron 15 7000’s 15-inch display from 1080p to 4K. — Phillip Tracy

Made of magnesium-lithium alloys, the world’s lightest 15-inch laptop blew us away when it was first unveiled in May. Now, we know how much the featherweight machine will cost. Acer announced at IFA that the upcoming Acer Swift 5 will start at $1,099 when it launches in January. The 2.2-pound laptop sports a 1080p display with razor-thin bezels, but unlike its rivals, the webcam is located above the display. The Swift 5 is powered by the latest 8th Gen Intel Core CPUs and comes with up to 1TB of SSD storage and up to 16GB of RAM. — Phillip Tracy