Dell will ship laptops with Skylake chips for longer battery life
The fifth-generation Core processors, code-named Broadwell U, are destined for Windows laptops, Chromebooks, desktops and mini-PCs. Lenovo, HP, Dell, Asus and Acer are among those using the new chips in systems. Laptop battery life and graphics will get a serious boost with Intel’s new Core processors. Laptops should see an immediate boost in performance and battery life with new chips: Broadwell. Some laptops will deliver more than 10 hours of laptop battery life, with Lenovo’s ThinkPad X250 deliver up to 20 hours with two integrated batteries.
Wire-free computing could be around the corner, with Dell planning to release laptops based on Intel’s Skylake chips in the second half of the year. Intel believes that Skylake, the latest in its Core series, is the most significant processor it has released in the last decade. It’s based on a new circuit design and promises significant increases in performance, battery life and power efficiency.
Though it promises a variety of features, Skylake is generating excitement mainly because it’s expected to reduce the need for power cords, display connectors and other peripheral cables. Skylake laptops can have wireless charging, and also carry display and data signals wirelessly, which could spell the end for HDMI, DisplayPort and even USB cables.
The Skylake chips will succeed Intel’s fifth-generation Core processors, based on the Broadwell architecture. Dell is taking a pass on upgrading to Broadwell in many of its laptops, and instead will jump directly to Skylake, as Intel has already admitted might happen.
Intel typically upgrades its Core chips on a yearly basis, but is making an exception with Skylake as it tries to quickly close the curtain on Broadwell’s troubled existence. The Core chips based on Broadwell were delayed, and Intel now wants to bring Skylake technology to buyers as quickly as possible.
Mainstream PCs with Broadwell were expected last year, but were delayed following manufacturing issues delayed chip shipments. On some laptops, Dell’s bypassing Broadwell and is sticking with older Core chips (code-named Haswell) and then upgrading directly to Skylake.
Like Dell, many PC makers are expected to latch on to Skylake as soon as it hits the market. For Dell, the cost of transitioning from the older Haswell chips to Broadwell in some laptops wasn’t worth it, and going straight to Skylake makes more sense. Consumers typically buy new laptops as needed. But those who care about performance and features may also skip Broadwell and wait for Skylake, and the likelihood of that will increase as the year moves along.
Nonetheless, Broadwell’s performance and power-efficiency features are impressive, Azor said. Dell is using Broadwell chips in its new XPS 13 laptop, which is 15 millimeters thick and offers 15 hours of Dell inspiron b120 battery life. More laptops will be upgraded to Broadwell later this year.
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