Are you looking for a good laptop PC for Black Friday, but you are lost among the technical characteristics and references? Pay close attention to one component that will make all the difference: the processor.
The kickoff of Black Friday 2024 is fast approaching, and the main French brands have already started to offer promotions on many computer devices. And if, like every year, the star product will undoubtedly be the smartphone, it is also a very good opportunity to equip yourself with a new laptop as the end-of-year holidays approach.
A wise approach to getting good deals during periods of heavy promotions is to look to products from previous generations. Manufacturers and distributors are taking advantage of these moments to empty their stocks of the oldest references, and make room for new ones. Thus, it is possible to equip yourself well at a very good price, as long as you resist the sirens of marketing and novelty.
But be careful, among products from past years, not all references are equal. This is particularly true at the end of 2024, because the Windows laptop market has experienced major technological upheavals, and important thresholds have been crossed. Three aspects in particular have made giant leaps: energy performance, integrated graphics circuits and calculations dedicated to artificial intelligence. These significant improvements have been made possible by advances in an essential component of any computer: the central processor, or CPU for Central Processing Unit.
To take full advantage of these advances while saving money, it is therefore wise to focus on processors released at the very beginning of the year, and to avoid previous generations. Let’s be clear, older CPUs are obviously not obsolete, and will run a laptop PC very well in 2024 and 2025. However, a gap separates them from the next generation in terms of autonomy, battery power, graphics and AI power, aspects which have become fundamental for a good laptop PC in 2024.
On Intel’s side, a major revolution began in December 2023, with the arrival of Meteor Lake processors, also called Core Ultra (Series 1). These new chips, with a completely revised architecture, offer autonomy never before seen in the world of Windows PCs (12h to 16h depending on the model), increased graphics power finally allowing light games to be launched, and honorable AI abilities.
Less than a year later, Intel has just launched the Core Ultra 200V generation (Series 2), which offers better performance in all these aspects, but obviously costs much more. To get a good deal on a laptop with an Intel chip, you should therefore aim for Core Ultra x 1xxx type processors (Core Ultra 5 125H or 125U, Core Ultra 7 155H or 155U, etc.) and avoid CPUs 12th, 13th and 14th generation (see table)
At AMD, the brand new generation Ryzen 9 AI HX has just been released, less than ten months after the release of the Ryzen 8040 series. If the very latest flagships are obviously better, the 8040 already offered very significant gains compared to the previous ones. generations: autonomy up sharply (from 10 to 14 hours) and, above all, the fabulous Radeon 780M integrated graphics circuit which allows you to play recent and demanding 3D games in very good conditions.
To equip yourself at a good price with a laptop PC equipped with a high-performance AMD CPU, it is therefore a good idea to look among the Ryzen 8xxxHS or 8xxxU chips (Ryzen 5 8640U or 8640HS, Ryzen 7 8840U or 8840HS, etc.) and avoid the Ryzen 5000, 6000 and 7000 generations. Note that, as with Intel, the models ending in “U” are less powerful and therefore less energy-consuming, and those ending in “HS” offer maximum power, at detriment of autonomy.
Finally, what about PCs equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite or X Plus processor? These chips deliver solid overall performance and exceptional battery life on Windows PCs. However, they are clearly behind in terms of graphics power compared to Intel and AMD’s CPU, which does not make them good candidates for gaming.
But above all, these chips currently have compatibility problems with certain software in the Windows world. If you are a gamer, even occasional, or you use professional or slightly exotic applications, we therefore advise you not to turn to this family of processors without first checking the compatibility of your favorite programs.