Intel Core i3 3217U  vs Atom Z2760 

Laptops are an important gadget for the modern worker. He can work while on the go, thanks to today’s laptops which are not only thin and light, but pack great battery life too. For this matchup, we’re comparing two portable laptop CPUs: the Intel Core i3 3217U versus the Intel Atom Z2760.

The 3217U is part of the Core i3 U series, geared towards decent performance in Ultraportable laptops. Aside from basic tasks, it can also play HD movies, run multi-threaded programs, or even play the occasional game. This model packs a 1.8GHz Dual Core, with 4 threads and 3MB cache. It consumes 17W TDP of power, which is quite respectable for an Ultraportable processor.

In contrast is the Z2760 which is part of the Atom series. The Atom was designed for Netbooks, which run cheap, cool, and small. As such, it’s only good for basic tasks such as web surfing, word processing, or watching SD videos. The Z2760 is a 1.8 GHz Dual Core with 4 threads and only 1MB cache. Despite its slightly slower specs, it’s exceptional when it comes to power consumption, as it only uses 2W TDP.

Benchmarks show that the 3217U is indeed the faster chip: it led by 134% in the 3Dmark06 CPU test, 228% in GeekBench, and an outstanding 234% in the PassMark. But keep in mind that these are only performance tests; as for Battery life, the Atom can get up to 5-7 hours more than the competition.

In conclusion, choose the CPU which best suits your needs. For an Ultraportable laptop which is fast and fully featured, we recommend the Intel Core i3 3217U. For a small laptop which gets great battery life but can only run basic tasks, then you can’t go wrong with the Intel Atom Z2760.