Intel announced 11th-gen Tiger Lake U-Series processors for mainstream notebooks late last year. This year at CES 2021, the company is expanding the range to business and gaming notebooks with the new 11th-Gen vPro and H-series processors. We have already seen OEMs such as Dell, Lenovo, and HP announce new enterprise notebooks based on the latest vPro and EVO vPro platforms, while gaming-focused brands like ASUS, Razer, and Acer are expected to announce new gaming notebooks with higher-core H-Series processors later this week.

Intel has also announced the new N-series Intel Pentium Silver and Intel Celeron processors for low-powered entry-level and education systems. Additionally, we also got a preview of the upcoming 11th-Gen Intel Core S-series desktop processors (Rocket Lake-S) and its next-generation processors (Alder Lake).

11th-Gen Intel vPro Mobile Processors

The new 11th-Gen Intel vPro platform for business notebooks is said to deliver the industry’s highest performance with improved hardware-based security. It features the 10nm SuperFin technology and is said to offer 8x better AI performance and up to 2.3x faster creation and video editing compared to the previous generation. These chips are also said to be 23% faster compared to their competition when using apps like Microsoft Office 365 with 50% faster office productivity while on a video conference call. With Hardware Shield, Intel is offering hardware-based security as well as artificial intelligence (AI) threat detection against ransomware and crypto-mining attacks. The chips also feature Intel Control-Flow Enforcement Technology to help shut down an entire class of attacks that long evaded software-only solutions. Additionally, there is Wi-Fi 6/6E (Gig+) support that offers six times faster uploads and downloads in office environments and three times faster speeds at home versus standard Wi-Fi 5.

Intel 11th-Gen vPro Features

Building on top of the new business chipsets, Intel also launched the Evo vPro platform, which follows the same path as the Evo branding from last year. Thus, business users can expect the best and the most premium experience with a thin and light stylish design, enhanced performance, real-world battery life, and an immersive visual experience. The company expects over 60 new laptops from various OEMs to launch later this year taking advantage of the Intel vPro and Evo platforms. Additionally, the company also announced Intel Evo Chromebooks, enabling a new class of premium Chromebooks.

11th Gen Intel Core H-series Mobile Processors

Intel usually launches the powerful H-series mobile CPUs with high TDP (thermal design power) for gaming notebooks. However, this time they are focusing on ultra-slim gaming notebooks and have launched the new 11th-Gen Intel Core H-series or the H35 mobile processors for enthusiast-level gaming in laptops as thin as 16mm. There are a total of three models under the series, including the i7-11375H, i7-11370 H, and i7-11300H. All three come with a base TDP of 28W but can go up to 35W. The new series is led by the Core i7 Special Edition 4-core processor with up to 5GHz. There is also support for PCIe Gen 4, and of course, the new processors are based on the 10nm SuperFin technology. The company also announced an 8-core processor that will start shipping later this quarter.

Other notable features of the new H-series include support for DDR4 up to 3200, LPDDR4/x up to 4266, Xe-LP graphics, and KillerTM WiFi 6E (Gig+). Acer, ASUS, MSI, and Vaio are bringing new systems powered by the 11th Gen Intel Core H35-series processor for ultraportable gaming, while there are over 40 designs from top manufacturing partners launching in the first half of 2021.

Intel 11th-Gen H-Series Features

11th Gen Intel N-series Mobile Processors

For education laptops, Intel has announced a new range of mobile processors under the new N-series. The Intel Pentium Silver and Celeron processors are designed on Intel’s 10nm architecture and are said to offer up to 35% better overall application performance and up to 78% better graphics performance gen-on-gen. This enables smooth application performance and browsing while multitasking, plus advanced camera and connectivity features for an enriched video conferencing and viewing experience.

Rocket Lake and Alder Lake

We already know that Intel’s next-gen desktop CPUs will be Rocket Lake which is due in March, while Alder Lake will follow it in the second half of 2021. Intel has confirmed that the 11th Gen Intel Core S-series desktop processors will be led by the Intel Core i9-11900K and customers can expect a 19% gen-over-gen instructions per cycle (IPC) improvement. As per recent leaks, certain benchmarks have already made their way to the internet which suggests that it will be a power-hungry 8-core CPU with a 1st stage power limit of 125W and a 2nd stage power limit rated at 250W.

As for Alder Lake, Intel believes that it will be a breakthrough in x86 architecture by being the most power-scalable system-on-chip. Alder Lake will combine high-performance cores and high-efficiency cores into a single product and will be built on a new, enhanced version of 10nm SuperFin. This will also serve as the foundation for leadership desktop and mobile processors for the future.