Intel’s 14nm Broadwell processor is finally ready for release. Having been announced and re-announced by Intel at every electronics show for the past couple of years, this week Broadwell leaps from promise to fulfilment. Intel tells me that this will be the fastest ramp-up in production and distribution in the company’s history. Broadwell is being released "across all price points and ranges at the same time," an unprecedented move for the company that will see Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, i5, i7, and even the freshly minted Core M brands all updated with Broadwell silicon.

The end of Broadwell's delays marks the start of a great time for laptop buyers

And why should you care about Broadwell? At 14nm, its transistors are a fraction of the size of the 22nm Haswell that it’s replacing, which translates into higher power, space efficiency, and lower heat emissions. The typical 15W CPU will now, all other things being equal, power a laptop through an extra 90 minutes of video playback. There are beefier graphics to be had, too, but that’s one of those gradual updates that no one is going to jump up and down about it. What will excite people is the extension of battery life by up to 30 percent from the upgrade to Broadwell.

There’s a stat that Intel is reciting regularly here at CES, which speaks to the company’s goals: 600 million PCs around the world haven’t been upgraded in the past four years. What we have on our hands is a significant reserve of pent-up demand, and what’s needed to unlock it are compelling new devices. The twin factors of Broadwell’s absence and AMD’s continuing struggle to offer anything more than a budget CPU alternative to Intel have collectively made the laptop category feel stale and unexciting. It may not have been intentional, but Intel built up its own demand, and now it’s about to capitalize on it in a big way by finally delivering the silicon to make significantly better machines possible.

Precision trackpad, edge-to-edge display, aluminum chassis — all for less than $800

Dell’s XPS 13 is a visual and physical delight. It has an edge-to-edge screen that screams of future technology, and its top and bottom are reinforced with machined aluminum and carbon fiber elements. It’s built like a rock, saves a bunch of space relative to any other 13-inch laptop, and even its touchpad is fast, responsive, and pleasurable to use. The best thing about the XPS, though, is that this computer will be far from alone. Dell’s managed to squeeze all of those good things into a package it’s pricing at $799, so we’re not talking about the extreme, inaccessible peaks of high-end mobile PCs. Dell’s clamshell is simply the harbinger of a new generation of devices that will be immediately, recognizably better than their predecessors. The almost bezel-free display uses Sharp's IGZO technology, though LG Display has shown similar designs in laptops from LG and Acer in the past, and we should see even more of them as the year rolls on, with Dell’s pricing suggesting they’ll be more affordable than before.