The Intel P-Series was a mistake

It has been hard to find great laptops. The consumer side of the business has been a bit of a building year. The Intel P-series is the reason.

A number of laptops were reviewed across a variety of industries. All of the brands were touched by me. With Apple's MacBooks in such a dominant position, many eyes have been on their competitors on the Windows side.

I wrote the same review for many of the models. They were pleasant. They did a good job Their battery life wasn't good.

They were pleasant. They did a good job Their battery life wasn't good.

All of these laptops were powered by the Intel P-Series. In the past, Intel has included H-series and U-series chips for thinner, lighter devices. For a couple of years, there was also a G series. The Intel 12th Generation of mobile chips has a new letter called the P-series. The hope was that the P-series would combine H-series power with U- series efficiency.

Many of this year's top ultraportable laptops got the P-series: big-screeners like the LG Gram 17 and modular devices like the Framework Laptop.

The problem was that, in reality, the P-series was just a slightly less powerful H-series chip. It was the same as the H-series in core count and architecture, but with less power.

It is a tale of bad battery life in my reviews. The battery life of the newer models has been worse than that of the older ones. Many of these laptops had not undergone significant changes apart from the chip bumps, which meant that their newer models were basically the same as their older ones.

That isn't completely true. The P-series was supposed to bring an increase in performance, and it did. The P-series delivered better multicore performance than the U-series did. The benchmark numbers are higher if you put the P-Series next to the U-Series. I don't think any of the thin-and-light laptops need that extra power.

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

I got close to eight hours of battery life from the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5. The Swift 5 had less battery life. I wouldn't have been able to do any of the things I did on the Swift 5 if it weren't for the Surface laptop 5. They both did all of the things I did. The Swift's poor battery life was the most noticeable difference between the two experiences.

Everyone who uses these laptops will not have my experience. The difference in multicore processing power could make it known in heavier use cases. I am aware of the pitch for the P-series, which is presented as laptops for mobile professionals or power users. The P-series may fit these users better.

I don't know how large that constituency is. Is there a huge critical mass of people who are often editing, computing, and gaming on their laptop while they are out and about, but not doing that often enough that they know they don't need a graphics card?

Your life will become a constant search for outlets if you are a vlogger.

I am aware that these people exist. They need something light and may also prefer Windows. Even if the P-series is the perfect amount of power for these people, it's not a great option if you're a vlog who's running around all day and editing as you go The inefficiency of the P-series is not the reason why these people are choosing it.

Is this group really that big? I have used a lot of U-series machines this year and have been pleasantly surprised by how much they can do. I am aware of people who thought the Surface Pro 9 would be too slow for their work, only to find out it was fine. I wouldn't recommend a U-series Core i7 for professional work, but I think it offers the best sweet spot of power and battery life.

I don't think I'm mad that the P-Series exists. I am not happy that it powered so many of this year's flagship ultraportable lines. The disappointing battery life of the Dell XPS 13 Plus made it hard to ignore. A big part of the Framework's appeal was supposed to be that you could have it, even though the lifespan of the laptop is mediocre.

Across the board, computers that have historically been some of the best you can buy have fallen off our Best laptop page in favor of devices powered by Apple and Advanced Micro Devices. This year they are worse than they were last year. I don't think that's a good thing.