CES is usually a blur of concept gadgets and incremental refreshes. This year Asus instead staged something more useful: a clear lineup that stretches from ultraportables meant to replace your daily driver to desktop-grade mobile gaming beasts and enterprise machines that wear security like armor.
A sketch of the showfloor: who Asus is building for
If you wanted a one-sentence readout: Asus covered creators, road-warrior professionals, hardcore gamers, and IT teams. That meant a tidy variety of hardware and a few recurring themes — lighter materials, longer battery life, and a deeper push into on-device AI.The ZenBook A14 returned as the most obvious MacBook Air alternative in the bunch. The 2026 refresh swaps in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite (an 18-core setup with a hefty NPU), keeps the sub-1kg ambition and an OLED panel, and even adds a 16-inch option for people who want thin-and-light with a bit more screen. Asus rates the 14-inch model for north of 28 hours of video playback on its 70Wh battery, and it packs a sensible port mix (USB‑A, two USB4/Type‑C, HDMI 2.1 and a headphone jack) plus Wi‑Fi 7. If you’re weighing Windows ultraportables against Apple, this is the kind of machine that will get you to ask whether you still need a MacBook Air — there are even deals that have pushed the Air into tempting price territory lately when shopping for alternatives. Read more about recent MacBook Air deals.
If you’re the sort of person who prefers an Apple laptop, though, you can still find one — the MacBook line remains a leading benchmark for thin laptops and is an easy comparison when describing Asus’s ambitions. For quick shopping, the MacBook remains the perennial pick for people who prioritize the Apple ecosystem.
For creators on the move: ProArt GoPro Edition
Asus and GoPro’s partnership produced a surprisingly sensible follow-up: the 13-inch ProArt GoPro Edition (PX13). It’s designed to be rugged (all‑metal, a protective hard-shell case included) and comes bundled with a one-year GoPro Cloud Plus subscription and StoryCube editing tools. The hardware skews toward content work with an AMD Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 processor, up to 128GB RAM and a 2TB SSD — no discrete GPU, which is an odd omission for heavy multicam or 360 editing workflows, but the machine’s on-the-go focus and durability will appeal to creators who actually travel to capture footage.A small but welcome touch: a dial pad in the corner of the trackpad for scrub-and-edit control, which shows Asus is thinking about ergonomics for video workflows rather than just slapping beefy specs into a slim shell.
Dual displays, refined: ZenBook Duo gets practical
The ZenBook Duo has often felt like a clever experiment rather than a daily driver. This year Asus aimed to change that — substantial bezel thinning, a hideaway hinge that cuts the visual gap between the two OLED displays by roughly 70%, and a sturdier kickstand. The Duo now tops out with Intel Core Ultra X9 and twin 3K, 144Hz OLED screens, and a much larger 99Wh battery that boosts usable time whether you run one or both displays. The result: a dual-screen laptop that might actually make sense for sustained productivity instead of being a novelty.Raw performance: new ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16
On the gaming side, Asus refreshed its ROG Zephyrus line with 14- and 16-inch models. Choices include Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra processors or AMD Ryzen AI options, and — headline — laptop GPU options up to an RTX 5090 on the G16 and an RTX 5080 on the G14. Asus is pairing those GPUs with upgraded Nebula HDR OLED panels (high refresh, very low response times, strong color accuracy and HDR brightness), plus a healthy complement of ports including USB4/Thunderbolt-style USB‑C with 100W PD, and Wi‑Fi 7 connectivity.These machines aim to sit comfortably between a living-room-capable desktop and a thin gaming laptop: powerful, but not ostentatious — colors like Platinum White or Eclipse Gray keep them office-friendly.
The enterprise angle: ExpertBook Ultra and MyExpert AI
Asus didn’t just chase consumer headlines. The company pushed hard on the enterprise story with the ExpertBook Ultra and a new AI-centric platform, MyExpert. The ExpertBook Ultra is an ultra-light (0.99kg) device built from a magnesium-aluminum alloy with a nano-ceramic finish, an Intel Core Ultra X9 Series 3 option, and up to 50 TOPS NPU performance — a spec Asus is trumpeting for on-device AI tasks. It also includes features aimed at IT: dual BIOS ROM, chassis intrusion detection, and the company’s ExpertGuardian firmware protections.MyExpert stitches several productivity tools — AI chat, advanced writing and mail tools, meeting summarization and file search — into a single interface intended for enterprise workflows. As on-device and cloud AI features converge industrywide, features like this will be judged not just on convenience but on how well they respect corporate security and data-handling policies. That tension is already playing out across the industry as companies integrate models into productivity apps; Google’s recent moves around AI and search are part of that larger conversation about where AI does its work and where user data lives. See how AI is reshaping productivity discussions in the wider ecosystem with Gemini Deep Research.
For the formal product announcement and specs on Asus’s business push, Asus published details on its press site: ASUS pressroom.
A quick reality check
Across the lineup, Asus leaned on better materials (Ceraluminum, nano-ceramic coatings), stronger battery life, and AI-friendly NPUs. Pricing was mostly absent at CES — a familiar frustration — so buyers will have to wait for launch windows in the coming months to see where these machines land against rivals. Until then, the offerings do two useful things: they show Asus is serious about making laptops that solve specific problems (creator portability, dual-screen productivity, enterprise AI, gaming performance), and they give shoppers real alternatives depending on whether they want Mac-like portability, desktop-grade gaming, or corporate manageability.What you won’t find at this show are gimmicks for their own sake. Asus’s 2026 CES lineup feels like a pragmatic spread: incremental in places, ambitious in others, and unmistakably aimed at giving buyers real choices rather than a single headline device.