The best cheap laptops will get even better if new Alder Lake benchmarks are real

Chromebook lifestyle shot
(Image credit: Asus)

Intel's Alder Lake lineup continues to impress, and the latest benchmark to pop up online should make Chromebook and Windows 11 S-mode laptop fans very excited.

A new benchmark for the Intel Celeron G6900, a dual-core Alder Lake chip that is on the very entry-level end of the processor generation, recently turned up in the GeekBench database

The results of a Geekbench 5 benchmark for the Intel Celeron G6900

(Image credit: Geekbench)

The results state that the entry-level chip scored a 1,403 in single-core performance and 2,577 in Geekbench 5's multi-core tests. While the multi-core score isn't about to break any records, the single core performance is especially impressive.

According to Wccftech, this puts the G6900 ahead of the Intel Core i9-10900K in terms of single-core performance, and we can confirm that this beats out the single-core performance of the Intel Core i9-10980HK, which we've seen in a lot of high end gaming laptops and mobile creative workstations as recently as the middle of last year. 

It even tops the Ryzen 7 5800H and comes within striking distance of the Ryzen 9 5900HS in Geekbench 5's single-core tests.

As a dual-core processor, the G6900 gets absolutely blown away in multi-core performance across the board, obviously. But single-core performance like this would mean that individual apps on their own should run very well on this processor.

Of course, the Intel Celeron G6900 isn't available yet, and there is a lot that could change, so a benchmark like this needs to be treated with some skepticism. We hope it's legit though, since we'd love to see some power in the budget space.


Analysis: budget laptops are going to see the biggest benefit

While the multi-core score of the Intel Celeron G6900 isn't all that hot, the single core performance should make individual apps like Chrome run especially well. 

This will definitely help with day-to-day, general computing performance that is the bread and butter of cheaper Chromebooks and Windows 11 S-mode laptops.

And since this is an entry-level chip, we can definitely expect to see it popping up in some of the best cheap laptops this year, which is something we love to see. 

Budget products usually have to make some big sacrifices to get the price down, and while a Celeron chip will never be able to hold a candle to a Core i9 of the same generation, seeing a huge step up in performance on the budget-end of the computing market is something to celebrate.

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John Loeffler
Components Editor

John (He/Him) is the Components Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY.

Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.

You can find him online on Bluesky @johnloeffler.bsky.social