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CES 2026: Windows Laptops Pivot to Intel’s Panther Lake With OLED Screens, RTX 50 GPUs and New Cooling

Vendors detail rollouts that start now with Dell’s XPS relaunch and extend into spring for Lenovo and others, with many prices and battery claims still to be verified.

Overview

  • Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 platform is the common foundation across refreshed ASUS, Dell, Lenovo and MSI laptops, often paired with Nvidia’s RTX 50‑series graphics and on‑device AI NPUs.
  • Dell restores the XPS 14 and 16 with a physical function row and display choices including tandem OLED or a 1–120 Hz LCD, on sale January 6 starting at $2,049 and $2,199.
  • Lenovo’s Aura Edition ThinkPad and Yoga models move to the new chips, add reworked thermals and Windows or Linux options, and roll out from March into Q2 with starting prices from $1,499 to $2,149.
  • ASUS highlights spec‑forward updates: the dual‑screen ROG Zephyrus Duo with dual 3K OLEDs and up to RTX 5090, redesigned G16/G14 with brighter OLEDs and upgraded cooling, and a Zenbook Duo with a tighter hideaway hinge and 99 Wh battery, with many prices and dates TBD.
  • Across lineups, manufacturers are pushing high‑brightness OLEDs and wide VRR, thinner designs with vapor‑chamber cooling, and larger batteries; MSI’s Stealth 16 AI Plus ships in March from $2,099 with GPUs capped at 100W.