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Intel Core i5-1235U
The volume 12th-gen ultrabook processor, found in countless sub-$700 laptops. Two P-cores and eight E-cores cover office work and browsing comfortably, but it was never built for rendering, compiling or sustained multi-core loads.
Pros
- Cheap, everywhere, and fine for office and web work
- Ten cores handle heavy multitasking better than old quad-cores
- Low 15W base power suits thin chassis
- Supports DDR5, LPDDR5 and LPDDR4X
Cons
- Weakest multi-core showing of the 12th-gen mobile line
- 80-EU iGPU is entry level
- Sustained clocks drop quickly in thin laptops
Below average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the Intel Core i5-1235U
General
- Announced
- 2022
- Process
- 10 nm
- Base TDP
- 15 W
- Max TDP
- 55 W
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 10
- Performance cores
- 2
- Efficiency cores
- 8
- Threads
- 12
- Base clock
- 1.3 GHz
- Boost clock
- 4.4 GHz
- L3 cache
- 12 MB
Integrated GPU
- iGPU
- Intel Iris Xe (80 EU)
- iGPU clock
- 1,200 MHz
Memory
- Memory support
- LPDDR5-5200 / DDR5-4800 / LPDDR4X-4267
- Max memory
- 64 GB
Benchmarks
- Geekbench 6 (single)
- 2,000Bottom 21%
- Geekbench 6 (multi)
- 6,100Bottom 14%
- Cinebench R23 (single)
- 1,520Bottom 34%
- Cinebench R23 (multi)
- 6,200Bottom 18%
- PassMark
- 12,415Bottom 23%
- 3DMark Time Spy Graphics (iGPU)
- 1,175Bottom 45%
Quick answers
Is the Intel Core i5-1235U good in 2026?
The Intel Core i5-1235U earns an Inno Score of 46.9/100 (“Below average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. The volume 12th-gen ultrabook processor, found in countless sub-$700 laptops. Two P-cores and eight E-cores cover office work and browsing comfortably, but it was never built for rendering, compiling or sustained multi-core loads.
Does the Intel Core i5-1235U count as "Core i7 or equivalent"?
Its PassMark CPU Mark average is 12,415 (cpubenchmark.net, retrieved Sep 26, 2026), which puts it in Tier C of our CPU tier checker: older or low-power Core i7, and many recent Core i5 chips. Requirement pages word this differently, so check the exact wording with your department.
What are the key specs of the Intel Core i5-1235U?
Cores: 10 · Threads: 12 · Boost clock: 4.4 GHz · Base TDP: 15 W
What are the closest alternatives to the Intel Core i5-1235U?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, Apple M1 (8-core), Intel Core i7-11800H — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.
