Intel showcases "Project Athena" program with new laptops

Intel earlier this year announced "Project Athena", its spec for a new generation of laptops that offer performance, better battery life and connectivity in sleeker product designs.

Intel last week showed off the resulting devices at the Australian launch of its 10th-generation Core CPUs.

Athena is similar to Intel's “Ultrabook” concept, in that it outlines performance levels that must be delivered to earn a new “engineered for mobile performance” badge.

Some of the criteria include improved battery life (nine hours of real-world use), consistent performance whether plugged in or not and a minimum set of technical specifications. 

The laptops should at least have Intel’s Core i5 or i7 processors, 8GB of DRAM, 256 GB of NVMe SSD storage, a Thunderbolt 3 port, WiFi 6, facial/fingerprint recognition, gigabit LTE, 12 to 15 inch displays with at least 1080p resolution, touchscreens, backlit keyboards, stylus support and precision touchpads.

Among the Athena-worth machines are the 10th generation Acer Swift 5

From $1499

10th gen Intel Core i5/i7
Nvidia GeForce MX250 or Intel Iris Pro graphics
WiFi 6 (Gig+)
Thunderbolt 3
12.5 hours of battery life
990 grams (with discrete graphics card, lighter with integrated)
14.95 mm thick

The Acer Aspire 5 A515-54 also qualifies.

From $999

The Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 makes the grade.

From $1799

10th gen Intel Core i5/i7
Thunderbolt 3

So does the Dell Inspiron 7591

From $1999

And the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1

From $2464

10th gen Intel Core i5/i7
Intel Iris Plus graphics
Optional 4K display
Thunderbolt 3
16-hour battery life
WiFi 6
1.33 kg
7 to 13 mm thick

HP has an Athena product too, in the form of the Spectre x360 13

From $2499

10th gen Intel Core i5/i7
Intel Iris Plus graphics
WiFi 6
Thunderbolt 3
22-hour battery life
Webcam killswitch
1.32 kg

Lenovo's Thinkbook 14 is an Athena machine.

Australian pricing TBA

10th gen Intel Core i5/i7
AMD Radeon 540X
Intel Optane memory H10
1.52 kg

As is the Lenovo Yoga c940

From $2999

10th-gen Intel Core i7
Intel Iris Plus graphics
Optional 4K display
Thunderbolt 3
WiFi 6
9.5-hour battery life at 4K
1.35 kg