The Intel Core i7-8650U SoC looks great on paper, and it’s certainly quite a bit faster in multi-core operations than its 7th-generation predecessors (as shown in the table below, where our current machine beats the T470s in Cinebench R15 multi-CPU by some 58%). But is it really worth the upgrade over the Core i7-8550U?

Oddly enough, today’s test unit—even after updating to the latest BIOS, tweaking power settings, and plenty of other preparatory measures—consistently scored below the previous T480 review unit we evaluated. This is quite obviously a firmware limitation, and it could probably be resolved via some power tweaking with specialized utilities (possibly in peril of warranty voidance), but it shouldn’t have to be. Unfortunately, as a result, our Core i5-8250U T480s review unit which we tested last week actually scored above today’s larger T480—much higher; some 23%—which suggests that those in search of raw performance should actually opt for the T480s instead (since it also beats the previous T480 and all other units in today’s comparison field).

In spite of this disappointment, today’s T480 actually isn’t too far off the category average for the i7-8650U. The 580 points we received as an initial result in Cinebench R15 multi-CPU is around 6% below the current average of 612 for that CPU, and only 7% below the Dell Latitude 7490. Moreover, in the Cinebench loop test, the first result was actually an even higher 604 (before later dropping permanently in the second and all subsequent runs to the 558 – 569 range). What this means is that, in general, performance is actually not too far below what we’d expect to see for a machine equipped as such—and it’s still well above what we saw from the 7th-generation Intel chipsets (T470 et al). But regardless, given the results we saw from the less expensive i7-8550U setup, we can’t really recommend springing for the i7-8650U unless a corrective firmware build rolls out to address the discrepancy.