Last Generation Laptops Are Your Best Bet, To Many OEMs Dismay

Little Improvement Makes Previous Models More Attractive

Ars Technica has some advice for anyone shopping for a new laptop, and those that sell them are not going to like it.  Instead of a fancy new Ryzen 7000 or 12th Gen Intel part they are suggesting last generations laptops.  As you may have noticed, and as their benchmarks show the performance gains you will see are minimal.  There is also a dearth of interesting new features added by the laptop makers in this generation, it is not just the chips.

Their tests compared the new 2023 Yoga 9i with an i7-1360P, while 2022’s model had an i7-1260P.  From a pure performance perspective, the new model gives you a boost somewhere between 2-8% depending on the benchmark.  They also referenced a number of other benchmarks which showed that battery life also remains the same, or in some case decreases, unless you fiddle with the brightness on the built in display.

There are some interesting models from this year which sport improved display technology or upgraded keyboards that might convince you to spend an extra couple of hundred dollars.  If you don’t have a new feature you have your heart sent on however, the performance difference makes it difficult to justify the extra expense that comes with a 2023 model and a last generation laptops is a better deal.