Core Ultra 9 285H offers almost no benefits over the Core Ultra 7 255H

The Core Ultra 7 255H and Core Ultra 9 285H are some of Intel's fastest H-series CPUs in the mobile Arrow Lake lineup. In reality, however, both CPUs are only a few hundred MHz apart which shouldn't translate to much of a performance delta between the two SKUs. Now that we've tested at least two dozen individual laptops sporting the CPUs, we can safely show that opting for the Core Ultra 9 285H would hardly be worth the extra investment in most cases.

The comparison graph below shows that the average laptop with the Core Ultra 9 285H is only 6 percent faster than the average laptop with the Core Ultra 9 255H. The gap is so narrow that there are a handful of cases where laptops with the Core Ultra 7 can outperform those with the Core Ultra 9 such as the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9 16IAH G10 versus the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo. This suggests that the size and cooling solution of the laptop play a greater role in performance than the names of the processor in this particular comparison.

Unfortunately, while opting for the Core Ultra 7 255H is an obvious solution for the vast majority of buyers, it may not always be the easiest. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9 16 G10, for example, is largely only available with the Core Ultra 9 CPU in the US and so it can sometimes be difficult to find less expensive Core Ultra 7 configurations depending on the model or region. These laptops subsequently cost more than they should be for relatively poor performance-per-dollar.