I like to call the processor the heart of a computer. Although there are many things that determine the overall performance of a laptop it is the processor that is most responsible for the laptop’s performance and power efficiency. Choosing the best processor for a laptop is important, but also can be difficult because there are often trade-offs between different laptop processors. Those that are quickest may not be best for battery life and vice versa.
If you know what is most important to you in a laptop, however, you shouldn’t have too much difficulty finding which laptop processor is best for you. In this guide I’m going to recommend processors based off categories of need such as performance and value. Hopefully this will make picking the best processor for your new laptop easier.
Best Laptop Processor for Performance
First place: Intel Core i7 Quad-Core
Intel’s Core i7 laptop processors are clearly the best processor for high-end desktop replacement laptops. The most basic quad-core Core i7 laptops are usually found in laptops with a price tag of around $1000 such as the or the The most basic and common Core i7 is the Core i7-720QM, which has a base clock speed of 1.6 GHz. The Core i7 processors have the Turbo Boost feature enabled, however, so the Core i7-720QM can ramp its speed up to 2.8 GHz if it is only using one or two cores.
The downside is portability. The Core i7 quad-cores eat battery life like snickers bars, so they’re not the best processor for a portable laptop. They also generate a fair amount of heat, so the laptops that have these processors tend to be large and have very aggressive fans. That’s why these processors are best for desktop replacements.
It’s important to note that there are a handful of laptops on the market with C0re i7 dual-core processors. These are also powerful, but quad-cores are faster. Make sure you know which you’re getting before you buy.
Runner Up: Intel Core i5
The Intel Core i5 mobile processors are the quickest dual-core option on the market with the exception of the very limited number of Core i7 dual-cores. These processors have high base clock speeds (usually between 2.4 and 2.8GHz) and also are equipped with the Turbo Boost feature, although they generally don’t overclock as aggressively as the Core i7 quad-cores. Laptops equipped with Core i5 processors tend to be a little cheaper than Core i7 models and also typically have better battery life. With that said, however, most Core i5 laptops remain a poor choice for frequent travelers because most can’t provide more than four hours of life on a six-cell battery. Core i5 laptops range in price from affordable, such as the , to incredibly expensive, like the .
Best Laptop Processor for Value
First Place: Intel Core i3
Although technically the low-end of the latest Core branded products from Intel the Core i3 is really a mid-range part rather than a low-end part. You won’t see this processor very often in laptops under $600, but you also won’t see this processor often in laptops over $1000. The base clock speeds of the Core i3 processors tend to range from 2.13GHz to 2.4GHz. These are fairly low overall, but its important to remember that the per-clock performance is high. The Core i3 2.4GHz, for example, will easily outrun a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
The Turbo Boost feature is not available on Core i3 processors. As a result there is a fairly large gap between the Intel Core i5 and the Core i3 when running single-thread applications. With that said, however, the Core i3 is still pretty damned quick. It isn’t the best processor for a laptop if you need performance, but it more than adequate for 90% of tasks and it is one of the fastest dual-core processors ever. The Core i3 also is a bit easier on battery life due to the lower clock speeds – some laptops, like the , can squeeze out six to eight hours of battery life.
Runner Up: AMD Phenom II Quad-Core
This was a tough one. Although the Core i3 processor took first place in this category, AMD’s Phenom II Quad-Core is also an excellent value. Although not as quick as Intel’s Core i7 quads, this is still a serious performance processor that is particularly good at handling multi-thread loads like 3D rendering, video encoding and some games. In many such situations the Phenom II Quad-Core will perform as well or better than even the quickest Core i5 processors, yet the price is incredibly low – the least expensive Phenom II Quad-Core laptops are around $600 (like the ), while models equipped with better hard drives and video cards rarely exceed $800 (such as the ). This processor, like most quad-cores, will decimate a battery in short order, but the Phenom II Quad-Core is the clear value leader among desktop replacements.
Best Laptop Processor for Battery Life
First Place: Intel CULV 2010
The Intel CULV 2010 platform consists of variants of Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, making it impossible to recommend only one line. The “CULV” acronym stands for consumer ultra-low voltage. Or, in layman terms, processors that make it possible for a standard six-cell battery to last a hell of a long time.
Although the processors in this category are spread out across a variety of Intel brands you can identify them easily by focusing on the letters in the designation of any Core processor. Ultra-low voltage processors will have the letter “U” added to their suffix. The ultra-low voltage Core i3 330M is called the i3-330UM, for example.
These processors consume much less power because they’re clocked at dramatically lower base speeds than standard Core mobile processors. The i3-330UM is clocked at 1.2GHz while the standard Core i3-330M is clocked at 2.13GHz. The processors that are most desired are the Core i5 and i7 ultra-low voltage variants. These processors have Turbo Boost enabled and can overclock themselves substantially when the laptop is connect to power. This gives you the best of both worlds – great portability while on the go and great performance while at home.
The only downside is availability – laptops with these processors are hard to come across and rather expensive. The best example of this platform currently available is probably the , a 12.1″ laptop with a Core i3-330UM processor and a price tag of about $630.
Runner Up: AMD Neo (Nile Platform)
Although AMD has traditionally had problems with battery life they’ve made some great strides recently by introducing a new ultra-thin laptop platform called Nile. These laptops, which can be identified by the combination of AMD Neo Duel-Core K series processors with Radeon 4225 mobile graphics, provide performance that is better than Intel’s low-voltage Core 2 Duo processors, which are still common in many laptops. Battery life is generally around six hours in moderate “real world” usage such as web browsing and word processing. Laptops based off this new platform are still rare because the platform is new, but some great laptops have already arrived. My current favorite is the
, a 13.3″ laptop with a price tag of less than $600.
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