Best Intel Evo laptops in 2024 – the complete list (with reviews)

This article explains what “Intel Evo” means and lists all the important laptops with Intel Evo Edition certification that are currently available in stores, as of the first half of 2024. Plus, we’re briefly going over a selection of what we consider the best overall such Intel Evo laptops, since there are so many to choose from today.

With modern laptops getting better and better over the years, Intel is constantly trying to differentiate and emphasize its top-tier designs from the mass-market options.

That started back in the day when the term “ultrabook” was first introduced in order to set portable models apart from standard laptops, carried on later with a set of rules introduced by the Athena Project in 2019, and continues as of 2023/2024 with the Intel Evo platform certifications, which add a couple of extras to the initial set imposed by Project Athena. The “Ultrabook” and “Evo” marks are trademarks of Intel corporation or its subsidiaries , but we’re interested in what these actually mean for us regular consumers.

In just a few words, computers that meet a wider set of strict requirements (called KEI – Key Experience Indicators) get to be certified as Intel® Evo™ laptops. This detailed Intel fact sheet goes in-depth over these requirements, and here’s also a quick summary of these Evo KEIs.

Requirements of Intel Evo Edition laptops

So, in order to get the Intel® Evo™ badging, laptops:

• must run on Intel Core 11th gen Tiger Lake Core i5/i7 processors with Irix Xe graphics (or later, on 12th Gen Alder Lake, 13th Gen Rocket Lake or the latest Intel Meteor Lake Core hardware platform), with 8+ GB of RAM and 256+ GB of SSD storage;
• must provide consistent responsiveness on battery, which means the performance should not degrade significantly when using the laptop unplugged from the wall;
• must offer instant wake times, which means wake from sleep in less than 1 second;
• must provide long-lasting battery life, which means 8+ hours of real-world battery life (on laptops with a FHD display); they also must be able to charge quickly over USB-C (4+ hours of battery life in under 30 minutes of fast charging);
• must include modern connectivity options: wireless Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+), USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 connectors, optional LTE 5G;
• must include biometrics (IR cameras with Windows Hello or finger sensor), precision touchpads, backlit keyboards, 3-side narrow bezels around the display, good speakers, and a few other aspects inherited from the original Project Athena fact sheet;
• the camera must include built-in intelligence designed to cancel audio noise, blur the background, correct poot lighting or keep you in the center of the image during your Zoom or Teams calls;
• must support the Intel® Unison™n application, designed to allow the PC to seamlessly connect to an Android or iOS phone or tablet in order to ensure quick and easy files/photos transfers between devices, sync your calls and texts and notifications with the laptop, etc.
• must run on Windows 10 or Windows 11 software.

Furthermore,

• the latest 2024 Intel Evo models are built on Intel® Core™ Ultra U (up to Intel Core Ultra 7 155U) and Intel® Core™ Ultra H (up to Intel Core Ultra 9 185H) platforms, with the more capable Intel Arc graphics, or some sort of dedicated graphics;
• 2023 Intel Evo devices include 13th gen Intel® Core™ U (up to Intel Core i7 1355U), Core P (up to Intel Core i7 1360P) and Core H (up to Intel Core i9 13900H) platforms, with Intel Iris Xe graphics or some sort of dedicated graphics;
• older Evo-certified devices are still available, built on 12th-gen and 11th-gen Intel Core U platforms. At this point, though, I’d recommend focusing on the latest launches due to their generational updates.

The latest Meteor Lake platforms deliver a notable bump in sustained performance over the previous hardware generations, especially on the GPU side, where the Intel Arc integrated graphics chip is nearly 2x the performance of the Iris Xe chips implemented before. This translates in a smoother experience with daily use, video streaming, video processing and rendering, as well as running games.

At the same time, Meteor Lake processors implement Low Power Efficient cores and are designed to enhance their performance capabilities in low-power processing chores. In real-life, these latest Meteor Lake based Evo devices offer both excellent performance in demanding loads on battery power, but also longer runtimes than the previous Intel Core 13th/12th gen platforms with daily use and lightweight loads.

KEIs for EVO certified laptops

Of course, some of these requirements are rather subjective, such as the overall responsiveness with daily use, battery life, or audio quality, that’s why I still recommend going through detailed reviews to further research how these Evo-certified ultrabooks actually fare in real-life.

As for the formats, expect mostly the thin and light laptops to earn the Evo badging, both in standard (clamshell) and 2-in-1 form factors. So far, I’m only seeing compact models with 13 to 14-inch screens in stores, but larger-screen 15-inch products should also be available at some point.

Initially, I was under the impression that a touchscreen is also a requirement for the Evo certification, which meant that matte-screen versions of certain laptops such as the Razer Book 13 or certain variants of the Dell XPS 13 won’t get the Intel Evo badge. That doesn’t seem to be always the case, though, as some OEMs do list matte-screen ultrabooks (such as the MSI Prestige 14 or the Asus VivoBook S14) as Evo-verified, so this part is still confusing to me. In all fairness, if you’re like me and prefer matte screens, you’d rather go with one of these over any of the touch alternatives, regardless of having that Intel EVO badge or not.

Bottom point, Evo laptops are the better Intel powered ultrabooks you will find in stores throughout 2023 and later. Expect these to be excellently crafted, perform snappily with everyday tasks, and last for many hours on a single charge, while also including the latest in terms of features and specs.

Furthermore, keep in mind that not all Evo laptops are the same, as each implementation varies based on their size, thermal design, and power profiles. That means the performance, thermals, and noise levels vary between different laptops built on the same hardware specs, and once again, only detailed reviews can explain what you’ll actually get with each product.

With all these out of the way, let’s touch on the list of Evo-Certified laptops down below. We’re constantly updating these lists, but if you spot anything that should be in here and is not, please tell us about it in the comments section at the end of the article.

First off, we’ll start with the sub-14-inch Evo ultrabooks, and we’ll continue with the full-size options down below. We’ve included the main details on each option, links to our more detailed reviews and guides, as well as links to the latest configurations and prices at the time you’re reading the article, which might differ from the MSRP price listed here.

You’ll also find a list of EVO laptops available for purchase in your region over here. Some of these are affiliate links, and you know how they work and how they help us keep our small project alive.

Best 6 Intel Evo laptops (built on the latest Intel Core Ultra hardware)

This section is a brief summary of the complete lists of Evo-certified devices that you will find further down in the article, and includes our best overall 5 recommendations for Evo-certified laptops, for those of you who don’t want to go through the hassle of sorting through all the options.

• Dell XPS 13 – premium laptop and compact 13-inch ultrabook, available in plenty of configurations, but with minimal IO and unusual inputs;
• Asus Zenbook 14 OLED – a more budget-friendly series of 14-inch laptop, still portable and well made, and more practical than most other ultraportables;
• HP Spectre x360 14 – the best convertible 2-in-1 ultraportable built on the latest Intel Evo hardware platforms;
• Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon – the iconic business/work ThinkPad, now available with updated internals in the latest 2024 Evo Edition update;
• Dell XPS 15 – premium 15-inch laptop, a well know design and one of the most popular all-purpose laptops out there – only runs on 13th-gen Intel hardware, though, as the latest XPS 14 and XPS 16 edition are no longer Evo certified.
• Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 16 – a larger 16-inch mid-tier design, in still a portable chassis, with fairly powerful specs, good cooling and a good display – one of the better value large-screen Evo laptops.

The complete lists of Intel Evo Core certified portable and full-size laptops

Over the years, I’ve updated the list with the latest Intel Evo laptops. That means there might be a couple of older options with an EVO badge that were taken out, as those are no longer available in stores or were replaced by newer products.

I’ve split this subsection into two different tables, one that includes compact ultrabooks up to 14-inches in screen size, and another that lists the larger devices with 15 to 18 inch displays.

And here’s the second part of this comprehensive list, that includes full-size 15 to 18-inch Evo laptops.

For now, there aren’t that many such options, but expect more and better full-size Evo laptops to be released later on. We’ll add them here once available.

As far as I understand, 15+ inch laptops with some sort of Nvidia GTX graphics don’t get the Evo badging, such as perhaps the Envy 14/15/17 or X360 15 from HP. They’re still portable and compact, but somehow miss on some of the criteria to qualify for Evo. Nonetheless, that shouldn’t keep you away from getting one of those, either in the standard ultrabook or the 2-in-1 convertible format.

Expect a couple of other Evo-certified laptops to be released in the months to come. Intel taunts about 150 different designs based on Core hardware from pretty much all the known brands such as Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, or Razer, but only about a handful of these will get the Evo badging from what we know so far.

You’ll also find a complete list of EVO laptops available for purchase in your region via this link.

That’s about it for now. We’ll constantly update this list with the new additions, but we’d also appreciate your help. If you spot any Evo laptop that should be in here and is not, please tell us about it in the comments section down below.