Vizio Thin + Light Touch 2014 Hands-on: Core i7 Power, Iris Pro Graphics

Vizo's Thin + Light Touch just got a serious speed boost. The company graced its sleek 15-inch notebook with Intel's latest Haswell Core i7 CPU and Iris Pro graphics, letting you play mainstream games. At CES 2014, we went hands on with the Thin + Light Touch, which is easily one of the most attractive premium notebooks available.

The 15.6-inch Thin + Light Touch continues to be a looker, with a sturdy aluminum design with aggressive angles. The notebook weighs less than 5 pounds and measures 0.68 inches thick. The design is maybe too minimalist, though, because you won't find an SD Card slot. You will find HDMI and two USB 3.0 ports.

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At a time when other laptop makers are pushing quad HD screens, it's easy to dismiss the full HD touch display on the Thin + Light as not good enough. The panel offered vivid colors and excellent viewing angles when watching a Rose Bowl clip. The Thin + Light Touch also benefits from SRS Premium sound, delivered via stereo speakers.

The configuration we played with had a quad-core Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. The notebook also packs advanced 802.11ac wireless.

One unsung benefit of the Thin + Light line is that it's bloatware free. You get a clean image of Windows 8.1 out of the box. It's up to you what should populate that Start screen.

Vizio didn't reveal pricing for the Thin + Light Touch, but we expect the pricing to be in line with the current model, which is north of $1,000.

Mark Spoonauer
Editor-in-Chief
Responsible for the editorial vision for Laptopmag.com, Mark Spoonauer has been Editor in Chief of LAPTOP since 2003 and has covered technology for nearly 15 years. Mark speaks at key tech industry events and makes regular media appearances on CNBC, Fox and CNN. Mark was previously reviews editor at Mobile Computing, and his work has appeared in Wired, Popular Science and Inc.