12th Gen Intel Evo Laptops in India

As the need for portability increases daily, the market gets flooded with plenty of new devices with various specifications. Something similar has been going on with laptops in recent years. It is not just the hardware that has diversified, the same can very well be said for the software in these devices as well. A lot of the software is well-optimized, yet sadly, a lot is not.

Long gone are the times when you could just look at the hardware specs and pick your laptop, as hardware availability saturates the market, the battle is about real-world performance now. The AMD counterpart of an Intel CPU might have different performance numbers, but the real-world performance difference is negligible for most users. That is the reason why, nowadays, although the hardware and the raw power it provides still stay the basis of most choices, a lot of people have started looking for more generalized performance indicators in order to finalize their decision.

That’s where Intel’s Evo platform comes into play. This is, put, a mark of premium performance that Intel offers. Laptops with an Evo certification guarantee good real-world performance, the reason being the hurdles they have to surpass to earn this badge of excellence from Intel.

Some of the factors the laptops are judged on the basis of include – responsive operation while on battery, 9+ hours of real-world battery life running on at least FHD resolution, instant wake, fast charging capable of providing 4 hours worth of battery life with 30 minutes of charging, support for WiFi 6E, a 12th Gen SoC from Intel as well as background noise suppression and a decent FHD webcam.

Intel’s Evo badge aims to make it easier for end-users to choose laptops worthy of their money, without going through hours and hours of review videos and googling all the terms the specifications mention. This article includes five of my personal favorites among the various laptops that come with an Evo certification.

1. HP Spectre x360

When it comes to laptops, HP is one of the market leaders, the Spectre series of laptops is their series of tried and tested premium notebooks, designed to deliver the best the brand has to offer. There are a few laptops I find as convenient to carry around as this one and the small 13.5” form factor is surely a big reason for the same. Furthermore, the display has a unique resolution of 3000×2000, it does not have a matt finish to it but it is non-reflective and completely protected by corning’s gorilla glass technology.

The Evo badge speaks for itself, this laptop packs the latest 12th Gen i7 SoC from Intel as well as 16GB of memory, even the raw power of the hardware in this thing outperforms the majority, combine that with HP’s utility-focused software like GlamCam and HP QuickDrop and the Spectre x360 is going to be your new favorite soon enough. The included stylus and windows hello support serves as a cherry on the cake.

Display	13.5 inch(34.3cm) OLED,3K2K, Anti-Reflection,Corning Gorilla Glass, Eye Safe Display
Processor	12th Gen Intel Evo Core i7
Graphics	Iris Xe integrated graphics
RAM	16GB RAM
Storage	512GB SSD
Operating System	Windows 11
Battery	‎66 Watt Hours
Weight	1.34 kg

2. ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (2022)

The latest addition to ASUS’ premium notebook line-up, the Zenbook 14 (2022), packs one of the best screens ASUS has provided on any laptop to date. It is an OLED display with an aspect ratio of 16:10 and a refresh rate of 90Hz, operating at 2.8k resolution, covering 100% of the DCI-P3 Colour Gamut. On top of the impressive display, you get everything you would expect from a truly premium laptop, a blazing-fast fingerprint scanner, a premium keyboard with good backlighting, and a full-sized trackpad with a Numpad on it.

While the EVO tag is again, quite self-explanatory, this laptop is more than the usual EVO-certified laptop, known for providing the fastest download speeds across networks wired and wireless alike. 16GB of RAM performing at 5200Mhz accounts for the smoothest experience at the price point, although you must note that it is not specifically a gaming laptop so it would be unfair to expect the most frames out of the latest AAA games, this laptop still manages to be my go-to when it comes to video and photo editing, coding and typing out blogs.

Display	14″ (35.56 cms) 2.8K OLED 16:10 90Hz
Processor	Intel Core Evo i7-1260P 12th Gen
Graphics	Integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics
RAM	16GB onboard LPDDR5 5200MHz
Storage	512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 Performance SSD
Keyboard	Backlit Chiclet Keyboard with NumberPad 2.0 on Touchpad | 1.4mm Key Travel
Operating System	Windows 11
Ports	1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2x Thunderbolt 4 supports display / power delivery, 1x HDMI 2.0b, 1x 3.5mm, Combo Audio Jack, Micro SD card reader
Battery	75WHrs, 3-cell Li-ion battery | Up to 18 hours battery life
Weight	1.39 kg

3. Lenovo Yoga 7

Built with flexibility in mind, the Yoga 7 stands up to its name. It’s a 14” notebook with an OLED display capable of operating at QHD resolution. You can turn the screen around and use it as a tablet. The screen offers 10-point multitouch, 100% DCI-P3 coverage, 10-bit color, and a refresh rate of 90Hz. 

Talking of processing power, the 12th gen i7 in the Yoga 7 is pretty well optimized, it’s as smooth as it gets with 16GB of onboard RAM. The audio on this laptop is what I found particularly impressive, even headphones with impedance as high as 80ohms are well-driven by the included DAC, kudos to Lenovo for not compromising the battery in order to bring this much to the table. The EVO certification the Yoga 7 has is well deserved.

Display	14″ 2.8K (2880×1800) OLED | Display: 400nits Glossy | 90Hz | 100% DCI-P3 | Low Blue Light | Dolby Vision | 10-point Multi-touch Glass
Processor	12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P | Speed: 12 Cores (4xP-core 2.1 / 4.7GHz, 8xE-core 1.5 / 3.4GHz) | 16 Threads | 18MB Cache
Graphics	Integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics
RAM	16GB RAM LPDDR5-4800
Storage	512 GB SSD
Keyboard	Backlit Keyboard
Operating System	Windows 11
Ports	‎2x USB-C 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 (Power Delivery 3.0, DisplayPort 1.4 and Data transfer) | 1x USB 3.2 Type-A Gen 1 (Always On) | 1x Headphone / microphone combo jack (3.5mm) | 1x HDMI 2.0 | 1x microSD card reader
Battery	71Wh | Upto 10 Hours | Rapid Charge Express (Upto 3 hours runtime in 15 mins)90 Watt Hours
Weight	1.42Kg

4. Acer Swift 3 SF314-512

This laptop is ideal for buyers who are on a budget. The Swift 3 was undoubtedly the most hyped laptop back in Q2 of 2022, and it did live up to the hype, with Acer offering immense value for money with this one. The Swift 3 was made to accompany Acer’s flagship Swift 5 series, providing a premium experience on a budget.

This 14” notebook is driven by a 12th Gen i5 by Intel and 16GB of RAM, all the while managing to be the lightest notebook on this list. The display is a banger for the price, there are not many QHD displays at the price that cover 100% of the sRGB color gamut. It surprises me that Acer has managed to include all the premium notebook features like a fingerprint reader, a backlit keyboard, an HD webcam with noise reduction, and much more even at a generous price of 65k. 

The Swift 3 has been trusted by Intel with the EVO badge and rightfully so. The screen wake time is negligible and the battery life gives the competition a run for their money. It is a great laptop for everyday tasks, office work, and coding albeit not the best for gaming.

Display	14″ QHD (2560 x 1440) IPS Widescreen LED-backlit 100% sRGB display with 300 nits brightness and 16:9 aspect ratio
Processor	12th Gen Intel Core i5-1240P processor
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe Graphics
RAM	16 GB of onboard LPDDR4X system memory
Storage	512 GB, PCIe Gen4, 16 Gb/s, NVMe SSD
Keyboard	Back-lit Keyboard
Operating System	Windows 11
Battery	‎56 Watt Hours
Weight	1.2kg

5. Dell XPS 13 Plus

The most premium experience the biggest notebook brand has to offer, Dell promises extraordinary performance and longevity with the XPS series of laptops, and the XPS 13 Plus is no exception. There is a premium to pay yet the features and performance of this laptop justify its unusually high price. 

The XPS 13 Plus is powered by the latest 12th Gen i7 and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM operating at 5200MHz, multitasking is a breeze with this one. The touch-enabled screen is an impressive 13.4” UHD with a 60Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of peak brightness covering 100% of the sRGB color gamut. It has 1TB of Gen 4 PCIe NVMe SSD known to be the fastest among all storage options provided at present. It also includes a sturdy backlit keyboard, a fingerprint reader which is conveniently integrated into the power button as well as windows hello facial recognition.

The design of this little notebook is by far what steals the show, it is unlike any other laptop on this list when it comes to design. It’s seamless in all aspects, the small bar on the top of the keyboard consists of small white icons that perform various actions when touched, you can control your volume from the same as well as toggle your microphone on/off. 

The display is glossy yet non-reflective and quite immersive despite being small, it is because of how well presented the colors are, the laptop overall has the ultrabook feel to it that stays undefeated even at such a high price. 

Display	13.4″ UHD+ AR Infinity Edge 500 nits
Processor	Intel i7-1260P (3.40 GHz up to 4.70 GHz)
Graphics	Iris Xe integrated graphics
RAM	16GB LPDDR5
Storage	1TB SSD
Keyboard	‎Backlit Keyboard
Operating System	Windows 11
Ports	2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type C ) with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 1 USB C to USB A v3.0 adapter ships standard
Battery	‎55 Watt Hours
Weight	1.24Kgs

Related Posts:

1. Detailed Review of HP Spectre x360
2. Best 2-in-1 Laptops Under 1 Lakh in India
3. Top 5 Laptops for Coders under Rs 50,000 in India