This will be the new 10th gen Intel Core sticker on the next generation of Ultrabooks
Athena-certified laptops in particular will be the first to ship with this identifier to differentiate them from standard Ultrabooks. Intel will be pushing for a new category of Ultrabooks sporting 10th gen Core CPUs, Thunderbolt 3, Wi-Fi 6, and very long battery life as the bare minimum.
Intel introduced "Project Athena" at Computex 2019 which it hopes will usher in a series of super-premium Ultrabooks that must follow a set of strict hardware guidelines related to performance, battery life, size, connectivity, and more. An Athena-certified laptop would come equipped with all these features as detailed by our Athena overview here.
So, how can users identify an Athena laptop from a non-Athena laptop? Intel is two steps ahead in this regard as it has already developed a special sticker created specifically for Athena devices. This identifier will likely be printed onto product boxes, displayed on product web pages, and appear on laptop palm rests as physical stickers next to the familiar 'Intel Core' stickers. Athena laptops will carry advantages not found on "regular" Ultrabooks and so it's important to make it easy for shoppers to identify which is which before purchasing.
The first Athena-certified laptop is expected to be the Dell XPS 13 7390 2-in-1 starting at $980 USD. Laptops with Intel 10th gen areshould begin shipping in the next few weeks with more likely to be announced at IFA 2019 next month.
Allen Ngo - Lead Editor U.S. - 5192 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2011
After graduating with a B.S. in environmental hydrodynamics from the University of California, I studied reactor physics to become licensed by the U.S. NRC to operate nuclear reactors. There's a striking level of appreciation you gain for everyday consumer electronics after working with modern nuclear reactivity systems astonishingly powered by computers from the 80s. When I'm not managing day-to-day activities and US review articles on Notebookcheck, you can catch me following the eSports scene and the latest gaming news.