"At least 8 GB of dual-channel DRAM. At least a 265 GB NVMe SSD with or without Optane H10 caching SSD."
I see a "more than" sign, not "more than or equal to".
Also 256 GB, not 265 GB.
"Do note, however, that there won't be any ‘Engineered for Mobile Performance’ badges on actual notebooks. Apparently, neither Intel nor PC makers want to put badges on chassis of premium computers (this itself typically being treated as a premium feature)."
Wait for AMD Zen 2 mobile APUs. Don't reward Intel.
Also, good set of requirements for a laptop and mostly will be at least 4 digits entry price (the linked XPS was $999). Interesting that MacBook Pros won't meet this, although I guess Apple couldn't care less.
Apple does not need to meet that $999 price. This price tag is for the 4-GB, 2-core, 256-GB SSD version of the XPS 13. This does not meet the Project Athena specifications. Oh and the SSD is soldered down for good measure, to make sure you need to bin this thing as soon as your hard drive becomes too small.
There's no real reason Apple couldn't make a touchscreen Macbook. But it would require backing down from their long standing position that touch screens are useless on laptops. It'd also probably cut into ipad/iphone sales to mobile developers who're personally android users but need to support both.
Virtual IOS devices are fast enough you don't for performance reasons; but trying to use a touchscreen UI with a mouse/touchpad sucks badly enough you really do. (Virtual android devices are slow enough performance wise that you really need real hardware to test on even if you have a touchscreen laptop.)
Their long standing reasoning on touch screen laptops is pretty much real enough for them to not have it so far :) Anyway I personally don't miss the touch screen on a laptop. Used to shifting between a Windows laptop and a MB Pro, not a major deficiency for me personally at least.
I have to agree with Apple on that one. I own a laptop with a touchscreen and it's pretty pointless. I've poked it a few times when I first got it and since have just used either an external mouse or the touchpad. The only thing the touchscreen does is force the laptop to have a glossy screen with has lots of glare and makes the computer heavier for no good reason.
Agreed. bought a touch screen laptop and i never used the touch screen feature aside from scrolling up and down the screen, but really do i need a touchscreen just for that when i can use my mouse wheel, the side scroll bar, or even my up/down arrow keys? I've never bought another touch screen and would never pay the $300+ premium. Maybe for those 2-in-1s wherein you can detach the screen and it turns into a tablet, but on a normal laptop....no thanx.
I use Surface Pro 2 with a keyboard, its 5 years old now. Have used the touchpad maybe 5 times over that time, because control though pointing with the pen, and drawing gestures is much faster and more reliable. And of course, screen does not get smudged from that.
I'll take all the human I/O bandwidth I can get, including touch. The mouse is still best for precision work, but there's something about touch that let's you react faster and more naturally with what's on screen, assuming a good UI of course.
An active pen was a huge benefit for an app I wrote to control live audio/video performances. Capacitive touch isn't reliable enough. Won't be buying a laptop without an active digitizer ever again.
Apple has enought demand that they don't need project Athena validation. Everyone knows what a MacBook air and MacBook is. Same for ultrabook or Centrino before.
While I don't consider touch screens a necessity for laptops, they are a nice to have. I initially was dubious, but the Win10 UI lends itself to touch in several places very well, and honestly, even the latest trackpads are not that great. I'll take both if I can.
I'm going to assume > instead of ≥ in the graphic comes down to marketing stupidity or decimal vs binary pedantic stupidity. Dual channel means that the next step up would be 16GB; if they wanted 16GB the easy way to say so would be ≥16GB not >8GB. OTOH with base 10 pedantary, the laptop would have 8,589,934,592 bytes of ram which is strictly greater than 8,000,000,000.
I'm also interested in exactly what the engineering SSD spec is. With spare area factored in 256GB class SSDs have <256GB of space available; and passing 256GB class drives while flunking defacto equivalent 240GB class ones would be stupid.
Zen 2 is amazing in both Desktop and Server. It certainly will be in Mobile as well, but mobile is definitely the area where Intel retains the most competitive capabilities. Icelake should have an IPC lead over Zen 2, and Zen 2 likely won't clock much more than Icelake in a 15W platform. Ultimately I'd guess that CPU performance will be a wash, but Intel definitely looks like they can retain overall leads in platform efficiency and featureset, which I would argue matters a lot more for mobile than it does for Desktop.
Zen 2's efficiency is boosted by simply not having the X570 chipset due to its PCIe 4.0 support. I'm not sure Intel really offers much more than AMD but I'm happy to be proven wrong.
Zen 2 will no doubt be a performance monster in mobile, but in the 15w envelope, I doubt it will compete with Intel. AMD has had a lot of trouble scaling it below 25w (which, granted, Coffee Lake and above often operate at during TDP-up.)
That all comes down to process efficiency. But with AMD's creative and frankly game-changing chiplet topology they might be able to pull it off.
This is wonderful if the laptops are remotely affordable. But seeing as much manufacturers are charging upwards of $1200 for 8GB / 256GB / 1080p ultra thins, I believe these will be in in $2000+ category.
If you are willing to get a previous-gen laptop (Coffee Lake) you can easily get something that was $1000+ at launch for <$500 now. I just picked up a Dell Latitude 5290 for $450 brand new on eBay with an i5-8350U, 8GB DDR4 and 256GB NVMe SSD. Unfortunately the m2 slot is only 2 lanes :(
If only AMD cared to do the same. Setting something like 'Silver' tier requirement (1080p IPS/VA, dual channel 8GB, SSD) and 'Gold' requirements ('Silver'+ small bezzels, thin/light/2in1; biometrics, lit keyboard, 6h+ battery life, 20W+ STAPM) would make it much easier to recommend an AMD laptop than it is now.
The problem is AMDFan's will blame it on the vendors and not actually AMD. Does anybody actually own an AMD laptop - they always state get Zen+++ but what they say instead is don't buy Intel because I and other AMD Fan boys don't care for it. That Attitude is primary reason why I will refused to ever purchase. I made that mistake with Dell XPS 15 2in1 but it only the video.
umm.. yea ok there hstewart. the ONLY reason you wont buy amd, is because you fanatic intel fanboyism, wont allow you to. and FYI it IS the oems that have made the amd notebooks the way they are, not giving them much thought or features compared to the intel based ones... and i own 2 amd based notebooks.. and that is mostly due to price, and because for what i needed.. intels igp.. is crap, where amds igp.. is stronger over all. i wont eveb consider an intel based notebook if it uses intels igp.
Nonsense. This is as much an advertising initiative than anything. Vendors who comply with this “standard” will get advertising dollars from Intel to run commercials. Anytime you see a Dell or HP add for a PC that ends with Intel noises, you know Intel helped pay for the ad. AMD doesn’t have the money to burn here to get OEMs to “participate” in an initiative.
I do own an AMD laptop as a matter of fact and it's a very nice one (Huawei Matebook with a Ryzen 2500U). Performance is great - kid can play Fortnite on it smoothely, it's very well built and configured, overall smooth and has an excellent battery life. All this for a very good price.
Huawei used the same case, screen, battery... as on their Intel counterpart and offers it for a very good price (lower than a comparable Intel model).
Now they did wait to release it worldwide until the Intel based successor (with better specs but much higher price) was released but it shows that if you want to, you can build a great Ryzen based notebook.
So yes, I do blame OEM for there not being more good AMD based notebooks.
An there is demand - when it was released, it made it to #1 on Amazon's laptop sale charts in the UK and Germany and it is currently still on the #2 spot in Germany (currently not available from Amazon UK)
AMD would have to abandon their one-platform approach to mobile chips to do so.
They adopted it in the Bulldozer days to make their mobile chips remotely appealing (allow the high-end chips to be mated to the most bargain-basement platform, to encourage OEMs to make the bargain-basement platform in the first place), but sales remained poor enough that OEMs had no desire to put the R&D effort into higher end platforms that would never make back the investment. If AMD were to explicitly split their mobile chips into two platforms, it would force the higher end chips to be mated to suitable platforms. Of course, it could also backfire if OEMs do not expect sales of high end Ryzen notebooks to be high enough to pay off the R&D for an additional platform.
I meant it in a different way- AMD would not split their chips into platforms- the same lineup of their chips would be used, only laptops themselves would try to qualify for certain criteria, and be awarded a tier. That would help ensuring that laptops that are otherwise fine do not cut corners in critical areas. Because, in midrange, buying a laptop often reminds a game 'where will I be fooled'. Too often now laptops sell certain specs, but hide too many weak areas in their design, and drive the market further in the way of 'lemon market'. But qualification, and less lemons would make AMD laptops easier to recommend.
I guess meeting the requirement is probably tied to certain cash incentives from Intel and given AMD's more limited funds, I'd rather AMD invest this in R&D.
That said, if AMD were to provide some engineering support in terms of platform building for notebooks that would be a step forward but I am not sure if building great AMD notebooks (OEM could already do this now) would not pose the risk of losing funding / support from Intel.
AMD's past attempt at this (Vision... way to confuse *slow clap*) was pretty poor. I understand what they were trying to do, in the sense that it informed the user what the machine should be able to do rather than giving specs, however this unfortunately leaves the certification open to OEMs offering products that satisfy minimum requirements which, as we know, are a world away from recommended requirements (just think games).
It's a huge shame that AMD won't launch Zen 2 mobile offerings for a few months; with Zen resurrecting their fortunes, they could've worked out their own badging system with OEMs sticking to a list of specs, and they would probably sell a few nowadays.
I agree with most of these "requirements", except for the touchscreen. I go out of my way to avoid them on laptops (don't like smudges on my screen), and rather look for a good touchpad and keyboard.
Also, it will be interesting to see how these measure up versus the "always-connected" Qualcomm 8cx notebooks. As for AMD, many of us are waiting to see their Zen 2 or 2+ mobile chips. But many of us can only wait that long.
I think this is a great way for standardization at the high end and transparency for the consumer. Most consumers don't have a clue which laptop is which. Now we can reference this badge when recommending laptops to help them make a more informed decision.
wait is the touchscreen an actual requirement?? Making that a requirement makes no sense on a laptop!!! Especially for those of us that use it for work!
If you don't use it, who cares if it's on there or not? I imagine the high end screens nowadays being manufactured have touch screen support, and mandating it on everything likely has an effect on consolidating different screen types and brings costs down a bit.
Kudos to Google for Lucid sleep (pain in arse to google search it though..just comes up with lucid dreaming.....stupid google...lol
so, total power down, but can still do "limited things" tat is very very cool, but ultimately VERY dangerous if they "screw up"...
"they won't"
ummmmmm....Intel is still "security fraught" MSFT is having it;s own issues so they went with Google for a good chunk of internet web stuff (recently and going forward) then google goes and screws its email "filters"
you know, the one where you say to delete and not send to spam a unique contact name.....you still get them stupid @$#@#$ emails anyways, same #$%$#@% contact sender that google servers state "this .... address does not exist or not set up to get incoming/outgoing connections......
so they can send mails to YOUR server to MY email and all is well, but cannot "prevent" because that sender "does not exist"
*face-slap*
idiots.......
anyways....is cool, seems like Intel might be headed in this direction i.e mobile (ultra low power where they are near top of the pile all around) and the HEDT / Server stuff (why not, make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ without do much than they have done for decades (rinse and repeat)
still, if the cpu/gpu makers actually went to town and made them as best as can be "battery wise" why are these only lasting maybe 20% more than average phone (is beyond me)
i.e my phone, I can watch videos for better part of 3 days "non stop" at brightness I can tolerate (not dark/not bright in average dimmer room (eye issue)
imo...if a phone can have a battery ~1/4 the size (something along those line, for 3200+Mah (that 3.2watt hour, these things that have all kinds of room for "massive" battery.. they not all that much better (unless pay through nose for them dual extra HD thick as brick custom battery and specific laptop that can use)
As an IT director, I think this is a great idea as a baseline recommendation for a business-class laptop. Instead of telling people a bunch of shit they don't understand or writing out a list of specs, I can (mostly) safely say go buy one that complies with "Engineered for Mobile Performance"
Mostly, because I find the requirement for a touch screen somewhat problematic. That requires a glossy screen, which a lot of people do not like depending on their working environment, and a feature, frankly, few people use in business. That's an unfortunate requirement and seems like a Microsoft push, not an Intel push.
But perhaps there will be outliers that don't have touch screens...
256GB ... In 2019, I don't get it. I really don't. What can you do with 256GB? At home I have a 32TB NAS for the files, so with 1TB on laptops/desktops it's OK. I have a work laptop, however, with 256GB and it is an absolute nightmare to manage the files. I have to swap USB sticks and rely on network storage to compensate. I find it ridiculous, really. Of 256GB, 50GB are used by Windows, 9GB by the various swap and paging files, 12GB by programs and 30GB by emails. So nearly 110GB are pretty much non-usable. So you're left with ~140GB for your files ... I have about 100GB of photos on my cell phone (which has 400GB storage, BTW). 256GB should disappear, and the sooner, the better, but certainly it cannot be acceptable for a high-end mobile platform.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
49 Comments
Back to Article
nandnandnand - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
"At least 8 GB of dual-channel DRAM.At least a 265 GB NVMe SSD with or without Optane H10 caching SSD."
I see a "more than" sign, not "more than or equal to".
Also 256 GB, not 265 GB.
"Do note, however, that there won't be any ‘Engineered for Mobile Performance’ badges on actual notebooks. Apparently, neither Intel nor PC makers want to put badges on chassis of premium computers (this itself typically being treated as a premium feature)."
Wait for AMD Zen 2 mobile APUs. Don't reward Intel.
Teckk - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
When are the mobile Zen 2s out btw, Q4 this year?Also, good set of requirements for a laptop and mostly will be at least 4 digits entry price (the linked XPS was $999). Interesting that MacBook Pros won't meet this, although I guess Apple couldn't care less.
willis936 - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Or could they? 🤔JanW1 - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
Apple does not need to meet that $999 price. This price tag is for the 4-GB, 2-core, 256-GB SSD version of the XPS 13. This does not meet the Project Athena specifications. Oh and the SSD is soldered down for good measure, to make sure you need to bin this thing as soon as your hard drive becomes too small.willis936 - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Or could they? 🤔Teckk - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
If they could, they would, so if they couldn't they wouldn't :D :Pajp_anton - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
No.If they could, they would, so if they wouldn't, they couldn't.
DanNeely - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
There's no real reason Apple couldn't make a touchscreen Macbook. But it would require backing down from their long standing position that touch screens are useless on laptops. It'd also probably cut into ipad/iphone sales to mobile developers who're personally android users but need to support both.Virtual IOS devices are fast enough you don't for performance reasons; but trying to use a touchscreen UI with a mouse/touchpad sucks badly enough you really do. (Virtual android devices are slow enough performance wise that you really need real hardware to test on even if you have a touchscreen laptop.)
Teckk - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Their long standing reasoning on touch screen laptops is pretty much real enough for them to not have it so far :)Anyway I personally don't miss the touch screen on a laptop. Used to shifting between a Windows laptop and a MB Pro, not a major deficiency for me personally at least.
PeachNCream - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
I have to agree with Apple on that one. I own a laptop with a touchscreen and it's pretty pointless. I've poked it a few times when I first got it and since have just used either an external mouse or the touchpad. The only thing the touchscreen does is force the laptop to have a glossy screen with has lots of glare and makes the computer heavier for no good reason.poohbear - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Agreed. bought a touch screen laptop and i never used the touch screen feature aside from scrolling up and down the screen, but really do i need a touchscreen just for that when i can use my mouse wheel, the side scroll bar, or even my up/down arrow keys? I've never bought another touch screen and would never pay the $300+ premium. Maybe for those 2-in-1s wherein you can detach the screen and it turns into a tablet, but on a normal laptop....no thanx.Teckk - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Lot of windows laptops in that range have touchscreens these days, they should have an option to not have one.neblogai - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
I use Surface Pro 2 with a keyboard, its 5 years old now. Have used the touchpad maybe 5 times over that time, because control though pointing with the pen, and drawing gestures is much faster and more reliable. And of course, screen does not get smudged from that.voicequal - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
I'll take all the human I/O bandwidth I can get, including touch. The mouse is still best for precision work, but there's something about touch that let's you react faster and more naturally with what's on screen, assuming a good UI of course.An active pen was a huge benefit for an app I wrote to control live audio/video performances.
Capacitive touch isn't reliable enough. Won't be buying a laptop without an active digitizer ever again.
zaza - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Apple has enought demand that they don't need project Athena validation. Everyone knows what a MacBook air and MacBook is. Same for ultrabook or Centrino before.Reflex - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
While I don't consider touch screens a necessity for laptops, they are a nice to have. I initially was dubious, but the Win10 UI lends itself to touch in several places very well, and honestly, even the latest trackpads are not that great. I'll take both if I can.not_anton - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
Connect an iPad as external screen to mac with some 3rd-party app and you will get a touchscreen mac!Which is pointless at work - screen elements are too small. Touchpad is faster to use.
DanNeely - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
I'm going to assume > instead of ≥ in the graphic comes down to marketing stupidity or decimal vs binary pedantic stupidity. Dual channel means that the next step up would be 16GB; if they wanted 16GB the easy way to say so would be ≥16GB not >8GB. OTOH with base 10 pedantary, the laptop would have 8,589,934,592 bytes of ram which is strictly greater than 8,000,000,000.I'm also interested in exactly what the engineering SSD spec is. With spare area factored in 256GB class SSDs have <256GB of space available; and passing 256GB class drives while flunking defacto equivalent 240GB class ones would be stupid.
Jorgp2 - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Why would you wait for an inferior product?Drumsticks - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Zen 2 is amazing in both Desktop and Server. It certainly will be in Mobile as well, but mobile is definitely the area where Intel retains the most competitive capabilities. Icelake should have an IPC lead over Zen 2, and Zen 2 likely won't clock much more than Icelake in a 15W platform. Ultimately I'd guess that CPU performance will be a wash, but Intel definitely looks like they can retain overall leads in platform efficiency and featureset, which I would argue matters a lot more for mobile than it does for Desktop.silverblue - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
Zen 2's efficiency is boosted by simply not having the X570 chipset due to its PCIe 4.0 support. I'm not sure Intel really offers much more than AMD but I'm happy to be proven wrong.Samus - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
Zen 2 will no doubt be a performance monster in mobile, but in the 15w envelope, I doubt it will compete with Intel. AMD has had a lot of trouble scaling it below 25w (which, granted, Coffee Lake and above often operate at during TDP-up.)That all comes down to process efficiency. But with AMD's creative and frankly game-changing chiplet topology they might be able to pull it off.
Good times for consumers.
milkywayer - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
This is wonderful if the laptops are remotely affordable. But seeing as much manufacturers are charging upwards of $1200 for 8GB / 256GB / 1080p ultra thins, I believe these will be in in $2000+ category.Samus - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
If you are willing to get a previous-gen laptop (Coffee Lake) you can easily get something that was $1000+ at launch for <$500 now. I just picked up a Dell Latitude 5290 for $450 brand new on eBay with an i5-8350U, 8GB DDR4 and 256GB NVMe SSD. Unfortunately the m2 slot is only 2 lanes :(neblogai - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
If only AMD cared to do the same. Setting something like 'Silver' tier requirement (1080p IPS/VA, dual channel 8GB, SSD) and 'Gold' requirements ('Silver'+ small bezzels, thin/light/2in1; biometrics, lit keyboard, 6h+ battery life, 20W+ STAPM) would make it much easier to recommend an AMD laptop than it is now.HStewart - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
The problem is AMDFan's will blame it on the vendors and not actually AMD. Does anybody actually own an AMD laptop - they always state get Zen+++ but what they say instead is don't buy Intel because I and other AMD Fan boys don't care for it. That Attitude is primary reason why I will refused to ever purchase. I made that mistake with Dell XPS 15 2in1 but it only the video.Korguz - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
umm.. yea ok there hstewart. the ONLY reason you wont buy amd, is because you fanatic intel fanboyism, wont allow you to. and FYI it IS the oems that have made the amd notebooks the way they are, not giving them much thought or features compared to the intel based ones... and i own 2 amd based notebooks.. and that is mostly due to price, and because for what i needed.. intels igp.. is crap, where amds igp.. is stronger over all. i wont eveb consider an intel based notebook if it uses intels igp.bji - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
The first person to use the term 'fan boy' in any discussion is the *actual* fan boy. True fact.Korguz - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
bji, ironic, isnt it ? the biggest fanboy, calling some one else a fanboy.MonkeyPaw - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Nonsense. This is as much an advertising initiative than anything. Vendors who comply with this “standard” will get advertising dollars from Intel to run commercials. Anytime you see a Dell or HP add for a PC that ends with Intel noises, you know Intel helped pay for the ad. AMD doesn’t have the money to burn here to get OEMs to “participate” in an initiative.Irata - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
I do own an AMD laptop as a matter of fact and it's a very nice one (Huawei Matebook with a Ryzen 2500U). Performance is great - kid can play Fortnite on it smoothely, it's very well built and configured, overall smooth and has an excellent battery life. All this for a very good price.Huawei used the same case, screen, battery... as on their Intel counterpart and offers it for a very good price (lower than a comparable Intel model).
Now they did wait to release it worldwide until the Intel based successor (with better specs but much higher price) was released but it shows that if you want to, you can build a great Ryzen based notebook.
So yes, I do blame OEM for there not being more good AMD based notebooks.
An there is demand - when it was released, it made it to #1 on Amazon's laptop sale charts in the UK and Germany and it is currently still on the #2 spot in Germany (currently not available from Amazon UK)
edzieba - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
AMD would have to abandon their one-platform approach to mobile chips to do so.They adopted it in the Bulldozer days to make their mobile chips remotely appealing (allow the high-end chips to be mated to the most bargain-basement platform, to encourage OEMs to make the bargain-basement platform in the first place), but sales remained poor enough that OEMs had no desire to put the R&D effort into higher end platforms that would never make back the investment. If AMD were to explicitly split their mobile chips into two platforms, it would force the higher end chips to be mated to suitable platforms. Of course, it could also backfire if OEMs do not expect sales of high end Ryzen notebooks to be high enough to pay off the R&D for an additional platform.
neblogai - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
I meant it in a different way- AMD would not split their chips into platforms- the same lineup of their chips would be used, only laptops themselves would try to qualify for certain criteria, and be awarded a tier. That would help ensuring that laptops that are otherwise fine do not cut corners in critical areas. Because, in midrange, buying a laptop often reminds a game 'where will I be fooled'. Too often now laptops sell certain specs, but hide too many weak areas in their design, and drive the market further in the way of 'lemon market'. But qualification, and less lemons would make AMD laptops easier to recommend.Irata - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
I guess meeting the requirement is probably tied to certain cash incentives from Intel and given AMD's more limited funds, I'd rather AMD invest this in R&D.That said, if AMD were to provide some engineering support in terms of platform building for notebooks that would be a step forward but I am not sure if building great AMD notebooks (OEM could already do this now) would not pose the risk of losing funding / support from Intel.
silverblue - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
AMD's past attempt at this (Vision... way to confuse *slow clap*) was pretty poor. I understand what they were trying to do, in the sense that it informed the user what the machine should be able to do rather than giving specs, however this unfortunately leaves the certification open to OEMs offering products that satisfy minimum requirements which, as we know, are a world away from recommended requirements (just think games).It's a huge shame that AMD won't launch Zen 2 mobile offerings for a few months; with Zen resurrecting their fortunes, they could've worked out their own badging system with OEMs sticking to a list of specs, and they would probably sell a few nowadays.
eastcoast_pete - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
I agree with most of these "requirements", except for the touchscreen. I go out of my way to avoid them on laptops (don't like smudges on my screen), and rather look for a good touchpad and keyboard.eastcoast_pete - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Also, it will be interesting to see how these measure up versus the "always-connected" Qualcomm 8cx notebooks. As for AMD, many of us are waiting to see their Zen 2 or 2+ mobile chips. But many of us can only wait that long.ciparis - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
"precision touchpad"From your lips to God's ears. Thank you, Intel!
"touch display"
Well, you can't have everything.
poohbear - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
I think this is a great way for standardization at the high end and transparency for the consumer. Most consumers don't have a clue which laptop is which. Now we can reference this badge when recommending laptops to help them make a more informed decision.poohbear - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
wait is the touchscreen an actual requirement?? Making that a requirement makes no sense on a laptop!!! Especially for those of us that use it for work!Drumsticks - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
If you don't use it, who cares if it's on there or not? I imagine the high end screens nowadays being manufactured have touch screen support, and mandating it on everything likely has an effect on consolidating different screen types and brings costs down a bit.Dragonstongue - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
Kudos to Google for Lucid sleep (pain in arse to google search it though..just comes up with lucid dreaming.....stupid google...lolso, total power down, but can still do "limited things" tat is very very cool, but ultimately VERY dangerous if they "screw up"...
"they won't"
ummmmmm....Intel is still "security fraught" MSFT is having it;s own issues so they went with Google for a good chunk of internet web stuff (recently and going forward)
then google goes and screws its email "filters"
you know, the one where you say to delete and not send to spam a unique contact name.....you still get them stupid @$#@#$ emails anyways, same #$%$#@% contact sender that google servers state "this .... address does not exist or not set up to get incoming/outgoing connections......
so they can send mails to YOUR server to MY email and all is well, but cannot "prevent" because that sender "does not exist"
*face-slap*
idiots.......
anyways....is cool, seems like Intel might be headed in this direction i.e mobile (ultra low power where they are near top of the pile all around) and the HEDT / Server stuff (why not, make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ without do much than they have done for decades (rinse and repeat)
still, if the cpu/gpu makers actually went to town and made them as best as can be "battery wise" why are these only lasting maybe 20% more than average phone (is beyond me)
i.e my phone, I can watch videos for better part of 3 days "non stop" at brightness I can tolerate (not dark/not bright in average dimmer room (eye issue)
imo...if a phone can have a battery ~1/4 the size (something along those line, for 3200+Mah (that 3.2watt hour, these things that have all kinds of room for "massive" battery.. they not all that much better (unless pay through nose for them dual extra HD thick as brick custom battery and specific laptop that can use)
sorten - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
"The first laptop to meet Intel’s Project Athena program requirements is Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1 model 7390 that became available on August 8."The $1000 model doesn't have enough RAM to qualify.
sorten - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
You have to spend $1400 on the Dell before you get 8GB of RAM.jordanclock - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
Which is why the $1000 model doesn't have the badge on Dell's website.https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-x...
The 8GB+ models all have the badge on their image.
GreenReaper - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
So logically, the AMD version will be Minerva? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MinervaSamus - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
As an IT director, I think this is a great idea as a baseline recommendation for a business-class laptop. Instead of telling people a bunch of shit they don't understand or writing out a list of specs, I can (mostly) safely say go buy one that complies with "Engineered for Mobile Performance"Mostly, because I find the requirement for a touch screen somewhat problematic. That requires a glossy screen, which a lot of people do not like depending on their working environment, and a feature, frankly, few people use in business. That's an unfortunate requirement and seems like a Microsoft push, not an Intel push.
But perhaps there will be outliers that don't have touch screens...
yankeeDDL - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
256GB ...In 2019, I don't get it. I really don't. What can you do with 256GB?
At home I have a 32TB NAS for the files, so with 1TB on laptops/desktops it's OK.
I have a work laptop, however, with 256GB and it is an absolute nightmare to manage the files. I have to swap USB sticks and rely on network storage to compensate. I find it ridiculous, really.
Of 256GB, 50GB are used by Windows, 9GB by the various swap and paging files, 12GB by programs and 30GB by emails. So nearly 110GB are pretty much non-usable. So you're left with ~140GB for your files ...
I have about 100GB of photos on my cell phone (which has 400GB storage, BTW).
256GB should disappear, and the sooner, the better, but certainly it cannot be acceptable for a high-end mobile platform.
evilpaul666 - Saturday, August 17, 2019 - link
Are they going to include actual, effective coolers? Seems like something that would be great to have over 1mm less thickness.