This story is part of theseOur editors will bring you the latest news and latest tools in the fully virtual CES 2021.

CES 2021 It will look a lot different in 2021, and will be completely hypothetical for the first time. Many of us It radically changed the way we work Also in 2020, leaving the office behind and Work primarily from home. The idea of ​​having a computer to work in the office and a personal computer at home also came out of the window, and we are now looking for our machines to do more and work in multiple roles, adding to the blurring of the line between consumer and corporate computers.

But given the long development cycle of new laptops, desktops, and tablets, no PC maker can realistically take these tremendous shifts and engineer them into new products in time for CES 2021. What they can do is change the narrative and emphasize new products or Updated that is more appropriate to the current reality.

In other words, expect to see a lot more business laptops at CES 2021.

All work, no play

One year ago, at CES 2020We’ve seen a lot of Prototypes, experimental designs, and new gaming computers – Various products with an enjoyable focus on the consumer. This year, it will be even more cruel.

instead of First-generation foldable screens and color game consolesLots of attention will be on laptops with better web cameras, better microphones, and better security features. Basically the things your company’s IT department will look for in a new business laptop. It may not be flashy, but it is what many people need right now.

For example, if we learn anything in 2020, it is what most laptops have learned Really bad webcams. Spend enough hours a day on Zoom meetings which start to become very important. Models with improved hardware, or at least software optimized for polishing the camera image digitally, will be given a major marketing boost. The popularity of physical webcam shutters will continue to increase.

Not much for 5G, which was just starting to filter out of laptop ads this time last year. With Wi-Fi at home replacing many workers‘ need for reliable travel connections, I doubt we’ll see 5G antennas installed in every laptop; Instead, it will just be an option in a few high-end business systems.

Chromebook very general

The other big thing that we learned in 2020 is that Chromebooks can solve most of our laptop problems. Need a low-cost, high-reliability laptop for a child who does remote learning? Chromebook! Do you need a parent or grandparents‘ computer that you won’t have to troubleshoot? Chromebook!

Especially with so many families needing a separate device for each family member, and especially one for each student, Chromebooks have saved the day in 2020.

Chromebooks have been part of the mix at every CES recently, but this year, I think we’ll see them pushed to the front, especially given the uncertainty about The launch of the COVID-19 vaccine The moving target for any kind of return to normal.

Every PC maker wants to get out of the Chromebook business at $ 250, so look for models that are slightly upgraded. Honestly, a $ 500 Chromebook can offer a more premium experience in design, materials, and performance, compared to a $ 500 Windows laptop, so here’s the perfect ChromeOS site right now.

For computer games, general rebuilding

We are in the middle of a big new era in video games. Unfortunately for PC gaming fans, all the excitement is wrapped around next-generation consoles, and PlayStation 5 And the Xbox X Series.

This new cycle, which comes out every seven years or so, places sealed living room bins at the top of the toy pile, for now. After all, $ 500 (or $ 300 for the smaller Xbox Series SGives you ray tracing, HDR illumination, and other high-end GPU tricks, previously only available in expensive gaming PCs.

But the clock is already ticking on PS5 and Xbox. The hardware inside is frozen amber, aging slowly, and is judged to be more downturned from gaming PCs each year. Having said that, I wouldn’t expect too much, and Official CES Games theme page You look very sad now.

There is at least one big jump expected. At least according to informed speculation, we’ll see laptop-ready versions of Nvidia’s 3000-series graphics cards. This will further power gaming laptops – and maybe even some of them that could make Cyberpunk 2077 look so good …