MacBook Look-Alikes Abundant at This Year’s CES

The tech geeks among us likely have had a fantastic last few days, considering the fact that it was CES week, which has seen a number of great new releases and announcements. One company that has refrained from even being at CES this year and in the past, however, is Apple. Of course, there were plenty of Apple lookalikes.

Companies especially seemed keen to imitate Apple’s recent MacBook, and we saw a number of computers that seemed to take design cues from Apple at CES.

First up is the Lenovo Yoga 900S, Lenovo’s most recent 2-in-1 laptop, which the company claims is the slimmest on the market.

The device comes in at only 12.8mm and is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor. It offers slim, colored keys along with a 360-degree hinge. Not only that, but it also offers a 2,560 x 1,440 display, which can be angled all the way around so that the user can use the device as a tablet. Of course, there’s also the design, and it wouldn’t be true to say that this computer doesn’t look great. The computer comes in at $1,099.

Next up is LG, which released the Gram 15 laptop, featuring a design more similar to the MacBook than the Lenovo device. The Gram 15 even offers a champagne gold color, and is, according to some reports, the lightest 15-inch laptop ever released.

It runs Windows 10, is powered by either an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, has a USB-C, HDMI, USB 3.0, microUSB and a microSD card slot, and offers a battery life of up to 7 hours. LG hasn’t yet announced details about the price or release date of the computer.

Last but not least is the new HP EliteBook Folio, which is a 12.5-inch Windows 10 device that comes in at only 0.49-inches thick and weighs 2.2 grams. It has a tapered design that is even more akin to Apple’s MacBook, and is powered by an Intel Core M processor and a 4K display with a pixel density of 352 pixels per inch, which is definitely an impressive feat. The HP EliteBook Folio will go on sale in March and will start at $999.

Of course, we say that these laptops are “copies” (somewhat) tongue-in-cheek, but what’s more likely is that these companies, including Apple, are following industry design trends. Apple is definitely a key player when it comes to defining these design trends, but it would be arrogant for any company not to follow popular trends that are going to sell their computers.

For us Apple lovers, there’s nothing better than a new Apple computer, but there’s no denying that they’re expensive, price justified or not. So, for those that don’t want to spend all of that cash, but still want a computer that follow key industry design trends, then these might just be the computers to buy.

Of course, as the late Steve Jobs once said, Apple isn’t a hardware company, it’s a software company. It ships its software in a nice box, but at its core, it is a software company. Apple’s software and how that software interacts with its hardware is what really sets the company apart, and has for years. It doesn’t really matter if other companies take design cues from Apple’s computers, because all of the computers mentioned above still run Windows 10, not OS X.

Windows 10 is, of course, a great operating system in its own right, but it’s great for different reasons than OS X. It’s doubtful that these newly released computers will have a big impact on Apple’s sales, and those of us that regularly use Apple products aren’t going to ditch them, simply because of the software.

Apple has had issues with companies copying its products in the past, with Samsung even having allegedly created a manual for how to study Apple’s products, showing Samsung’s products and Apple’s products in a side-by-side comparison on more than 100 features. This was especially apparent when it came to the iPhone, with comparisons of features including the browsing experience, the layout of keys on the keyboard, and more.

Only time will tell what Apple comes up with next as far as design goes, but there’s one thing for sure – it will have admirers.

Learn More: Apple Might Have Accidentally Revealed a New MacBook During an Interview with ’60 Minutes’