Intel Evo platform
A comprehensive laptop branding programme aimed at improving the consumer qualities of portable computers. Its participants fully reveal the capabilities of the hardware platform based on Intel Tiger Lake processors. Laptops with the Intel EVO nameplate must meet a number of stringent requirements: a high-quality calibrated touchscreen display, 11th Gen Intel Core i5/i7 processors with Iris Xe graphics, at least 256 GB NVMe SSD, at least 8 channels of dual-channel RAM GB, support Thunderbolt 4, Bluetooth 5 and Wi-Fi 6, wake up instantly (in 1 second). Also
, branded Intel EVO systems are required to provide from 9 hours of battery life at the end of a full charge and at least 4 hours of battery life after a half-hour charge procedure under daily load conditions. And this is not the whole list of specifications that laptops must meet in order to receive the coveted Intel EVO badge.
Screen size
Diagonal size of laptop display.
The larger the screen, the more convenient the laptop for watching high-definition movies, modern games, working with large-format graphic materials, etc. Large screens are especially important for multimedia and gaming models. On the other hand, the diagonal of the display directly affects the size and cost of the entire device. So if portability is key, it makes sense to pay attention to relatively small solutions; especially since most modern laptops have video outputs like HDMI or DisplayPort and allow connection of large-format external monitors.
In light of all this, the actual maximum for laptops these days is
17"(17.3"); however
larger devices (18") reappeared at the beginning of 2023. The standard option for general purpose laptops is
15"(15.6"), less often
16", a diagonal of
13"(13.3") or
14" is considered small by the standards of such And smaller screens can be found mainly in specific compact varieties of laptops — ultrabooks, 2 in 1, transformers, netbooks; among such devices there are solutions for
12 ",
11" and even
10" or less.
Contrast
The contrast of the screen installed in the laptop.
Contrast is the largest difference in brightness between the lightest white and darkest black that can be achieved on a single screen. It is written as a fraction, for example, 560:1; while the larger the first number, the higher the contrast, the more advanced the screen is and the better the image quality can be achieved on it. This is especially noticeable with large differences in brightness within a single frame: with low contrast, individual details located in the darkest or brightest parts of the picture may be lost, increasing the contrast allows you to eliminate this phenomenon to a certain extent. The flip side of these benefits is an increase in cost.
Separately, we emphasize that in this case only static contrast is indicated — the difference provided within one frame in normal operation, at constant brightness and without the use of special technologies. For advertising purposes, some manufacturers may also provide data on the so-called dynamic contrast — it can be measured in very impressive numbers (seven-digit or more). However, you should focus primarily on static contrast — this is the basic characteristic of any display.
As for specific values, even in the most advanced screens, this indicator does not exceed 2000: 1. But in general, modern laptops have a rather low contrast ratio — it is assumed that for tasks that require more advanced image characteristics, it is more...reasonable to use an external screen (monitor or TV).
Colour gamut (NTSC)
The colour gamut of the laptop matrix according to the NTSC colour model.
Colour gamut describes the range of colours that can be displayed on the screen. It is indicated as a percentage, but not relative to the entire variety of visible colours, but relative to the conditional colour space (colour model). This is due to the fact that no modern screen is able to display all the colours visible to humans. However, the larger the colour gamut, the wider the screen's capabilities, the better its colour reproduction.
Specifically, NTSC is one of the first colour models created back in 1953 for colour television. It is not used in the production of modern LCD matrices, but is used to describe and compare them. NTSC covers a wider range of colours than sRGB, which is standard in computer technology; therefore, even a small number of percentages in this case corresponds to a fairly wide coverage. For example, a value of
72% or more in NTSC is already considered a good value for use in design and graphics. At the same time, the same NTSC figures on different screens may correspond to different sRGB figures; so if accurate colour reproduction is decisive for you, these details should be clarified before buying.
Also note that among individual monitors, it is easier to find a screen with a wide colour gamut; while it will also cost less than a laptop with similar display characteristics. So choosing a laptop with a h
...igh-end screen makes sense mainly when portability is as important to you as high-quality colour reproduction.TÜV Rheinland certificate
Laptop display certification for safe blue light emission levels and panel flicker rates.
The presence of a TÜV Rheinland certificate confirms that the screen is comfortable for the eyes.
TÜV Rheinland is a large international concern headquartered in Cologne, Germany, providing a wide range of audit services. The company's specialists have developed and approved a number of tests for the compliance of the screens of mobile devices, monitors and TVs with the required level of eye protection from the harmful effects of display radiation on the user's vision on the other side of the screen. The authoritative opinion of TÜV Rheinland is respected in the tech community. Certificates from this body are issued to successfully tested electronics for the implementation of blue light filtering and screen flicker suppression technologies.
Model
The specific model of the processor installed in the laptop, or rather, the processor index within its series (see above). Knowing the full name of the processor (series and model), you can find detailed information on it (up to practical reviews) and clarify its capabilities.
Code name
The code name for CPU installed in the laptop.
This parameter characterizes, first of all, the generation to which the processor belongs, and the microarchitecture used in it. At the same time, chips with different code names can belong to the same microarchitecture/generation; in such cases, they differ in other parameters - general positioning, belonging to certain series (see above), the presence / absence of certain specific functions, etc.
Nowadays, the following code names are relevant in Intel processors:
Coffee Lake,
Comet Lake,
Ice Lake,
Tiger Lake,
Jasper Lake,
Alder Lake,
Raptor Lake (13th Gen),
Alder Lake-N,
Raptor Lake (14th Gen),
Meteor Lake (Series 1),
Raptor Lake (Series 1),
Lunar Lake (Series 2).
For AMD, the list looks like this:
Zen 2 Renoir,
Zen 2 Lucienne,
Zen 3 Cezanne,
Zen 3 Barcelo,
Zen 3+ Rembrandt,
Zen 3+ Rembrandt R,
Zen 2 Mendocino,
Zen 3 Barcelo R,
Zen 4 Dragon Range,
Zen 4 Phoenix
Zen 4 Hawk Point,
Zen 5 Strix Point.
Detailed data on different code names can be found in special sources.
Processor cores
The number of cores in the laptop CPU.
The core is a part of the CPU designed to process one thread of instructions (and sometimes more, for such models, see "Number of threads"). Nowadays, in laptops you can find
dual-core,
quad-core,
six-core,
eight-core,
ten-core,
12-core,
14-core CPUs. Also note that recently configurations with different types of cores as part of a single CPU are gaining popularity. Such chips are built on a hybrid architecture that combines high performance and energy-efficient cores. They operate at different clock speeds, have different amounts of pre-installed cache memory and are designed to solve different problems. In particular, such CPUs are found in Intel CPUs (from the 12th generation) and Apple.
Theoretically, more cores means higher performance, especially in parallel computing tasks or when processing multiple resource-intensive tasks at the same time. However, in practice this is true only all else being equal – that is, with a similar microarchitecture, clock frequency, cache volumes and other key parameters. Modern CPUs can vary greatly on these parameters – in itself, a greater number of cores does not mean superiority. This is especially true for dual- and quad-core chips: a mobil
...e-level CPU (for example, Snapdragon, see "CPU series") with 4 cores may well be inferior in capabilities to a dual-core desktop series chip (like Core i3 or i5, which are often used in universal laptops with the "optimal" set of specifications for different tasks). When evaluating CPUs with two or four cores, it is necessary to look, first of all, at the general set of characteristics. But the presence of six, eight or more cores is almost certainly a sign of a powerful CPU. Such equipment is typical mainly for advanced gaming and professional laptops.Total threads
The number of threads supported by the laptop processor.
A thread is a sequence of instructions executed by a processor. Initially, each processor core was designed for one such sequence, and the number of threads was equal to the number of cores. However, in modern CPUs, multithreading technologies are increasingly being used, which allow loading each core with two instruction sequences at once. Such technologies have different names for different manufacturers, but the principle of their operation is the same: during the inevitable pauses in the execution of one of the threads, the kernel does not idle, but works with a different sequence. Accordingly, the total number of threads in such processors is twice the number of cores; such a scheme of work significantly increases productivity (although, of course, it also affects the cost).