Ultra-compact Japanese laptop arrives with 12-core CPU and 10.5-inch display

Ultra-micro PC enthusiasts who also have a knack for Japanese brands will likely have heard of Tenku's offerings. The well-known brand is a specialist in ultra-compact laptops, such as the 10.51-inch Note Pro.

It appears that the brand has now introduced an updated variant of the laptop powered by an Intel Core Ultra 5 125U CPU. The laptop continues to feature an extremely compact 10.51-inch form factor, which will be incredibly useful for on-site engineers, field technicians and portability enthusiasts in general.

Meteor Lake-powered 10.5-inch ultra-compact laptop with upgradeable storage

The mid-range "Meteor Lake" chip powering the Note Pro AI sports a 12-core setup consisting of two performance cores, eight efficiency cores, and two more low-power efficiency cores. This laptop can be equipped with up to 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, which is only half as much as its predecessor's peak capacity.

According to raw benchmarks, the 15 W Core Ultra 5 chip should be able to keep up with an AMD Ryzen 5 8540U APU, while maintaining a roughly 15% lead over the newer Ryzen AI 5 430 Gorgon Point APU found in many affordable laptops.

The aforementioned 10.51-inch IPS display features a resolution of 1920 by 1280, which is pretty decent for its screen size, allowing for a pixel density of around 219 PPI. 10-point touch input is also present, featuring stylus support with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. The I/O on offer is quite scarce, and has been detailed below:

• Dual USB 3.1 Type-C ports
• 3.5 mm headphone jack
• Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 

Like many other offerings in this segment, the laptop offers a 360° hinge for 2-in-1 functionality. The laptop features an aluminum build and weighs in at 960 g, with dimensions of 243 x 177.6 x 17.5 mm, or roughly 9.57 x 7 x 0.7 inches.

Other notable details of the laptop include an 8000 mAh battery, 512 GB of M.2 storage, USB-C ports with DisplayPort output and power delivery, a 21 TOPS NPU, and an M.2 2280 slot for storage.

The laptop is already available for purchase on several online Japanese platforms, including Amazon, where the laptop is priced at ¥150,280, or roughly $953. This variant comes equipped with the aforementioned Core Ultra 5 chip, 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a 512 GB M.2 SSD.

Given that Tenku's products are primarily targeted at the Japanese domestic market, a global launch is unlikely but not impossible. That said, customers can always opt to go the import route.

On the other hand, potential laptop buyers who would prefer a normal-sized 15-inch laptop can check out the ARM-powered IdeaPad Slim 5X laptop currently available for $818 on Lenovo