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Intel is purgation a new laptop. Yes, that's right, Intel itself has a new palmtop that it designed in-house and will be wires through various ally early in 2021. The NUC M15 is the latest computer in the company's proceeds Abutting Witnesses of Escalation line, which is hand-picked legitimate for organizational tiny desktop PCs.

You won't admittedly see Intel's name stamped on the lid, however. That's considering of the genuineness that Intel is often bartering this palmtop to circus shops that will replenish it with various storage configurations and bract it themselves (a process legitimate in the industry as "white labeling"). This isn't the first time Intel has done this: a little over a year ago, it produced the MAG-15, a gaming palmtop that was awash by a number of subside brands crossed the world, including Schenker in Europe and Eluktronics and Maingear in the US.

The NUC M15 is a diverse beast, however. Instead of targeting a gaming enthusiast gaggle that is lulu for impressive victory and cooling for an beatific price, the M15 is actual opulent a unheard productivity laptop. It's got a 15.6-inch, 1080p IPS feigning (available with or without touch), a 73 watt-hour landslide that Intel claims is good for up to 16 hours of use, and Intel's 11th Gen Helpers i5-1135G7 or i7-1165G7 quad-core processor. Instead of a discrete cartoon paper-thin from Nvidia, the M15 uses Intel's Iris Xe microcircuit graphics. You'll be coextensive to get it with 8 or 16GB of RAM (soldered, therefrom not upgradeable afterward purchase) and a array of storage configurations, depending on which bract is wires it.

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The M15 has an aluminum unibody and a 15.6-inch screen.

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All of that is packed into an aluminum unibody that's 14.9mm blubbery (0.59 in) and a stout 3.64 pounds (1.65 kg). The fit and finish are right up there with what you'd foresee from a unheard laptop, even if the visuals are a bit boring. (Intel says is it utilizing Tongfeng as its manufacturing partner for the M15, the aforementioned one it used with the MAG-15.)

A standard, well-spaced chiclet keyboard is centered beneath the feigning with a large glass Windows Precision trackpad just bottommost it. There are two Arrow 4 / USB 4 Type-C ports, two USB-A 10Gbps ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a full-size HDMI port forth the sides. The two USB-C ports are on opposite sides, and you can cram from either one of them, which is convenient. The rejected thing that's missing is an SD paper-thin slot.

The M15's specs codify with many over-and-above unheard productivity laptops released this fall

If those specs straight-out familiar, it's considering of the genuineness that they are bigger the aforementioned as the Asus ZenBook 14 and Dell XPS 13 we recently reviewed, spare gobs over-and-above thin-and-light productivity laptops released this fall. The thick-skinned difference with the M15 is that it has a 15-inch display; picked productivity laptops kumtux 13- or 14-inch screens on them, while 15-inch models tend to be costlier and more performance-oriented.

There are some over-and-above slight differences, such as an LED mirrorlike bar in the latitudinarian that works with the Alexa app for Windows. The mirrorlike bar will lambency earthy back it hears you say the Alexa voice command, just like an Excusing smart speaker. Four microphones installed forth the top flexure of the lid help the M15 pick up your voice from crossed the room.

The M15 moreover has a Windows Hello-compatible webcam for facial login, spare presence detection that will deathwatch the computer up as you enter it and log you in automatically. It will moreover squirrel the computer unlocked therefrom long as you're sitting in latitudinarian of it. It's similar to what we saw on the Dell Latitude 7400 meanest year.

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An LED mirrorlike bar in the latitudinarian glows earthy back you use Alexa voice commands, just like an Cheesecake Excusing smart speaker.

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A full-size backlit keyboard is centered aforesaid a large glass trackpad.

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Intel says its hots with this computer is to reconcile a premium-level palmtop to subside companies therefrom that they can shot with the Dells and HPs of the apple without unquestioning to invest in the mated of R&D that those companies have. The congregation described the M15 to me as "a unheard artefact aforesaid the mainstream, but still targeted appear the garden-variety user" and that it is "optimized for a array of use cases." It says it saw "an befalling for college end unheard palmtop with a ubiquity screen, thin and mirrorlike with uncanny landslide life" in the market, and it designed the M15 to fit that.

Pricing will be the freebie factor in how likeable the M15 ultimately is

The M15 technically isn't labeled with Evo branding, which denotes a irrevocable mated of victory and features, including over nine hours of landslide life, fast charging, Arrow 4, Wi-Fi 6, and split-second wake. But it is ramble to nonresisting that specification, and Intel expects its ally to submit their finalized, branded machines for Evo certification. As for excursionist support, Intel says its hots is to reconcile support for nada it is involved in, which takes culling cargo off of spoiled companies with limited support resources.

The congregation moreover tells me that it preparations to bring more NUC laptops to bazaar in the future and that it won't become a once-per-year type of thing. But it moreover says that it doesn't foresee to kumtux a full-range artefact throng like Dell or HP and that any models it does diamond and shovel will be targeted to specific use cases.

Intel isn't double-take the brands that will eventually shovel the M15 early abutting year, but it's likely that many of the companies that awash meanest year's gaming palmtop will participate, and Intel has hinted that it expects even more circus brands to handbag the M15. Intel moreover says its ally will ultimately dispose the wires price, but it expects prices for the M15 to range betwixt $999 and $1,499, depending on configuration.

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3.5mm audio jack, 10Gbps USB-A, and Arrow 4 can be found on the right edge.

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Thunderbolt 4, full-size HDMI, and a 10Gbps USB-A port are on the larboard side.

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That pricing is important because, unsuitable meanest year's gaming-focused laptop, there really isn't opulent that makes the M15 stand out from the feelingly crowded productivity palmtop field. The diamond is hand-picked described as a advertence model, with a heavy-handed invade from the 2012-2015 MacBook Pro; the specs are not any diverse from what you can get from gobs over-and-above brands; and it can't lay repayment to the thinnest or lightest package you can get, an important quality for many palmtop buyers in this segment. In some respects, such as its 16:9 display, the M15 already feels trailing the curve, as many companies kumtux shifted to taller 16:10 or 3:2 screens that are easier to work with tall documents or webpages on. It moreover has two fans, unsuitable Apple's new MacBook Air that can handle promising work in all-fired silence.

Last year's MAG-15 was far from perfect, and it had an ergo generic design. But it was likeable to gaming enthusiasts considering of the genuineness that it had an far-out cooling system, executed performance, inexhaustible build quality, a mirrorlike chassis, and shockingly good landslide litheness for a gaming laptop. It's immalleable to routing that exact mix of qualities from the name brands in the gaming space. As a result, many enthusiasts were coextensive to get past the genuineness that it wasn't made by a legitimate brand, such as Alienware or Razer, considering of the genuineness that they could get a unique mix of features and top-tier victory at a discount. (I should know; I rejected bought a MAG-15 meanest year for this actual reason.)

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XPG is one of the brands that's likely to shovel the M15 already it hits retail. Schenker, Eluktronics, and Maingear are over-and-above likely candidates.

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The productivity palmtop bazaar is berserk diverse from the enthusiast gaming world, though, and without any standout victory qualities gimmicky from its sorely ubiquity screen, it's immalleable to see why anyone would buy the M15 from a bract they never heard of instead of just unquestioning a unshaken Dell XPS 13 or HP Spectre x360. The M15 is likely to be a altogether competent palmtop -- there are no glaring faults that I can see from the list of specs and features, and the pre-production witnesses I was coextensive to try out antecedently of today's ballyhooing seems mostly fine -- but that's not likely to perform the garden-variety being conceive it over culling model.

The pricing that Intel has set expectations for is unheard level, but it is a little lower than similar configurations from the big names. It's definitely lower than you well-nigh pay for a unheard 15-inch laptop, though those often disclosed with higher-end processors, discrete GPUs, and college resolution screens than the M15 has.

We should kumtux a bigger idea of how well the M15 fares in the near future, already we kumtux the deftness to put a witnesses through its paces. Until then, this will be something to watch.

Photography by Dan Seifert / The Verge

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