If you’ve tuned into the recent discussions among leaders of major technology firms, you’d be justified in concluding that the latter half of 2026 will be challenging due to the intense competition for manufacturing facilities that produce components for consumer laptops, smartphones, external storage devices, gaming consoles and more.
So many laptops with AI branding.
Matt Elliott/CNET
Processors with NPUs — neural processing units which are optimized for AI tasks that can be performed without using a lot of power, such as background removal in videoconferencing — are close to universal in mid-to-high price laptops.
AMD/CNET
Mac Studio models with 128GB memory are one of the many configuration choices that disappeared from the Apple Store.
Lori Grunin/CNET
