Going to look at Laptops today. What do I need to know about the Core M?

Kneedragger

Golden Member
Feb 18, 2013
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I need to get rid of all my pc stuff and just get my own laptop now since the office is now the baby room..

I see a bunch of laptops with this Core M option is this something I want to stay away from or should I consider it?

Thanks
 

ShintaiDK

Lifer
Apr 22, 2012
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Core M is fine. But the question is what your demands are. Core M is targeted at ultra thin factors. Primary 2in1/tablets.
 

coercitiv

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2014
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I see a bunch of laptops with this Core M option is this something I want to stay away from or should I consider it?
Only choose Core M if your workload can be summed up to Office&Browser and you value mobility. The chip can be quite decent for a ultralight laptop, though some manufacturers managed to mess it up a bit when it comes to properly cooling the chip.

I would advise you to look at 15W CPUs, especially the i5.
 
Aug 11, 2008
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Yea, the 15 watt U chips are the mainstream laptop chips. Core M is targeted toward low power usage and thin formfactors. They have their place, but the U chips give more performance for the cost.
 

Kneedragger

Golden Member
Feb 18, 2013
1,192
45
91
Core M is fine. But the question is what your demands are. Core M is targeted at ultra thin factors. Primary 2in1/tablets.

Only choose Core M if your workload can be summed up to Office&Browser and you value mobility. The chip can be quite decent for a ultralight laptop, though some manufacturers managed to mess it up a bit when it comes to properly cooling the chip.

I would advise you to look at 15W CPUs, especially the i5.

Ok very cool.
I don't really think I'd be doing much heavy work on it. I game on a PS4 and this laptop would mostly be used for web surfing, managing music, light photo/video editing and sometimes youtube. If i3 is way better I'm ok with stick with that..
 

dark zero

Platinum Member
Jun 2, 2015
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Yea, the 15 watt U chips are the mainstream laptop chips. Core M is targeted toward low power usage and thin formfactors. They have their place, but the U chips give more performance for the cost.
Sadly... the TRUE Maninstream chip was H/M tier.... even if it was a little hotter, it was FAR better than U tier by miles.
 
Aug 11, 2008
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Sadly... the TRUE Maninstream chip was H/M tier.... even if it was a little hotter, it was FAR better than U tier by miles.

I know you hate the U lineup, and I am not particularly a fan of them either. But the quad cores were never mainstream. "Mainstream" before the U chips were higher base clock, higher wattage dual cores. The problem with the dual cores is that they have offered similar performance for several generations, but with less power usage. Personally, I too would have liked to see the extra efficiency directed to more performance instead of lower power usage, but Intel chose not to go that way. IGP performance has improved a lot though if that matters. My wife and I both have 35W dual cores (one SB one IV) which offer similar performance to the current U models, and they are adequate for daily use and what the OP wants to do.
 

ShintaiDK

Lifer
Apr 22, 2012
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Ok very cool.
I don't really think I'd be doing much heavy work on it. I game on a PS4 and this laptop would mostly be used for web surfing, managing music, light photo/video editing and sometimes youtube. If i3 is way better I'm ok with stick with that..

A Core M is fine for that.

In your case it will be more down to screen size/quality, battery life and weight. Then if its a Core M, i3 or i5 is secondary.
 

scannall

Golden Member
Jan 1, 2012
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Unless you actually need an ultralight, I'd skip the Core M as it's too pricey for what you get.
 

EliteRetard

Diamond Member
Mar 6, 2006
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At the opposite end of the spectrum:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011KFQASE/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=

Asus 15.6" 1080 i3-5010U 4GB/500GB
$350 is about the cheapest you'll find a 1080 screen on a laptop.

Apparently this one is tougher to operate on, if you wanted to upgrade to 8GB and an SSD.
If that's the goal there may be a better deal around $5-600.

If 15.6" is to big let us know...I'm sure we can find smaller more portable options.