The world moves faster than ever nowadays – whether that’s work, play, or everything in between. Considering this fact, it is essential to have technology that can not only keep up but help you optimize your life as well. Worry not, as Intel Evo laptops are here to fill that role.

There is a saying that goes: “You can’t have everything.” Most would say this applies to the laptop scene as well. After all, prospective buyers often know that they can’t hope for outstanding battery life, strong performance, and a premium lightweight build all in one package. One of these would realistically have to be sacrificed in order for the other two characteristics to shine.

Intel has meticulously studied laptop usage behaviors of its various customer demographics, from casuals, average consumers, and power users. Based on this research, they’ve found that the three mentioned above are heavy purchase factors. Additionally, other features such as number of ports, reliable wireless connectivity, portability, and speed coming out of sleep mode also play huge roles in whether or not the laptop makes its way into the shopping cart.

In order to tick all these boxes and strike a fair balance, the company has wisely developed a new standard. This has led to the birth of the Intel Evo laptop. Having this certification means that the specific device passes its rubric.

If you’re still confused, then we’ll summarize it for you: Intel Evo laptops are tested and designed to give you everything – performance, battery life, graphics, and connectivity all in a thin & light form factor. It is power and portability meshed together to form the ultimate package.

A laptop produced under the Intel Evo umbrella has been screened and nitpicked to deliver the following requirements:

• At least 9 hours of battery life, with 4 hours of use from a 30-minute quick charge
• Thin and light chassis
• 12th generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, along with Intel Iris Xe graphics (27% more productivity and 3x more graphical performance vs. other integrated GPUs)
• Intel WiFi 6 leading to 3x faster speeds
• 1-second tap to wake from sleep mode, and 1 connector to peripherals to keep things tidy

Thankfully, we were lent an ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED laptop with Intel Evo certification to play around with. The laptop instantly awoke from sleep mode in less than a second. It’s easy to say but we swear it’s amazing and practical in real-world use. The 12th-generation Intel Core i7-1260P onboard handled all tasks easily – from writing, video calling, and photo/video editing all at the same time. We experienced no slowdowns whatsoever which is a testament to the consistency of Intel Evo laptops under stress and high load. Other everyday tasks such as managing calendars, Zoom calls, Slack, and others were done without a hitch.

Keep in mind that these were all done on battery power, away from the life-saving socket. Usually, intensive tasks like video editing and rendering on top of basic ones bring laptop batteries to their knees. It’s common to see estimated times on the indicator halve or even be reduced to a third. However, this Intel Evo laptop survived around 8 hours, which is eerily close to the 9-hour promise. Considering that we put it under unrealistic testing conditions which aren’t indicative of everyday use, this is impressive. Without a doubt, Intel followed through on their promise of a 4-hour use in 30 minutes of quick charging while the battery was fully topped up in a speedy 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Intel WiFi 6 also kept us reliably connected to the internet, fulfilling its promise of lessening latency. Admittedly, it was an admirable joint effort with our ISP and the connection of the coffeeshop we did some other tests in. Loading times were definitely minimized. After a hard day of work, you want to be able to still watch some YouTube or Netflix to wind down with no annoying loading circles. Thankfully, there were no issues here.

Intel Evo laptops should also be on the radar for those who use their laptops as a desktop replacement when they’re at home. Keeping the desk setup wire and clutter-free is an issue we’re sure everyone has faced at some point, but the sheer number of ports on Intel Evo laptops lessens the likelihood of ever needing messy dongles ever again. This leads to a more permanent setup that you can preemptively cable-manage and keep permanently even when the laptop isn’t docked.

We know how confusing specifications can get, especially when there are so many CPU and GPU releases on an annual basis. Sometimes these components work well individually but perform poorly due to system integration. With Intel Evo laptops, you won’t ever have to read the spec sheet again. It shifts the question from “what’s in this laptop” to “what can this laptop do?” Seeing the Intel Evo sticker on the laptop deck should give you an idea of what the device is capable of, and you can rest assured that the laptop has reached the standard due to rigorous, intensive testing.

Just be sure to check for the Intel Evo sticker or any other branding cues and you’re good to go. Our team is curious to see how this would evolve in the future knowing that 13th generation, 14th, and so on are bound to exist for Intel Core processors, but for now we’re happy with what they have in store for us. If you think this high standard commands a hefty price tag, think again: the Intel Evo series can be purchased for as low as PHP 46,995 and is carried by established brands such as ASUS, Acer, Dell, HP, MSI, Lenovo, and Huawei.

Check them out at the following locations: Abenson, ElectroWorld, Gigahertz, Lazada, Octagon, PC Express, Silicon Valley, and Villman Computers. Need to know more? Visit the official website here.