Pentium-M vs. Celeron-M

For a new laptop shopper, it is easy to get confused between the Pentium-M and Celeron-M processors. This article attempts to explain in simple terms the differences between the Pentium-M and the Celeron-M processors.

The Pentium-M is Intel's premium mobile processor. It has advanced power conserving circuitry known as Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology. If the processor becomes idle for a period of time, the Pentium-M will kick into either a sleep mode or a deep sleep mode. These modes save additional wattage and let your laptop run longer off its batteries. Even while you are working, the Pentium-M can reduce power if you are not doing any intensive processing tasks. In addition to the power saving feature, the Pentium-M also sports a large L2 cache (1MB or 2MB depending on the version) for improved performance.

The Celeron-M is basically a low cost version of the Pentium-M. In order to make it cheaper, the Celeron-M does not have the Enhanced Speedstep technology. The Celeron-M also does not have as large an L2 cache (512K or 1MB depending on the version) as the Pentium-M.

So what kind of mobile processor in a laptop is right for you? It is really a matter of how important battery life is to you. With the Pentium-M, you can gain about an extra hour out of your battery over the Celeron-M. If you plan on using your laptop for business where you might need to do a lot of traveling, it makes better sense to go with the Pentium-M. If you are going to use the laptop for home use with some light travel, then the Celeron-M is a better choice. As far as performance goes, the Pentium-M is a bit faster, although most of the time you wouldn't notice the difference.

If you decide to go with a Celeron-M, be careful when shopping. Some of the older Celeron laptops use a different mobile Celeron processor while some even use the desktop version. These versions do not offer the same amount of extended battery life savings or performance as the Celeron-M. The "M" is crucial so make sure you see "Celeron M" in the specifications.