Intel Reference Platform: 4.5W thermal design power. BIOS: v80.1, Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics (driver v. 15.36.3650), Memory: 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) dual channel LPDDR3-1600, SDD: Intel 160 GB, OS: Windows* 8.1 Update RTM. System power management policy: DC Balanced for battery life measurements, AC Balanced for performance measurements. Wireless: On and connected. Battery size assumption: 35WHr.
4.5W Core M performs same as 6W Core i7 4610Y. Heck its not even 50% advantage perf/watt. Either (a) 14nm is worse than Intel is claiming (b) Charlie is right about Intel crippling Broadwell to get it out in time
How much do you expect? 10%? 20%? That's going to be easily eclipsed by ARM SoCs at 16nm. I highly doubt Skylake is the "next big thing" when they are putting Broadwell-K and Skylake-S at the same time.
It's been quite a while when Intel moved from underpromising to overdelivering to the opposite - overpromising and underdelivering. I think the last hoopla before Core M was the OCability and heat generation for the 4790K. Oh wait, its actually the illusion that Core M devices will end up overall cheaper, with claims of high-end devices like the Asus Chi starting at $799.