Our first hexa-core Core i7-10710U benchmarks are in and they handily outperform both the AMD Ryzen 7 3750H and Core i7-8565U - in most cases

As with most laptops running on ULV processors, however, the true story doesn't unravel until the CPU is subjected to prolonged stress in order to identify for any throttling behavior. When running CineBench R15 Multi-Thread in a loop on the XPS 13 7390, its Core i7-10710U CPU starts out strong at 1062 points before trending downwards as our graph above illustrates. A closer look at its clock rates and temperatures show a peak of 3.1 GHz and 97 C, respectively, during the first few minutes of the loop test. Thereafter, the CPU begins cycling between 1.7 GHz to 2.5 GHz and 64 C to 80 C. This roller-coaster-like behavior explains the shape of our CineBench loop test curve as well. Thus, while the Core i7-10710U sprints quickly out of the gate, it eventually slows and averages out to be just 8 to 10 percent faster than the Ryzen 7 3750H in raw multi-threaded performance. The AMD processor is better at maintaining consistent clock rates and thus more reliable performance over time when compared to Comet Lake-U.

Of course, other laptop manufacturers may implement the Core i7-10710U differently than Dell for potentially faster or slower performance results than what we've recorded here. We'll be reviewing more retail Comet Lake-U laptops in the coming months to paint a bigger picture of what Intel's first 15 W hexa-core U series CPU can offer.