Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430

Design

Click to EnlargeStylistically, the ThinkPad Edge E430 is a departure from the traditional ThinkPad design. Instead of a black textured plastic lid, our Edge E430 featured a black brushed aluminum cover. It's a nice change of pace, but unfortunately turns the laptop into a fingerprint magnet. If brushed aluminum isn't your thing, you can instead opt to get the E430 in soft-touch black or red.

Lenovo decorated the E430's lid with a familiar polished silver Lenovo logo in the bottom right corner. Opposite that, you'll find the ThinkPad logo with the letter "i" that pulses when the notebook is in standby mode.

Take a look under the E430's lid and you'll see the same brushed aluminum coating on the keyboard deck. In the top left corner, you'll find the E430's circular power button surrounded by nothing but empty space. In the deck's bottom right corner, Lenovo added another ThinkPad logo complete with a backlit letter "i." Beyond those design flourishes, the Edge E430 includes the company's trademark red pointer stick and click buttons, fingerprint reader and clickpad.

Measuring 13.3 x 9.2 x 1.1-1.3 inches and weighing 4.6 pounds, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430's dimensions are on a par with those of its predecessor, the ThinkPad Edge E420 (13.3 x 9.1 x 1.4 inches and 4.6 pounds). The Edge E430 also matches up nicely with Acer's Aspire TimelineX 4830TG-6808, which measures 13.3 x 9.4 x 1.2 inches and weighs 4.6 pounds. Other 14-inch notebooks are more svelte than this Edge, especially Ultrabooks, but most of them lack an optical drive.

Display and Audio

Click to EnlargeThe E430's 14.1-inch 1366 x 768 anti-glare matte display offered a sharp but not very bright picture. Its 176 lux brightness rating is well below the average thin-and-light (201 lux). The Acer 4830TG was little better, at 186 lux. An optional VibrantView glossy display promises sharper brighter colors, but will naturally suffer from glare problems. When watching an HD trailer for "The Hobbit," we could make individual strands of hair in Gandalf's telltale gray beard. Viewing angles, however, were fairly narrow, with images washing out before 40 degrees to either side.

The ThinkPad Edge E430's stereo speakers, located on the underside of the system, are surprisingly powerful for a small business laptop. When we listened to Nicki Minaj's "Beez in the Trap," each bass hit sounded clean and distortion-free. Kansas' "Carry on Wayward Son" sounded just as good, with the blues-inspired guitar riffs and cymbal crashes coming through loud and clear. The included Dolby Advanced Audio 2 software is a definite plus. Turn it off, and the Edge's audio quality takes a significant hit.

Keyboard, Pointing Stick and Touchpad

Click to EnlargeWe've long considered Lenovo's keyboards to be some of the best in the business, thanks to their responsiveness, key spacing and overall comfort. The E430's spill-resistant, island-style keyboard lives up to that reputation. We recorded our highest score on the Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor while using the E430, 80 words per minute with a 3 percent error rate, far better than our usual 75 words per minute. The layout felt somewhat stiff, but we presume this will lessen as you break it in.

The E430's rubberized TrackPoint pointing stick and associated mouse and scrolling buttons proved accurate and responsive as ever, allowing us to seamlessly transition from typing to controlling the on-screen pointer and back without ever having to take our hands off of the keyboard.

Click to EnlargeThe Lenovo's 3.5 x 2.1-inch UltraNav textured clickpad was also quite accurate. Multitouch gestures worked for the most part, but we found ourselves repeating some of them occasionally, such as using the three-finger flick function to navigate the picture gallery. Two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom, however, were spot on.

Heat

After streaming a full-screen Hulu video for 15 minutes, the ThinkPad Edge E430's touchpad reached just 79 degrees, while the keyboard registered 80 degrees. The hottest point on the Edge was its underside, which hit a relatively cool 83 degrees. We consider temperatures below 95 degrees to be comfortable.

The ThinkPad Edge E430 includes all of the ports and plugs a small business owner could need. On its left side are a VGA port, USB 2.0 slot, HDMI port and two USB 3.0 ports. Over on the right side, are the E430's power port, Ethernet jack, tray-loading optical drive, a USB 2.0 port that can charge devices while sleeping and a combination audio and microphone jack. Up front, the E430 features a 4-in-1 media card reader.

Webcam and Videoconferencing

Click to EnlargeThe Edge E430's 720p webcam provided bright, but slightly grainy images. Fine details like facial wrinkles were easy to decipher, although colors were somewhat inaccurate. When we tried using the webcam in a darker setting, image quality took a nose dive.

To help improve voice chat quality, Lenovo outfitted the Edge E430 with keyboard noise cancellation technology. Lenovo says the E430's microphone audio field has also improved to allow users to switch between conference mode, in which several people can be picked up by the microphone, and single user mode, which only picks up the voice of the person sitting directly in front of the microphone.

Fingerprint Reader

Click to EnlargeOur ThinkPad Edge E430's fingerprint reader was extremely easy to set up, and can be set to open specific websites and apps with the swipe of a finger. We could also set the reader to log us into secure websites, as well as log on to Windows.

Performance

Our configuration of the ThinkPad Edge E430 comes with a second-generation (Sandy Bridge) 2.5-GHz Intel Core i5-2540M processor rather than a newer third-generation Ivy Bridge CPU. However, you can configure this laptop with one for $55 more. Still, with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive, our Edge E430 proved more than capable of holding its own against the competition.

On PCMark 07, a synthetic benchmark that tests a system's overall performance, the E430 scored 2,337. That's on a par with the thin-and-light laptop category average (2,389), and about 200 points higher than the Acer Aspire TimelineX 4830TG-6808, which has the same CPU.

The Edge E430 also managed to boot faster than the competition, starting up in just 44 seconds compared with the category average of 57 seconds and the Acer 4830TG's 65 seconds. That's largely a result of the difference in rotation speeds between the E430's 500GB, 7,200-rpm drive, and the Acer's 500GB, 5,400-rpm drive.

The ThinkPad Edge E430 fared pretty well on the LAPTOP File Transfer test, duplicating 4.97GB of mixed media files in 2 minutes and 53 seconds for a rate of 29.4 MBps. That's nearly identical to the category average of 29.9 MBps.

The E430 also performed well on our OpenOffice Spreadsheet test, matching 20,000 names to their corresponding addresses in 5 minutes and 4 seconds. This showing is just two seconds slower than the Aspire TimelineX, but faster than the category average of 6 minutes.

Graphics Performance

Having Intel's HD Graphics 3000 on board means you'll be limited to watching HD movies and mostly casual games. On the 3DMark06 benchmark, the Edge E430 scored just 3,822. That's well below the category average of 5,117, and more than 5,000 points below the Acer Aspire TimelineX, which benefits from an Nvidia GeForce GT 540M GPU.

When we played "World of Warcraft" with the graphics set to autodetect, the Edge E430 managed 34 frames per second, an acceptable frame rate for a nongaming machine. But when we bumped up the graphics to the highest setting, the frame rate dropped to an unplayable 17 fps. By comparison, the average thin-and-light notebook registers 52 and 26 fps, respectively.

Battery Life

Click to EnlargeThe ThinkPad Edge E430's 6-cell 62WH lithium ion battery provides plenty of endurance for mobile workers. On the LAPTOP Battery Test, which involves continuous Web surfing with the display brightness set to 40 percent, the Edge E430 lasted 6 hours and 53 minutes. That's 33 minutes longer than Lenovo rated the battery and 25 minutes longer than the thin-and-light notebook category average.

Configurations

Our E430 came equipped with a 2.5-GHz dual-core Intel Core i5-2450M processor; 4GB of RAM; a 500GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; an Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated graphics chip; anti-glare display; 720p webcam ($20); 62WH battery ($10) and Windows 7 Professional for $719. The brushed aluminum coating alone cost $50. Note that some online retailers are selling this notebook for as low as $649.

If you're looking for something with a bit more oomph, you can pick up an E430 with a 2.1-GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-3612QM processor, 8GB of RAM, a 750GB hard drive and a 16GB Micro SSD ($40) for improved performance for $1,154.

If your budget is tighter, you can buy the base model for just $549. That version comes loaded with a 2.3-GHz dual-core Intel Core i3-2350M processor, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, no webcam, a soft-touch paint job and Windows 7 Home Premium. There's no price difference between the anti-glare display or VibrantView screen.

Software

Click to EnlargeLenovo loaded the ThinkPad Edge E430 with some helpful utilities. For instance, Power Controls lets you optimize your system's power settings, and Enhanced Backup and Restore and Airbag Protection, which turns off the hard drive when a fall or other damaging event is detected. In addition to those, the E430 features Lenovo's SimpleTap tool, which provides you with quick access to different notebook features, websites and applications by two-finger tapping the laptop's clickpad twice.

Lenovo's RapidBoot and RapidBoot Shield features help to improve the system's boot speed by using the E430's RAM to cache boot files and delaying the launch of nonessential programs until Windows is fully started.

The Edge E430's InstantResume software helps users reconnect to the Web quickly when taking the laptop out of sleep mode. Lenovo says the feature will continuously scan for Wi-Fi connections, allowing the system to connect to the web in less than two seconds when it goes back online.

One of the most useful features Lenovo packed into the E430 is its Mobile HotSpot software. The program lets users configure the E430 to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to five people. The feature works by connecting the Lenovo to an available hotspot, then setting Mobile Hotspot software to begin broadcasting a wireless signal for your co-workers or friends. And since Lenovo lets you set up your own Network SSID and password, the wireless signal you send out will be secure.

Other programs loaded on the E430 include a 30-day trial of Norton Internet Security, 5GB of free online storage through SugarSync and Splashtop Streamer.

Service and Support

Lenovo provides users with its Solutions for Small Business suite. Features include the ability to schedule when you would like the system to perform updates and basic upkeep, configure the E430's USB ports to block users from attaching thumb drives or gaming controllers and set the system to shut down in the evening and restart in the morning.

If you run into any trouble with your ThinkPad Edge E430, Lenovo provides its users with a standard one-year parts and labor warranty. See how Lenovo fared in our Best & Worst Brands Report.

Verdict

Click to EnlargeWith good performance, an excellent keyboard, long battery life and top-notch speakers, the $717 Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430 is a system that will fit well in any office. The easy-to-use fingerprint reader and helpful small business software are other pluses. However, you might want to skip the brushed aluminum lid for the soft-touch red or black option to avoid fingerprints--and save yourself $50 in the process. The only other drawback is this notebook's display, which is dimmer than average. Overall, though, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430 is a great choice for small business users.

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AVADirect Clevo W110ER i7-3610QM processor(Ivy Bridge) Review

Specification

CPU	2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM Quad-Core processor
Operating System	MS Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
RAM	16GB
RAM Upgradable to
Hard Drive Size	750GB with 32MB cache and 8GB SSD
Hard Drive Speed	7,200rpm
Hard Drive Type
Display Size	11.6
Native Resolution	1366x768
Optical Drive	None
Optical Drive Speed	n/a
Graphics Card	Intel HD Graphics 4000 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650M Graphics
Video Memory	2GB
Wi-Fi	802.11b/g/n
Wi-Fi Model	Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230
Bluetooth
Mobile Broadband
Touchpad Size	3.4 x 1.7 inches
Ports (excluding USB)	Ethernet; HDMI; Headphone; Microphone; USB 3.0; VGA; security lock slot
USB Ports	3
Card Slots	3-1 card reader
Warranty/Support	1 year standard warranty
Size	11.5 x 8.3 x 1.5 inches
Weight	3.8 pounds

Design

Click to EnlargeWe had an instant sense of déjà vu when we first saw the W110ER, as its chassis is nearly identical to the Eurocom Monster. That said, we're are still big fans of the subdued, rubberized lid with its faint gridlines. The smooth bisected strip is also present, but the Clevo W110ER doesn't feature a chrome logo in the center like the Monster. AVADirect also offers custom paint jobs for an additional $350 for people who like a more unique look.

Opening the notebook reveals a rubberized palm rest and the touchpad. The top of the deck also features the rubberized grid with green status lights for Caps Lock, Num Lock and Wi-Fi on the left, and a large power button on the right. The middle of the deck is slightly recessed and has a soft-touch rubberized panel.

Although the Clevo W110ER and the 4-pound, Eurocom Monster share the same 11.5 x 8.3 x 1.5-inch chassis, the W110ER is a tad lighter at 3.8 pounds.

Display

Click to EnlargeThe W110ER's 11.6-inch LED glossy display delivered clear, sharp text as we read CNN.com and Joystiq.com. At 186 lux, the 1366 x 768p display is slightly brighter than the Monster's 173 lux display, but it wasn't enough to match the 228 lux category average. As we watched the 1080p YouTube trailer of "The Amazing Spider-Man," we noticed lovely reds and beautiful blues. However, we noticed severe pixelation during the night scenes as Spider-Man vaulted over the police. Viewing angles were limited to a shallow 45 degrees, instantly washing out if we weren't directly in front of the display.

Still we had a pretty good time cleaning up the mean streets of Gotham and kicking some tail in "Batman: Arkham City" and "Street Fighter X Tekken." The set pieces in "Arkham City" looked appropriately dark and foreboding and we got our fill of neon cartoony backdrops in the latest iteration of "Street Fighter."

Audio

Although the W110ER delivered fairly clear sound, it barely filled a small room. We received a small boost when we enabled THX TruStudio Pro. When we listened to Wale's "Lotus Flower Bomb," there was a noticeable amount of hollowness as the organ played. As we played "Batman: Arkham City," the audio was slightly more robust, delivering crisp clear dialogue against swelling music. As we engaged the streets of Arkham City, we heard a thrilling rush of air as we dive-bombed into a group of unsuspecting enemies couple with satisfying thuds and cracks and moans as we quickly dispatched them.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Click to EnlargeWhile we realize that the majority of PC gamers rely on a mouse and a few trusted hotkeys to fight the legions of evil, we still found the W110ER's island-style keyboard keys were too small. The direction keys, Right Shift and Right Ctrl were especially undersized. However, the keys were generously spaced and delivered good firm feedback.

The textured 3.4 x 1.7-inch Synaptics touchpad delivered swift responsive multitouch action. Gestures such as pinch-to-zoom, two-finger rotation and three-finger press and flick were nice and accurate with no signs of latency. The discrete mouse buttons offered solid feedback with an audible, satisfying click.

Heat

We found that the AvaDirect Clevo W110ER runs rather hot. After 15 minutes of streaming a full-screen Hulu video, the touchpad measured 97 degrees Fahrenheit. That's two degrees higher than our 95-degree threshold for comfort. The bottom of the notebook registered 96 degrees while the right side vent, the hottest spot on the laptop, measured 100 degrees. The space between the G and H keys measured a cool 87 degrees.

After playing "Batman: Arkham City" for 15 minutes, those same areas measured, 106, 94.5 and 104 degrees respectively. The right side vent was a scorching 115 degrees. Using the notebook in our laps for more than an hour playing games left us uncomfortably warm.

Ports

Click to EnlargeA USB 2.0 with charging capability sits on the right side of the laptop with a secure lock and the power jack. You can find two USB 3.0, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, a headphone and a microphone jack on the left. A 9-in-1 card reader resides along the front lip of the notebook.

Webcam

Click to EnlargeWe were disappointed by the level of graininess from the W110ER's 1.3-megapixel camera. Although we tried it in both natural and fluorescent light, the camera continued to deliver a high level of pixelation along with pale, washed-out color.

Performance

Equipped with a 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM processor (Ivy Bridge) with 16GB of RAM, a 750GB 7,200-rpm hard drive with a 8GB Hybrid SLC SSD and automatic switchable graphics via an Intel HD Graphics 4000 and a Nvidia GTX 650M GPU (using Optimus), the AVADirect Clevo W110ER packs a serious punch. We fought a few fast-paced rounds of "Street Fighter X Tekken" with 13 open tabs in Google Chrome and 10 open tabs in Internet Explorer running in the background without any latency.

The W110ER also delivered excellent performance during our synthetic benchmarks, notching an impressive 3,362 on PCMark07. That's 886 points higher than the 2,476 ultraportable category average. However the Eurocom Monster, which has a slightly more powerful 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-3720QM CPU and 8GB of RAM, scored 4,299.

We booted the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional in 44 seconds thanks to the Clevo W110ER's 750GB 7,200-rpm hard drive with a 8GB Hybrid SLC SSD, 7 seconds faster than the average. However the Monster's 120GB SSD booted in a lightning-quick 0:19.

The 8GB SSD cache made itself known during the LAPTOP File Transfer Test, as the W110ER duplicated 4.97GB of multimedia files in 0:37 for a transfer rate of 137.5 MBps, beating both the 45 MBps category average and the Monster's 113.1 MBps. However, when we ran the test without the benefit of the cache, the drive took 1:55 to complete, a rate of 44 MBps.

It was also a fairly close race on the OpenOffice Spreadsheet test, with the Clevo W110ER taking 4 minutes and 25 seconds to match 20,000 names with their corresponding addresses. That's 5:01 faster than the ultraportable average, but the Monster finished in 4:04.

Graphics and Gaming

Click to EnlargeThe AVADirect Clevo W110ER continued its show of power during our graphics testing. Thanks to Nvidia's Optimus technology (Intel HD Graphics 4000 and a Nvidia GTX 650M GPU), the notebook deftly switched GPUs to optimize our gaming performance. The W110ER did gangbusters on our synthetic benchmarks, posting 13,890 on the 3DMark06 benchmark. That's a whopping 10,473 points higher than the 3,417 ultraportable category average. However, the Monster, which has the same Nvidia GeForce GT 650M GPU, scored an even more impressive 14,443.

During our "World of Warcraft" testing, the W110ER notched a frame rate of 171 fps on Good at 1366 x 768p. That's more than five times the 32 fps category average. The Eurocom Monster pulled slightly ahead with 179 fps. When we cranked it up to maximum, the Clevo W110ER delivered 94 fps, far above the 16 fps average. The Monster maintained its lead with 96 fps.

When we pitted the W110ER against the demanding graphics of "Batman: Arkham City" with the graphics at their lowest setting, the notebook scored 38 fps, while the Eurocom Monster notched 41 fps. On the highest setting, the W110ER and the Monster scored 20 fps and 22 fps respectively,

Our playthrough of "Batman: Arkham City" on 1366 x 768p with antialiasing off yielded smooth animations and a blazing frame rate of 150 fps. Even we when we were trapped in Penguin's arena with 20+ thugs, the Dark Knight gracefully flipped between malefactors easily landing punches, roundhouse kicks and batarangs.

In "Street Fighter X Tekken," Psycho Crushers and Hadokens were flying across the screen between punches, kicks, counters and supers. With the settings on 1366 x 768 with antialiasing off, we saw a blistering framerate of 184 fps.

Software

Aside from Windows 7 Professional and THX TrueStudio Pro, AVADirect keeps the Clevo WII0ER delightfully free of bloatware.

Configurations

Our $1,326 review model features a 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM processor with 16GB of RAM, a 750GB 7,200-rpm hard drive with an 8GB Hybrid SLC SSD and automatic switchable graphics via an Intel HD Graphics 4000 and a Nvidia GTX 650M GPU (Optimus). The $1,055 base model is equipped with a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2520M (Sandy Bridge) CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 750GB 7,200-rpm hard drive with an Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 650M with 2GB of VRAM. On AVA Direct's website, you can customize the W110ER to your heart's content--there are more than 80 hard drive options available--and you can even specify the type of thermal paste the company uses.

Battery Life

During the LAPTOP Battery Test which consists of continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi, the Clevo W110ER lasted 3 hours and 34 minutes. That's 3:15 shorter than the 6:49 ultraportable average. The Eurocom Monster didn't fare much better, lasting only 3:28.

Verdict

Click to EnlargeThe $1,326 AVADirect Clevo W110ER is proof that you don't need a monster 17-inch gaming rig to get your game on. The 11.6-inch mini rig packs all the specs of the big boys into a seriously portable frame. Our major concerns were the system's heat, as well as its dim screen; the latter can easily be remedied by hooking this notebook to a larger display, though. While pretty evenly matched, we'd give a slight edge to the Eurocom Monster, which provides even more power for $100 more. However, both companies offer a plethora of customization options, which should satisfy any gamer looking for a highly portable powerhouse.

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AMD's Trinity vs. Intel's Ivy Bridge processors

AMD’s next-generation A-Series processors, code-named Trinity, are the chip manufacturer’s answer to Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors now appearing in the new Ultrabook laptops.

How much of an improvement do the new Trinity chips offer laptop users and can these new Trinity-based laptops compete against Ivy Bridge? The reviews are in.

Every new generation of chips promises better performance and energy efficiency, and Trinity is no exception. Earlier this year, AMD claimed Trinity would offer significant improvements over its current Llano chips: An overall performance increase of up to 25 percent, 50 percent better graphics performance, and double the performance per watt.

Across the web, tech reviewers have been benchmarking an AMD Trinity test laptop (featuring the A10-4600 quad core processor with integrated Radeon HD 7760G graphics) to put these claims to the test. We’ll have our own tests from the PCWorld Labs soon, but this is how the new accelerated processing unit (APU) is being received so far:

Modest General Performance Improvements: Not Enough to Best Intel

Intel is still the market leader in this highly competitive chips race and, unfortunately, going on CPU performance alone, Trinity still lags behind. Both VR-Zone and HotHardware say the Trinity A10 gets “blown out of the water” by Intel’s Ivy Bridge Core i7 CPU--and even against Intel’s second-generation Sandy Bridge mobile chips in some tests.

AMD positions its top-of-the-line A10 series against Intel’s lower-end Core i7 and higher-end Core i5 chips. Yet an Ivy Bridge mid-range i5-2410M had a 25% CPU performance advantage over the Trinity A10-4600, according to AnandTech’s comparisons using PCMark.

VR Zone is frank in its assessment, calling Trinity’s single threaded applications and raw memory performance “abysmal.”

Still, AnandTech says Trinity’s new is a step forward from the CPU cores used in Llano. Trinity was about 20 percent faster than Llano in the reviewer’s general CPU performance tests--close to AMD’s 25 percent promise.

(Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPU gains over its Sandy Bridge processor were also modest: About 5 to 10 percent faster in PCWorld tests.)

Great Integrated Graphics, Gaming Performance

As with Intel’s Ivy Bridge, AMD Trinity’s biggest gains are on the graphics side. Tom’s Hardware found Trinity “soundly beating its competition” in graphics processing and--as you see in this chart--in this testing, Trinity leads even against a Llano laptop with a discrete graphics card (the older 3DMark Vantage metric was used to compare against the Intel Sandy Bridge chip, which doesn’t support DirectX 11).

Trinity even bests Intel Ivy Bridge’s impressive graphics performance: The HD7760G integrated graphics processor (IGP) had a 30-percent to 50+-percent performance gain over the Intel HD 4000 IGP in an Ivy Bridge Core i7 chip, according to HotHardware.

This finding would make Trinity really impressive for gaming. Hexus said the chip “offers best-in-class performance and enough grunt to play modern games at reasonable image-quality settings.” In AnandTech’s tests, Trinity had an average 20% lead against Ivy Bridge when comparing performance over 15 game titles. For 11 out of the 15 games, Trinity came out on top.

Significantly Better Battery Life

AMD also managed to significantly improve battery life on Trinity compared to previous AMD chips and even when compared to Ivy Bridge--even though Intel uses a new 22nm production technology, while Trinity still uses the 32nm process of older Llano chips (smaller chips tend to be more energy efficient).

 In this AnandTech chart, look at the red bar for Trinity, orange for Llano, and dark green for the Asus laptop equipped with an Ivy Bridge processor to see the battery life performance differences.

AMD claims 50% better battery performance from a Trinity laptop versus Llano--up to 8.5 hours of browsing or 4 hours of YouTube video streaming, according to Slashgear.

Conclusion

Taking the synthetic test results (on a prototype laptop) with a grain of salt, an AMD Trinity-based laptop may tempt you, depending on your needs.

If you require a mobile powerhouse with the best processing performance possible, an Intel quad-core i7 will be your better bet. But if you’re a gamer or want longer battery life in your laptop, AMD has an edge over Intel.

And despite the less-than-overwhelming overall CPU performance gains, Trinity-based laptops will be more than fine for mainstream tasks.

Also not to be dismissed: Trinity-equipped laptops will, in general, be cheaper than laptops equipped with Ivy Bridge processors. For instance, AMD’s ultrathin laptops are set to be priced about $200 lower than Intel Ultrabooks.

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