Benchmarking Intel's Skylake-U Series Core i7 Processor For Laptops
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Lasting just under 3 hours, the 2.85 pound Lenovo Yoga 900 and its Skylake-U Core i7 processor offer up respectable performance, once again in the top quadrant of our test group. Frankly, however, this test doesn't really allow the ultra-low power state characteristics of Intel's Skylake-U platform to kick in, rather it just pushes on system resources until the battery begs for mercy. We're looking forward to testing the machine under lighter-duty workloads in our web browsing test, which will allow the CPU to throttle back significantly and we suspect will demonstrate best-of-class battery life for notebook architectures that are currently available. Stay tuned for the full review where we'll be sure to dig in deeper here.
To close things out, here's a quick refresher on the entire 15 Watt Intel Skylake-U family, reporting for duty in ultrabooks and ultralight convertibles of various shapes and sizes this Q4.
La Famiglia - as they say in Italy...
To close things out, here's a quick refresher on the entire 15 Watt Intel Skylake-U family, reporting for duty in ultrabooks and ultralight convertibles of various shapes and sizes this Q4.
La Famiglia - as they say in Italy...
The Intel Core i7-6500U that we tested in Lenovo's Yoga 900 sits right about in the middle of the stack, and along with the 6200U, will likely be a popular configuration for many notebook platforms coming forth from other OEMs. The i7-6500U has a nice balance of near top-end base clock and near top-end Turbo Boost clock as well, though the Core i7-6560U looks very intriguing, with its ultra-low 2.2GHz base clock and higher 3.2GHz Turbo. This chip will also sport Intel's Iris Graphics 540 engine as well, for a bit more GPU punch.
Lenovo's Yoga 900 Series With 3200X1800 IPS Display - $1400 MSRP
Lenovo's Yoga 900 Series With 3200X1800 IPS Display - $1400 MSRP
That about wraps up our initial quick-take look at Intel's Skylake-U series performance and Lenovo's latest Yoga variant notebook. We definitely have a bit more tire-kicking to do with this machine so be sure to stick around for the full review. For now, it looks as though Intel's 6th Generation Skylake Core Series processors are a natural in the 3 pounder ultralight weight class, offering better performance across the board, and though we need to roll up our sleeves more with it, likely much better battery life as well.
