These laptops are currently available in South Africa

2nd Generation and 3rd Generation i3 Laptops

Ivy Bridge CPUs (3rd gen) have on average 6% more processing power than Sandy Bridge CPUs (2nd gen). They also use a little less electricity. The i3 is a dual core processor. The i3 has Hyper-threading.

i5 laptops

The i5 Core processors for laptops are faster than the i3 and have a Turbo Mode which will overclock the processor when extra power is needed and then will go back on its own. It also has more cache and uses less electricity. i5 Processors have 2 cores. The i5 has Hyper-threading.

i7 and i7 Extreme laptops

The i7 Core processors for laptops are faster than the i3 or i5. The i7 has 2 or 4 cores. They also have a Turbo Mode. Turbo Mode will overclock the processor when extra power is needed. It also has more cache than the i5. The i7 offers the best performance compared the i3 and i5. The i7 has Hyper-threading.

Intel HD 4000 and Intel HD 3000 graphics

The main difference is the new Intel HD 4000 which is on average around 35% - 40% more powerful than the older Intel HD 3000.
However, the power is far less than a desktop computer.