In today’s post we will analyse the differences between the i7-6500u and the i7-6700HQ and explain what kind of processor you should choose for your new laptop
Buying a new laptop can be slightly confusing especially taking into account that the smallest hardware difference can influence greatly on the performance of your newly bought machine. Having that in my we will point the differences between the i7-6500u and the i7-6700HQ, both part of the latest generation of Intel processors.
What are Skylake processors
The i7-6500u and the i7-6700hq were launched simultaneously in the Q3 of 2015 and are part of the sixth and currently latest generation of Intel processors named “Skylake“, which focuses not only on processing speed but also in low energy consumption, thus improving the overall battery life of this laptops compared with those using processors from previous generations.
Even if these two are i7 processors and part of the Skylake generation, they have a lot of differences, which we will analyze below.
Differences Between the i7-6500u and the i7-6700HQ
The main difference between he i7-6500u and the i7-6700hq is that the i7-6500u is a dual core and the i7-6700hq is a quad core. In other words, while the i7-6500u has a considerably inferior performance in terms of performance than the i7-6700hq, but it consumes less power and devices using the i7-6500u have a longer battery life in average than the i7-6700hq.
The difference in terms of performance between these two laptops can be verified when checking the benchmark for the i7-6500u and the benchmark of the i7-6700HQ on the this page at the CPUBenchmark website.
The i7-6500u is commonly found in mid to high level laptops that focus on performance while consuming low levels of energy, there are many laptops which meet the criteria to be Ultrabooks using this laptop, often with low weight and solid state drives with high storage capacity.
The i7-6700HQ is more commonly found in high level gaming laptops which are focused in delivering massive computing speed combined with extremely powerful GPUs and a lot of RAM. Normally these laptops do not have a good battery autonomy, and might not have have the ideal dimensions if compared to laptops with the i7-6500u, but they will be ideal for you if you use heavy software that involves image and video rendering, software compiling, simulations and to run the latest games.
Below you will find some examples of laptops using the i7-6500u followed by some powered by the i7-6700HQ:
i7-6500u Laptops
2016 Newest Acer High Performance Premium 15.6″ FHD IPS Touchscreen Laptop ( Intel Core i7-6500U 2.5 GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, DVD, Backlit Keyboard, HDMI, WiFi, Bluetooth, Webcam, Windows 10 ) – Black
Click here to buy this laptop on Amazon.com
Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
15.6 in Full HD IPS touchscreen (1920 x 1080), 10-finger multi-touch support
Intel Core i7-6500U 2.50 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.10 GHz
8GB DDR3L 1600 MHz; 1TB 5400 RPM HDD; DVD SuperMulti double layer
Backlit keyboard; Bluetooth; Webcam; WiFi; HDMI
HP ENVY 13-d099nr Signature Edition Laptop – 13.3″ QHD+ Display, Intel i7-6500U (Skylake), 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Windows 10 – Silver
Click here to buy this laptop on Amazon.com
13.3-inch QHD+ IPS (3200 x 1800) Display
Intel Core i7-6500U (6th Gen Skylake) 2.50 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.10 GHz
8GB LPDDR3 1600 MHz; 256GB SSD
Intel HD Graphics 520 with shared graphics memory
Windows 10 Home, 64-bit; Bang & Olufsen Audio; Backlit Keyboard; Webcam; WiFi; Bluetooth
i7-6700HQ Laptops
Acer Predator 15 G9-591-70VM 15.6-inch Full HD Gaming Notebook (Intel Core i7-6700HQ, 16GB, 1TB, Windows 10 Home) Black
Click here to buy this laptop on Amazon.com
Intel Core i7-6700HQ 2.6 GHz (6 MB Cache, 2.6 GHz up to 3.5 GHz)
16GB DDR4 Dual-Channel Memory
1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive, 128GB Solid-State Drive
15.6-inch Full HD Screen, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM
Windows 10 Home, Up to 8 hours of battery life
MSI PE60 6QE-031US Gaming Laptop 6th Generation Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz) 8 GB Memory 1 TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2 GB GDDR5 15.6
Click here to buy this laptop on Newegg
15.6″ FHD Anti-Glare Display
Intel Core i7 6700HQ
GeForce GTX 960M 2 GB GDDR5
8 GB Memory 1 TB HDD
15.6″ FHD Anti-Glare Display
Alienware – 17.3″ 4K Ultra HD Laptop – Intel Core i7 – 8GB Memory – 1TB Hard Drive + 128GB Solid State Drive – Epic Silver
Click here to buy this laptop from Best Buy
17.3″ 4K Ultra HD display
6th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ processor
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3GB GDDR5
1TB hard drive and 128GB solid state drive (SSD)