And, integrated Gigabit Wi-Fi for the first time in this class
Expect a raft of new thin ultraportable devices imminently. Intel’s brought its 8 th Gen architecture to the Sea Lake U and Amber Lake Y series of CPUs.
The three new U-series, and three new Y-series CPUs cover the m3 i3 i5 and i7 families, as you can see from the table below:
They also feature integrated USB 3.1, a dedicated quad-core audio DSP and up to 16 hours battery life for devices using them.
Intel cite advantages in performance, connectivity, battery and form factor. Its battery life claim of up to 16 hours is certainly impressive. Intel also introduced new “power optimizer systems” that can stretch that to a remarkable 19 hours. Though, we will certainly be testing that when devices powered by these CPUs start to arrive.
The new integrated Gigabit Wi-Fi should be a real bonus for road warriors, for which these ultrathin fanless devices will be targeted. Particularly for 4k streaming media. Of course that’s dependent on having a Gigabit router or access point supporting the required 160MHz channels.
Intel also claim they can they can transcode 4k “up to 10x faster than a 5 year old PC”.
For gaming, Intel announced a new ‘optimized settings’ service, which you’ll find at gameplay.intel.com. The site will auto-detect your hardware and configure your installed (and compatible!) games for best performance. You’ll need drivers to do that, and many AAA games like World of Tanks and World of Warcraft are supported. That’s an undeniably handy feature for these CPUs and the devices they’ll be running in.
The new CPUs are available now and we expect to see devices imminently.
