Intel 13th gen laptop guide 2023

The best Intel 13th gen laptop models available, plus everything we know about the Intel 13th gen Raptor Lake laptop CPUs

Aaron Ritchie

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The Intel 13th gen laptop CPUs are the upcoming big hitters from the blue team in 2023, which look to take on the AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptop CPUs across the full range of laptops, from general-use laptops and creative notebooks to high-end gaming laptops.

Intel 13th gen laptops were revealed for the first time at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, as expected. We now have all the specification information on each of the different SKUs on this page for you to look at, as well as a first look at upcoming Raptor Lake laptop models from the different brands, the first of which should land in February 2023 or earlier. We will be updating this page with the latest info on the Raptor Lake laptop CPU line, as well as listing the best 13th gen laptops for different budgets and use cases as they get closer to release, so watch this space.

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ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 (2021) Gaming Laptop

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Lenovo Legion Pro 5i Gaming Laptop

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Best Intel 13th Gen gaming laptops

The below selections represent a shortlist the best Intel 13th Gen gaming laptops currently available. Do also check out our main best gaming laptop page for a longer list, which also includes AMD Ryzen laptops and also Intel 12th gen laptop selections.

Most of these 13th gen models are on the larger side at the moment, as not many 14-inch models have been released yet. We’ll be updating and adding to this list as more models are released in the coming months.

Best 13th Gen Intel Gaming Laptop

A 240Hz 1600p gaming laptop with Intel Core i9-13980HX and RTX 4080

ASUS ROG Strix G18 (i9-13980HX)

CPU

Intel Core i9-13980HX

Graphics Card

Up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

RAM

16GB/32GB DDR5 RAM

Storage

1TB-2TB SSD

Max Refresh Rate

240Hz

Resolution

2560 x 1600

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The ASUS ROG Strix G18 (a more affordable offering than the similar ASUS Strix SCAR 18) comes with the most powerful Intel 13th gen laptop CPU currently available, and indeed, the most powerful laptop processor on the market, full stop: the Intel Core i9-13980HX. With unparalleled single-core and multi-core performance, this will absolutely chew through anything you throw at it: from rendering workflows and intensive workstation tasks, to high-end gaming. On top of this you get the massively powerful Nvidia RTX 4080 laptop graphics card, which comes with great improvements over the previous-gen, including DLSS 3.0 support and greater energy efficiency.

The most impressive thing about this machine though is the price: this laptop originally went on sale over at Best Buy for $2,499 USD, which is a ridiculously good price. The device has since gone out of stock here, and we wouldn’t be surprised if they up the price a bit, but even if you end up paying a few hundred dollars (or equivalent) more, this would still be respectable value.

Though the 18″ screen on the G18 might be a bit too big if you’re after a more portable laptop, there’s no doubt that playing on it is a fantastically immersive experience, especially with the additional vertical headroom afforded by the 16:10 aspect ratio. In our view the 240Hz 1600p screen is the right balance between high-resolution and speed – well suited for either slower-paced, immersive games or competitive twitch shooters. The 5.5ms average grey-to-grey response time also helps minimise ghosting.

Considering the great value of this device, you don’t quite get everything: the webcam quality isn’t great and the somewhat plasticky build doesn’t compare to the metal chassis Razer Blade laptops, though the G18 is still a well-put together machine as with most ASUS products. It’s certainly not a quiet laptop on the higher fan and voltage settings – as is often the case with powerful gaming laptops – however some users have reported coil whine issues (stick your headphones on and it shouldn’t be a problem though).

Some of these issues aren’t present in the more expensive ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18, which has a better webcam as well as superior RGB, but still comes with a fairly plastic build. Another alternative is the XMG Neo 17 E23 (in Europe) / Eluktronics MECH17 GP2 (in the US), which has a superior Cherry MX mechanical keyboard option and compatibility with external OASIS liquid cooling, to further maximise performance, though again this is more expensive than the ASUS G18 and you’re limited to a maximum 17.3” size (16-inch variants are also available). Considering the relative (current) pricing, we’d definitely opt for the G18.

If you want to further improve the cooling and reduce thermal throttling on this beast, have a read of our best laptop cooling pad and best laptop stand guides for some affordable solutions.

Best 13th Gen laptop for competitive gamers

A 360Hz 1080p gaming laptop with Intel Core i7-13700H and RTX 4080

GIGABYTE AORUS 17H (i7-13700H, RTX 4080)

CPU

Intel Core i9-13700H

Graphics Card

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080

RAM

16GB DDR5 RAM

Storage

1TB SSD

Max Refresh Rate

360Hz

Resolution

1920 x 1080

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If you’re only interested in lightning fast gaming at 1080p resolution, then the Gigabyte Aorus 17H (2023) is the one for you. The Intel Core i7-13700H processor is plenty powerful for gaming on, even on the highest settings, and it’s paired with an Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU to boot. We’ve yet to see another RTX 4080 laptop this cheap, we’ve seen them go for $2,299 on Newegg, which for this amount of GPU and CPU power is terrific value.

The 17.3” 1080p screen has a very fast 360Hz maximum refresh rate, pretty much the highest you’re likely to see in a gaming laptop, and arguably more than you’d ever need, certainly more than quick enough to maximise your advantage in any fast-paced shooter, and make best effective use of the FPS the core components are able to churn out. The claimed response time is 3ms, which is very respectable (though we’ve yet to test this ourselves to see how well this holds up). Color replication is definitely good enough for gaming, though creatives should probably look elsewhere. The peak brightness and contrast are both respectable, though neither will blow your socks off.

Ideally more RAM options than the 16GB 4800MHz would have been preferable, though we’ve heard these may be coming in the future (though probably for more money). Regardless, it supports DDR5 and you can always upgrade the RAM yourself should you want to.

The build is fairly plastic, though this is to be expected for this price, and despite this the trackpad and keyboard are both solid and the laptop looks nice overall. The battery duration lasts around 7 hours of general usage, which is very good for core components of this power. Everything considered, a great value Intel 13th gen gaming laptop.

Best Intel 13th Gen laptops for work & school

The following are the best general use laptops and/or laptops for creatives that are currently available to buy with Intel 13th gen CPUs. It’s a relatively short list at present, but as more hit the shelves we will be adding to this list accordingly. Have a read of our best laptop for students guide if you want more examples with different CPUs for your studies.

Best 2-in-1 13th gen Intel laptop

Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360

CPU

Intel Core i7-1360P

Graphics

Intel Iris Xe (iGPU)

RAM

8GB/16GB DDR5

Storage

512GB/1TB

Max refresh rate

120Hz

Resolution

2880 x 1800

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The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 is a great mid-range creator’s laptop that comes with a 13th gen Intel Core i7-1360P processor and a touchscreen 2-in-1 design that lets it convert into a tablet form factor, better suited for drawing and the like. The standard clamshell non-touchscreen Galaxy Book3 Pro is also available for slightly cheaper and also comes in the 14-inch display size model, if 2-in-laptops aren’t your thing.

The AMOLED display looks great, with superb contrast as you’d expect, although it’s limited to a somewhat disappointing 400 nits peak brightness. The included S-Pen stylus works very well on it and the color replication and accuracy allows you to perform color-accurate work to a professional standard in the sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 spaces.

For general productivity purposes the keyboard is solid, as is the very large trackpad. Some may find the trackpad size a bit over the top, but this is ultimately down to personal preference. The speakers are decent for a Windows laptop, though they don’t match up to those of a MacBook. The aesthetic design is elegant and reserved, and the chassis is very light and slimline, making it easy to transport.

Although the build quality is good on the whole, the one exception is that the screen has a bit too much wobble for our liking, though this isn’t the end of the world. Still, if you want a sturdier screen, less subdued aesthetic design, a more tactile keyboard, but don’t mind it being a bit heavier, then you should also consider the HP Spectre x360, although currently only one of the the 16-inch variants comes with a 13th gen CPU options (an i7-1360P) and this one doesn’t have an OLED panel.

Ultimately, despite not being perfect in every way, this is a great laptop, and if you can afford the relatively high price tag, then you’ll get much enjoyment out of it.

Best MacBook replacement 13th gen laptop

A powerful creator’s laptop that you can also game on

Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra

CPU

Intel Core i7-13700H / i9-13900H

Graphics

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 / RTX 4070

RAM

16GB/32GB DDR5

Storage

512GB/1TB

Max refresh rate

120Hz

Resolution

2880 x 1800

How We Review

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The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra comes with the same 120Hz AMOLED display as the Book3 Pro variants, but has higher-powered CPU (Intel Core i7-13700H or i9-13900H) and GPU (Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 or RTX 4070) options, making it more suited to intensive workloads, including gaming. It’s a major competitor for the latest in the MacBook Pro series, beating it in some areas, less so in others, but is priced cheaper than the expensive Apple device (with an MSRP of around $2,200 – $3,000 depending on loadout) and has the improved flexibility of being a Windows machine (including a lot more games).

Both GPU options will help you make short work of any graphical rendering tasks, or when using otherwise GPU-intensive creative software. The RTX 4050 laptop GPU will let you play the latest, most demanding games on the lower settings for a decent FPS, whereas the RTX 4070 laptop GPU option will manage medium-high settings. This isn’t of course a dedicated gaming device however, so you won’t get the same performance as you would from a gaming laptop with ostensibly the same GPU and CPU, and the keyboard isn’t as well suited for this purpose in terms of travel and responsiveness, however it does the job.

Overall the keyboard, trackpad, and build quality are pretty much the same as the standard Galaxy Book3 pro and the 360 variant discussed above, but the Ultra only comes in traditional clamshell form, not 2-in-1. Considering it comes with a dedicated graphics card, the laptop is remarkably light: it weighs 3.9lb/1.8kg, which is nearly 1lb lighter than theM2 Max variant of the MacBook Pro 16.

By the standards of most Windows laptops the speakers are of a good standard, certainly better than the dross you get with most dedicated gaming laptops, however they’re still a way off the standard of those on the MacBook – lacking in bass replication and fidelity at the higher volumes by comparison.

The 400 nits display is fine but is very much overshadowed by the ridiculous 1000nit MacBook display. The battery life could be better, and (unlike the MacBook) performance in any demanding task drops substantially when you unplug it, however the array of ports is better on the Book3 Ultra and it’s generally a more flexible device as discussed. Overall, a great premium Windows laptop for creatives.

READ NOW: Best laptop under 400 USD (non-gaming)

Older gen laptop deals

Get huge savings on laptops and gaming laptops on the Lenovo Store, Best Buy or HP in 2023, as well as Amazon of course:

• ASUS ROG Zephyrus (14″) – FHD 144Hz, AMD Ryzen 7 5800HS, Nvidia RTX 3060, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD – was $1,399.99 now $1,099.99 (Save $300) 
• ASUS ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition (15.6″) – FHD 300Hz, AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, Radeon RX 6800M, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD – was $1,488.99 now $1,299.99 (Save $180)
• Legion 5 Gen 7 AMD (15”) – FHD 165Hz, AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD – was $2,199.99 now $1,499.99 (Save $700)
• Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 7 – 14″ 1200p Intel i5-1240P, Iris Xe, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD – was $2,649.00 now $1,271.95
• Lenovo ThinkBook 14 Gen 4 – 14″ FHD, Intel i5-1235U, Intel Xe, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD – was $1,494.00 now $926.42
• Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 – 14″ 1200p, Intel i5-1235U, Iris Xe, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD – was $2,859.00 now $1,715.50
• HP Pavilion 15 15.6″ Full HD – 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1255U, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD – was $949.99 now $749.99
• GIGABYTE AERO 16″ 4K AMOLED – Intel i7-12700H, RTX 3070 Ti, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD – was $2,449.99 now $1,499.99
• MSI Pulse GL66 with Intel i7-12700H & RTX 3070 – ($289 off )

Intel 13th gen laptop performance

Intel 12th gen laptop CPUs took the crown for the most powerful devices of 2022, beating the AMD Ryzen 6000 series laptops in both single-core and multi-core performance, though losing out in terms of power efficiency and battery life. Intel cemented its performance lead further at the very high end through the release of the 12th gen HX series, which added additional cores and cache onto the most powerful options in the range.

Although it’s early days yet, it seems that 13th gen laptop CPUs won’t offer as big of an uplift as the 12th gen did, with Intel claiming up to 12% performance increase over the previous generation, though the ‘up to’ bit is crucial, with many games showing only a few % difference in the graph that we were shown at CES 2023, with the average difference only being about 6%. We will have to wait for independent testing to know for sure whether these are accurate.

Intel 13th gen laptops vs AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptops

It seems likely that the new Ryzen 7000 series laptops will beat Intel once again in terms of power efficiency and gaming performance on battery life, given Intel are still using the same architecture as they did previously compared to AMD’s smaller process node. In terms of raw power though we don’t have any indication beyond the claims of the company.

AMD are stating that there will be greater than 15% single-thread performance gain with their new architecture. We already know that the existing Intel Core i9-12900K laptop CPU is (very) roughly 10% faster in single-core workloads than the AMD Ryzen 6900HX laptop CPU (depending heavily on the laptop in question, its voltage, what programs you are running etc.). So if we add say 6% uplift for the 13900K (taking a very loose average from the titles in the graph above) to this lead we get 16%, compared to the 15% AMD are claiming, which points to a possibility of a very close race between the two flagship CPUs at least.

When did Intel 13th gen laptops come out? Intel 13th gen laptop release date

The first Intel 13th gen laptops were released in February 2023 and since then we’ve seen a gradual trickle of them hitting the shelves as the weeks go by. We’ll continue to see new models released all the way up until the end of summer 2023, though it’s likely most will have come out by the end of May.

Have a read of our specific Intel 13th gen laptop release date pages on various models listed below.

Intel 13th Gen laptops to watch out for

Below is a shortlist of some of the laptops we’re looking forward to seeing that can come equipped with 13th gen CPUs, and the latest information regarding their specific release dates. Currently this is primarily focused around gaming laptops, but we’ll be including more non-gaming varieties soon:

• Microsoft Surface Pro 10 release date
• Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 release date
• Samsung Galaxy Book 3 release date, price & specs
• Dell G15 release date, price & specs
• Dell G16 release date, price & specs
• Alienware X14 r2 release date, price & specs
• Alienware X16 release date, price & specs
• Alienware m16 release date, price & specs
• Alienware m18 release date, price & specs
• Razer Blade 16 release date, price & specs
• Razer Blade 18 release date, price & specs
• Acer Nitro 16 release date, price & specs
• Acer Nitro 17 release date, price & specs
• Acer Predator Helios 16 release date, price & specs
• Acer Predator Helios 18 release date, price & specs
• MSI Raider GE68 release date window, price & specs
• MSI Raider GE78 release date window, price & specs

Intel 13th gen laptop CPU specs : Raptor Lake laptop SKUs

Below you can see the full specifications of each of the new Intel 13th gen laptop CPU SKUs. As is always the case with laptop CPUs, the core count, clock speed, and TDP are lower than in the desktop iterations.

As you can see these Raptor Lake CPUs are separated into the H-series (for gaming laptops and more powerful workstation/creative machines), the P-series (for creative laptops and general purpose laptops that still have a bit of oomph), and the U-series (for ultra-thin and/or budget laptops), and finally a new N-series (for entry level laptops suitable for web browsing, word processing, and for educational usage).

Intel 13th gen H-series laptop CPUs

Intel 13th gen P-series laptop CPUs

Intel 13th gen U-series laptop CPUs

Intel 13th gen N-series laptop CPUs

Intel 13th gen series laptop price

Intel 13th gen laptops will cross a whole range of budgets and price points, depending on the specific model of the CPU. It’s unlikely though that you will see many in our best gaming laptops under $500 guide, as these will mostly be older tech machines. When you get to the upper end of ‘mid-range gaming laptops’ ending around the 1,500 USD mark (check out our best gaming laptop under $1,500 guide for some examples), you’ll end up seeing quite a few, and similarly in the high-end range, starting with our best gaming laptop under $2,000 guide.

Things to consider if you’re thinking of buying an Intel 13th gen laptop

The below goes into greater detail about the features of the new Intel 13th gen laptop CPUs, to help you decide whether they’re worth the wait, or if you’d rather opt for a different AMD/Intel-powered laptop sooner.

Intel 13th gen motherboard compatibility

Intel 13th gen CPUs will use the same LGA 1700 socket as the preceding Alder Lake CPUs, which Intel promised to keep in use for a few years after it was introduced in late 2021. Almost all gaming laptops use a different type of socket to desktop PCs, however, it does give us an indication of the technology that the Intel 13th gen laptop will be equipped with.

Raptor Lake CPU architecture, 10nm process node

Intel 13th gen laptops will use the same 10nm architecture as the preceding 12th Gen Alder Lake laptop CPUs. This is considerably larger than the 5nm/4nm process that the new Ryzen 7000 series will be using, and points to a likelihood of lower power efficiency compared to AMD’s tech, which is what was seen in the previous generation. Still, this does not mean the CPUs will be less powerful in terms of in-game FPS/other intensive workflows, as we saw with 12th gen.

Intel Xe vs RDNA 3 laptops

We have absolutely no information on the integrated graphics (iGPUs) the Intel 13th gen laptops will be coming with, but given they will be using the same basic architecture then there’s a reasonable chance it will be a similar tech to the previous Intel Xe iGPUs used by 12th gen.

If this is the case, the Ryzen 7000 series laptops will probably have a substantial advantage in this area by comparison, as AMD is putting a lot of focus on their new RDNA 3 iGPU tech. This will however be mostly focused on the low-mid range entries in the series, as it’s assumed more powerful laptop CPUs will be paired with dedicated graphics cards. You can read more about this in our AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptop guide.

Final Word

We’ll be updating this page with all the latest Intel 13th gen laptop info as it’s released, and eventually breaking down the best of the laptop series on the market when they come on the market, to help you pick the right one for you. Until then, make sure you stay locked onto WePC for all the latest AMD, Intel, and Nvidia tech news.

Intel 13th gen laptop FAQs