The Intel Core i7-8550U is part of the new 8th Generation Kaby Lake Refresh and it’s a direct successor to the Intel Core i7-7500U from the Kaby Lake generation and the Intel Core i7-6500U from the 6th Skylake generation. With the latest alteration to the ULV (ultra-low voltage) processors, Intel doubles the core count from 2 to 4 and retaining the so-called Hyper-Threading technology, keeping the same 14nm manufacturing process and feature the same 15W TDP.
However, due to the core count change, the base frequency of the Core i7-8550U is lowered to only 1.8 GHz while Turbo Boost frequencies remain pretty high – somewhere between 3.7 – 4.0 GHz. This ensures considerably higher multi-core and single-core performance during short workloads before going back to more bearable frequencies considering the 15W TDP but most of the other specs and features remain the same.
The chip also incorporates a newer Intel Gen 9.5 integrated graphics called Intel UHD Graphics 620. The support for Google’s VP9 codec and H.265/HEVC Main 10 is still the most notable feature of the iGPU. Intel claims that the new UHD 620 chips improve the overall power consumption compared to the previous one.
Check the prices of all notebooks equipped with Core i7-8550U: Buy from Amazon.com
Intel Core i7-8550U - Specs Sheet
Intel Core i7-8550U - benchmark tests
Results are from the Cinebench 11 CPU test (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz test (higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (lower the score, the better)
We’ve tested Intel Core i7-8550U on…
| # | Laptop | Cinebench 11 | Cinebench 15 | Adobe Photoshop | Fritz | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | LaptopMedia KBL-R | 5.40 | 488.00 | 10.50 | 9876.00 | N/A |
| 2. | Dell Inspiron 7570 | 7.56 | 672.00 | 9.75 | 12765.00 | N/A |
| 3. | Dell Inspiron 5570 | 7.29 | 640.00 | 9.95 | 12415.00 | N/A |
| 4. | Dell Inspiron 7773 | 7.53 | 683.00 | 9.95 | 12939.00 | $1277.08 |
| 5. | Dell Inspiron 5770 | 7.22 | 635.00 | 9.96 | 12175.00 | $998.76 |
| 6. | Dell XPS 13 9360 | 6.12 | 544.00 | 10.47 | 10675.00 | N/A |
| 7. | Acer Aspire 5 (A517-51G) | 5.78 | 509.00 | 11.01 | 10128.00 | N/A |
| 8. | Dell Inspiron 15 5579 | 7.45 | 643.00 | 10.01 | 12385.00 | $980.99 |
| 9. | Dell Inspiron 5379 | 7.11 | 632.00 | 11.63 | 12192.00 | $797.00 |
| 10. | Lenovo ThinkPad E480 | 0.00 | 517.00 | 10.23 | 10321.00 | N/A |
| 11. | ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 (UX461) | 7.02 | 637.00 | 10.01 | 12182.00 | $1289.00 |
| 12. | ASUS VivoBook S15 (S510) | 8.74 | 774.00 | 9.85 | 14455.00 | N/A |
| 13. | Acer Swift 5 (SF514-52) | 5.43 | 473.00 | 9.41 | 9087.00 | N/A |
| 14. | ASUS VivoBook Pro 17 N705 | 7.46 | 686.00 | 10.35 | 13074.00 | N/A |
| 15. | Acer Spin 5 (SP513-52) | 5.81 | 508.00 | 11.20 | 7766.00 | $1029.99 |
| 16. | Dell XPS 13 9370 | 8.03 | 718.00 | 8.81 | 13560.00 | N/A |
| 17. | ASUS ZenBook UX430 | 7.26 | 651.00 | 8.95 | 10978.00 | N/A |
| 18. | Lenovo V330 (15") | 6.39 | 579.00 | 9.58 | 11292.00 | N/A |
| 19. | HP ProBook 450 G5 | 6.47 | 569.00 | 10.59 | 10845.00 | N/A |
| 20. | Acer Aspire 5 (A515-51) | 5.81 | 511.00 | 10.95 | 10558.00 | N/A |
| 21. | ASUS ZenBook Flip 15 (UX561UD) | 8.30 | 742.00 | 9.87 | 14001.00 | N/A |
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