The Best Of Computex 2018

Computex, the giant annual electronics trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, was full of eye-opening, future-looking announcements this year. A 32-core mega-CPU, a laptop with a touch pad that doubles as a second display, a PC case with lighting you control via voice: We saw a ton of technology to look forward to, and much of it will be available before the end of 2018.

- Tom Brant

We roamed the halls of the Nangang Expo Center, took a trip to the Asus world headquarters on the outskirts of the city, and looked everywhere in between for the best of what Computex had to offer.

BEST LAPTOP: ASUS ZENBOOK PRO 15

A touch pad that moonlights as a 5.5-inch full HD display will grace the 2018 version of the Asus ZenBook Pro 15 laptop. Dubbed the ScreenPad, this funky hybrid display/pointer joins other alternative input methods such as the Logitech Craft keyboard, the Microsoft Surface Dial, and the Apple Touch Bar as a means other than the keyboard and cursor for controlling specialized apps.

While some of those input methods are useful only for graphic designers, video editors, and other multimedia professionals, the ScreenPad has broader user appeal, because it can function as an additional display for watching videos or making calculations, in addition to app-specific controls. You can even turn it off entirely—and when you do, it’s nearly indistinguishable from an ordinary touch pad.

BEST SMARTPHONE: ASUS ROG PHONE

The new Asus ROG Phone is the fastest smartphone in the world, according to the company’s internal benchmark testing. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-a-chip (SoC) in the ROG Phone runs at 2.96GHz instead of the normal 2.8GHz. It’s not overclocked, but rather Qualcomm has supplied Asus with “speed-binned” versions of the chip, meaning that they’re tested for the ability to maintain higher speeds than otherwise-identical chips. Couple that with attractive styling and some wild accessories, such as a snap-on cooling fan, and you get one of the most intriguing Android phones we’ve seen in a long time.

BEST DESKTOP PC: MSI PRO 24X