Intel teased Project Athena at CES at the start of this year, then in May the company revealed what the program really hopes to achieve: super long battery life, fast charging and 5G all packaged neatly into ultra slim, lightweight devices. Intel unveiled the “Engineered for Mobile Performance” sticker. This tag will be affixed to newer laptops that meet the stringent requirements for Intel’s innovation initiative code-named Project Athena. Next-generation ultra-slims with the mark will wake instantly, provide a full workday of battery life and more.
Intel says the first product to have the new “visual identifier” will be the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, which is available now in the United States. It adds that the HP Elitebook 1040 and HP Elitebook 830 have also met the requirements and will feature the seal in marketing materials in “the coming weeks.” Along with Dell and HP offerings, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, and Samsung are expected to have qualifying laptops during the 2019 holiday season as well.
“Research suggests that consumers often rely on visual signals and retail displays to inform their buying decisions,” said Intel in its press release. “Testing of the identifier and its messaging showed that it grabbed people’s attention in stores and online and indicates how the laptops are the result of engineering collaborations specifically designed for on-the-go PC experiences.”
Laptops and PC tech often come covered in a variety of stickers and badges, and many of them are ignored by the consumer. Intel naturally hopes that the new visual identifier will help set Athena-compliant laptops apart from others, but at the very least it indicates that the project is successfully getting off the ground.
