You may even see a brand new badge affixed to the within of a Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) laptop computer this vacation season or subsequent 12 months: The new “Evo Edition,” which can signify that the laptop computer has been examined to make sure particular battery life, noise ranges, and even AI.

Intel launched “Project Athena” in 2019, and transitioned to the Intel Evo brand in 2020. For then, and now, the mission has been simple: Try and talk what Intel believes are the very best laptops (and even some desktops) on the market. The subsequent, ongoing step? Expand into the equipment market.

Intel added the up to date Evo badging alongside the formal unveiling of the Intel Core Ultra and its AI capabilities at an occasion in New York City on Thursday. It will seem on laptops just like the Acer Swift Go 14, the primary AI PC we’ve reviewed.

Set that apart for a second, although. As a shopper, you must know that there are at the least 4 key issues Intel primarily ensures within an Evo-branded laptop computer. Buy one, and also you’ll obtain 4 issues: greater than 10 hours of battery life (as examined with a 1080p display); an “instant-on” requirement that targets 1.5 seconds to renew from a sleep state; quick charging that quantities to 4 hours of battery life in half-hour of charging time; and that the system has been examined to be cool and quiet throughout operation.

Intel doesn’t have any particular targets for a way quiet Evo laptops have to be, or how cool the floor temperature is, executives mentioned. But PC makers are apparently being aggressive in hitting their very own targets.

“All the early Meteor Lake designs are below 19dB,” mentioned David Feng, vp of the Client Computing Group, in a prerecorded video offered to reporters upfront of the Core Ultra launch. “To put that into perspective, 19dB is a super-quiet room. It’s quieter than even people whispering to each other. And some designs are even 17dB.”

Intel

What’s inside an Evo Edition laptop computer?

Intel Evo laptops do mandate at the least 8GB of dual-channel reminiscence and a 256GB PCI Express SSD, although most fashions include much more beefed-up specs. They don’t require Intel’s new Arc graphics or any specific third-party graphics {hardware}, as they’re elective. The newest Evo Edition laptops do mandate an NPU (or neural processing unit), nevertheless, which solely ship with Intel’s Core Ultra chips. You’ll additionally see options you could have begun to take with no consideration, too: Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6E, and elective 5G capabilities. Remember, the Core Ultra / Meteor Lake platform doesn’t ship with Thunderbolt 5, and Wi-Fi 7 is barely accessible as a discrete element.

Evo laptops are additionally examined towards Intel Unison — which has been beefed up with prolonged management and sharing options. Webcams are additionally being examined towards the VCX camera specification, which can present numerical scores for evaluating the webcam’s high quality.

Intel can also be stating that laptops with the Evo Edition badge will meet or exceed EPEAT Silver ranges of sustainability, that means that they meet all the fundamental necessities of the federal government’s EPEAT commonplace, and half of the elective necessities.

It’s the peripherals market, although, that’s the brand new frontier for Evo. Intel named 23 corporations — together with a number of present PC companions, resembling Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung — that will probably be tasked with constructing out an Intel Evo accent ecosystem. Those will embrace Thunderbolt docks, screens, storage, Bluetooth headsets, mice, wi-fi entry factors, and even listening to aids. Since starting the venture two years in the past, Intel has added a sixth new model, plus 21 new units, for a complete of 57 units, Feng mentioned.

Intel

“Evo really wants to set the direction for ecosystem partners,” Feng mentioned. Intel desires to determine what the longer term expertise will probably be, after which work with companions to make {that a} actuality.

“The whole idea is when people have a seamless, greater user experience on their Evo PCs, that experience will be extended until they’re engineered for Evo peripherals as well,” Feng added.

Updated at 7:42 AM PT with extra element.