Intel's latest Tiger Lake laptops are on offer for as little as $780 with Intel Xe GPUs or discrete graphics
Cyber Monday laptop deals? Surely that's all about getting rid of last year's stock? Maybe, maybe not. The fact that we've spied two machines packing Intel's latest 11th-gen architecture would suggest that isn't the case. These aren't small fly-by-night operations either, with the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 being joined by the Asus VivoBook 15 on Newegg to show that you can pick up the very latest tech, for knock down prices, if you know where to look.
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In case you weren't down with the kids, Tiger Lake is the codename for Intel's 11th-Gen mobile processors that use the 10nm production process. And as such these new CPUs are the replacements for Intel's Ice Lake chips, representing an optimization in Intel's convoluted cadence of its process-architecture-optimization model.
There are performance improvements across the board, but the big news is that Tiger Lake is the first outing for Intel's Xe graphics architecture. In its integrated graphics guise, as can be seen here, it isn't going to muscle out your RTX 3080 or RX 6800 XT, but it still represents a significant step up in gaming, and you can actually run the latest games at reasonable frame rates now. We're talking 30fps at 1080p at high settings in plenty of games. Not bad for integrated graphics.
We've found two very different machines in the sales, with the Asus VivoBook representing the more-traditional laptop look, while the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 is one of those flexible machines that can act as a tablet if you don't need to use the keyboard. Those machines that are great for taking into meetings and looking like you're a complete boss.
Asus VivoBook 15 K513 | Intel i7 | MX350 | $799.99 $779.99 at Newegg (save $20)
It's not a massive saving, but this is still a good deal on a next-gen laptop. You get an Intel Core i7 1165G7 CPU, which is a quad-core, eight-thread CPU with a potential max turbo of 4.8GHz, alongside an Nvidia GeForce MX350 graphics card, which has 2GB of RAM to call its own. The system ships with 8GB of RAM, a 512GB PCIe 3.0 SSD, and the 15.6-inch IPS screen has a 1080p native resolution. A decent work laptop basically.View Deal
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 Laptop | Intel i5 | Intel Iris Xe | $1,249.99 $1,126.99 at Dell (save $123)
Dell has gone for the Core i5 version of Tiger Lake, giving the 11th-gen chip a home in this folding wonder. The Core i5 1135G7 is a quad-core chip, with a maximum boost of 4.2GHz. There's no discrete graphics here, although Iris Xe is capable of some gaming, so that isn't a great loss. The screen is a slightly higher resolution model than the Asus offering too due to its 16:10 aspect, so you're looking at 1920x1200 pixels. You get 8GB of RAM to play with, with a 256GB PCIe SSD providing on the go storage. View Deal
Of the two, the Asus VivoBook piques our interest the most, simply because it has a discrete GPU squeezed into that svelte chassis alongside the Core i7 Tiger Lake CPU and its integrated Intel Xe graphics. To be honest, we're not quite sure why Asus has done this, because from what we've seen the Nvidia MX350 is pretty much on a par with Intel Xe, ok, it's slightly better, but not by much. Still, it's a pretty tasty-looking machine, and even at only $20 off its normal price, it strikes us as a good deal.
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 is probably more interesting if you want a machine that is focused purely on work. Or you're the type that goes into meeting with the machine tucked under your arm, ready to pop out and prove you totally are the boss.
Don't get me wrong, it's a thoroughly attractive machine, but it does cost quite a bit more, even with the discount. Still, if you picked this up today, I'd hazard a guess that you'd be very happy with it for many years to come.