AMD makes hefty claims about its Ryzen 4000 Series of mobile processors

AMD has suggested that its upcoming Ryzen 4000 Series of laptop processors will eclipse the likes of Intel's Ice Lake processors. 

As part of AMD's financial analyst briefing last week, AMD VP of computing and graphics, Rick Bergman, suggested that its upcoming 7nm Ryzen mobile processor will be a 'watershed' moment for the firm. Crucially, there were suggestions that the CPU will reach 18 hours of battery life.

Obviously with those kind of ideas, a hefty dose of salt is required. For one thing, Bergman didn't mention what laptop was involved with those figures, how large the battery is, or anything else to do with what was involved in achieving that number. Any regular laptop user can tell you that the difference in battery life is typically huge, depending on if you're simply typing up a document, watching a video or playing a game. 

We'd assume the 18 hour figure is probably for things like internet browsing with some light activities, rather than anything heavy duty, but that's still a remarkable figure if it comes to fruition. In the past, Intel has always been dominant when it comes to battery life and that's a crucial consideration to make when dealing with portable devices like laptops. 

During the same presentation, AMD also demonstrated that the Ryzen 7 4800U processor will offer a 90 percent increased multi-thread performance over the Intel Core i7-1065G7. That's not Intel's most powerful Ice Lake based processor, but it's still a remarkable example of prowess by AMD. Supposedly, it will also have a 4 percent boost for single-thread performance, and a 28 percent improvement when it comes to graphics performance. The processor will also be the world's first 8-core x86 CPU for 'ultrathin notebooks' according to AMD. 

It all sounds a little too perfect for the Ryzen 4000 series so it's wise to be a little apprehensive of those figures until we actually see the chip in action. AMD hasn't announced a release date yet and it's likely to take a few months for manufacturers to take advantage in new laptops. There's also the small matter of Intel launching Tiger Lake later this year, which could shake things up further. 

It's another moment where it might be worth holding off on that high-end laptop purchase, if AMD's presentation is anything to go by.