The best CPU for laptops: Intel versus AMD
What’s the best CPU to get in your next laptop? That question became a lot harder to answer earlier this year when AMD unleashed its Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs, finally bringing some real competition against Intel’s Core product line. If that weren’t enough, Intel has multiple generations of Core mobile CPU on the market, each with specific strengths and weaknesses.
We’re here to help you navigate this chaotic landscape, but without thousands of words and stacks of charts. We’ll start with a quick primer on the strengths and weaknesses of each chip, then we’ll discuss how to pick the right one for you. To keep this from getting too overwhelming, we’ll stick only to the CPUs that typically go into 1.25kg, thin-and-light laptops, rather than get into thicker and heavier gaming laptops.
DOES IT MATTER WHICH CPU YOU HAVE?
Before you go on, keep in mind that paying for more performance if you don’t actually use it is often a waste of money. The truth is that for most people who browse the web, check email, watch YouTube or run Microsoft Office, just about any modern Core or Ryzen CPU with an SSD and enough RAM offers more than enough performance.
Rather than worrying about how the CPU was
