Intel’s upcoming laptop will hit the market in the next few months, possibly February 2021. The new NUC M15 is designed in-house, and it’s the latest computer in the company’s expanding line of state-of-the-art laptops.
Intel reportedly won’t print its brand label on the lid, intending to supply the new series to prominent tech outlets who’d equip it with various storage configurations and brand it themselves. This kind of logistical pipeline is termed ‘white labeling’.
What’s Inside
Intel’s NUC M15 is an altogether different beast. Besides targeting gamers who prefer impressive performance statistics and robust cooling hardware at an attractive price, the company has basically created a premium productivity laptop.
The screen – it’s a 15.6-inch display with 1080p resolution (touchscreen optional). According to Intel, there’s a 73 Watt-hour battery holding the fort which will last 16 hours on a single charge.
NUC M15 runs on Intel’s 11th Gen Core i5-1135G7 quad-core processor, upgradable to the 11th gen Core i7. Instead of packing the usual Nvidia GPU, the M15 uses Intel’s Iris Xe integrated GPU with 8GB RAM, expandable to 16GB in the twin-variant. Be advised: each hardware element comes soldered – you cannot get it upgraded after purchase!
A sleek aluminum finish covers what’s under the hood, with the full computer weighing 1.65 Kg and measuring 14.9mm thick.
Next up, flip up the screen to see what’s on the inside. There’s a standard well-paced keyboard with a large glass Windows Precision trackpad just below it. Two Thunderbolt 4/ USB 4.0 Type-C ports sit on the side, in addition to two USB-A 10GBps ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an HDMI port.
The USB-C ports sit on both ends, the only thing missing is an SD Card slot.
These specs sound a bit too familiar. We saw an almost identical spec-list on ASUS ZenBook 14 and Dell XPS 13. The major difference is the 15-inch display, most productivity laptops have 13-14 inch screens.
There are some other slight differences, such as an LED light bar in the front that works with Cortana. The light bar glows blue when you call out Cortana, somewhat similar to the Echo smart speaker. 4 microphones sit along the top edge of the lid so that your voice isn’t missed.
The M15 also has a Windows Hello-compatible webcam for facial login, plus a visual detection sequence that will wake the computer up as you approach it and log you in automatically. Talk about textbook – this is good news for a lot of techies out there!
What’s the Goal Behind Intel’s New Rig
Intel intends to provide a premium-level system to mid-tier companies to compete with tech giants like HP and Dell, whose level of investment in R&D-specific departments is impressive.
The M15 is without Intel’s signature Evo branding, denoting a certain level of performance and features. As for driver support, Intel has stated its goal to provide support for anything the company is involved in.
More NUC laptops will reportedly hit markets once the first phase of M15’s supply-chain is completed, according to sources close to Intel. The M15 is expected to go for as low as $999, to as high as $1,499, depending on hardware configurations before purchase.
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