Intel’s White Box Laptop Will Hit Stores Under Smaller Brand Names

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Intel has a long history of making concept hardware and inviting vendors to build it: that’s where we get the term “ultrabook.” Its latest design is a bit more straightforward. The NUC M15 is in the same line as the Next Unit of Computing mini-PCs, and Intel’s going to farm the design out to boutique manufacturers to customize and resell.

The NUC M15 is a 15-inch, mid-range laptop, packed with 11th-gen Core i5 or i7 processors and rocking Intel’s well-received Xe integrated graphics. Vendors can use either 8GB or 16GB of soldered RAM, plus a wide variety of off-the-shelf M.2 SSDs for storage. The screen is 1080p, with touchscreen or without (again, it’s up to the vendor), with a claimed 16-hour battery life.

The laptop looks a little nondescript, which is kind of the point, but it’s using the minimalist body design that’s become so popular in the last decade. It’s packing two USB-C and two USB-A ports, HDMI, and a headphone jack—a pretty decent spread, with charging on either side—and Windows Hello IR sensors on the webcam. It also has Amazon Alexa built in, with a unique light-up LED bar to indicate when it’s active.

Exactly when and where you’ll be able to buy one isn’t clear, but Intel is specifically tailoring the design to smaller companies, so don’t expect to see a version from Acer or Lenovo. Customizations to the M15 design will determine its final price, but Intel expects them to sell for between $1,000 and $1,500 when they’re ready.

Source: The Verge