1 A CORE CHOICE
Raw performance isn’t what it used to be. If you buy a laptop with a 12th or 13th generation Core processor inside then it’s likely to be fast enough to last you for years. (You can tell that it’s one of the more recent Intel chips through its name; for example, a Core i7-1165U is an 11th generation chip, a Core i7-1265U is a 12th gen chip.)
Although we didn’t see a single AMD-powered laptop computer in this test, don’t be put off from an AMD laptop that hits all your other key buying points. AMD’s recent Ryzen mobile chips are fast and power-efficient, and you’ll find them in many machines – often for better prices than their Intel equivalents.
If you need more power, choose a Ryzen 7, Core i7 or Core i9 with as many performance cores (P-cores in Intel’s case) as possible. Our feature table provides a detailed breakdown of how the processors in each
