Silicon wafer sizes aren't what you think, and those impossibly small "3nm" and "2nm" chips you keep hearing about? They're more marketing label than measurement.

The latest predictions by the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC), recently broken down by YouTuber TechTechPotato, presents the current timeline for TSMC's 2nm chipsets, as well as Intel Foundry's 18A and 14A process technologies, with A14 (1.4nm) chips expected in 2027 and A10 (1nm) process nodes expected in 2029. IMEC's predictions even highlight the possibility of producing 0.2mm silicon as early as 2039.

In reality, those numbers differ wildly from the physical, measurable transistors on a chip, and we may need to wait until the late 2030s before we even manage to break the 10nm barrier. Here's why.

Silicon wafers aren't as small as the 2nm size would make you think

The current 2-nanometer and 1.8nm silicon technologies in development by TSMC and Intel aren't made on wafers that are 2nm in thickness.

2nm is also not the distance between two transistors on the wafer.

Chip manufacturers tend to refer to silicon wafers based on the minimum feature size achievable on the wafer surface during fabrication. Right now, that size usually refers to the name of the process node rather than any physical feature of the chip.

In fact, since about 1997, silicon process node names have been inaccurate. Intel's 250nm process node actually had a gate length of 200nm. Intel continued this process understatement until 2011, when silicon process nodes dropped to 22nm, with an actual gate length of 26nm.

TSMC and Samsung also adopted the "perception marketing" for silicon in 2018 with the 7nm process nodes, which were similar in gate length to Intel's 10nm silicon.

And the confusion has only continued to spiral from there.

However, if you're looking for a hard physical measurement size for the current 3-nanometer chips, they have a gate length of 16-18nm and a metal pitch of about 23nm.

So, regardless of the current 2nm and 3nm talk, we likely won't see "true" 10-nanometer silicon until IMEC's predicted sub-A2 chipset generation in 2039.

Wafer size and Moore's Law go hand-in-hand

As a quick refresher, Moore's Law is an observation in microchip design, positing that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles roughly every two years. As silicon wafers get smaller, so do transistors, but eventually all things must bow to the laws of physics.

Contrary to its name, Moore's Law isn't an actual Law, but rather an observation in microchip design. Eventually, semiconductors can only get so small before circuit heat becomes a real design issue.

Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, has been against the idea of continuing the Moore's Law trend largely due to the higher thermal constraints of discrete graphics cards, while CPUs like Intel's Lunar Lake chipset have more room to grow (or shrink, in this case).

But with this reminder from IMEC about the true size of silicon wafers, and the expected improvement in chip interconnect architecture and transistor technology, Moore's Law seems far from unrealistic. Whether the trend will continue past the next decade, we can't say for sure, but it looks achievable based on current projections.

That said, the potential number of transistors on those sub-A2 (10nm Lg) chipsets is staggering. The current Intel Core Ultra 9 285K has about 18 billion transistors, meaning the sub-A2 chipsets could have around 300 billion transistors in 2039.

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Intel's 2025 to early 2026 chip generation will include the Panther Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh architectures, while the 2026-2027 generation will feature Intel's Nova Lake architecture.

So far, we know that Nova Lake will appear on Intel's S-series desktop chipsets, with rumors of laptop variants (for the H and U suffix variants) circulating as well.

But we now have confirmation that Intel's Nova Lake will also get an HX high-performance laptop variant, which is ideal for gaming laptops and mobile workstations.

And it's all thanks to shipping manifests.

On Sunday, a well-known tech leaker, x86 is dead&back, posted shipping manifests from May 23, 2025, that indicate Nova Lake's HX variant is in testing for high-performance laptops, utilizing the same motherboard socket as 2025's upcoming Panther Lake chipset.

Nova Lake -HX just makes sense

This shipping manifest leak is the first we've heard of a Nova Lake -HX series, but if anything, it's the most logical laptop variant for the architecture.

Intel frequently releases a variant of its desktop architecture for high-performance laptops.

It's not always the case, but more often than not, the desktop architecture will have a laptop version, at least for gaming laptops and mobile workstations that require the increased power of a desktop-class CPU.

While this is news, it's not exactly a surprise.

But it is welcome regardless. According to the latest rumors, Intel's Nova Lake architecture features up to 52 cores and will include a dual-architecture GPU tile, which may render discrete graphics obsolete.

Nova Lake -H is still rumored

Some years, Intel offers an -H suffix variant of its desktop architecture for high-performance, light, and thin laptops. And we also get a -U suffix version for more power-efficient laptop models.

Other years, the -H and -U suffix chips are running a laptop-specific architecture, like in the Meteor Lake and Panther Lake generations.

The 2024-2025 Intel generation was a bit unusual as we also threw in the Lunar Lake 200V series chips, but that appears to be a situation Intel won't be keeping up in the future.

There have been rumors of -H and -U versions of Intel Nova Lake, although those mobile variants may ultimately be served by a mobile architecture instead.

What this means for Intel's upcoming chip roadmap

Intel is still on track to release the Panther Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh generations starting this fall, with laptops likely to hit the shelves in early 2026. However, some early laptops may arrive in late fall.

Intel's 2026 generation is also still on track, with Nova Lake expected to release on desktop in fall 2026, with the rumored laptop variants likely launching in early 2027.

Intel's Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake chips are expected to be the first using its 18A fabrication process, with Nova Lake bringing the 18A process to desktops in 2026.

While we still don't have a concrete idea of Intel's 18A performance, new details indicate Intel's 18A is 25% faster than Intel 3. Unfortunately, the Intel 3 node is primarily used for Xeon data-center CPUs, so it isn't the best baseline for consumer performance.

However, it is a positive sign that Team Blue is continuing to make progress in power and performance.

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We know that Intel's upcoming chip generation will include the Panther Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh architectures.

Panther Lake will be for thin and light laptops and possibly some gaming handhelds, while Arrow Lake Refresh will hit desktops and high-performance gaming and workstation laptops. While not yet officially confirmed, these architectures are expected to go to market as the Intel Core Ultra 300 generation.

But what about the next generation after that?

Considering what we know of Intel's development roadmap, the expected Core Ultra 400 chips are being worked on under the codename Nova Lake.

But what do we know about Intel's ambitious 2026 chipset so far? Let's take a look.

Intel Nova Lake: Release date

Nova Lake is the codename for Intel's next major CPU architecture, following Arrow Lake Refresh and Panther Lake this year.

Based on Intel's usual timeline, we don't expect to see Nova Lake until 2026. It will likely be released sometime in the fall, and more details on the chipset will emerge in the summer and early fall of that year.

Intel Nova Lake: Architecture

Intel Nova Lake is an SoC (system-on-a-chip) style processor, with a CPU and GPU integrated into the tile. Intel will likely include an NPU on Nova Lake, as it did for Arrow Lake.

Nova Lake's CPU tile reportedly features up to 52 cores, comprised of Coyote Cove P (performance) cores and Arctic Wolf E (efficiency) cores.

Early details on Nova Lake's architecture imply the chipset will have a hybrid integrated GPU that combines Intel's Xe 3 and Xe 4 graphics architectures on the integrated graphics tile.

According to well-known Intel leaker Jaykihn, the Xe 3 architecture is expected to handle graphics rendering, while the Xe 4 section of the tile will be used for display and media operations.

This could offer stronger integrated graphics power to Nova Lake systems, potentially negating the need for a discrete GPU.

While Intel has made serious strides with its discrete Arc GPU business, the company has also made powerful claims about its integrated graphics performance, particularly on mobile platforms.

The split graphics architecture on Nova Lake could indicate a switch from discrete GPUs to integrated graphics, even on desktop. Though only time will tell.

Intel Nova Lake: Platforms

Nova Lake is currently expected to power desktops (-S suffix chipsets), though there are also rumors of a high-performance (-H suffix) laptop variant and potentially a more efficiency-focused (-U suffix) laptop version.

Desktop Nova Lake chipsets will likely be available immediately at launch, though it appears anyone looking to upgrade their PC with Nova Lake will also need to invest in a new motherboard. The chipset changes the socket type to LGA1954, which is different from the current Arrow Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh models.

Intel traditionally launches the desktop variant of an architecture first, so Nova Lake will likely launch on desktop in the fall, with laptops coming in early 2027.

Outlook

It's still early to know how Nova Lake will perform or to have too many confirmed details on the chipset's architecture. But we will be collating more information as it becomes available ahead of the SoC's launch.

In the meantime, Intel is expected to launch its Panther Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh chipsets later this year.

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Intel’s Arc GPU platform has finally taken off on desktop, at least in the budget and mid-range markets.

With the launch of the Arc Pro B50 and B60 workstation graphics cards at Computex last week, Intel's second generation of Arc GPUs is has officially arrived.

But there’s one massive market that still isn’t served by the Arc platform. And that’s laptops.

Sure, Intel has brought its B-series GPUs (codename: "Battlemage") to its integrated graphics tiles on the Core Ultra 200 series chipsets, but integrated GPUs can only take you so far when gaming, rendering designs in 3D, or parsing massive data sets.

So, why are there no Arc GPUs for laptops up for individual sale?

Intel is positioning those Intel Core Ultra 200H systems with integrated Arc 130-140T graphics units as "thin-and-light workstations" — essentially, entry-level workstations.

Intel's Roger Chandler told Laptop Mag at Computex, "probably a good 60% of the market are mobile workstations."

So, these entry-level workstations with integrated graphics are a huge focus for Intel.

"There's the [Core Ultra 200H] class platform for the thin and light [workstation], and that's where you have the really bigger built-in graphics, where we're seeing some surprise [from customers].

"It surprised a lot of people how [good] the performance is. It's literally more performance than a lot of [entry-level] discrete graphics."

OK — but how does Intel's integrated GPU really stack up against the iGPU competition?

Intel's iGPUs are best-in-class right now

Intel has stiff competition on the integrated graphics front.

AMD's Ryzen AI 300 series also has a powerful integrated graphics tile, but as far as raw computing power goes, Intel's integrated Arc chips on the Intel Core Ultra 200H and Intel Core Ultra 200V chipsets outperform AMD's Ryzen AI 9 HX 370.

However, AMD regains its performance lead with the Ryzen AI Max platform, which can use up to 97GB of system memory as VRAM. (AMD's Strix Halo is in a class of its own as far as x86 architecture goes.)

For traditional integrated GPUs, Intel isn't wrong to consider its Core Ultra 200H systems as capable of some workstation tasks and gaming, particularly if you're not doing a lot of heavy lifting. Gaming on medium settings at 1080p is entirely feasible, but it isn't the performance we expect from a gaming laptop.

On their own, Core Ultra 200H systems result in something of an entry-level device. Intel and its manufacturing partners still leverage the Core Ultra 200HX CPU alongside discrete Nvidia GPUs for high-end mobile workstations and gaming rigs.

But Intel's Chandler tells Laptop Mag that the company isn't seeing entry-level workstations doing the demanding work of traditional workstations anyway. He says users are using them for better productivity.

Chandler explains it this way: "I use a mobile workstation for my daily driver now, and it's like I'm not using [3D design software application] SolidWorks all day.

"But I'm one of those people who is a tab hoarder. I'll keep 78 tabs open on Chrome, and I've got 14 spreadsheets, and it's like, it started bogging down my old system.

"When I have a mobile workstation, I never have to close anything."

Chandler also says AI will improve performance as well.

"[AI] takes some of the sharp edges off some of these difficult workloads, which means they're more accessible."

All of which is to say, you can get away with just an integrated GPU instead of a more powerful discrete graphics card for a lot of tasks that were considered "workstation-class" just a few years ago.

"Workstations are this whole category of product that is kind of entering this Renaissance," Chandler says.

The Laptop POV: Expanding to discrete mobile graphics cards would still be a good idea for Intel

While it's too late in the Intel Arc B-series to expect a mobile variant, we expect Intel to launch its C-series graphics cards (codenamed "Celestial") later this year or early next year.

But there is still hope for future generations of Arc GPUs to hit the mobile side.

When asked during a press briefing about why Intel hadn't expanded the full Arc discrete GPU platform to laptops yet, Intel rep Qi Lin responded, "that's something we need to continue to work on."

There are already rumors that Nvidia's next generation of graphics cards won't be optimized for gaming, as the company pivots harder toward AI and data center applications of its GPUs. While that's just speculation, the rocky launch of the RTX 50-series does lend some credence to the idea that there will be fewer and fewer Nvidia GeForce cards available in future generations.

Which leaves the laptop GPU market wide open.

After all, for the last several years, basically every gaming laptop and mobile workstation has featured a discrete Nvidia GPU.

AMD hasn't produced a mobile discrete GPU since the Radeon RX 7000 series in early 2023. While AMD could be working on a Radeon 9000 series GPU for laptops, we haven't heard even the glimmer of a rumor around a new laptop GPU from Team Red.

So if Intel can expand the Arc discrete graphics platform to laptops in the next few years, we could see a major upset in the laptop market. But only time will tell.

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Computex 2025 was a rather quiet show this year, and no company was quite as quiet as Intel.

We didn’t get a keynote or a press conference from Team Blue, but that doesn’t mean the company was entirely silent.

In small press demos, Intel showcased its new flagship Arc Pro B50 and B60 GPUs and walked folks through the recent improvements to the Arrow Lake lineup.

For the company’s upcoming 18A flagship CPU, Panther Lake did appear in two demos on test rigs. While we still haven’t had a deep dive into Panther Lake, here’s what we know so far.

Intel Panther Lake: Features

Intel’s Panther Lake chipset is expected to enter production this fall with a full consumer-ready launch beginning in early 2026. Panther Lake is a chipset built for mobile platforms and will likely hit the shelves as the Intel Core Ultra 300 series with the classic H and U suffixes.

Panther Lake is the first commercial chip to be made with Intel's 18A (1.8nm) foundry process, and will thus be the company's first chipset made on a two-nanometer-class process node.

Intel’s Core Ultra 200V Lunar Lake series was a “one-off” in that the suffix won’t be reused in the 300 series. But that doesn't mean the chipset is entirely done. Intel sees Panther Lake as a "best of both worlds" solution, with the power efficiency of Lunar Lake and the performance of Arrow Lake H.

Intel is also updating its Arc integrated graphics platform to fit on the Panther Lake SoC (system-on-a-chip), offering enhanced 3D rendering and AI performance.

Intel expects Panther Lake chipsets to power consumer laptops, gaming hardware (including potential gaming handhelds), and commercial laptops, from standard business productivity devices to workstations.

Intel Panther Lake: Demos

As the Panther Lake chipset is still not in full production, Intel was showcasing the new silicon in reference validation platforms and prototype dev kits used in Intel's internal test labs.

Intel's demo team tasked Panther Lake with automatic AI masking in DaVinci Resolve, and the color changes and text implementation were done near instantaneously.

Intel also demonstrated Panther Lake's LLM power with Qwen 2.5, tasking the AI with creating a Python program. Panther Lake's AI accelerators kicked back an instant token, essentially doing the work of weeks (or months) in a heartbeat.

Intel's final Panther Lake demo was again an AI task, this time using Topaz Labs' photo upscaling to increase the pixel count and balance the colors of a photo simultaneously.

But don't just take my word for it. Intel published a walkthrough of all three Panther Lake demos to YouTube.

Since Intel makes chips and not end-user devices, the performance seen in the demos may not be entirely indicative of what we get from laptop manufacturers.

But the demos are incredibly compelling, even if performance is likely to vary across different slices of the chipset and different OEM configurations.

When can we expect to see systems with the chip?

Panther Lake is on track for production in the second half of this year, with a full consumer launch expected in early 2026.

If any early Panther Lake systems do end up hitting the market, I wouldn't expect to see them until at least October.

Lunar Lake launched in early September last year, but Arrow Lake H didn't come in until February, so Panther Lake is likely to come somewhere between those two timeframes.

We'll likely get more details on Panther Lake over the summer, if not at a full press conference, as part of an Intel Tech Tour. The initial launch could come any time between September and December 2025, with broader availability coming between January and March.

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On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social network to condemn Apple’s practices of offshoring jobs to China to manufacture the iPhone and other products in its device lineup.

After threatening an individual tariff of 25% on all Apple products, some analysts are already putting in predictions for how the President’s proposed rate could affect Cupertino’s supply chain, and ultimately what the company would need to charge for products like the iPhone, MacBooks, and more if those threats are made real.

Trump threatens a 25% hike on Apple products

For starters, here is some context on what it looks like when a country tries to apply individual tariffs to companies or sectors attempting to reshore.

What Trump is suggesting, at least broadly, wouldn’t be the first time a government has applied tariffs to a single corporation.

Throughout history, the U.S. has placed tariffs on everything from Chinese-made solar panels to Canadian lumber to protect and ensure the growth trajectory of domestic competitors.

However it is the first time a president has threatened a domestic U.S. company with tariffs for goods it produces overseas.

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Friday morning.

“If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.”

The fact that no one has ever tried to do something like this before acknowledges just how unprecedented Trump’s threats are.

Some economists say it is damaging to the U.S. consumer and stock market.

As Apple produces nearly 90% of its entire product stack from within China’s borders, this clearly presents a problem for the company.

In February of this year, Tim Cook made loose promises that Apple plans to restore over $500 billion worth of manufacturing to the US over the next four years.

This timeline feels suspiciously convenient on its own, but Trump has decided to put even more pressure on Cupertino to bring jobs back home nonetheless.

What are analysts saying about next steps?

Ahead of Trump’s latest amendment to global trade policy, Dan Ives, global lead of technology research at financial services firm Wedbush Securities, told CNN in April that bringing iPhone manufacturing back to the U.S. wasn’t much more than “a fictional tale.”

“You build that (supply chain) in the U.S. with a fab in West Virginia and New Jersey. They’ll be $3,500 iPhones,” he said.

Ives also addressed the sheer logistical nightmare, saying it would take more than three years and $30 billion just to get 10% of the supply chain back to US shores.

Whether a tariff or the cost of reshoring is applied, the end result is a more expensive iPhone, MacBook, iMac, or Vision Pro for you or someone in your family going forward.

Would you even want a U.S.-made iPhone?

If there’s one tech story that points to the potential pitfalls of Trump’s overall strategy for the U.S. tech industry, it’s Intel.

Over the past half decade, the company has lost almost 65% of its total value, a decrease driven by AMD’s surprise chiplet attack, which threw one of America’s most stable blue chip stocks into abrupt, and up to now seemingly unending, chaos.

AMD had spent the better part of its history trailing Intel in sales, innovation, performance, and reliability. However, the company’s growing partnership with Taiwan’s chip fab specialists, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, created a new attack point.

One where the engineering, programming, and design of a chip could be handled stateside, while TSMC would shoulder the actual chip fabrication.

A split set of duties allows companies like AMD or Nvidia to offshore many of the dirtier, more heavily regulated parts of producing chips to other regions, while hiring talent willing to work in buildings not attached to silicon manufacturing floors in the United States.

Meanwhile, Intel continued to expand domestic fabrication in places like Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, and others for years before the CHIPS Act was even a thing.

Famously, the company stumbled significantly from the 10nm to 7nm production process (to the tune of billions of dollars). AMD eventually seized its opportunity to close the gap between the two chipmakers.

Everyone else is doing it, so why can’t Apple?

AMD’s model isn’t unique, of course. Nvidia, Apple, and even a modernized Intel all have to rely heavily, if not entirely, on Taiwan and TSMC to manufacture a significant portion of the chips backed by their engineering and design efforts.

Designing a product in the U.S. and manufacturing it abroad has become a core component of the NAFTA-driven economic model since Clinton first passed the bill in the 90s. As such, it’s almost strange for Apple to be singled out the way it has been, considering how many of its direct competitors do the exact same thing.

In all likelihood, Trump, who famously said “everything’s computer," is no expert on technology trade. This lack of awareness likely allows underdogs like AMD, and even more confusing tech prospects like Nvidia, to fly under the 78-year-old’s radar in what’s become the status quo for any Silicon Valley company that wants to keep the lights on these days.

Currently, the only company seemingly capable of usurping Apple’s claim to the number one most valuable company is Nvidia, another tech giant that’s doing the exact same thing Trump claims to be against.

However, one thing Apple doesn’t have that Nvidia does is the backing of everyone around them. What’s suitable for Nvidia is good for the world (or the U.S.). So even rivals like Meta, Tesla, and Amazon still line up next to one another to sing the hardware maker’s praises.

At the same time, they also commit to a competing AI arms race of biblical proportions against each other.

Whether Apple’s 25% tariff is real, enforceable, or something Trump will even care about next week is likely a whim left to the courts and whatever Fox News complained about last night.

But if the company does get stuck with a new sticker price, it could face even fiercer competition from rivals like Samsung and lose shares to domestic winners like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia, which are just as complicit in offshoring US manufacturing as Apple but still somehow manage to escape Trump’s ire.

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Intel has historically downplayed its external Foundry customers, but on Tuesday, CFO David Zinsner gave us some insight into why Intel remains silent on its biggest clients.

During a conversation at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media, and Communications conference in Boston, Zinsner confirmed that Intel doesn't have a significant volume of external chips. At least on the 18A process node. Zinsner implied Intel will have more customers for its future 14A process node.

"We have the traditional pipeline modeling, we have a bunch of potential customers, and then we get test chips, and then some customers fall out of the test chips. And there's a certain amount of customers that hang in there. So committed volume is not significant right now," Zinsner said.

Zinsner has been at Intel since 2022 and was at Micron before that. Before Lip-Bu Tan took over as CEO in March, Zinsner served as co-CEO with fellow Intel executive MJ Johnston Holthaus after Pat Gelsinger stepped down as CEO in December 2024.

Intel Foundry is currently working on the 18A and 14A production pipelines for chips in the 2 nm-and-under range, these processes will be used for Intel's own chips. The first, codenamed Panther Lake, will arrive later this year, Zinsner confirmed.

"We always expected that the predominant amount of volume of 18A was going to be internal to us, and we would win customers here or there that would fill in the gaps." However, Intel will be looking for a higher volume of external sales for 14A.

So, while Intel may not be making many chips for outside customers right now, a recent report from SemiAccurate indicates that could change soon.

Let's take a closer look at what could be in store for Intel's chip foundry business.

Intel Foundry's existing customers

So far, a few big names have been reported as Intel Foundry clients.

Reuters and SemiAccurate have previously reported that Broadcom and Nvidia are Intel Foundry customers, and Taiwan Semiconductor could potentially pitch a change to Intel to its longtime customers. According to that same Reuters report, TSMC also pitched Intel Foundry to AMD, but there has been no further news on that front.

Reuters has also reported on a deal between Intel Foundry and Amazon to make a custom chip.

One of the few official confirmed partners with Intel Foundry is Microsoft, which announced a partnership with Intel Foundry in February of last year.

While not all of these rumors and deals have been confirmed, they do indicate a potential shift in the silicon production market, which lends some credence to SemiAccurate's most recent report on Intel Foundry.

This new report, published on Monday, implies that Apple might be the newest Foundry customer as TSMC, Apple's current production partner, is capacity-bound on advanced packaging.

Intel's external foundry production is "not significant" right now, but it could be in the future

A direct read Zinsner's comments implies that many of Intel's external Foundry customers have yet to fully switch production lines for their chips.

However, it's possible that those external custom chips are still in testing or that the exact details of the agreement are still being negotiated.

After all, Zinsner did indicate that most of Intel Foundry's 18A process would be sold internally to Intel, while 14A is expected to have a broader range of external wafer sales.

But if the rumors of TSMC's maxed capacity are true, combined with the ever-shifting US foreign manufacturing tariffs, Intel Foundry could be a more attractive option than ever for silicon production.

TSMC is not out of the chip game yet, though. It's reportedly working on 2nm and smaller silicon wafers, which are expected to be used in the next generations of Apple Silicon.

So, even if a company like Nvidia or Apple were to shift production from TSMC to Intel Foundry, we likely wouldn't see those chips for a few generations. That's in line with Zisner's comments on Tuesday about Foundry production. Intel's 14A process is expected to hit commercial production in 2027, which is also when Intel Foundry is set to break even.

This could potentially be thanks to external customers. And that would coincide with the next big Nvidia (RTX 60-series) or Apple Silicon (M7) launches.

Intel has been keeping its Foundry cards close to its chest for years, so we'll likely only know the details once the chips are ready for production or agreements have been filed with the SEC.

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Nvidia is set to launch the last major desktop GPU in the RTX 50-series this month, but the RTX 5060 is going to have some steep competition.

Nvidia has picked May 19, 2025 as the launch date for the RTX 5060, which falls in line with the Computex tradeshow in Taipei, Taiwan later this month. That show is looking like it will be very GPU-heavy.

AMD is expected to launch its budget-friendly Radeon RX 9060 XT at Computex, and it seems Intel's Arc B-series "Battlemage" GPUs aren't done for this generation either.

New rumors suggest Intel will be launching a more powerful mid-range Arc B770 GPU in Taipei as well.

While we don't have a lot of concrete details on the Arc B770, what we do know about this possible Intel GPU does put Nvidia's RTX 5060 in a poor position.

But before we decide the RTX 5060 is dead on arrival, let's take a closer look.

Nvidia RTX 5060 vs Intel Arc B770 vs AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: Hardware specs

The recent leaks on the Intel Arc B770 suggest that many of the specs will carry over from the A770, including the 32 Xe-core count, and 16GB VRAM. While not included in this week's leaks, Intel could also stick with the same 2.1 GHz boost clock and 225W TBP specs for the B770, though that's still to be determined as the B770 is expected to perform somewhere in the mid-range between the Nvidia RTX 5060 and the RTX 5060 Ti.

It's uncertain if this will be GDDR6 or GDDR7 VRAM as it seems Team Blue is holding DDR7 VRAM to the next-gene "Celestial" graphics cards.

But, even if Intel opts for the older DDR6 memory, that's still going to be a bit more graphics power than the RTX 5060's 8GB of DDR7 VRAM. Most modern games require more than 8GB of dedicated video memory, which will make the RTX 5060 a hard sell for most PC gamers on desktop.

Even AMD is allegedly offering an 8GB and 16GB VRAM option on the RX 9060 XT.

From a VRAM perspective, the B770 or 9060 XT with 16GB appear to be better budget options. And if you take a look at the memory bus, the B770 will get more bandwidth for that increased VRAM over the 9060 XT.

So, Intel might become the budget GPU king this generation.

At least in terms of pure silicon strength.

Nvidia RTX 5060 vs Intel Arc B770 vs AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT: Software

As with any Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics card, the RTX 5060 will have access to Nvidia's latest software technology including DLSS (deep learning super sampling) 4 and multi frame generation. While some may prefer to stick with a GPU's raw graphics power over using software acceleration like super sampling or frame-gen, Nvidia's latest software offers better graphics quality and smoother frames than previous DLSS generations.

And DLSS 4 is now being supported on even more games. At the RTX 5090 launch earlier this year, DLSS 4 was only supported on 100 games, but that library is still growing with support now enabled on MechWarrior 5: Clans, New World: Aeternum, and Spirit of the North 2 as the latest titles to join the DLSS 4 library, with over 700 games featuring DLSS support of some kind.

AMD's Radeon RX 9060 XT is expected to feature AMD's latest FSR (Fidelity FX Super Resolution) 4 tech and advanced frame generation to compete with Nvidia's updated software. However, AMD's FSR is typically hardware agnostic, which means you can opt for FSR tech in games even if you use Nvidia or Intel hardware.

AMD's FSR 4 is now available on 37 games including some of the hottest titles, including Assassin's Creed Shadows, Call of Duty: Warzone, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. Over 400 games feature AMD FSR support across all four generations.

Intel's Arc B770 is expected to feature Intel's latest XeSS (Xe super sampling) 2, which can offer a frame-rate boost up to 4 times the raw silicon performance of an Intel Arc GPU. XeSS is now available on over 200 games, with XeSS 2 support on major titles like Assassin's Creed Shadows, Diablo IV, Marvel Rivals, and F1 '24.

Is DLSS 4 enough to save the RTX 5060?

With Intel entering the discrete GPU market with last generation's Arc A-series graphics, the budget and mid-range GPU market has gotten more crowded. And increased competition in a computing space often means gamers get better hardware.

Intel and AMD have both made decent strides in providing powerful but affordable GPUs, while Nvidia continues to dominate on the high-end.

But there is still some value to Nvidia's lower-end graphics cards. Nvidia's software support with a DLSS library of over 700 games is hard to beat. Even AMD's FSR 4 is only supported on just 37 games to date. Intel has a lot of catching up to do in order to offer a competitive experience with XeSS.

However, Nvidia's RTX 50-series cards do have some noted issues, particularly with older games. Titles using the 32-bit version of PhysX can't be played on an RTX 50-series GPU without using emulation, and while this mostly impacts older games, it has also meant newer PhysX games like Borderlands 3 don't run either.

While I was pretty excited for the RTX 5060 Ti as a budget option for my next GPU, I'm going to hold off and see how Intel and AMD's latest cards fare before making any decisions.

If Intel and AMD keep their prices on the B770 and RX 9060 XT competitive, this could finally be the generation where the most-used graphics card on the Steam Hardware Survey isn't an Nvidia GPU.

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Over the last year, we've seen integrated graphics performance like never before on the latest chips from AMD and Intel. That's good news for gaming handhelds as they rely on integrated graphics chips.

After all, the best gaming handhelds need to have the best possible graphics.

This week, Intel pushed out a major driver update intended to boost the performance of Arc 130V and 140V integrated graphics chips, particularly when operating at low power settings.

While this will impact all of the Intel Core Ultra 200V Lunar Lake chipsets, it's very clearly geared at handheld gaming PCs. And when we're talking Intel handhelds, there's really only two options: The MSI Claw 8 AI+ and the Claw 7 AI+.

So, having seen the news from Intel earlier this week, naturally, we put those claims to the test.

Low power gaming gains: the benchmarks

Intel's blog post detailing the graphics driver update indicates a 10% uplift on frame-rates at 17W power.

Since the 17W manual setting on the MSI Claw is more useful for unplugged performance, we decided to test gaming performance with the handheld on battery power. After all, it's hardly a gaming handheld if its plugged in.

While we did review the Claw 8 AI+ earlier this year, I had to rely on my personal Claw 7 AI+ handheld for these tests, with the Claw set to the 17W performance plan, using Medium graphics settings at 1080p, and XeSS or FSR upscaling enabled.

Since this was not a review unit, I opted to stick to gaming benchmarks that I already had on hand, so I benchmarked the Claw 7 AI+ using Cyberpunk 2077, Monster Hunter: Wilds, and Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail.

While most folks won't be playing Monster Hunter: Wilds on a handheld, the benchmark is a free download and is a pretty rigorous test of the hardware.

With the new Intel driver, I got a less than 1 fps performance boost on Monster Hunter: Wilds which isn't a lot, but for a game that tends to force you into using frame generation, that's not terrible uplift. Though it isn't exactly playable.

For the hunters who just cannot let a moment pass without fighting a tempered monster, you can always enable AMD's FSR upscaling with frame generation to make the game a bit more playable on a handheld. Or drop your graphics preset down to low and enjoy the Monster Hunter: Rise Switch edition nostalgia.

Cyberpunk 2077 and Final Fantasy XIV are far more likely to be played on handhelds, and are certainly above the 30 fps threshold for playability regardless of driver. With the driver update I got a 2 fps increase on both games, for a 4-5% uplift.

I'm not saying Intel is wrong, because their 10% uplift is not the improvement on every one of the games Intel tested. And we only have crossover on one game, so we weren't ever likely to see an exact match.

Additionally not all of my test games feature XeSS support, and not all games Intel tested saw a 10% uplift. So depending on your settings, you may not notice much difference either, but a few frames can make a lot of difference when you're looking at games running under 60fps.

Low-power gaming gains: in game

Much as it pains my former lab-tester heart, benchmarks aren't everything. You don't generally play a game by benchmarking it, so I also took a look at how the Intel driver update handled 17W performance while in-game.

After all, one of Intel's main selling points on these new drivers is increased stability, which can be hard to spot with a benchmark.

For this set of tests, I opted to take a look at games I routinely play since I'll more easily notice a frame-rate drop. With Avowed and Bladur's Gate III, I relied on the Microsoft Game Bar to check my frame rates.

Prior to the update, I was running Avowed at 1080p, on Medium settings, and getting about 19 fps without TSR enabled and 26 fps with TSR upscaling. On Bladur's Gate III at 1080p and Medium settings, I was getting frame rates closer to 28 fps with no upscaling.

After the Intel driver update, I'm now seeing frame rates in Avowed in the 21 fps range without TSR enabled, and up to 29 fps with TSR upscaling. On Baldur's Gate III, I'm now getting frame rates in the 34fps range without upscaling. I saw far fewer frame drops in both games, as they held relatively stable with only a few fps variation in either direction from my average.

And when you're dealing with handhelds, frame stability is almost more important than just a raw fps average.

Is the Claw now the handheld gaming king?

Our top pick for best handheld gaming PC is still the Asus ROG Ally X, in part because of the community support that has helped shape that handheld into its mature second generation. That community approach is driven both by Ally enthusiasts and Asus' own staff, including 16-year veteran Shawn Yen.

The Claw has generated more buzz with this new generation, and we're happy to see Intel working to improve handheld performance, the Claw community hasn't quite hit the same level of collaboration and support as the Ally. Yet, anyway.

That said, if you want the best battery life and fantastic performance, the second generation MSI Claws are worthy contenders for the title.

Whether you go for the larger MSI Claw 8 AI+ or the revamped MSI Claw 7 AI+, both have the same powerful and efficient Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor with the Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics chip. And both are eligible for this new Intel Arc graphics driver update, which is available now.

While the Ally X still holds on to its handheld crown, that position gets shakier by the day. The Claw 8 AI+ is the clear winner on battery life, but for the overall title, it's a closer race these days than it was just a few months ago.

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AR glasses are better than ever, with full visual fidelity and lighter components making AR workspaces more and more useful for professionals.

The big problem? Computer operating systems aren't designed to work in the AR space: you can lose your cursor easily, you can't tilt your AR view for better posture when reclining, and if you're working on a train or bus and the vehicle turns, you can lose sight of your windows.

Sightful's Spacetop for Windows is a software designed to ease those pain points and make working in AR as seamless as using a laptop.

Spacetop requires a high-end AI PC and a pair of AR glasses, as the software needs powerful computing power and an AI engine to fully change the way you work.

We got a preview of Spacetop at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year, but the software is now officially ready for a commercial launch.

What is Spacetop?

Sightful has launched versions of Spacetop previously, using custom-built laptops with AI smartphone processors, but this latest launch is a software-only solution designed to work with modern Windows laptops and cutting-edge AR glasses.

Spacetop is an AR productivity software that gives you a virtual canvas where you can open all of your Windows applications in one place and arrange them as you see fit.

While you can connect a pair of AR glasses right to your laptop to work, that often means your windows are still open on the laptop display, or you can't quite manage your multiple screens efficiently, since the software just reproduces a standard Windows display rather than give you a separate, private AR workspace.

Spacetop offers a massive 100-inch virtual display for a multi-monitor or multi-window workspace that's both private and immersive. You have tilt and zoom controls to customize your ergonomics to suit your current environment.

You can push, slide, and rotate your workspace as needed, bringing specific apps to the forefront when needed and dismissing them to the sides when you want to keep them in the background.

What are the tech specs?

Cutting-edge software does require some cutting-edge tech to power it.

Spacetop for Windows is designed to work on laptops with a CPU/GPU/NPU combo, which includes the latest processors from Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD.

At launch, Sightful recommends an Intel Core Ultra 7 or Ultra 9 processor from the 100 or 200 series, essentially an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H or higher CPU combined with an Intel Arc GPU.

However, Co-founder and CEO Tamir Berliner tells Laptop Mag that he expects Qualcomm and AMD support to follow.

As for the glasses part of Spacetop, Sightful recommends the XReal Air Ultra 2 AR glasses.

If you've been wondering why you should upgrade to an AI PC for your next laptop, Berliner has an answer for you. As mentioned in Berliner's press statement provided to Laptop ahead of the announcement, "Spacetop is exactly why AI PCs were designed - it unlocks the true power of the architecture."

When will Spacetop be available and what does it cost?

Starting today, customers can order the Spacetop Bundle for $899.

That price includes the XReal Air Ultra 2 AR glasses and a 12-month Spacetop subscription. The software subscription renews annually for $200.

You can purchase optical lenses for vision correction, so you don't need to wear the XReal glasses over your prescription glasses. Single-vision lens inserts cost $50 while progressive-vision inserts cost $150.

If you already have the XReal Air Ultra or XReal Air 2 AR glasses and want to purchase the Spacetop for Windows software by itself, you'll need to contact Sightful directly for pricing and to ensure your hardware and firmware meet the required specs for full functionality.

Sightful has partnered with Intel, SHI International Corp, and Deutsche Telekom to make Spacetop for Windows available to the corporate sector in the US and Europe.

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• "We’re just trying to make computers faster, more power efficient, and AI is the new face of that": Intel's Robert Hallock on the impact of AI and the myth of the "killer app"

If you think AI is mostly memes and marketing fluff, you’re not alone. Intel’s Robert Hallock was equally skeptical at one point in time. Now, he’s betting that AI, the quiet kind, will be the key to Intel unlocking the kind of power, performance, and battery life truly befitting a next-generation laptop.

In a conversation encompassing everything from ethical AI cocoa farming to the futility of the F1 key, and the rollercoaster ride that is the Gartner Hype Cycle, Hallock shines a light on Intel’s AI ambitions, unpacks the challenges ahead, and offers a counterpoint to the hunt for AI’s killer app… All 450 and counting of them.

An interview with Intel's Robert Hallock

What’s your role in AI?

“We’re just trying to make computers faster … and AI is the new face of that.”

Early into our conversation, I asked Robert Hallock if he was what you might call an AI optimist. While he was quick to offer an “I am!” he’s by no means a babe in the woods. His role as senior director of technical marketing for AI at Intel may suggest a dyed-in-the-wool evangelist for all things AI, but Hallock had to be convinced of its capabilities like any other.

“I had the same initial reaction a lot of people had when artificial generalized intelligence came onto the scene (the cloud stuff), I was a little skeptical.”

However, with a career that spans years of technical marketing for processors and GPUs, not to mention stints in journalism as a PC hardware reviewer and technical writer, Hallock has a nose fine-tuned for snake oil — so when he says AI is the key to improving performance and power efficiency in Intel’s new wave of hardware, it’s hard not to buy into that notion.

"I quickly realized there's a lot going on in a different kind of AI — you could call it assistive AI or offline AI. [At Intel] We’re just trying to make computers faster, more power efficient, and AI is the new face of that."

Still, the term AI is broad and carries plenty of baggage and skepticism.

“I think that negativity is not unwarranted, it's also very confusing sometimes because the word AI means a lot of things.

"Are we talking about the AI toaster that has no AI? The cloud kind — which, who knows what happens to your info once you submit it into the chat box? Or are we talking about the offline kind, where you're just running another program on your PC?

"They're not all the same thing, and so I'm an optimist on the ‘assistive local runs on your PC, helps with performance and power.’ I'm big on that kind, and not so big on the other kind.”

Have you seen AI used in a way that you find uncomfortable or worrying?

“Every technology has its bad actors … Don’t be a jerk with AI.”

Since generative AI has broken into the mainstream, it seems like almost anything is possible thanks to these powerful predictive models. Sadly, that potential can be used for good and bad outcomes.

“Obviously, the generative deep fakes are a little concerning. But on the same token, I also think back to the first non-gaming use of graphics cards, which unfortunately, was to crack Wi-Fi passwords. Every technology has its bad actors.

“I think it is incumbent upon companies like Intel to continue promoting ethical and responsible uses of AI — use it to help your email or to write a document, don't be a jerk with AI.”

However, it’s not always the outcome of a model that can be used in bad faith. For AI image generators specifically, a pretty pungent stink is being kicked up online around how this kind of software is trained.

While OpenAI CEO Sam Altman thinks granting creators and artists a share of revenue for creative AI art in their style would be “cool,” Hallock shares how Intel is already taking steps to right certain perceived wrongs against the creative community through AI.

“There's a company we work with and invest in called Bria, and they're a generative AI model where artists get paid for the work that goes into the final image.

"If your picture was 23% of the final image … you get paid 23% of the licensing fees.”

Rael / Laptop Mag: It's sort of the ethical cocoa farming route to pay the artist when it comes to their training data, right?

“Yeah, we've had ethical food, ethical data, ethical everything for a long time, right? That kind of data is not new in the history of PCS. It tangles up with old piracy conversations, for example, but it's just the new face of it.”

What will bring people around to AI's potential?

“A lot of users may not even know that AI is running on their machine, but they're benefiting from it.”

AI might be the shiny new jewel of hardware manufacturers and developers, but many in the general public retain a level of skepticism.

But Hallock believes adoption will happen in waves — starting with the early adopters experimenting with clients like LM Studio, Ollama, and Intel’s AI Playgound, gradually followed by enterprise, content creators, and office workers.

Though PC enthusiasts, of which Hallock is himself a lifelong guild member, might take a little more convincing.

“I think PC enthusiasts will probably not be convinced until there's a major game that benefits from an AI technology of some kind, and I don't mean super sampling … I mean procedural texture generation or voice generation.”

Those undefined by previous categories? They may not even be aware of the transition, but they’ll benefit all the same.

“By 2028, about 80 percent of all computers are going to have dedicated AI accelerators — desktop, notebook, etc.

"A lot of users may not even know that AI Is running on their machine, but they're benefiting from it; they get the performance out of it, they get extra features, they get extra energy, efficiency, and longer battery life.”

Rael / Laptop Mag: Osmosis, essentially? You have the enthusiast, office worker, and content creator who will interact with AI more directly. But, before you know it, it's the new normal?

“That’s my expectation, yeah. This has happened before in the PC industry, too. Many people forget that Graphics have only been inside the CPU for about 20 years. A CPU just used to be a processor.

“Then this little graphics chip comes along, and it was widely ridiculed by users and the media, including myself. I was in the media at the time. I did not see the point.

“Now … everything is GPU-accelerated, but it happened very quietly.

“There was no big banner that said ‘Tada! Congratulations, your integrated GPU is now worth something.’ It just happened gradually over the course of three to five years, and we're all better for it. AI’s going to do the same thing.”

Is there anything in the AI pipeline that might catch people off guard in the short term?

“The potential for memes and tomfoolery is unbounded.”

I asked Robert what upcoming AI developments might sneak up on people. His answer? The next 12 to 18 months are going to be surprisingly lively — with multimodal models and video generation stepping into the spotlight.

“We have the Sora model from OpenAI. We can actually run that on Lunar Lake. Granted, it's a very low-resolution output … but a year ago, creating video was unthinkable — the potential for memes and tomfoolery is unbounded.”

But it’s another possibility that seems to really stoke the embers of excitement in Hallock.

“What if you had a speech-to-text or text input model in your application that would allow people to speak to the tool and use it by request … We've never before had the ability to go, ‘Hey, make me this,’ and the tool will use itself.

“This is pretty awesome for accessibility. Not even for people who have physical limitations … but for anyone who wants to use a more advanced piece of software and get started really quick. I think this is a very cool way to use AI, and it's starting to be explored.”

Rael / Laptop Mag: I don’t know anybody who’s ever hit F1 for help and found what they’ve needed.

“It doesn’t work! It doesn’t work.”

That brought us to a real world example: Intel’s Project SuperBuilder/AI Assistant Builder, which won Laptop Mag’s award for Best AI Debut at MWC 2025 in March.

The platform allows for the creation of chatbots trained on custom data. One OEM had even converted a user manual into a locally running chatbot in the first steps of revolutionizing modern tech support.

“That’s right! We came by it genuinely, actually, because we use tools like that inside Intel to help access information.

“It's shockingly accurate ... I've only been at Intel 18 months, so there's a lot that I don't know about … which would be very hard to digest without this tool. I would just have to know the right person who has these documents. Good luck. There are about 100,000 people here.

“That kind of information access is very, very powerful. AI Assistant Builder allows people to roll their own AI chatbots with access to external documents … PDFs, documents, emails, and websites if you want. And that's part of this platform that we're building for businesses.”

What is distracting us from AI's real potential and how it can impact people's lives?

"There is a bubble coming. That's for sure."

Not all AI applications are created equal, and some, according to Hallock, might be actively pulling focus from where the tech could be making a meaningful impact.

“I think the big one is generating images. I mean, it's obvious it’s fun, but it's either for memes or for trolling, basically … Though it is fun, it's a lot of compute we're spending on memes. There's other stuff we can be doing.”

More seriously, Hallock sees the marketing appropriation of AI as an equally damaging distraction, with the techno-acronym slapped on everything from dog collars to dishwashers..

“There are a million things being called AI. Some are, some are not. It is understandable that many people would just check out.”

The inflation of the term AI in consumer spaces has, in his opinion, launched us to the top of the Gartner Hype Cycle, to the peak of inflated expectations. Beyond it? The ominously named trough of disillusionment.

“You'll probably start to hear chatter soon about this AI bubble. And we're talking about culling the players who aren't really doing AI because eventually people will realize that this is not what it says it is on the can.

“What will be left is the industry players, the software makers, and hardware companies — including Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and AMD.

“This is all legit, serious AI hardware for consumers. I don't know about the other stuff.

“There is a bubble coming. That's for sure.”

Is there a killer app for AI on the horizon?

"Let me ask you this: What’s the killer app for an x86 processor?"

I asked Robert if there’s a surefire way to draw people back from Gartner’s trough of disillusionment.

“That's a really difficult square to move people off of, and the only remedy is a killer app of some kind.

“For every holdout, we have to find that one killer app, and that might take years. But that's okay, that's part of the process.”

And it was around then that I fell into what felt like a perfectly laid trap.

Rael / Laptop Mag: Is that what Intel foresees? That the killer app is coming, but it's not here yet?

“Actually, our real view is that there's no such thing as the killer app. Let me ask you this: What is the killer app for an x86 processor?”

I wrestled with the idea of trying to justify 3D Pinball: Space Cadet as a viable answer, but… Yeah, point taken. Well played, Rob.

“Everybody's going to have a different answer, and so AI, like every other Computing engine before it, is only going to be successful with volume — the number of apps and models that people have access to needs to be hundreds, thousands of choices to hit everyone.”

That kind of scale sounds overwhelming at first, like a bloated tech utopia just waiting to collapse under its own weight. But the way Hallock tells it, it sounds more like the early internet. A time before Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, when you could stumble across a website built entirely for the art of practicing the underwater jazz flute and feel like you’d found your people.

Is AI on a similar trajectory?

“That's what Intel is working on. We are working overtime to get hundreds of models running. We have 500-plus now working, we're on track for something like 450 AI-driven features this year. It was 12 in August 2023, and now we're at 450.”

For those already sitting in that trough of disillusionment, or yet to see the appeal, Hallock gets it. But he’s betting that function will win the day, especially now it’s baked into the very hardware that powers your Intel machine.

“If nothing else, for these users who are super resistant and reluctant about AI, just understand this is a major part of performance and power in a CPU going forward. And if you care about that, then you have to care about AI too. Even if there isn't the right app for you yet, there will be.”

Intel's most recent desktop launch did not go smoothly.

Intel's first chipset in the Arrow Lake family was the Core Ultra 200S/K for desktops, which launched in October 2024. Critical reception was poor, with Tom's Hardware and IGN giving the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K a 3-star review due to its lack of performance when it comes to gaming.

In January, around CES 2025, Intel launched a series of fixes for Arrow Lake desktop performance to address a number of issues with the chip. But not all reviewers saw a performance hike in the Core Ultra 200S series.

The underwhelming performance of Arrow Lake S has given the impression that Intel's latest desktop chips aren't built for enthusiasts, but now Intel has a solution — Intel 200S Boost overclocking.

What is Intel 200S Boost?

As announced today on the Intel Gaming Access blog, Intel 200S Boost is an overclocking profile "designed to optimize performance for Intel Core Ultra 200S series processors."

The overclocking profile is designed for desktop chips within the Intel Core Ultra 200S family (K-SKU chipsets).

When combined with Z890 series motherboards and Intel XMP memory modules (DIMMs), desktop owners can enable the Intel 200S Boost overclocking profile to see performance uplift thanks to increased speeds on the SoC fabric, die-to-die, and integrated memory controller.

The overclock settings for the Intel 200S Boost profile include:

Intel has included a list of all memory kits that meet its XMP (Intel Extreme Memory Profile) standard.

Intel and its partners have only tested a handful of Z890 motherboards on the new 200S profile, but all Z890 motherboards with the latest BIOS update will be able to access the new overclock profile.

Intel's 200S Boost profile is supported on the Intel Core Ultra 200S family of chipsets, including:

• Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 285K
• Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 265K
• Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 265KF
• Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 245K
• Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 245KF

The 200S Boost overclocking profile is protected by Intel's three-year limited warranty so gives you some insurance against melting your CPU.

Is Arrow Lake finally an enthusiast chip?

While desktops aren't our bread and butter here at Laptop Mag, our staff is full of tech enthusiasts, and we like to keep an eye on what's going on in the desktop computing world.

We haven't gotten a chance to poke around at the 200S Boost profile yet, but Tom's Hardware did some testing, and it seems we're looking at a 7% performance uplift with the 200S Boost profile enabled over the default fabric, D2D, and memory controller clock speeds.

And that's not nothing, when you consider the 200S Boost fix is just a bit of software trying to patch a hardware performance gap.

Some folks will still be unhappy with those numbers, and it's certainly not the massive gains in gen-to-gen performance we saw with the Arrow Lake H and HX mobile processors, which clocked up to 20% multithread performance gains over Intel's 14th generation chipsets.

While I can understand the enthusiast desire for large generation performance uplift, I'm also rather skeptical of how hard we really need to push performance.

On one hand, bigger numbers are always better. On the other hand, do we even need more power?

Sure, there will always be enthusiasts who want their PC build to break performance benchmarks. But enthusiasts are just a small, vocal segment of the PC market. While it would be great to see Intel back in the top ranks of "best gaming CPU," I can also understand the need for a company to be where its market is.

Obviously, Arrow Lake was not the chip that was going to bridge the general consumer and enthusiast markets. But there's always a possibility for Intel's 2025 Arrow Lake Refresh to make bigger strides toward closing that gap.

And if not, there's 2026's Nova Lake, which will be built on Intel's 18A (1.8nm) silicon wafer process.

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President Donald Trump revealed his tariffs for countries he says have "ripped off" the United States for decades during a speech at the White House on April 2. So far, only the 10% across-the-board tariff has been implemented, but the larger tariffs–such as the 46% on Vietnam and the 26% on Japan–won't go into effect until April 9.

The tariff announcements already have had an effect. Two days after the game company revealed its Switch 2, Nintendo released a statement that it was delaying the start of pre-orders for its new console due to Trump's tariffs.

One major company doing its best to avoid dealing with these tariffs is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which provides chips to Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and AMD.

TSMC will start a partnership with Intel to operate its chip-making factories in the U.S., according to a report from The Information. As part of the deal, the Taiwanese chip maker reportedly will take a 20% stake in Intel, share its manufacturing methods, and train Intel employees on those methods.

TSMC's tariff gamble.

A partnership with Intel has been a move TSMC has been working on for some time now.

Back in February, the chip maker appeared to be in the market to acquire Intel's manufacturing plants. Broadcom was another semiconductor company interested in those factories as well. This selling off of parts of Intel led some former employees to remark about the demise of the company, which was a powerhouse when it came to chip-making.

Intel has 15 plants across the U.S. and is constructing more due to the grants from the Chips Act of 2022. Intel is receiving up to $7.9 billion in funding to help build its factories in Ohio, Arizona, and other locations.

During his speech to the joint session of Congress on March 4, Trump took a shot at the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signed by former President Joe Biden, which aimed to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

"Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn't mean a thing. They take our money and they don't spend it," Trump said in his speech. "You should get rid of the CHIPS Act and whatever is left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt."

Trump did praise TSMC for its investment in U.S. manufacturing in that speech, as well as other talks since then.

TSMC said back in March that it plans to invest an additional $100 billion into semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S., focusing on its plant in Phoenix, which would bring the company’s total investment in the country to $165 billion. This Arizona plant is reportedly making Apple's A16 processor, the chip used in the company's iPhones and other Apple devices.

Trump has yet to institute a tariff on semiconductors. He did tell White House reporters on Air Force One Thursday that the chips tariffs was going to start "very soon."

We’re only a few months into 2025, and we’ve already seen some major shakeups in the computing industry. Despite tariff wars, foundry expansion, and general market instability, Intel has a bold new plan for the future: nostalgia.

Yes, Intel is resurrecting the classic “Intel Inside” marketing strategy you may remember from the '90s.

Intel announced the nostalgic branding as part of its Intel Vision event this week in Las Vegas. The intent is to make Intel a household name again, the way the ‘90s campaign did. The success of that early consumer computer marketing aligned with Intel becoming the standard for personal computers for decades.

The classic “Intel Inside” commercials of the '90s often featured close-up shots of a personal computer with a focus on the Intel logo before zooming "inside" the computer to show what kind of tasks an Intel PC could handle. Between spreadsheets, pie-charts, and 3D renders, the commercials had voice-overs about how the Intel Inside logo on the outside meant you’d have a powerful, reliable chip inside.

The new “Intel Inside” commercials roll back to black and white photos of the pyramids and the invention of the wheel, implying that an Intel processor is the next significant stage of human technological advancement. After a few brief hints of the old white CRT desktop PCs of the '90s alongside close-ups of the printing press and sewing machine, the new Intel commercial breaks into color and shows the various industries Intel processors support: from artists to scientists to business professionals.

The Intel conference also saw new CEO Lip-Bu Tan give his first public keynote since returning to the chipmaker. Tan served on the board of directors for Intel from 2022 to 2024 and returned as CEO in March.

While we at Laptop Mag do love a good bit of nostalgic marketing, this move begs the question: Is it enough to save Intel?

Just how bad are things for Intel right now?

If you pay close attention to chipmaker news, it often sounds like Intel is a company circling the drain. But is that actually true?

When former CEO Pat Gelsinger left Intel in early December 2024, we unpacked the company’s troubled fiscal year which ended in a 2% loss year-over-year from 2023. But 2024 wasn’t Intel’s only bad year in recent memory. 2023 was down 14% from 2022, which was down 16-20% from 2021 (depending on whether calculated on a GAAP basis or not).

2021 was an all-time record year for Intel, bringing the company to a yearly revenue of $79 billion. As of January 30, 2025, the company’s annual revenue was $53.1 billion, which is a loss of about 33% in four years. 2020 was also a good year for Intel, with revenue up 8% over 2019.

However, it is worth noting that 2020 and 2021 were record years for profits across the board. Spending was up during lockdown and in the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, so using those years as a benchmark for Intel’s standard revenue is perhaps the wrong way to look at it.

On a macro level, Intel’s profits stagnated around the $50 billion mark from 2011 to 2014, then started rising significantly after 2016.

Companies and investors don’t like to see this kind of multi-year backslide in revenue. Considering the rate of inflation, it’s certainly not an ideal situation for Intel. But $53 billion in profits is a far cry from filing for Chapter 11.

What is going well for Intel?

This downturn in Intel’s profits since the peak of 2021 is not great news for Team Blue, but recent events and this renewed marketing strategy could help Intel return to those record years in the face of increased competition in the semiconductor industry thanks to AMD, Qualcomm, and Apple.

Intel’s decision to open up a silicon foundry business in the United States has been controversial. The foundry business currently costs more money than it generates, which has led to many rumors of takeover bids and opinions that Intel should sell off its foundry division.

Considering the sweeping foreign tariff plan announced by President Donald Trump this week, it makes sense that TSMC would like to own Intel’s foundry business.

But that same foundry that is a drain on Intel’s profits helped the company avoid massive losses in the immediate stockmarket backlash over the massive foreign tariffs. Of the companies most affected by the market volatility, Apple and Nvidia took the largest hits in the computing world.

Intel’s foundry is capable of producing 2nm silicon wafers on the Intel 18A process, and is currently the only US domestic silicon fab with that technology. Intel’s Panther Lake (Intel Core Ultra 300 series) is set to debut later this year and is built on the 18A, 1.8nm process.

Intel has succeeded with its recent mobile processors, hitting new marks for efficiency and CPU power on the Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake platforms.

Intel also entered into the discrete GPU market with the Intel Arc platform, which has revamped Intel’s integrated graphics chips as well.

Intel still holds a massive 70% market share for laptops and desktops, though it has lost some ground on the desktop front to AMD due to a contentious first launch for the Arrow Lake S desktop processors.

Despite increased arm-based sales due to Qualcomm’s new chips, enough Snapdragon-powered Microsoft Surface Laptops have been returned to warrant the “frequently returned item” warning box on Amazon.

Is nostalgic marketing the final push to recovery?

CEO Tan has plans for Intel, that’s certain after his keynote speech at Intel Vision this week.

While some were expecting a major change from Tan, it appears his strategy is less about immediate sweeping change and more about continuing to compound on what the company already does well.

Intel’s Panther Lake chipset will see an initial launch in the second half of this year, likely in the fall, like we saw with Lunar Lake last year. The full availability will come in early 2026.

Panther Lake will be the first Intel platform to utilize the “Celestial” graphics architecture and will have astounding power for an integrated graphics tile the same way Lunar Lake does, making it a solid choice for handheld gaming PCs as well as light and thin laptops.

With an increased need for domestic silicon fabs, Intel Foundry has the opportunity to become a necessary asset for the United States computing world.

With plans to capitalize on the 18A process coming later this year alongside updates to the company’s GPU and data center portfolios, as well as some good old-fashioned nostalgia marketing, 2025 could be a solid year for Intel.

However, with the state of the world being what it is these days, it is still too early to tell.

More from Laptop Mag

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• Is Moore's Law dead? We spoke to Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, and both sides of the debate agree: The only constant is progress
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Intel's most powerful mobile CPU has arrived: the Intel Core Ultra 200HX series.

We've tested Intel's latest chipset on the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16, HP Omen Max 16, and MSI Raider 18 HX gaming laptops. But does it live up to the hype?

As with any new silicon, we compared Intel's Arrow Lake HX processor against its predecessor and current competition, especially AMD's latest chips.

While Arrow Lake HX will mostly be used in gaming laptops, a few workstation models, like the HP ZBook Fury 18 G1i, have opted for the HX variant instead of Arrow Lake H, so we decided to throw Apple's M4 Pro chipset into the mix.

So how does Intel's Core Ultra 200HX series stack up? Let's break it down.

Intel Arrow Lake HX benchmarks: Performance

Intel's initial claims about the Arrow Lake HX indicated more than 5% single-thread uplift and 20% multithread performance gains over the 14th-generation Raptor Lake Refresh HX chipsets.

Our initial report didn't have an ideal comparison between the Core Ultra 200HX and 14th Generation Intel SKUs, but even then our test results indicated a solid leap in performance over the 14th generation and improvement over the Arrow Lake H model, which is designed for high-performance thin and light laptops.

The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16's Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX had a 5.7% increase in single-core performance on Geekbench 6 compared to the Intel Core i9-14900HX in the Razer Blade 16 (2024). It also outperformed the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H (MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo), AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Razer Blade 16 2025), and AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Asus ROG Flow Z13 2025) in single-core performance by 4-5%. The MacBook Pro 16's M4 Pro still holds the single-core performance record, but Arrow Lake HX is helping close the gap.

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX also had a 9.8% increase over the i9-14900HX in multicore performance on Geekbench 6, and Arrow Lake outperformed the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 by 19.6%. The Ultra 9 275HX was just shy of the multicore performance of the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and almost gave Apple's M4 Pro a run for its money.

Granted, the Flow Z 13 does cap AMD's big Strix Halo Ryzen AI Max APU to just 70W of power, while the Gigabyte, Omen, and MSI laptops can hit up to 230W of power. At it's full wattage, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 could offer higher performance, but we've seen that chip in only one device so far.

When we throw in the HP Omen Max 16, which features a similar Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, it has a 7% increase in single-core Geekbench 6 performance and a 13.5% increase in multicore performance over the 14th gen i9-14900HX.

As for the MSI Raider 18 HX, it features the flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor. So it's the ideal comparison for the i9-14900HX, as both are the top-end of Intel's most powerful mobile silicon for their respective generations.

The Core Ultra 9 285HX has a 5% increase in single-core performance on Geekbench 6 over the Razer Blade 16 (2024)'s i9-14900HX CPU, and a 25% increase in multicore performance. In fact, the 285HX is just 1,000 points shy of the Apple MacBook Pro 16's M4 Pro chipset in Geekbench multicore scores.

You'll notice that our Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor doesn't quite meet that 20% gen-to-gen uplift Intel promised. However, the Ultra 9 285HX came in with a 25% gen-to-gen performance uplift.

This is likely because we don't have a good comparison for the Ultra 9 275HX chipset. Intel's 285HX, 275HX, and i9-14900HX are all 24-core CPUs, but Intel ditched hyperthreading for the Arrow Lake generation. So the 285HX and 275HX both have just 24 total threads while the i9-14900HX has 32.

The real difference between the 285HX and 275HX is their max turbo frequency. The 275HX has a lower max speed of 5.4GHz, while the 285HX has a higher boost clock at 5.5GHz which helps it compete against the i9-14900HX's 5.8GHz turbo frequency.

As you can see with the difference between the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 and HP Omen Max 16's 275HX CPUs, Intel CPU performance can vary based on implementation by manufacturers.

So, even this 25% multicore uplift with the 285HX is far from the final word on multicore performance for the 200HX series. However, we've seen solid gen-to-gen performance updates with the Arrow Lake HX series in Geekbench 6, Handbrake video encoding, and CrossMark scores.

And it's more obvious than ever that Intel is working to close the performance gap between x86 and Apple Silicon. Though there is still work to be done.

Intel Arrow Lake HX benchmarks: Battery life

Battery life is not the priority for an Intel HX processor. That's just a fact.

The HX suffix chipsets are high-performance silicon designed for gaming or workstation laptops. They're almost always paired with high-end discrete GPUs, which cause battery life to suffer compared to the H suffix laptops, often shipped with just the integrated GPU.

However, things may get better in this generation.

Our Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 was paired with the Nvidia RTX 5080, which comes with Nvidia's revamped Battery Boost technology for up to 40% better battery life when gaming.

While the web surfing battery life on the 275HX/5080 Gigabyte Aorus wasn't groundbreaking at 5 hours and 31 minutes, the gaming battery life hit an astounding 2 hours and 54 minutes based on the PCMark 10 Gaming Battery life benchmark. This is about 50 extra minutes of web surfing and nearly an 1 hour and 30 minutes more gaming time than the i9-14900HX/4090 Razer Blade 16.

While the HP Omen Max 16 with an RTX 5090 (3:20) and MSI Raider 18 HX with an RTX 5080 (2:32) also saw pretty poor web surfing battery life, both saw better battery life when gaming, with the Omen hitting 1:24 and the Raider lasting for 1:46 hours. While not the 40% increase Nvidia claimed, it's clear battery life is also subject to a lot of wiggle room depending on how the manufacturer configures a laptop.

AMD's Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (7:22) is more efficient while surfing the web than the Arrow Lake HX CPUs, but that's to be expected considering the Ryzen AI 9 processor is a 25W ultra-portable laptop chip compared to the 55W Arrow Lake HX.

As for AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395, while the Flow Z 13 did offer longer web surfing battery life (10:14), the Arrow Lake Gigabyte Aorus and MSI Raider both outlasted AMD's big APU in gaming battery life (1:34).

Naturally, the Arrow Lake H chipset outlasted the Arrow Lake HX, since our MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is using the integrated Intel Arc 140T graphics chip compared to a discrete Nvidia RTX 50-series GPU.

The Core Ultra 200HX chips don't even come close to challenging the Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro's incredible battery life, nor would we expect it to. Arm-based computers like the MacBook Pro and the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s are in a class of their own, and Intel's Lunar Lake is the chip built to challenge that.

Intel's Arrow Lake HX is built to offer competition against Apple Silcon's CPU power, and function in concert with a discrete GPU.

Unfortunately, Apple remains unchallenged for another generation when it comes to offering benchmark-breaking CPU performance and outstanding battery life.

Perhaps this Fall, we'll get that big blockbuster x86 CPU. Intel's Panther Lake is expected later this year, after all.

Bottom line

It's still very early in the Intel Arrow Lake HX reviews cycle, so we don't have complete data on the new silicon yet. But based on this early look, Intel's managed to eke out a solid 10-25% boost to performance and a bit better gaming battery life with this new generation.

Of course, results will vary depending on each laptop build, as multiple factors like GPU, battery size, and TDP can heavily impact performance and battery life on these machines. That's true of all laptops, but when you get to the high-performance machines, each different implementation of a CPU or GPU can have a great impact.

Plus, few people will be upgrading their 14th-gen, RTX 40-series gaming laptops for the new generation. For those with an 11th-gen/30-series laptop or older, these new chips are a huge improvement across the board.

After all, the base Geekbench 6 multicore score of 11,000 was set based on the desktop i7-12700K. And in 2025, those are rookie numbers even for thin and light laptops.

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Portable tech in all forms takes center stage at the Mobile World Congress, an annual expo held in Barcelona, Spain. Whether it's the latest and greatest in laptops or the next wearable wonder, it can all be found across the MWC showroom floor.

At this year's event, we searched booth to booth to find the best tech on display, looking to award the products that stood head and shoulders above the rest with our Laptop Laurels, a signifier of quality, potential, and innovation in the tech space.

Our search wasn't in vain. Toss a rock in the bustling halls of MWC and you're practically guaranteed to hit a booth showcasing the potential next big thing in tech. From personal robots (and their pet dogs) to AR glasses that bring the big screen experience with you wherever you go, we saw it all.

But when it came to the best of the best, these products caught our attention above all others.

Welcome to the Laptop Mag MWC 2025 special issue! Read on to find out which devices we presented with our Laptop Laurels awards at MWC 2025.

MWC 2025: Laptop Laurels winners

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Gen 10

Best laptop debut

Lenovo’s Yoga Pro line is a favorite at Laptop Mag, and the new 10th Generation Yoga Pro continues the tradition of offering a powerful creator laptop in a slim, stylish package with a fantastic display and a great keyboard.

The Yoga Pro 9i (Gen 10) Aura Edition, offers a solid update to the CPU and GPU of the Yoga Pro and continues to deliver with Lenovo’s brilliant build quality — including the kind of excellent keyboard and display combo that resonates with the Laptop Mag staff. (Read more)

Lenovo Yoga Solar

Best concept debut

Sustainability is near and dear to our hearts, and the Yoga Solar PC Laptop Concept showcased at this year's Mobile World Congress expo is a fascinating look at how recent advances in solar technology and ultra-efficient processors intersect to make a laptop that is nearly self-sustaining in broad daylight.

While it's not the first solar-powered laptop we've ever seen (RIP Sol), it is an impressive revival of that concept that seems all the more fitting as companies chase down ways to minimize carbon footprints and bolster battery efficiency beyond making sure your devices come in recyclable boxes. (Read more)

Mudra Link

Best wearable debut

So much of the way we interact with our tech requires the usual suspect of interfaces, be that the click of a mouse, the tap of a keyboard, or the poking and swiping of our digits. But the future of tech interaction could be wildly different, like looking to tap into the signals from your brain for interaction cues.

That all sounds wildly sci-fi, but it's real. It's how Meta hopes to eventually handle control of its future Orion glasses. However, while Meta is busy promising this tech's arrival in the future, one company is bringing it to you right now. And it's doing so through the Mudra Link — our pick for the best wearable debut at MWC 2025. (Read more)

Samsung 500Hz QD-OLED panel

Best monitor debut

OLED displays have always been known as a great panel for gaming thanks to their near-instant response times and HDR-friendly pixel-by-pixel lighting with perfect contrasts. However, the slower refresh rates of most OLED panels made it difficult to sell a QD-OLED display to most gamers.

That said, QD-OLED is well on its way to getting over that hurdle. With refresh rates firmly on the rise, QD-OLED displays might just be on their way to becoming a gaming essential, and Samsung is leading the way with its latest breakthrough in display tech. (Read more)

Intel AI Assistant Builder

Best AI debut

Chatbots aren’t new, and they’re not always flashy. However, chat-based AI is on the rise, and Intel’s AI Assistant Builder, formerly known as Project SuperBuilder, intends to simplify the process of building and training a custom, small on-device AI assistant.

It could revolutionize how OEMs provide technical support, help you do away with those lengthy car manuals, and add a touch of human-like flair to just about any product. Can you imagine an AI talking you through your next IKEA build? We can, and we think that's just crazy enough to be considered brilliant. (Read more)

Intel is trying to make debacles like the Crowdstrike outage of 2024 a thing of the past.

At MWC in Barcelona, Intel announced vPro commercial editions of the "Arrow Lake" family of Intel Core Ultra chipsets, including the Core Ultra 200U, H, HX, and S suffixes, so the entire Intel Core Ultra 200 series now has vPro enterprise-ready variants.

With the full slate of Core Ultra 200 series CPUs available for commercial use, Intel's enterprise portfolio will cover the gamut of powerful compute performance to high power efficiency with the embedded hardware security Intel's vPro systems are known for.

“You see serious gen-over-gen, double-digit plus/minus performance gain,” Intel’s vice president of the Client Computing Group and general manager of Client Segments, David Feng tells Laptop Mag.

Alongside the new hardware, Intel also announced new service updates to the vPro platform to make it easier for companies to enroll in Intel's Fleet Services for active support in case of major outages.

“It’s not just about power and performance anymore, it's multiple pillars that you need to look at from a commercial perspective. It’s security, manageability, systems stability, and sustainability,” Intel’s General Manager of Commercial Client Segments, Jennifer Larson, tells Laptop Mag.

Arrow Lake vPro

With the new Intel Core Ultra 200U, 200H, 200HX, and 200S vPro variants, the entire Core Ultra 200 series is now commercially viable.

The Core Ultra 200H and HX series offer up to 20% increases in multithread performance compared to the Intel Core Ultra 100 and Intel 14th gen CPUs. While we have yet to get our hands on an Intel Core Ultra 200HX system for testing, we were able to confirm Intel's performance claims on a few launch systems for the "Arrow Lake" 200H series. If we see similar performance from the 200HX, that would make the Core Ultra 200 series a worthwhile upgrade even for users on newer systems.

But for enterprise customers who tend to work on a three to five-year upgrade cycle, the Core Ultra 200 series is a massive overhaul across raw computing power and efficiency when compared against Intel's 11th gen CPUs, offering up to 2.84x higher multicore performance in Cinebench 2024 and nearly 2x faster video editing.

“For commercial, given that four years is kind of the plus/minus refresh cycle, we compared against the 11th gen,” Feng explains. “As you can imagine, massive, massive gain across the board for almost 3x the MT [multithreaded] performance.”

vPro Service updates

But Intel’s vPro systems include more than just powerful commercial hardware. Intel vPro chipsets come with hardware and software security systems designed for commercial purposes.

Intel started the vPro line 19 years ago to meet the needs of IT professionals, and includes fleet deployment systems, increased security and manageability, connectivity, and device stability with a reported 99.7% app compatibility.

Intel’s vPro Fleet Service is an SaaS (software-as-a-service) commercial solution is being upgraded for an easier enrollment process, dropping the enrollment steps from 24 down to six, and the new Fleet Services will no longer require on-premises servers.

So businesses that didn’t enroll or did not meet the requirements previously can recover faster from disruptions.

Intel vPro Fleet Services is in a private preview now and will be available in the coming weeks. Intel vPro will also be integrated into Microsoft Intune, coming later this year.

Intel also introduced the Intel Assured Supply Chain (ASC) program, which will offer customers greater visibility and assurance in the silicon manufacturing process. So, customers with enhanced security needs can be aware of the entire chain of custody for each chip.

”We just came out with our product security report,” Larson tells Laptop. “A third-party evaluation firm rated us number one as compared to our competitors in security assurance. We break what we build.”

Intel Core Ultra 200 vPro availability

Intel Core Ultra 200V systems with the Intel vPro platform are currently available.

Intel Core Ultra 200U, 200H, 200HX, and 200S series systems with vPro are expected to ship in late March 2025.

Intel's vPro Fleet Services is in preview and will be available generally in the next few weeks, while the Intel Assured Supply Chain program will start later this year, likely in late Summer or Fall 2025.

What you need to know

While Intel's Arrow Lake 200S desktop chips saw a number of performance issues at launch, Intel has worked to patch that experience for better, more consistent performance and efficiency gains.

Arrow Lake 200H saw a successful launch last month and the first 200HX systems are expected in the coming weeks. The vPro editions of these chips will be launching around the same time frame, offering a wide range of chips to meet the needs of multiple industries and jobs.

On the heels of major service outages and security failures from the competiton, the robust hardware and software security value makes Intel vPro a more attractive solution than ever. And the new vPro chips do offer on-device AI for additional security and commercial features.

For gamers and general consumers, vPro isn’t much of a concern, but the enterprise business is a massive market for Intel, and the company is dedicated to maintaining that lead. Intel’s enterprise business helps the company build better gaming and AI chipsets and develop affordable discrete GPUs.

After all of the buyout rumors and the loss of former CEO Pat Gelsinger, today’s vPro news is a reminder that Intel is still a company with plenty of success to its name.

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Windows 11 version 24H2 has been no stranger to performance and compatibility issues on certain processors, like the Intel Smart Sound Technology driver flaw that caused blue screen errors for certain Intel 11th Gen processors.

Processor-specific mishaps aside, reports of weakened gaming performance caused worry among users, although this issue has reportedly now been resolved. And of course, there was the notorious problem with Ubisoft games like Star Wars Outlaws, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla where they would become abruptly unresponsive, but, thankfully, this was also fixed.

Post-update issues are now so common with Windows 11, that we've basically come to terms with the fact that this is a way of life for Microsoft's operating system — understanding that most flaws are the natural result of complex interactions with the many facets of a PC, whether that's its hardware, applications, drivers, or BIOS. Still, that doesn't make them any less frustrating or easier to deal with.

Today, a new Windows 11 24H2 issue has reared its head, submitted by one tech-savvy Borncity reader, once again relating to Intel processors. Gamers and power users take note: this bug poses a direct risk to your computer's beloved performance and could hamper tasks and games significantly — especially on systems with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU.

Windows 11's latest 24H2 update could be impacting your performance

Early reports of the issue come from a Borncity reader named Rüdiger, who claims that an error at startup was the result of Intel's latest CPU or microcode update for Core Ultra 9 285K processors. The error reportedly prevented the PC from booting, although the user was about to work around this issue by applying the Intel Microcode update 0x116. However, a series of performance issues have followed.

According to Rüdiger, applications are being throttled when they're not in focus or minimized. This was tested through the use of a 7zip benchmark, with the user's system performance reduced to nearly half when the application was minimized. Apparently, this issue does not occur on other CPUs like the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X or Intel Core i9 12900K.

How to check if you're a victim to these performance issues

If you updated to the latest version of Windows 11 and have either Intel's Lunar or Arrow Lake CPUs, you could be affected by the above issue. While we only know it's happened on Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, all of the Ultra 200 series may also be susceptible.

If you're not encountering issues while booting up your PC, that's a fairly positive sign. However, if you have noticed any performance mishaps within background tasks, you may want to test against the performance throttling issue yourself. You can do this similarly to Rüdiger by either performing a similar 7zip benchmark or monitoring your performance for any unnatural spikes in the task manager window.

If you're facing similar issues with the latest Intel processors, it's recommended that you visit the Microsoft Feedback Hub to share any details on your current problems with the latest Windows 11 24H2 build.

As with any of Windows 11's hiccups, it's hard to say how rare this problem is and whether or not some unique combination of hardware is resulting in it exclusively plaguing this user, but if it is a widespread issue, having as many users as possible report it is the fastest way to ensure Microsoft will make fixing it a priority.

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Jim Keller, a former senior vice president and lead silicon designer at Intel, has some thoughts about his former employer as there are rumors that the company is up for sale.

Keller worked at Intel from 2018 to 2020, and before that worked for Tesla leading the Autopilot hardware team. Before that, he was at Apple where his team designed the A4 and A5 chips used for iPhones and iPads. Keller spent most of his career at AMD designing the company's Zen processors in the 2010s and the Athlon processor in the '90s. He is the current CEO of Tenstorrent, a company developing AI processors.

Earlier in the week, Keller tweeted that the rumor "fire sale" for parts of Intel had made him sad considering the company's reputation as a chip maker.

"You build value by having a great goal and a team that loves working to the goal," he posted on Tuesday. "Intel built the fastest CPUs on the best process. This is not unlocking shareholder value, it's a fire sale. It makes me sad."

Then on Thursday, Keller made another tweet about Intel's situation.

"The trap for Intel and many others. Innovation makes money. Money drives market cap. Market cap needs to be supported. Innovation is risky. Promote careful people. Stop innovation," he tweeted.

Is Intel being sold soon?

Multiple companies are currently interested in acquiring different parts of Intel.

Chip designer Broadcom is reportedly interested in buying Intel's chip designing and marketing business, according to the Wall Street Journal. A move like this could make Broadcom the definitive leader in the chip designing sector as it would take over Intel's PC and server processor business. However, it would need a partner to take over other parts of the company.

That partner could be semiconductor maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). TSMC is reportedly looking for U.S. manufacturing plants to make its chip to avoid the possible 25% tariffs President Donald Trump has proposed on silicon made overseas. Intel has multiple plants in the U.S., and TSMC is reportedly interested in acquiring them.

Intel's programmable chip division is also on the market. Private equity firm Silver Lake Management is in talks to acquire a majority stake in Intel's programmable chip unit, according to Bloomberg. Intel is reportedly fielding offers to help turn the company around, but its ultimate plan remains unclear, as it has been selling off stakes in other businesses since last year.

Intel did announce earlier in the month that it was planning to do more in the PC gaming handheld market. So far, AMD has been the dominant processor in handheld machines, but Intel says it plans on beefing up its staff.

Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC is reportedly taking interest in Intel's stateside manufacturing plants claims The Wall Street Journal in an article published on Saturday. The news follows Trump's recent claims that the United States will be "placing tariffs on foreign production of computer chips" in the near future.

The fear of Trump's tariffs has sent the wider industry into a panic, with a large percentage of semiconductor fabrication taking place overseas leading many to hypothesize an exponential increase in the cost of consumer technology is on the horizon.

TSMC's interest in Intel's stateside manufacturing facilities may be how it sees its way around these impending tariffs, but not everybody at Intel appreciates talk of a potential acquisition.

Trump's tariffs have sent the industry into a panic

In January, the CTA (Consumer Technology Association) filed a report with several predictions on how much computing hardware costs could climb following Trump's planned tariffs.

The CTA claims we could see a rise in price as high as 40% for video game consoles, 46% for laptops, and 26% for smartphones. While we have no idea when exactly Trump will enact these tariffs, recent news suggests he's unwavering in his plans. On Thursday, Trump claimed that "Taiwan took our chip business away ... It was taken from us, and we want that business back. We want it back in the United States."

However, Trump doesn't seem particularly concerned with how much damage it could do to the industry, believing any short-term disruption to the cost of consumer tech as being worth it in the long run, stating "There could be some short-term disturbance, but long-term, it's gonna make our country a fortune."

We've previously covered how expensive hardware could get under these new tariffs, and it revealed that Intel was the most prepared compared to competitors to weather this impending storm as the company already has manufacturing plants littered across Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon.

In 2011, Intel claimed that "roughly three-fourths of the company's microprocessor manufacturing is done here in America." That was a long time ago, and there's no telling how much of its manufacturing is done in the United States now, but considering TSMC's reported interest in acquiring Intel's manufacturing plants, it must be a significant operation.

But why is Intel such a target? Following a failure to meet the financial predictions of its latest AI chips, Intel cut 15% of its workforce (~18,000 jobs) in 2024, with then CEO Pat Gelsinger also stepping down in response. This shake-up for Intel has many believing that the company could be open to selling off parts of its business, with Bloomberg reporting that Qualcomm was initially interested in acquiring the company for a brief period.

TSMC already manufactures microprocessors for AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Apple, but the majority of its fabrication is happening in Taiwan, making it a prime target for Trump's tariffs. While Apple has begun manufacturing chips in America, its facilities are nowhere near enough to cover the enormity of the company's production.

TSMC acquiring Intel's statewide manufacturing plants could allow it to bypass Trump's tariffs quicker than it would take to build entirely new production plants in the United States, while also expanding its business to meet rising demand. It's also possible that manufacturers will build these plants without TSMC, although TSMC is still working with Apple for its stateside manufacturing.

TSMC's acquisition of Intel's manufacturing could be an enormous investment and have a sizeable impact on the tech market. However, not everyone at Intel is happy about TSMC's purported interest.

This Intel employee doesn't want to be acquired by TSMC

Joseph Bonetti, Principal Engineering Program Manager at Intel Corporation, wrote a LinkedIn post on Sunday specifically asking for any potential acquisition not to happen. In the post, Bonetti writes "Intel Leaders, Intel Board, Trump Administration, please don't sell out/and or give control of Intel Foundry to TSMC, just as Intel is taking a technical lead and getting out of first gear. This would be a horrible, demoralizing mistake."

While TSMC's reasons for wanting to acquire Intel's manufacturing plants aren't explicitly stated. Bonetti isn't shy in reading between the lines. He writes "Technical competition from Intel plus the threat of tariffs are jointly a huge problem for TSMC. Handing over control of Intel's foundries solves this problem for TSMC, but hurts Intel, hurts US leadership, and gives credibility to the false idea that Intel Foundry is not as advanced as TSMC."

It's fair to point out that there's a chance the United States doesn't allow an acquisition like this to go through. On Thursday, Trump, perhaps harboring fondness for the American-based company originally founded in Mountain View, California, stated "We had Intel, we had these great companies that did so well. It was taken from us."

As it stands, Trump's tariffs could come into effect as soon as April 2, 2025, with Howard Lutnick claiming "Our studies should be complete by April 1. We will hand the president the opportunity to start on April 2, if he wants."

More from Laptop Mag

• Laptops and gaming hardware may be up to 40% more expensive under Trump's new tariffs
• Exclusive: Intel plans a big push into handheld gaming PCs to take on AMD
• Apple's M5 chip could arrive soon — but not in the device you expect

Handheld gaming PCs aren't exactly a niche anymore.

Every major gaming hardware manufacturer, other than Alienware, has joined the handheld PC market with at least one attempt at a gaming handheld.

And within the world of gaming handhelds, AMD has reigned supreme, supplying chips for the Asus ROG Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go, and more. Intel handhelds, on the other hand, have been something of a niche within a niche. We had the MSI Claw release in 2024, and a few other Meteor Lake handhelds were announced by companies like OneXPlayer and AOKZOE. MSI also updated the Claw with Intel's Lunar Lake chipset for the Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+, though neither handheld is readily available on the shelves.

But just because Intel is taking a backseat for now doesn't mean it's content to sit in second place. Intel VP and General Manager, of Client AI and Technical Marketing, Robert Hallock tells Laptop Mag, "Intel is beefing up its staff to support gaming ISVs who want to do handhelds."

And with expert support staff from engineers to game developers, Intel is readying itself to make a big push into the handheld market.

Intel's committment to handheld gaming PC development

As part of Intel's commitment to the handheld gaming PC market, the company is increasing its support network for handheld manufacturers. Hallock explains, "We're starting a number of internal programs to give them more assistance in targeting this performance profile because – relative to what they're accustomed to – [handhelds] are still relatively rare in terms of availability."

Part of Intel's plan to support the emerging handheld market is seeding devices to game developers. "A lot of game devs tend to just target what they have on their desks or in their QA labs," Hallock says, "and so [we're] arming them with more handhelds as prototype devices. Getting them dev kits leading into Panther Lake."

But Intel plans to offer more than just dev kits for handhelds. Intel is also keeping handheld specialists on staff as additional support for engineers and software developers.

Arrow Lake Handhelds are coming

At CES, Intel had a wall of upcoming products featuring Intel chipsets. Familiar Intel-powered devices lined the shelves, including the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and Tencent Sunday Dragon 3D handhelds as well as several upcoming Arrow Lake laptops by Acer, Asus, Dell, and Lenovo.

But there were a few other gaming handhelds next to the Claw and Sunday Dragon 3D handheld. I wasn't able to identify those devices at the time, and probably for good reason, as Hallock confirmed those handhelds were powered by Intel's latest Arrow Lake H SoC (System-on-a-chip).

"Those are coming, you know, Arrow [Lake] H has about the same graphics performance as Lunar [Lake] and some of these handhelds are going all the way up to 30 watts now. And Arrow [Lake] fits really nicely in that sort of form factor," Hallock confirms.

Based on what we've seen of Arrow Lake H's integrated Arc 140T graphics tile, we'd be pretty pleased with the performance on an Arrow Lake H gaming handheld, though the battery life might not be as good as the Lunar Lake handhelds.

"It's not just Lunar [Lake] either. Whatever our vendors want to take for their product design, we're more than happy to do so. And the cool thing about having more than one SoC design is you can actually be flexible like that," Hallock says.

"We don't have to take the same design and just keep cutting it bigger and smaller."

But you may want to hold out for Panther Lake

Arrow Lake H isn't the endpoint for Intel's handheld commitment either. Co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus confirmed at CES that Intel's next-generation of mobile chips, Panther Lake is already in testing. And Hallock confirmed that Intel is already willing to work with partners to get Panther Lake handhelds on the schedule.

But what do we know about Panther Lake so far? This upcoming chipset design won't be joining the Intel Core Ultra 200 family alongside Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake.

Panther Lake is the codename for Intel's upcoming mobile CPU family of SoCs, similar to Arrow Lake, and will likely be part of Intel's Core Ultra 300 generation. And while former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger confirmed that Lunar Lake was something of a one-off in terms of chip design, particularly in putting the system memory on the CPU package, Panther Lake is intended to build on the success of Lunar Lake.

"Panther Lake is essentially a direct successor to what Lunar [Lake]'s doing," Hallock tells us. "You saw the [CPU] package get held up at CES, it doesn't have memory on package this time." And while that is a major change from the Lunar Lake design it does have its advantages.

"That makes it really nice for handheld vendors as well because now they can customize the memory they put in the platform. But we have other technologies that can compensate for the removal of the memory on package, which saves power," Hallock adds.

So even without the benefit of having memory on the CPU package, Panther Lake shouldn't be much slower than Lunar Lake, while offering a more standard silicon design that allows for RAM configuration customization.

"We're trying to build a family tree out of Lunar Lake," Hallock explains. "We're trying to create a stack based on that product. We're trying to take the things that people love and do more of it."

So while Arrow Lake-H handhelds are coming soon, and a few Lunar Lake handhelds have already been announced, if you have the patience to wait for the Panther Lake versions it might get you the best of both worlds.

Bottom line

Intel's internal support for handheld development is less about gamers, it's more of a commitment to hardware design and game developer partners.

"If there's a game developer out there who happens upon this article eventually and you've been thinking about handhelds, give us an e-mail," Hallock says. "We would love to work with you and help you optimize your software for handheld devices. We have that staff. We have performance profiling tools. We have game developers on staff who are very familiar with optimizing graphics presets for devices of this performance profile or this form factor, and we would love to step in and give you a hand."

"It's a big goal for some of the groups inside Intel to work on this, to make it their number one priority in '24 and '25 and then headed into Panther Lake as well.
We know that designing a new game for a new piece of hardware isn't always easy.
And so we're ready and willing to jump in and help you do it. So if your game isn't coming out in the Lunar Lake generation, cool, we can help you do it for the Panther Lake generation, that's fine."

But for all that Hallock's message isn't for gamers, ultimately consumers will have a much better experience on Intel handhelds thanks to partnerships and co-engineering teams like this one. Intel is known for working closely with its OEM partners and expanding into the game development side makes sense. Both for handheld devices that use Intel's SoC chipsets, but also for Intel's Arc discrete graphics business.

Ultimately, steeper competition in the handheld gaming space will only benefit gamers in the long run.

More from Laptop Mag

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From your smartphone to your gaming rig, silicon is the silent conductor making all of your computing possible, and the driving force behind modern technology. Laptop Mag's Silicon Survey meets with the minds behind some of tech's most powerful computer chips.

However, today's processors target more than Moore's Law. CPU, GPU, SoC, and APU designs are only half of the story following the emergence of powerful generative AI software, after all.

Join us as we take a deep dive into the latest trends shaping the next wave of computing and gain insight into how companies like Apple, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia, ARM, and MediaTek see this space evolving over the coming years, and the architecture, engineering, and innovation needed to make it happen.

Welcome to Laptop Mag's Silicon Survey 2025.

The only constant is progress

Opening words from special issue writer, Madeline Ricchiuto

Whether or not Moore’s Law is actually dead, all of our interviewees for this special issue agreed that performance gains will continue long into the future.

But what that means, and how we get there differs by chip maker. Intel’s Robert Hallock tells Laptop Mag, when it comes to hardware performance and efficiency, “You can't go backwards.”

The only constant is progress. (Read more)

"MediaTek is the number one provider of Arm-based Chromebooks": Adam King unpacks on the Chromebook boom

With years of experience creating processors for the ChromeOS platform, MediaTek looks to maintain its grip on Chromebooks despite competition from Qualcomm

MediaTek chipsets power plenty of smartphones and tablets, but its in Chromebooks that the brand truly takes the lead. As Adam King tells Laptop Mag, "MediaTek is the number one provider of Arm-based Chromebooks."

Despite competition from Qualcomm's budget-friendly Snapdragon X chipset, MediaTek's ChomeOS head start alongside a push to make performance affordable through its Helio, Dimensity, and Kompanio families of processors could be key to its continued success.

The company looks toward a bright future, with King telling Laptop Mag: “MediaTek will keep finding new ways to add more computing power to our chipsets.” (Read more)

“The consumer wins either way”: Arm’s Chris Bergey on the rise of Arm computing and the rivalry with x86

Smartphone success stories are now shaping the computing industry

Arm’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, Client Line of Business, Chris Bergey, tells Laptop Mag about the advantages of Arm technology and how it has shaped the world of silicon — from phones to tablets and Chromebooks to home PCs.

Thanks to the success of Apple’s M-series silicon and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Series, Arm has dominated much of the computing industry in the last few years.

But Arm has done more in the last few years than just making new CPU cores. Arm PCs have become more powerful and efficient than their x86 counterparts, pushing Intel and AMD for further innovation. (Read more)

“AI is dramatically reshaping many industries, including gaming”: Nvidia’s Jesse Clayton muses on the AI-powered future of gaming

If any company can get gamers behind AI, it would be Nvidia.

How much will AI shape gaming in the years ahead? A prediction from Jesse Clayton, a 19-year veteran of Nvidia and its Director of Product Management and Product Marketing for Windows AI, has the answer:

“AI is dramatically reshaping many industries, including gaming ... These neural rendering innovations are laying the path for the future of gaming.”

Nvidia’s GTX and RTX gaming GPUs have dominated the field for years. While AMD and Intel are now both players in the discrete GPU market, most gamers will still opt for the Nvidia card. Laptop Mag hosts an exclusive interview with Clayton to find out the secret to Nvidia's success. (Read more)

Nvidia in action: Top reviewed Nvidia RTX gaming laptops

• READ MORE: Best gaming laptops in 2025: Our top picks after hundreds of hours of testing, reviewing, and gaming

MacBooks "without any compromises": Apple's Doug Brooks says performance and battery life dominance will continue as M5 rumors emerge

The Apple veteran exclusively tells Laptop Mag about the future of Apple Silicon — and how Apple arrived at this moment.

One of Apple’s biggest selling points is its quality control.

Because of Apple’s end-to-end authority over its iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks — from the silicon level up to the finished product — the build quality has been difficult to match.

Doug Brooks, who started working at Apple as a Systems Engineer in 1994 and is now Product Manager for Mac Hardware, is enthusiastic about the future, particularly in two areas: Apple’s ability to maintain its dominance in the performance and battery life arenas. And with Apple’s M5 silicon chips reportedly going into mass production, the trend of Apple excellence is looking bright. (Read more)

Apple in action: Top reviewed Apple laptops

• READ MORE: Best MacBook in 2025: Which Apple laptop should you buy?

“AI tasks will happen automatically and seamlessly”: Qualcomm’s Kedar Kondap believes AI is the future of computing

Despite legal trouble and fierce competition, the second generation of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X PCs will continue to vie for dominance in 2025

Qualcomm helped define the AI PC market in June 2024 with the release of its Snapdragon X Elite processors, and leaders at the San Diego company hope to continue surfing this wave well into 2025 and beyond.

Senior VP and GM of Compute and Gaming, Kedar Kondap is confident about the future of Qualcomm, noting the company’s early performance leads over rival chip makers like Intel and AMD, alongside the growing potential of AI. From Kondap’s point of view and from the outside, Qualcomm seems well-positioned to compete for dominance in Windows laptops for years to come. (Read more)

Qualcomm in action: Top reviewed Qualcomm laptops

• READ MORE: Best AI PCs in 2025: 6 laptops optimized for the latest AI features

“Not everybody has a killer app for AI yet”: Intel’s Robert Hallock opens the company playbook on AI, NPUs, and more

Performance, efficiency, gaming, and AI are all cornerstones of the Intel roadmap

To say 2024 was a rough year for Intel may be an understatement. But, as Intel’s Robert Hallock told Laptop Mag, “You can't go backwards. That's unacceptable.”

Even after various setbacks in the past year — from the beleaguered Arrow Lake desktop launch to speculation about the company’s direction and the resignation of CEO Pat Gelsinger — Hallock, the company’s Vice President and General Manager of Client AI and Technical Marketing, says Intel has no choice but to look forward. (Read more)

Intel in action: Top reviewed Intel laptops

• READ MORE: Best laptops in 2025: Our top 10 recommendations in January

"Boring stuff changes the world": AMD's Jason Banta on what to expect from AI and AMD in the future

Team Red had a clear lead on Intel in 2024, but can AMD maintain the momentum?

“Boring stuff changes the world,” AMD’s Jason Banta, Vice President and General Manager of the Client OEM group, tells Laptop Mag, insisting that what we’ve seen from AI and Microsoft’s Copilot+ suite is only the beginning.

While Microsoft's initial suite of AI tools and features for Windows 11 may seem boring, they're part of a growing snowball effect that could (one day soon) drastically impact the performance and potential we eke out from our hardware and, in turn, the experiences we gain from it. (Read more)

AMD in action: Top reviewed AMD laptops

• READ MORE: The best AMD Ryzen laptops in 2025: 6 top picks we've tested and reviewed

Can we keep expecting 20-30% increases in hardware performance and efficiency, generation to generation?

As part of our 2025 Silicon Survey, Laptop Mag spoke with executives from AMD, Apple, Arm, Intel, MediaTek, Nvidia, and Qualcomm to determine if we can expect to see performance and efficiency plateaus in the coming years.

You’ll be able to catch these exclusive interviews in full throughout the week in Laptop Mag’s Silicon Survey special issue. And while the microchip world may be divided on whether or not Moore’s Law is actually dead, all of our interviewees agreed that performance gains will continue long into the future.

But what that means, and how we get there differs by chip maker. Intel’s Robert Hallock tells Laptop Mag, when it comes to hardware performance and efficiency, “You can't go backwards.”

The only constant is progress.

What is Moore’s Law and why does it matter for chips?

Moore’s Law is a trend in microchip design, first recognized by Intel Co-Founder Gordon Moore. Moore observed that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles roughly every two years. In 1965, Moore predicted that this trend of doubling transistors would continue for the next decade. However, his observations have stood as a guiding principle of processor design for the last 60 years.

While the end of Moore’s projections proving accurate has been heralded many times, Computex 2024 saw the most recent resurrection of the “Moore’s Law is Dead” debate among chipmakers.

Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang is the largest proponent of the idea that Moore’s Law is dead, while former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger argues otherwise. After all, Intel’s Lunar Lake chips prove that you can still double the number of transistors on an integrated circuit, even in modern computing.

Taking a long, hard look at raw computing power and efficiency from all the major chip makers over the last several years, we wonder: can we expect to keep seeing the same major performance increases between generations of silicon?

Eventually, physical hardware scaling will have to change. Moore’s Law is only a trend in outcome, not a bankable guarantee. Semiconductors can only get so small, and microchips can only house so many transistors before the actual and inarguable laws of thermodynamics have to step in. TSMC is already hard at work on a 2-nanometer process for semiconductors, but how small can a semiconductor get before it cooks under the pressure?

As our interviewees highlighted, microchip performance is about more than transistors. Chips aren’t just hardware. To run a new chip, you need new drivers and software.

With the rise of AI, Nvidia’s argument has changed from “Moore’s Law is dead” to “Our systems are progressing way faster than Moore’s Law” because of artificial intelligence, which has been the biggest force behind Nvidia’s new RTX 50-series “Blackwell” GPUs.

Regardless of the approach, we can expect major performance gains to continue for several generations

Part of the argument that “Moore’s Law is Dead” can be traced back to the industry itself.

“I think the industry is always cyclical sometimes. It's always a balance of performance per Watt, right?” Intel’s Robert Hallock tells Laptop Mag. “Sometimes the industry can unlock a new process node or a new technology and performance jumps way up, and then you can't do that every year… I firmly believe there are still leaps and bounds out there, that we've by no means hit the collective end of our ropes on performance.”

However, it isn’t just a hardware versus software debate, as chipmakers have now adopted a dual approach.

“Chip manufacturing technology is improving at a fairly steady rate, enabling processors to physically shrink in size every two or three years. Every size reduction enables us to improve power efficiency and add more transistors,” Qualcomm’s Kedar Kondap tells Laptop Mag.

But Kondap also admits that AI and the introduction of the NPU in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series processors has “created new performance metrics and introduced AI capabilities into both the mobile and PC markets.”

Nvidia has long held that optimization and AI are the way of the future for continued performance. After all, Nvidia’s new RTX 50-series GPUs are still using the same 4N (4-nanometer) node as the RTX 40-series GPUs, because “The 4N process provides us with the best combination of performance, power, and price for our GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs” Nvidia’s Jesse Clayton expounded.

That said, refusing to place all of its eggs in one basket, Clayton also makes Nvidia's wider goals apparent, stating, “hardware is not the only important aspect … NVIDIA’s AI software platform, which has been in development for more than a decade, enables developers to get the most out of their RTX GPUs.”

AMD’s Director of Product Marketing, Adam Kozak, may have been the most succinct. Even when using older architecture and older nodes, you can still see major performance improvements, because “The software can now do more tricks.”

While chip makers like Intel and Qualcomm strive to prove that Moore’s Law still has life left in it, others focus on fine-tuning output, using software and AI to push performance past potential plateaus. And we’ll see these improvements coming throughout 2025 and over the next few years.

Laptop Mag invites you to read about these improvements and more as we publish a series of interviews with AMD, Apple, Arm, Intel, MediaTek, Nvidia, and Qualcomm throughout the week as part of our Silicon Survey special issue.

The first Copilot+ PC was the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, alongside the Surface Pro 11. Equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chipset, the Surface Laptop 7 was the first Windows laptop in a while to have a battery life worth bragging about and impressively zippy performance.

Unfortunately, the Qualcomm-based Copilot+ PC wasn't without issues. In our Surface Laptop 7 review, we noted the display wasn't as colorful as we'd like and a shallow keyboard that didn't lend well to a positive typing experience.

Many Surface Laptop 7 users also noted issues with native app compatibility for Windows on Arm. Although this has improved since launch, it's still an issue for Snapdragon-powered PCs today. It's also a major reason some users are considering buying one of Microsoft's new Intel-based Surface Laptop 7 machines instead.

This new Surface Laptop 7 model, powered by Intel's Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) chipset, will be available to purchase starting February 18, 2025. For those with specific Windows apps that are only natively compatible with x86, it may be worth waiting for the Intel-based Surface Laptop 7.

To help you decide on a laptop that will help you with everyday tasks for years, we'll compare Intel—and Qualcomm-based Surface Laptop 7 devices side by side, scrutinizing promised performance, battery life, and more.

Surface Laptop 7 Intel vs. Qualcomm: Specs compared

Surface Laptop 7 Intel vs. Qualcomm: Price and availability

There's quite a significant price difference between Intel and Qualcomm variants of the Surface Laptop 7.

The Qualcomm-based, 13.8-inch model starts at $999, while its larger 15-inch sibling starts at $1,299. Meanwhile, the Intel-based, 13.8-inch model starts at $1,499—a staggering $500 more than its Qualcomm-based opponent. Although Microsoft didn't give a starting price for the larger 15-inch model, we're assuming it'll start at $1,799.

You can now buy a Qualcomm Surface Laptop 7 through Microsoft or other retailers. However, if you want an Intel Surface Laptop 7, you'll have to wait until February 18 to receive it.

Surface Laptop 7 Intel vs. Qualcomm: Display and design

By looking at them, it'll be difficult — if not nearly impossible — to tell the difference between an Intel-based Surface Laptop 7 and a Qualcomm-based one.

Both Surface Laptop 7 models feature a sleek, MacBook-inspired look with the Microsoft logo centered on the top cover and a thin, lightweight chassis. They even come equipped with the same amount of ports, though the Intel-based Surface Laptop 7 is gaining a USB-A 3.2 port instead of the Qualcomm model's USB-A 3.1 port.

Nothing new was said about the keyboard, so we expect the typing experience to be identical between Intel- and Qualcomm-powered Surface Laptop 7 iterations.

Another identical component between both laptops are the display options. You'll have a choice between a 13.8-inch (2304 x 1536) 120Hz touchscreen display and a 15-inch (2496 x 1664) 120Hz touchscreen display, whether you go with a processor from Qualcomm or Intel.

Surface Laptop 7 Intel vs. Qualcomm: Performance

Performance is one of the biggest categories in which these two laptops will differ, with one powered by Intel's Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) chip and the other powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite or X Plus chip.

Laptop Mag's Surface Laptop 7 review unit featured a Snapdragon X Elite X1E80100 processor backed up by 32GB of RAM. When we ran the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, the laptop scored an impressive multi-core score of 14,426.

We haven't been able to test one of Microsoft's new Intel-based, 7th-gen Surface Laptops yet, so we don't have our own Geekbench 6 scores to compare. However, Tom's Guide tested an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor in a Dell XPS 13 and an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V processor in an Asus Zenbook S 14 and received multi-core scores of 11,033 and 11,125, respectively.

It's not clear whether these laptops were equipped with 16GB or 32GB of RAM, which could make a difference in multi-core scores. That said, based on our limited knowledge so far, it looks like Qualcomm has a leg up over Intel regarding raw performance power.

Surface Laptop 7 Intel vs. Qualcomm: Battery life

According to Microsoft, the 15-inch, Snapdragon X Elite-powered Surface Laptop 7 features up to 22 hours of battery life for video playback. The smaller 13.8-inch model can last up to 20 hours. Specs for Intel-powered Surface Laptop 7 models suggest similar video playback estimates.

According to battery life estimates directly from Microsoft based on "active web usage," the Intel-powered Surface Laptop 7 can last up to 12 hours on the 13.8-inch model and up to 14 hours on the 15-inch model. Alternatively, the Qualcomm-powered Surface Laptop 7 can last up to 13 hours on the smaller model and up to 15 hours on the larger model.

In our Surface Laptop 7 review, the laptop lasted 15 hours and 44 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous surfing through web pages over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness.

For comparison, Tom's Guide ran a battery test on the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chip in a Dell XPS 13, which lasted 17 hours and 29 minutes. These aren't identical laptops, and processors behave differently within unique configurations. However, this helps us know what battery life with Intel's new Lunar Lake chips could be like before we get our hands on one to test.

Surface Laptop 7 Intel vs. Qualcomm: App compatibility

We've come a long way since the first Copilot+ PC launched in July 2024 when it comes to app compatibility on devices running Windows on Arm.

According to research from Microsoft, 90% of the time people spend on Copilot+ PCs — which at the time were solely powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips — is spent in "native experiences including popular apps like Chrome, Zoom, Brave, Photoshop, Opera, Slack, Spotify, Private Internet Access, Surfshark, Windscribe, OpenVPN, and many others."

TechRadar has a massive list of apps supported natively through Windows on Arm, but Steam is the only one absent. So far, Valve hasn't created a native Steam app for Windows on Arm, and there's no telling when it'll be available or if it's even in the works. Currently, there are emulation workaround solutions, but gaming on a laptop running Windows on Arm is more complicated than on an x86-based laptop.

With growing native app compatibility, there's a good chance this won't be a deciding factor for much longer when buying an x86-based, Intel-powered laptop vs. a Windows on Arm, Qualcomm-based laptop.

But for now, I'd suggest listing all the apps you typically use regularly and confirming whether they have native app support for Windows on Arm before you buy.

Surface Laptop 7 Intel vs. Qualcomm: Outlook

Ultimately, the battle between an Intel-powered and a Qualcomm-powered Surface Laptop 7 is an extremely close one. Both processors are powerful enough to qualify the laptop as a Copilot+ PC under Microsoft's guidelines, and they'll both feature better battery life than we've seen in years from Windows laptops.

Until we get our hands on a Surface Laptop 7 with a new Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor, we can't definitively declare a winner or say whether one laptop will be better for most people. However, based on battery life and performance estimates we've seen thus far, the Snapdragon X Elite-powered variants seem to have a slight leg up over Intel models.

The only area where Intel wins out over Qualcomm right now is in regards to native app compatibility, and Qualcomm is quickly catching up. And a year or two from now, nearly all the apps people use on a regular basis could have native Windows on Arm versions.

Microsoft revealed new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop devices on Thursday that will have the first Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs in the company's Surface lineup.

The new Intel Core Ultra Series 2 Lunar Lake chips offer improved performance, more powerful integrated graphics, and enhanced efficiency — the latter is proudly signaled by Microsoft, rating its new Surface devices as having a battery life of up to 22 hours, in particular.

With improved local AI processing power thanks to a distributed workload spread across CPU, GPU, and NPU, Microsoft's latest Surface devices are primed and ready for the AI PC era, and capable of taking full advantage of Windows 11's Copilot+ PC-exclusive features in full.

Microsoft Surface Laptop for Business

Microsoft's new 13.8-inch and 15-inch Surface Laptop for Business models feature Intel's new Lunar Lake chips, offering more than 15% better single-thread and multi-thread CPU performance over Intel's previous Meteor Lake generation of chips.

Intel's Lunar Lake chips are also outfitted with up to 99 TOPS of AI performance, primarily sourced from its integrated GPU which is now 22% faster.

Overall, this positions the new Surface Laptop for Business as a faster, more powerful, and longer-lasting laptop, with Microsoft claiming a battery life of up to 22 hours.

However, it's not just a bold new chipset that Microsoft can brag about. For the first time, the Surface Laptop for Business lineup will feature a 5G model, offering cellular connectivity to make staying connected while on the go easier than ever.

Add to this WiFi 7 for faster and more stable wireless connectivity, an improvement in port selection, an optional smart card reader, and a large precision haptic touchpad that can be fine-tuned to suit different levels of sensitivity and you have a formidable thin and light laptop that's entirely capable of doing the business.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop for Business will be available from February 18, 2025, at a starting price of $1,499.

More details on the pricing and availability of the Surface Laptop for Business 5G will follow in the coming weeks.

Microsoft Surface Pro for Business

The Surface Pro is one of Microsoft's most versatile products, offering the usability and handling of a tablet without sacrificing all of the functionality and performance of a solid laptop.

Thanks to Intel's latest Lunar Lake chips, that statement looks to stay accurate throughout 2025 with the new Surface Pro for Business offering up to 28% more performance, 98% more graphics performance, and up to twice the battery life of the ninth-generation Surface Pro model.

Pair it with the Surface Pro Flex keyboard and the Surface Pro instantly fills a laptop-shaped hole in your workday — effortlessly transforming into a powerful 2-in-1 notebook for easier operation.

Alternatively, the Surface Slim Pen will afford you a suitable stylus to jot down notes, sketch out plans or ideas, or make precision pointing across the Surface Pro's 13-inch, OLED, anti-reflective PixelSense display a breeze.

You'll also find the same host of enterprise-level security you'd expect from the Surface Pro for Business, with its ultrawide camera unlocking Windows Hello facial recognition and even a built-in NFC reader for password-free access using a security key.

The Microsoft Surface Pro for Business will be available from February 18, 2025, also at a starting price of $1,499.

What's next

Microsoft's new Surface devices make for an impressive update to the Meteor Lake business models launched early last year, successfully shepherding Intel into the Copilot+ PC fold for Surface devices going forward.

While today's announcement primarily focused on business-class laptops, more general consumer-focused laptops will follow in 2025.

Among those expected are a potential refresh for the creator-friendly Surface Laptop Studio and a follow-up to last year's Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-powered Surface devices, potentially featuring the new budget-friendly Snapdragon X processors unveiled at CES 2025.

More from Laptop Mag

Over the last decade, the price of laptops, gaming hardware, and smartphones has only grown, but things might get exceptionally worse soon.

Throughout Donald Trump's presidential campaign, he proposed placing tariffs as high as up to 60% for goods from China, and up to 20% for everything else coming into the United States. He said this back in September, but he recently provided an update on these proposed tariffs.

Trump gave a speech on Monday during the House GOP Issues Conference where he said "In the very near future, we're going to be placing tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals to return production of these essential goods to the United States of America." In particular, Trump mentions Taiwan, and cites that it holds 98% of the chip business, stating "We want them to come back."

In short, our wallets could be in huge trouble very soon.

How much damage could Trump's tariffs actually do?

When Trump initially proposed these tariffs last year, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) filed a report documenting predictions for how drastically these tariffs could hike prices if they go through.

The report suggests that laptops and tablets could get 46% more expensive and video game consoles might rise by 40%. Smartphones would be the least impacted, marked up by just 26%, but it's still a drastic increase (via TechCrunch).

Senior Director of the CTA, Brian Comiskey, claimed at CES 2025 that spending for “tablets and laptops could decline as much as 68%, gaming consoles as much as 58%, and smartphones up to 37%.”

These claims get a lot scarier when you apply them to the things we actually use. AMD outsources its chip manufacturing to TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. AMD chips power the PS5 and Xbox Series X, but the Nintendo Switch 2 is rumored to use an Nvidia chip. Unfortunately, Nvidia's chips are also manufactured by TSMC. In other words, all of these are imported from Taiwan.

If the 40% price increase on game consoles is true, it would mean the Xbox Series X and PS5's launch prices of $500 could be as high as $700 for the coming generation. Rumors for the Nintendo Switch 2 suggest it could be anywhere from $400 to $450, but the proposed tariffs could bring that up to anywhere from $560 to $630.

Even when we move to laptops, and focus on something like Apple products, the majority of Apple Silicon is outsourced to manufacturers like TSMC. However, towards the end of last year, Apple began making some chips in America as reported by independent journalist Tim Culpan, still produced by TSMC. The branch is called TSMC Arizona, and while it's reportedly starting small, it's a start.

On the other hand, Intel manufactures at several different locations, with production facilities in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Ireland, and Israel. It also has assembly and test sites in China, Costa Rica, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

On Intel's website, the company claims "approximately half of our workforce handles production," and in 2011, it claimed that "roughly three-fourths of the company's microprocessor manufacturing is done here in America." 2011 was a long time ago, so it's hard to say if that's accurate in 2025, but that's the latest statement Intel has made on how much is produced in America.

There's one more major chip maker we haven't covered: Qualcomm. A brief look at the company's website reveals that it will similarly suffer at the hands of these tariffs, where it's stated, "The majority of our manufacturing and test suppliers are located in the Asia-Pacific region."

In short, AMD, Nvidia, and Qualcomm are potentially facing trouble. Intel and Apple may be more prepared for this impending storm, but both could still be greatly impacted by these tariffs. Apple has only just begun producing in America and still has a majority of its manufacturing done elsewhere. Meanwhile, we have no clear picture of how much of Intel's manufacturing is presently done within the United States.

We have no information on exactly when these tariffs will become a reality. However, it could happen within weeks as Trump can, in most cases, impose tariffs without congressional approval according to the National Law Review.

Considering these companies are the ones manufacturing the chips that power your laptops, smartphones, and gaming consoles, our wallets could be in huge trouble in the near future.

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This week, Intel proposed a modular PC design engineered for laptops and mini-PCs that feels like a sketch of what future laptops could be.

Published by Intel researchers on the company's blog, the modular laptop concept envisions what laptops and mini-PCs could look like with standardized sizes for mobile motherboards and IO ports for fan-less, single-fan, and dual-fan laptops.

Roberta Zouain, Intel's Sustainability Product Strategy and Marketing Manager; Reshma PP, Director of System Design; and Gurpreet Sandhu, Vice President of the Platform Engineering Group, are behind the concept.

The researchers' driving focus, they write, is sustainable laptop production, which goes hand in hand with the right-to-repair movement. This movement enables users to repair and upgrade their machines without being penalized by technology companies through restrictions on getting components or tools to make the repairs.

While modular laptop concepts aren't new — Framework has been making modular laptops for years, and Asus will soon release ROG Strix Scar 16 and 18 laptops — this new approach from Intel has one key differentiator: It's open source, meaning anyone can use the research materials to make their own laptops and PCs.

What is Intel's Modular PC paper about?

Intel's modular design would separate the existing laptop motherboard from an all-in-one solution into a three-segment design with the motherboard and SoC (system-on-a-chip) separate from the IO ports. This would allow for an easier repair and upgrade process.

Intel's proposal reads, in part, "Modular PC architecture breaks from the traditional all-in-one motherboard design, opting instead for a system where key components are categorized into individual, interchangeable modules.

This innovative structure allows for targeted upgrades, repairs, and replacements, significantly extending the device's lifespan and reducing electronic waste."

Intel also proposed a modular mini-PC design, separating the components into standardized modules, similar to the proposed laptop design.

As the Intel blog purports, the purpose of all this is to "significantly extend the usable life of computing devices, thereby reducing electronic waste and promoting a more sustainable consumption model.

"By working closely with our customers and partners, we hope to transform the way PCs are designed and help shape the future of computing."

What makes Intel's proposal different from existing modular laptops like Framework?

For the last couple of generations of Framework designs, like the Framework Laptop 16 in 2023, the company has even created swappable motherboards and replaceable displays to repair or upgrade the laptop.

However, Framework is just one company. Intel's design plan attempts to open-source modular laptop and mini-PC designs.

The pro proposal is more like the desktop format approach. In contrast, PC-building enthusiasts can choose parts from different manufacturers and put them in the same PC thanks to format standardizations like ATX, DTX, Micro ATX, and Mini ITX.

Intel pioneered the ATX and Micro ATX motherboard and power supply formats. However, companies like IBM, SSI, VIA, and AMD created many standardized motherboard form factors.

When could we see modular laptops and mini PCs take over?

In contrast to other modular laptop implementations, Intel's proposal is more of an open-source solution. Intel doesn't manufacture devices, just some PC components. So this design would need to be adopted by Intel's laptop and mini-PC partners.

That means it could be a while before we see manufacturers like Dell, Asus, or Lenovo utilizing Intel's modular motherboard and I/O designs to create modular laptops and mini-PCs.

Considering the time it takes to engineer and build new laptops and mini-PCs, the earliest we could expect to see parts of this modular concept would be about a year.

Given Intel Co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus's confirmation at CES that "Panther Lake" is already in testing, we might see modular laptops and mini-PCs built with a mobile variant of that SoC. But only time will tell.

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I’ve always associated MSI with Intel chips, because every MSI gaming laptop I’ve reviewed has come with one. It had nothing to do with what was available at the time for me to review, either; Taiwan-based MSI has long partnered with Intel for processors.

Even when MSI started using chips from AMD — the Intel competitor less than two miles away in Santa Clara, California in its gaming laptops — many of MSI laptops still only came with an Intel option.

But this year at CES in Las Vegas, an AMD chip was listed on nearly every one of the little display cards that sat next to new MSI laptops.

This was a huge departure from what MSI has done in the past — and maybe a sign that Intel may be up for a fight if it wants to continue its domination of the mobile gaming space.

MSI reps tell Laptop Mag via email it still considers Intel “the leader in the professional industry,” but now that AMD has expanded its mobile chip catalog, MSI wanted to give more options to different types of users.

The popular AMD Ryzen X3D processor, which can produce higher frame rates and smoother game play for demanding AAA games, is one example of an AMD chip that MSI wanted to utilize in its laptops.

“The X3D solution largely benefits gamers, so we brought the technology to our gaming flagship Raider series.”

MSI went beyond its Raider laptop series this year at CES, announcing the following new configurations (in addition to Intel options):

• AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D for the Raider
• AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX for the Vector
• AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 for the Pulse
• AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX for the Crosshair

Of course, none of those AMD Ryzen chips were around at CES last year. MSI debuted new Raider, Vector, Pulse, and Crosshair gaming laptops with Intel 14th-gen or Core Ultra processors — though the company released an AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D version of its Raider gaming laptop later in 2024.

Still, the AMD Ryzen 8000 series existed last year, yet MSI did not include that configuration in its Crosshair gaming laptop or any of its higher-tier gaming options. Its nostalgic '90s budget Cyborg launched with only an Intel option last year, but this year it will feature up to an AMD Ryzen 7 260 chip.

The new Katana gaming laptop is listed with either an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS option or the new Intel Arrow Lake processor this year at CES, too. The Stealth is also getting a boost to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (up from the Ryzen AI 9 365 version Laptop reviewed in November 2024).

The only gaming laptop without an AMD option is the Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth. As MSI tells Laptop Mag, the Dragon Edition is a special edition laptop that will be available in limited quantities.

AMD in MSI laptops is a huge win for gamers

This many AMD configurations is a huge win for gamers. Anyone who might have wanted an MSI gaming laptop but opted not to buy one because it didn’t come with an AMD chip can now include MSI in their decision process. From high-end to budget options, there’s a configuration for almost anyone. There’s no shortage of choices. But it also feels like there is a rift between gaming laptop makers and Intel, one that perhaps has been growing for a while, and we’re just now starting to see its width.

Between AMD making significant leaps in mobile gaming and Intel tripping over hurdles (remember the great 14nm saga of 2021?), a tug-of-war between the two chipmakers has been playing out in yearly laptop announcements. My own memories stretch back to MSI’s budget-priced Bravo 15 (2020), but the company has been working with AMD since before it released that laptop — yet it’s been slower to adopt a full slate of AMD-powered products, as we’ve seen from past announcements.

Now that MSI has gone the whole hog with AMD configurations, it will be the company to watch once gaming laptop reviews start flowing — not just for the quality of those products, but how they compare to their Intel counterparts.

In the world of tech, the event that kickstarts the year is often the one that defines it, and that honor annually falls to CES (formerly the Consumer Electronics Show) — an exhibition hailed as everything from the world's largest gadget show to the most powerful tech event in the world.

The Laptop Mag team reported directly from Las Vegas, Nevada for the duration of the show's January 7 to January 10 span. It's from here that we captured the computing reveals in consumer tech.

Welcome to Laptop Mag's CES 2025 special issue, offering you a recap of all of the highlights from Las Vegas, Nevada, and a showcase of our hand-picked Laptop Laurel winners across 25 categories.

CES 2025: Laptop Laurels

Throughout this year's showcase, we awarded products that truly stand out from the crowd with our Laptop Laurels — Laptop Mag's very own seal of approval for the best tech on show at CES 2025. Check out the winners below.

CES 2025: News recap

Laptop Mag's combined know-how covers a wide range of tech expertise, from laptops to mobile, processors, artificial intelligence, and more. Thanks to their reporting, our on-the-ground team was able to bring all of the breaking news, hands-on reviews, and consumer tech highlights from CES 2025 to our readers.

This year's outbound team included Laptop Mag Editor-in-Chief Nick Lucchesi, Managing Editor Sean Riley, Senior News Editor James Pero, Staff Writer Madeline Ricchiuto, and Contributing Writer Joanna Nelius.

Intel's "Arrow Lake" architecture has returned for a redemption tour on laptops with the debut of Intel Core Ultra 200H and Intel Core Ultra 200HX chipsets.

Intel began CES 2025 with a series of laptop and Edge chip launches. On the mobile computing front, Intel launched the Intel Core Ultra 200H and HX "Arrow Lake" processors alongside the vPro commercial line of Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" chips.

So, what makes these chips worth caring about?

Intel Core Ultra 200H

The Intel Core Ultra 200H series is designed for thin and light laptops with a need for increased performance, so you'll likely see these processors in pro-consumer and professional computers.

The Core Ultra 200H series features upgraded Intel Arc integrated GPUs with XMX, much like the Lunar Lake Core Ultra 200V series. Intel reports that this updated iGPU offers more than 15% better graphics than the Meteor Lake-H series processors.

The Core Ultra 200H series also features the same Lion Cove and Skymont CPU cores we saw in Lunar Lake which, per Intel, offer more than 15% better single-thread and multi-thread CPU performance over the Meteor Lake generation.

Intel's VP of AI and Technical Marketing, Robert Hallock confirmed that Arrow Lake 200H offers on average, a 22% increase in iGPU gaming compared to the Meteor Lake Core Ultra 100H chipsets. Arrow Lake-H is also about 55% better than the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite (XIE-84-100) chip when it comes to iGPU gaming.

The Intel Core Ultra 200H series features up to 99 TOPS of AI performance across the whole chipset, though much of that AI performance will come from the GPU. The Intel Core Ultra 200H "Arrow Lake" series has a smaller NPU than the "Lunar Lake" variant, with just 13 TOPS of NPU performance.

The chips in the H series are as follows:

Intel Core Ultra 200HX

The Intel Core Ultra 200HX "Arrow Lake" chips are built with gamers and PC enthusiasts in mind. These more powerful processors are likely to be seen in gaming and professional workstation laptops.

The Core Ultra 200HX processors feature up to 8 Lion Cove P-cores and up to 16 Skymont E-cores. Intel claims that the 200HX processors should offer more than 5% single thread and 20% multithread performance gains over the 14th-generation "Raptor Lake Refresh" HX processors.

Intel's VP of AI and Technical Marketing, Robert Hallock confirmed that the Arrow Lake HX processors will outperform the other HX processors on the market, including the latest AMD "Strix Point" and "Dragon Range" chips based on Intel's internal testing. "You basically get a desktop in a laptop," Hallock enthused to the audience.

The Arrow Lake HX processors will have additional overclocking features and more data lanes, much like the desktop Core Ultra 200S and 200K variants.

The chips in the Core Ultra 200HX series are as follows:

Intel Core Ultra 200V vPro

Intel is also releasing a vPro professional variant of the Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" series of AI PC chips.

The vPro line of Intel Core Ultra 200V processors features increased security with up to 7x improved memory scanning performance, better threat detection, a powerful NPU for local AI and AI-based fleet insights, and an all-day battery life for increased productivity potential.

This is to say that the vPro line has all the benefits of the consumer version of Intel's Lunar Lake processors, with enhanced security for commercial and business users.

Intel "Panther Lake"

Intel's leading 18A chip, Panther Lake, is already in testing. "2025 is and will be a pivotal year for Intel," Co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus said while confirming the chip's future availability.

Panther Lake chips can be expected to be released in the second half of 2025.

This confirms rumors that the chips would be inbound later this year, and with systems already in testing, it seems unlikely the launch will be pushed back but, anything is possible. That said, this confirmation from Johnston Holthaus is a good sign.

Intel "Arrow Lake" needs a good redemption story

To say that the "Arrow Lake" Core Ultra 200S and K desktop launch was scuffed is, perhaps, putting it lightly. Initial reviews of the chipsets criticized the chips for offering similar or lower performance to the 14th generation "Raptor Lake" Intel processors thanks to Intel's decision to remove hyperthreading from the Core Ultra 200 series and lower the turbo boost clock, which limits overclocking potential.

The "Arrow Lake" laptop chips are aimed at performance users, including gaming enthusiasts. Intel appears confident that Arrow Lake will perform well on laptops, but we'll need to wait on our own hands-on experiences and testing to know for sure if Arrow Lake will get the redemption it needs.

That said, Intel has done quite a bit to turn around the Arrow Lake desktop experience with microcode patches so there is some hope for a solid laptop launch for the Core Ultra 200H and HX chipsets.

"To build a great AI PC, first you have to know how to build a great PC", Intel Co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus stated at the Intel Keynote, "and Intel knows how to do just that."

Systems featuring the new Intel chipsets will be available starting Q1 2025 with the Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200H and Lunar Lake Core Ultra 200V vPro. Enthusiast and gaming platforms with the Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200HX processor and discrete GPUs are expected later in the first quarter.

Intel paid for travel and accommodations for CES 2025. The company did not see the contents of this article before publication. 

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On Monday, LG announced a trio of new gaming monitors that will debut at CES 2025, but it's not done with the early announcements as on Tuesday, it unveiled the 2025 LG Gram lineup.

I've reviewed a few LG Gram models for Laptop Mag in recent years, and while LG isn't the most prolific laptop manufacturer, its hit rate is outstanding. The LG Gram Pro 2-in-1 (2024) was among my favorites and earned a spot on several of our buying guides, including the best 2-in-1 laptops. LG consistently delivers thin-and-light laptops with solid performance and displays, and this year's lineup looks to continue that trend while also introducing one brand new model for 2025, the LG Gram Book.

LG is using a blend of Intel Core Ultra H-Series (Arrow Lake) and Intel Core Ultra V-Series (Lunar Lake) chips to power these laptops. As LG points out, the former leans into more traditional productivity performance, while the latter is more optimized for AI with slightly scaled-back productivity performance.

We'll be able to spend some time with these laptops at CES 2025, which runs from January 7-10, 2025, but here's what we know about LG's 2025 Gram laptops so far.

LG Gram Book

Let's lead things off with the one truly new model for this year, the LG Gram Book. While the company has delivered a number of excellent laptops in recent years, they decidedly fall into premium laptop pricing, the LG Gram Book is the company's attempt to bring a more affordable option to the U.S. market.

It features a 15.6-inch FHD (1,920 x 1080) LCD 60Hz display with a claimed 300 nits of brightness. At 3.74 pounds and 14.2 x 9.36 x 0.76 inches, it is also by far the thickest and heaviest member of the Gram series.

You have an Intel Core i5 CPU paired with Intel Xe graphics, and either 8 or 16GB of DDR4 RAM with a 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB NVMe SSD.

The port selection is reasonable with a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 2, one USB 3.2 Gen 1, a single USB 2.0, and finally an HDMI 2.1 port.

For audio you have a pair of 1.5W speakers, and you get an HD (720p) webcam with a privacy shutter for your video meeting needs. The 51Wh battery is a bit disappointing to see, given the size of this laptop, so we'll have to see how that fares in testing.

The massive piece of the puzzle that we're missing here is the price of the LG Gram Book. Given the specs it needs to start well below $1,000 to be competitive in the market, but we'll have to wait and see.

LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1

One of my favorite 2-in-1 laptops from last year gets a few upgrades for 2025, but doesn't reinvent the wheel.

For its 16-inch display you either have the option of a WQXGA+ (2,880 x 1,800) OLED or a WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) LCD panel. The former delivers a variable refresh rate of 48-120Hz, while the latter goes from 31-144Hz. Both feature a claimed 400 nits of brightness.

I lavished considerable praise on the OLED panel in last year's Gram Pro 2-in-1, calling it "one of the best displays I've ever seen on a laptop..." so I'd certainly lean that way and hope LG just managed to maintain that high level of quality.

The LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 weighs a mere 3.08 pounds and measures 14.1 x 10 x 0.51 inches. It's remarkably thin-and-light for a 2-in-1 with a 16-inch display.

Inside, you get either an Intel Arrow Lake Core Ultra 5 or 7, Intel Arc Graphics, up to 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM with a 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of Gen4 NVMe SSD.

Ports include: two USB 4 Gen 3 Type C, two USB 3.2 Gen 2, and HDMI 2.1.

The audio looks impressive on paper, as shown by a pair of 3W stereo speakers and a pair of 5W Smart AMPs. We'll have to see how that holds up in person, as last year's similar setup sounded good but not great due in part to the bottom-firing design. The 77Wh battery is impressive given the size and weight of this laptop, once we get it in our lab we'll see what that yields with the new Arrow Lake CPU.

Finally, the Gram Pro 2-in-1 features an FHD (1080p) webcam with an IR camera for Windows Hello support and a dual mic array.

LG Gram Pro (17-inch)

If you liked what you saw in the Gram Pro 2-in-1 but don't care about the flexible form factor, look no further than the LG Gram Pro (17-inch).

Unfortunately, it does drop the OLED display option of the Pro 2-in-1, but otherwise, it matches its specs almost exactly. I'll spare you running down the full list again and just note a couple of critical differences.

The first is naturally the size with its 17-inch display. It weighs in at 3.26 pounds (0.18 pounds heavier than the 16-inch 2-in-1), and it measures 14.9 x 10.4 x 0.62 inches.

That extra thickness may be partly due to its RTX 4050 GPU with 6GB of GDDR6 RAM. It also allows the Gram Pro (17-inch) to pack in a larger 90Wh battery; again, we'll see what that yields once we can get it in for testing.

Those are the only differences separating these models, again we don't have pricing yet, which may sway your decision as well.

LG Gram Pro (16-inch)

I saved the littlest Gram Pro for last, but the 16-inch Gram isn't to be forgotten. It shares several features with its other Pro siblings, so I'll highlight the differences.

The biggest shift is the Lunar Lake CPU options, making the LG Gram Pro (16-inch) the first Copilot+ PC in the Gram family. While LG's new Gram AI will work across the entire lineup, the Gram Pro (16-inch) should have the advantage given its more powerful NPU. The base model features an Intel Core Ultra 5, but you can upgrade to an Ultra 7 or 9. All configurations come with Intel Arc graphics.

With the exception of dropping to 16 inches, the Gram Pro models feature identical displays with WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) LCDs with a variable refresh rate from 31-144Hz.

Your big reward for the move to a 16-inch panel is a massive drop in size and weight. It is a mere 2.73 pounds and 14.1 x 9.9 x 0.5 inches, while still offering a 77Wh battery. Again, we'll find out what that yields in real-world battery life once we get it in our lab.

What's next?

While the specs tell part of the story of a new laptop, there's no replacement for spending some time with them in person or for getting them into our labs for testing.

We're also missing some crucial information as we don't yet know when the laptops will ship or how much they will cost. Assuming LG sticks to similar pricing, expect the Pro lineup to range from around $1,399 to $2,499. The Gram Book is the wildcard, but competition is stiff in the affordable market, so we'd hope to see $799 or less for the starting price there.

LG is also heavily touting Gram AI as part of this launch, which includes Gram chat on-device if you want the power of AI without reaching out to a cloud service. However, you can also leverage GPT-4o with Gram chat cloud, which is free for the first year.

LG's "Time Travel" feature sounds a bit like its take on Microsoft Recall, with the company indicating that it allows you "to quickly and easily revisit web pages, documents, videos, and audio files." Gram chat cloud is also "integrated with personal calendar and email services" and "leverages vast web-based datasets for detailed and comprehensive responses to user inquiries."

AI is sure to be a central focus once again at CES 2025. While we've spent the last month running down the 24 biggest AI moments of 2024, and there are clearly some intriguing use cases for AI, it's hard to point to a definitive breakthrough feature for the average user. As this second generation of AI-focused laptops, like the new LG Gram models, hits this year, that will be as much of the story as the new hardware.

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On June 4, 2024, Pat Gelsinger, then CEO of Intel, came out swinging when he arrived at the highlight of his keynote presentation at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan: AI PCs.

Gelsinger compared his announcement that day to the launch of Wi-Fi 25 years earlier and confidently predicted, "We expect that by 2028, 80% of all PCs will be AI PCs. And Intel is leading the way."

Just moments later, Gelsinger had a literal curtain drop to unveil a dozen upcoming AI PCs. Several of them were running the latest chip from Intel, the star of the show that day: Lunar Lake.

Intel's Lunar Lake chips were the latest additions to its Core Ultra line-up and its most advanced consumer AI chips yet. In his Computex presentation, Gelsinger promised these chips would deliver up to 50% better graphics performance and up to four times stronger NPU AI computing power. In a September 2024 presentation at IFA Berlin, Intel claimed Lunar Lake would have up to 50% lower power consumption.

That set a high bar for Lunar Lake laptops, especially after the success of AMD's Ryzen AI 300 series chips and the launch of Copilot+ PCs with Qualcomm chips this year. However, Intel was up to the challenge and delivered in one crucial area. While there were some key flaws with the Lunar Lake laptops we tested this year, there was also one surprising win for Intel.

Intel dominated on battery life with Lunar Lake, but at what cost?

When our first test results for laptops running on Intel Lunar Lake chips rolled in earlier this year, it was immediately clear that they were battery-life beasts. For instance, the Dell XPS 13 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V lasted 18 hours and 34 minutes in our battery life test. That's enough for two full work days on a single charge!

Of course, if you're doing more resource-intensive tasks like gaming or Photoshop, you'll burn through that battery life much faster. However, that score is still incredible, especially for commuters and students relying on strong battery life.

It wasn't just the Dell XPS 13 that crushed our battery life test, either. The Asus Zenbook S14, Asus ExpertBook P5, and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition boasted over 13 hours of battery life. So, Intel's claims about superior battery life on Lunar Lake are grounded in reality.

However, that doesn't mean there are still no drawbacks to Lunar Lake.

Excellent battery life usually comes at the cost of something else. For instance, a more powerful processor or a more premium display will generally eat through battery life faster than less powerful or premium alternatives. With great battery life comes great compromises.

A perfect example is, ironically, the Dell XPS 13. The non-OLED version lasted 18 hours and 34 minutes in our battery life test. The version with a premium OLED display lasted just 8 hours and 40 minutes, less than half as long.

Display quality isn't the only trade-off we noticed, either. In our review of the Acer Swift 14 AI, we note that Lunar Lake seems to fall behind on multicore performance, which can be a considerable drawback for multi-tasking.

Reviewer Joanna Nelius writes, "Maybe this is the result of Intel ditching hyperthreading on its new processors — a process that improves a computer’s ability to multitask and increases its multicore performance."

These drawbacks are disappointing, but that doesn't mean Intel didn't have any wins with Lunar Lake. Its biggest win will probably surprise you.

The surprising silver lining for Intel Lunar Lake

Lunar Lake laptops might not be perfect, but there was one surprising, last-minute win for Intel's latest series of chips this year: the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus.

If you heard anything about the disastrous original MSI Claw earlier this year, you're probably scratching your head at that. I would be, too.

At least, until I tried out the new-and-improved Claw at IFA Berlin in September. Even in my brief hands-on, I could tell MSI listened to user feedback. The new version of MSI's flagship handheld gaming PC got many updates and design changes in response to its predecessor's rough launch. One of those updates was an Intel Lunar Lake chip.

The MSI Claw 8 AI Plus was one of the best tech glow-ups of the year. While the original Claw received a measly 2.5 stars from us, the Claw 8 AI Plus earned a shining Editor's Choice award, partly thanks to its Lunar Lake processor, which powered top-tier performance and stellar battery life.

Gelsinger left Intel late this year, leaving the legendary company in a state of uncertainty — at least in public, anyway. However, with the success of the MSI Claw AI Plus, it may be taking steps in the right direction.

If you're anything from an AI enthusiast to the average AI tinkerer (or simply seeking out some of the additional features offered through Windows Copilot+ PCs or Apple Intelligence on Macs), then you'll need a powerful and performative laptop to keep up to speed with your needs.

At Laptop Mag, we review laptops year-round to ensure we're giving you expert-backed and up-to-date recommendations on which notebook is right for you. When it comes to the best AI PC category, our top picks are the excellent Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) for Windows users and the impressive Apple Macbook Air M3 for those running macOS.

So, if you're shopping for a new laptop and looking to invest in an AI PC (or just a great laptop in general), check out our current top-tier picks below.

When I look at the buying guides I’ve curated for Laptop Mag, nearly every best laptop has at least one glaring drawback floating in a sea of stellar features. Even if those laptops are more expensive, one or more of those features can be worth the extra cost if they are too awesome to ignore. So, when I feel underwhelmed by a laptop, it’s usually because it’s trying to appeal to a general audience.

That’s how I feel about the Acer Swift 16 AI (Intel). It performs well but is not the best for heavy multitaskers. It has a long battery life, but it’s not the longest. It’s thin and light for a 16-inch laptop but still a little awkward to handle. It’s competitively priced, but so are other laptops in its class — that have better performance, battery life, or a better design.

True balance is hard to achieve on a laptop; one feature needs to be compromised to make another stand out enough to make it appealing. But compromising a little of every feature for the sake of balance makes for a lackluster laptop — and the Acer Swift 16 AI has compromises in nearly all its features.

Display and battery compromises

OLED displays are generally an automatic feature in high-end laptops today, especially ones with high resolutions. They produce stunning colors and sharp and detailed images, so who wouldn’t want one on a laptop? But they are power-hungry. I’ll dive into the Acer Swift shortly, but first, I want to set the stage with the Dell XPS 14 OLED we reviewed in April 2024.

Its battery lasted 9 hours and 35 minutes in our tests, while the IPS model lasted a little over 10 hours. 25 minutes of battery life isn’t that much of a loss, but Laptop Mag performs its battery rundown test the same way on every laptop (with the display set to 150 nits of brightness); it’s clear OLED uses more energy to emit the same amount of light as IPS.

They also don’t get as bright, a common criticism of OLED, as many laptop companies offer both IPS and OLED options. Don’t love the XPS 14’s 377 nits of brightness? The IPS version can handle 461 nits. Some companies like Dell have started to address the issue by using tandem OLED displays in their devices, but double OLED panels mean more battery drain; Dell’s non-OLED XPS 13 lasted 18 hours and 34 minutes in our tests, while the OLED model managed just 8 hours and 40 minutes, a massive decline for just 20 extra nits over the IPS model.

Power efficiency is even more important for a 16-inch laptop like Acer’s Swift 16 AI since a larger screen uses more battery power. It lasted just under 13 hours in our battery test (the average for premium laptops), so there wasn’t wiggle room to make its 384-nit display brighter without making its battery life less competitive. An IPS display would have made sense as another option, but perhaps Acer didn’t want to saddle its high-end (and only 16-inch) Swift laptop with a display commonly associated with cheaper laptops.

Battery and design compromises

The biggest factor impacting battery life is its size, which in turn is affected by the design of the laptop. Example: the 16-inch Swift has a 69 Watt hour (Wh) battery, but the 14-inch Swift I reviewed has a 65 Wh battery. Other things beyond a laptop’s design are considered when companies decide how large of a battery it needs, of course — but the design is a major factor, especially if a company wants to make the thinnest and lightest laptop possible.

The Acer Swift 16 AI is 0.39 inches at its thinnest point and 0.69 inches at its thickest, but companies like MSI and Asus figured out how to make slimmer 16-inch laptops with much larger batteries inside. MSI’s Prestige 16 AI Evo has a 99.9 Wh battery and gets just over 13 hours of battery life (its 4K display resolution is higher than the Swift’s 3K). Asus’ Zenbook S 16 has a 78 Wh battery in a chassis that’s 0.47-0.51 inches thick and a 3K OLED display with a max brightness of 458 nits. It gets under 11 hours of battery life, but trading two hours of battery life for an incredibly bright OLED display in a wildly slim chassis is worth it.

Naturally, cost was another factor driving Acer’s decisions on the specs. It might have pushed the laptop out of even more people’s budgets. However, considering that other companies have proven it’s possible to stick a high-capacity battery inside thinner laptops, this could have been the easiest way for Acer to stand out, even if it didn’t change the Swift’s dimensions.

Performance and battery compromises

Acer doesn’t have a say in how chipmakers design their processors, but it can choose which ones it wants to put in its laptops. Potential buyers have their pick of either an AMD, Intel, or Qualcomm chip in any of the 14-inch Swift AI laptops, which is nice — but the 16-inch is only configured with an Intel Core Ultra 200-series chip.

I am not a fan of Intel’s Lunar Lake chips. Their multicore performance is slower than what I need as a heavy multitasker (and slower than its direct competitors), so if the Swift 16 AI came with an AMD Ryzen AI chip or Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, I would have been much more excited about this laptop for the giant leap in multitasking performance alone.

A Qualcomm chip most likely would have brought the best battery life with it, too. The Swift 14 AI Snapdragon’s battery lasted 2 more hours compared to the Intel model, though some of that could be attributed to its larger battery (75Wh versus the Intel’s 65 Wh). But the size of the battery and the laptop’s power efficiency won’t matter to most people — just how long the laptop can hold a charge and how well it performs.

The Swift 16 AI could have been great

For those willing to stretch their budgets for the right set of laptop features, the Swift 16 AI isn’t that persuasive of a machine. It’s stripped down to the basics with a little extra flare, but it’s no MSI Prestige or Asus Zenbook, or even an HP Spectre x360 2-in-1. All the compromises in those laptops don’t look like much of a sacrifice since they have a laundry list of compelling features.

They are more expensive, yes, and the Swift could appeal to some budget-conscious buyers for its no-muss, no-fuss attitude. But I believe most people should try to wait for a sale on the laptop they want instead of going with an option that won’t make them as happy. It’s the reason I put off buying a new laptop for years. I wanted to find the “right one,” not just to have one “right now.”

Sometimes to find out what's going on at a company, the best source of information is its competition.

In a recent interview with the Verge's, Rene Haas, CEO of Arm Holdings covered a wide array of topics including the AI PC race, politics, and the recent troubles at Intel.

For those uninitiated in the world of CPU architecture, Arm Holdings is a semiconductor and software design firm based in Cambridge, England. The company's designs have been the power behind Apple's M-series Silicon and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X platform.

While Haas's insights into Arm and the future of AI PCs are certainly worth examining, as is his commentary on how Trump's second administration could change the tech industry, Haas's comments on Intel were what immediately grabbed our attention.

What Rene Haas said about Intel

We all want to know what's going on at Intel these days. It has only been a few weeks since Pat Gelsinger's abrupt resignation as CEO of Intel.

When asked about Intel, Haas elaborated, "I guess at the highest level, as someone who’s been in the industry my whole career, it is a little sad to see what’s happening from the perspective of Intel as an icon."

However, Intel's biggest dilemma according to Haas is "how to disassociate from being either a vertical company or a fabless company, to oversimplify it... And [former Intel CEO] Pat [Gelsinger] had a strategy that was very clear that vertical was the way to win."

It's worth noting that Gelsinger's strategy for Intel was intended to be a multi-year strategy. One that he did not get to see to the finish.

Haas, admitting to his own personal bias as the CEO of a vertical company, supported Gelsinger's intention to turn Intel into a multi-faceted powerhouse. "My personal bias is that vertical integration can be a pretty powerful thing, and if they can get that right, they would be in an amazing position. But the cost associated with it is so high that it may be too big of a hill to climb."

What Rene Haas said about an Arm takeover

One of the many rumors circling around Intel this year is the potential for an Arm or Qualcomm takeover of the company.

When asked by The Verge about a possible merger directly, Haas dodged the question, stating only "I’m not going to comment on the rumors that we’re going to buy it."

However, Haas did double-down on the idea of Intel and Arm working together in the future. Because, "if you’re a vertically integrated company and the power of your strategy is that you have a product and fabs, you have a potentially huge advantage in terms of cost versus the competition. When Pat was the CEO, I did tell him more than once, 'You ought to license Arm. If you’ve got your own fabs, fabs are all about volume and we can provide volume.'"

What this means for the future of computing

Despite all the rumors of buyouts for Intel, it's worth noting that Intel still makes up a solid 70% of the market share for CPUs across desktops and laptops. AMD is the main competitor for Intel on desktops and servers. Even in the laptop space, Intel has a solid lead over AMD, Qualcomm, and Apple. While AMD, Qualcomm, and Apple are all performing well and AMD has made many inroads in chipping away at Intel's dominance, it isn't like Intel is dead in the water.

It's no surprise Haas dodged the takeover claims. If a possible merger were in the works, that would be kept under wraps while the legal proceedings were underway. However, the rumors of a takeover don't seem to have much proof backing them outside of pure speculation.

What is more salient about Haas's comments on Intel relates to the Intel Foundry. Haas argues that becoming a "vertical" company with multiple avenues of production and both design and production locked down would be the more advantageous position. This essentially backs former CEO Pat Gelsinger's strategy for the company.

And it isn't like Intel has notably backed out of the foundry business. Intel's interim co-CEO, David Zinsner, said earlier this month that Intel's next CEO will have experience in the foundry and product sides of the business.

Of course, if Intel did get an Arm license, that would make the AI PC world even more interesting. After all, Nvidia and AMD also hold Arm licenses for chips we haven't seen yet. If Intel also made an Arm-based chipset, we'd have Arm designs with every major chip manufacturer since Apple and Qualcomm already use Arm architecture in their current silicon.

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Surface laptops have seen better days.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-powered Surface Pro (11th Edition) and Surface Laptop (7th Edition) (both of which were released in June) should have been the highlight of Microsoft's new AI PC platform, but instead, they wound up being two of the more lackluster launches in the lineup. Both scored a middling 3.5 out of 5 stars in our reviews.

Now, new rumors indicate that Microsoft is overhauling the 2024 Surface lineup, including models powered by Intel and AMD's new AI chipsets. Given recent releases, it would be easy to meet that news with a big shrug, but thanks to Intel, this year's Surface hardware could actually be a brand-saving upgrade.

Can Lunar Lake's successes make up for the Surface's issues?

The Surface Laptop (7th Edition) and Surface Pro (11th Edition) suffered from poor graphics.

Despite having a good early showing, the Snapdragon X Elite's Adreno integrated GPU doesn't hold up as well as the Intel Arc or AMD Radeon integrated graphics chips on the Lunar Lake and Ryzen AI chips. So switching to Lunar Lake or even Ryzen AI will offer a much more satisfying gaming experience at Medium settings and 1080p resolution.

We even pushed the Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics chip on the Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) on three demanding games at high settings with ray tracing and were pretty blown away by the performance. Sure, a discrete GPU will always handle ray tracing better than an integrated GPU, but the Zenbook S 14 did stay within the 50-60 FPS range on Doom Eternal at High, 1080p settings with ray tracing off, which is far better than expected.

The Surface Pro may have lasted 12 hours on our battery test, but it was far less efficient than other Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite systems.

Lunar Lake has done a solid job of keeping up with the Snapdragon X Elite in terms of battery life. The Dell XPS 13 (9350) with Lunar Lake's 18:35 battery life is just a half hour less than the XPS 13 (9345) with Snapdragon X Elite's 19:01 battery life. So the Surface Pro 11 with Lunar Lake may have a similar 12 hours and 11 minutes of battery life.

However, some benchmarks have indicated that the Lunar Lake chipset is less power-hungry than its Snapdragon counterpart. After all, Lunar Lake requires less CPU power than the Snapdragon chip, making Intel's AI PC platform a more efficient choice. So there is always a chance that the Lunar Lake model gets better battery life.

Surface Laptop and Surface Pro fails

Some of our biggest problems with the Surface Laptop (7th Edition) and Surface Pro (11th Edition) came down to construction. The Surface Laptop had a poor display with flat colors and severe ghosting, while both the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro suffered from shallow keyboards.

If Microsoft overhauls the Surface line to add AMD and Intel processors, the company may as well go in and fix some of our other issues, like adding a better display panel and keyboard to the Surface Laptop.

Unfortunately, as the Surface Pro uses the existing Surface Pro Keyboard folio case, we likely won't see much of a change there. Microsoft is also unlikely to update the Surface Pro chassis to add more ports for a mid-cycle refresh.

But switching to Lunar Lake can help offset some of our other issues like poor graphics performance and better battery optimization.

Outlook

Lunar Lake as a platform focuses more on battery efficiency and smooth graphics compared to the raw CPU power offered by the Snapdragon X Elite, which could help turn around the Surface lineup's struggles this generation.

After all, most people who gravitate to thin and light laptops don't need benchmark-busting CPU power. They need a laptop that can last all day on battery. And some may want the flexibility of being able to game without needing a dedicated gaming laptop.

However, some of our issues with the Surface come down to manufacturing on the Microsoft side. After all, a new chip can't make a bad display look better, and a new processor can't fix a poor keyboard.

But there certainly is some hope that these new Intel-powered Surface devices can help breathe new life into Microsoft's premium brand.

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Microsoft's Surface line of laptops, tablets, and 2-in-1 devices looks set to return following a major shakeup within the software giant's premium hardware division.

The Surface lineup we know today is largely shaped by the thirst for innovation shown by former EVP of Experiences and Devices, Panos Panay. However, following cancelations, layoffs, and cutbacks that impeded his vision for Microsoft Surface, Panay would step away from his role in September 2023.

Even though Microsoft would confirm its commitment to Surface hardware by announcing several new Intel Core Ultra and Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered Surface models in March and May 2024, there was an air of doubt surrounding how future products would fare without the creativity of Panos at the helm.

However, a report from Windows Central indicates that the Surface line still has room to surprise, with early 2025 circled as the likely release window for new Surface Laptop, Surface Laptop Studio, Surface Pro, and potentially an all-new 11-inch Surface device.

Intel on Surface, surfaces

The report, coming from Zac Bowden of Windows Central, claims sources have revealed that a full-scale Surface refresh involving Copilot+ PC compatible chips from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm is in the cards for Q1 2025.

We've already caught wind of an Intel Core Ultra 268V-powered Surface Laptop, a claim that Bowden's sources lend further credibility to. According to the report, new Surface Pro and Surface Laptops will feature Intel's Lunar Lake chipset, bringing both under the Copilot+ umbrella thanks to a dedicated NPU with 40+ TOPS of computing.

The uniquely convertible Surface Laptop Studio is also expected to receive a chipset refresh as well as a 16-inch boost in display size, though there's no confirmation whether we can expect this device to house an AMD Ryzen AI or Intel Lunar Lake processor.

The Surface line still has room to surprise

When Panos Panay left Microsoft, so did much of the hope for the Surface line to continue with its innovation in design. However, according to Bowden, there's still room for Surface to surprise, with a new, unknown 11-inch device potentially joining the fray.

Described as a "Surface Go-sized Laptop Go hybrid," we could see Microsoft return to its detachable 2-in-1 form factor, though little is shared other than its adoption of "premium materials and components," and its adoption of a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor.

Outlook

Despite concerns regarding the future of Surface innovation, it appears that there's still the potential for Microsoft to experiment and try out new ideas within this line-up.

A full suite of Copilot+ laptops is also a welcome addition, bringing with it the improved performance and battery life enhancements we've seen wash across the industry throughout 2024.

As for when we can expect to see these new Surface devices, the report is somewhat vague. Early/Q1 2025 could suggest a reveal as early as CES 2025 or during a potential Microsoft Surface for Business event in March (should it mirror the same date as this year's event).

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This year hasn't been very kind to Intel.

There was the rocky Meteor Lake launch, the nearly disastrous release of Arrow Lake desktop this past fall, and rumors of a potential takeover by rival Qualcomm. The list goes on.

And to make matters worse, this week, Intel lost its CEO, appointed two board members, and began the search for a new leader to help pull the company out of its tailspin.

This begs the question: What exactly can Intel do to turn things around? Before we get to that, let's recap how we got here.

2024 was a difficult year for Intel

Intel's Core Ultra 100H "Meteor Lake" laptop processor launched just before the New Year, promising significant improvements to battery life, performance, integrated graphics, and an AI accelerator.

While Meteor Lake matched expectations for on-device AI and a better graphics tile, the performance and battery life didn't quite match up. This poor reception was further complicated by Intel's close partnership with MSI on the first Intel-powered gaming handheld PC, the MSI Claw, which suffered an incredibly rough launch and early reviews period.

In September, Intel had big plans for the follow-up to Meteor Lake, the Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" series, promising far better power efficiency, integrated graphics, and a competitive NPU with up to 48 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) performance.

While Lunar Lake experienced a solid launch and early reviews cycle, it was quickly undercut by microcode issues with the previous 13th and 14th generation processors and the grim launch of the Intel Core Ultra 200S+ 200K "Arrow Lake" desktop. Intel's VP of Gen AI and Technical Marketing, Robert Hallock, has even confirmed that the Arrow Lake launch "did not go as planned."

Intel's end-of-quarter financial statement indicated a 6% revenue drop as of October 31, 2024. A large revenue drop year over year immediately following two major chip launches is not a good sign.

What happened at Intel this week

This week, Intel announced several major shakeups. Pat Gelsinger, Intel's CEO for the last four years, retired on Monday, effective immediately.

Intel appointed Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner and CEO of Intel Products Michelle Johnston Holthaus as interim co-CEOs. The company's board of directors is heading the search for the next Intel CEO. However, they may already have someone in mind for the job.

Zinsner said on Wednesday that Intel's next CEO will have experience in the foundry and product sides of the business. Reuters reports that "Intel has started evaluating a handful of outsiders, including former board member Lip-Bu Tan, to take the reins of the struggling chipmaker."

On Thursday, Intel appointed former president and CEO of ASML Holdings Eric Meurice and interim CEO of Microchip Technology Steve Sanghi to its board of directors.

What CEO Pat Gelsinger's resignation says for Intel

Gelsinger's ascension to Intel CEO four years ago was a moment of excitement. He joined the company at 18 and spent 30 years there from 1979 to 2009. Gelsinger returned in 2021 to become Intel's new CEO and turn the company around from where it had been stagnating.

As The Verge reports, Gelsinger's background as an engineer fostered the belief that he was the right man to lead Intel back to the cutting edge of computing.

Gelsinger inherited a flawed company. Before he was appointed Intel CEO in 2021, there had been generations of delayed chips, quality assurance problems, and a complete breakdown of the longstanding relationship between Apple and Intel. AMD and Nvidia took over the computing space, and TSMC overtook Intel's manufacturing side.

Intel has had some success under Gelsinger. One of his main decisions was to reverse the company's decision to abandon EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography) technology. He gave his engineers heavy financial backing to innovate in the chip space, and the company produced five nodes in just four years. Gelsinger also had big plans for the Intel Foundry to begin chip production state-side.

Gelsinger's retirement from Intel indicates dissatisfaction among the Intel board. While Intel's board may have felt it necessary to oust Gelsinger, it has only cast more doubt on the chipmaker's future. After all, both interim CEOs have finance backgrounds, and Intel brought Gelsinger in specifically because he was an engineer.

Even replacing Gelsinger with someone with a background in the foundry and product side of the business isn't guaranteed to generate immediate results. After all, Gelsinger only got three years into his five-year plan to turn Intel into a leader in client computing and chip manufacturing.

What Intel needs to do to turn things around

Intel has undoubtedly been on the back foot since the Apple M-series chips launched and broke benchmark records for performance and battery life. Intel was able to coast along as the name in Windows processors up until about a year ago, mainly as Apple focuses its business primarily on the mobile side with laptops and tablets. But if you wanted high-performance desktop processors, Intel was still the biggest name in town.

AMD has been closing that gap, and this year, AMD's Granite Ridge has become the desktop chip to buy for gamers — a fact that has only been cemented since Arrow Lake's shaky desktop launch.

On the laptop side, Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and AMD's Ryzen AI launches this summer made the Windows competition steeper.

But if you go back to 2019, Apple laptops were not doing well. Those poorly optimized Intel MacBooks were products only diehard Apple loyalists could stomach. In 2024, Apple's M4 chipset has set the standard.

So far, Intel has compromised on chasing power efficiency over pure performance, with a secondary focus on AI — and that tactic doesn't seem to be working.

Intel is set to launch the Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200H and 200HX chipsets at CES 2025, which will be held January 7-10 in Las Vegas. Intel reps have indicated that fixes are available for some of Arrow Lake's most significant issues.

This upcoming iteration of the Arrow Lake chipset needs to launch perfectly, offering a satisfying amount of raw performance power and battery life on the mobile variant.

Intel needs to beat Apple's benchmark records. Or at least close the gap.

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Intel's lineup of chips is getting crowded — and the Core 200 series might make its growing array even more chaotic.

As it stands, Intel uses more than three different architectures in the 200 series family. We've already seen the initial Lunar and Arrow Lake launches for this generation, but more Arrow Lake architecture chips are on the way. And it seems Intel will be carrying the Meteor Lake architecture into the 15th generation.

Confused yet? Don't worry, we've got you covered. If you're lost trying to understand all the permutations of the "Lakes," here's your cheat sheet.

Intel Core Ultra 200U vs Intel Core 200U

A recent leak from hardware news compiler Jaykhin indicates that Intel will be returning to the Meteor Lake, Raptor Lake, and Alder Lake architectures with the Core Ultra 200U, Core 200U, and Core 200H processors.

Based on the core counts, clock speeds, wattage, and iGPU specifications, it seems the Core Ultra 200U processor will feature an updated version of the Meteor Lake architecture. There are some differences between the Core Ultra 200U and the Meteor Lake Core Ultra 100U on the compute tile, but the integrated GPU tile appears similar. The compute tile differences, like lowered clock speeds, could be due to Intel porting the Meteor Lake architecture to the Intel 3 node for these "Meteor Lake Refresh" SoCs (system-on-a-chip).

A representative for Intel tells Laptop Mag, "Intel does not comment on rumors regarding future products – we will share more details closer to launch."

Intel Core 200 series architecture rundown

This fall has already seen the launch of Intel's Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" and Core Ultra 200S and 200K series "Arrow Lake" chips, with the Core Ultra 200H and Ultra 200HX to follow in early 2025.

Intel's "Panther Lake" architecture is expected to launch in this generation though it could launch in 2026 instead.

Finally, the latest leak from Jaykhin indicates that the Intel Core Ultra 200U chips will use a refreshed version of the "Meteor Lake" architecture behind the Intel Core Ultra 100U and 100H series. Meanwhile, a previous leak by Jaykhin indicates the Core 200U will use the Alder Lake process, and the Core 200H chips will return to the Raptor Lake architecture.

So from what we know so far, this is the Intel Fifteenth Generation lineup:

• Core Ultra 200 H - Arrow Lake Mobile
• Core Ultra 200 HX - Arrow Lake Mobile
• Core Ultra 200K - Arrow Lake Desktop
• Core Ultra 200S - Arrow Lake Desktop
• Core Ultra 200U - Meteor Lake Refresh Mobile
• Core Ultra 200V - Lunar Lake Mobile
• Core 200H - Raptor Lake Mobile
• Core 200U - Alder Lake Mobile

Outlook

Some of Intel's chips won't make it to mobile platforms and will remain desktop only, but plenty of the Core Ultra 200 and Core 200 family chipsets are designed for mobile platforms. Unlike previous years where Intel would have one architecture for desktop processors and a different architecture for mobile laptop chips, Intel has muddied the waters with multiple distinct architectures for mobile platforms. So you'll need to pay attention to the "Core Ultra" vs "Core" and suffix parts of Intel's branding.

For full clarification of Intel's fifteenth-generation chip lineup, we'll need to wait for official information from Intel, which is expected to be shared during CES 2025 in early January in Las Vegas, NV. CES officially runs from January 7 to January 10, with early previews starting on January 5th. Based on previous years, Intel's new chip announcements will likely come on January 6 or 7 to open the show.

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AMD's latest gaming processor, the Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" series has seen an unexpected boom in sales. In fact, there's a shortage of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D chips in Europe right now.

While the Ryzen 9000 series has plenty of gaming power, one of the driving forces for the rush on "Granite Ridge" has nothing to do with AMD and everything to do with recent troubles over at Intel.

Since most folks aren't deep in the processor trenches, we've put together this rundown primer on the state of gaming CPUs for you. So, let's break it down.

A stellar launch for AMD's Ryzen 9000 series

AMD's Ryzen 9000 series is codenamed "Granite Ridge" and is built off the AMD Zen 5 architecture, like the Ryzen AI 300 series of "Strix Point" laptop chips.

Based on early information and leaks, the 9000X3D chipsets promised "next-gen" gaming performance with a 18-28% performance increase over the Ryzen 7000 series processors. Reviews of the Ryzen 9000 series called the processors "devestating" and "a gaming legend." And based on the data we have, those claims are absolutely well founded.

Following those rave reviews, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is flying off the shelves.

But behind AMD's powerful new processor launch, lies Intel's latest chip troubles.

Early Intel Core Ultra 200K and 200S disappointments and Raptor Lake scandal

Just a few weeks prior to AMD's CPU launch we had the Intel Core Ultra 200K "Arrow Lake" chips hit the shelves. Based on Intel's Core Ultra 100 "Meteor Lake" architecture, the chips focused more on gaming performance with a small NPU, but early reviews of the 200K series were underwhelmed. The Intel Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" launch was similarly disappointed.

Intel's promises of high gaming performance were unfounded as reviewers noticed the chips performed similarly to last year's Intel Core 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh" chips in gaming. While the Intel Core Ultra 200K and 200S chips saw boosts to general productivity and power efficiency, that wasn't quite how Intel pitched the processors in the leadup to the lauch.

Intel has also been dealing with a CPU crash scandal involving the 13th Gen "Raptor Lake" and 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh" chips. The issues with the "Raptor Lake" chipsets have led to a class action lawsuit against Intel.

So its no surprise AMD's gaming CPUs are taking over the market share from Intel in the largest gaming shakeup we've seen in recent years.

Outlook

Intel still has more chipsets coming this year. The Intel Core Ultra 200H and 200HX "high performance" chipsets are expected to launch early next year for both desktop and mobile. AMD is still rolling out more iterations of the Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors and Ryzen AI 300 series mobile chips.

Intel is also expected to launch Core Ultra 200U series processors this generation as well, and the company is working on multiple different architectures for upcoming chips including "Nova Lake" and "Panther Lake" variants.

So its a bit early to say that Intel is dead in the water, but 2025 may the year to opt for an AMD-powered gaming laptop or PC. It'll all depend on the Core Ultra 200H and 200HX launch.

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Intel's Lunar Lake laptops offer impressive battery life, a long-awaited win for Windows users. Looking at Lunar Lake battery life benchmarks run by Laptop Mag, the Dell XPS 13 lasted a staggering 18 hours and 34 minutes, outlasting the previous battery life king, the MacBook Pro M3 Max.

Unfortunately, that top-of-the-line battery life — and equally impressive performance results — comes with a controversial catch: integrated RAM.

Typically, a laptop chip combines the CPU, GPU, and NPU, but Intel's Lunar Lake chips also threw RAM into the mix. This means neither laptop owners or laptop manufacturers will be able to add more RAM prior to or after a sale. Put simply, a 16GB Lunar Lake laptop will only be able to have 16GB of RAM for its entire life, even if your needs change after buying it.

Lunar Lake-based laptops only come with 16GB or 32GB of RAM, completely ruling them out for power users that need 64GB or more RAM, like Avram Pilch of our sister site Tom's Hardware.

In an op-ed, Pilch writes that the chip's integrated RAM was the reason why he wouldn't be buying a Lunar Lake-based laptop, and expressed a fear that "this trend is going to continue and perhaps expand to gaming and workstation-class laptops with the upcoming Arrow Lake mobile chips (H series) as well."

During Intel's earnings call on Thursday, CEO Pat Gelsinger told analysts that the Lunar Lake chip's integrated design was a "one off" (via PCWorld). Although he didn't mention Arrow Lake mobile chips by name, the future's looking good for power users who want an Intel-based laptop.

Why the Lunar Lake chip's design is a "one off" for Intel

Interestingly, Intel's earnings call revealed that the Lunar Lake chip was never meant to be the company's main competitive chip. Gelsinger said.

"You know, Lunar Lake was initially designed to be a niche product that we wanted to achieve highest performance and great battery life capability."

"And then," he continued, "[the] AI PC occurred," taking what was initially supposed to be a niche product to a "meaningful portion of [Intel's] total mix."

It's not clear whether Intel is bothered at all by consumer reactions to integrated RAM, as most laptop buyers probably didn't even notice, or if this is purely a smart decision financially or business-wise for Intel. Regardless, Gelsinger said integrating RAM on its chips is "not a good way to run the business."

If 32GB of RAM isn't enough for your next laptop, you'll be happy to hear Gelsinger said "It really is, for us, a one-off with Lunar Lake. That will not be the case with Panther Lake, Nova Lake, and its successors as well."

He didn't explicitly mention Arrow Lake mobile chips, but if Lunar Lake is truly a "one-off," I'm hoping Arrow Lake chips don't have integrated RAM. Arrow Lake desktop chips launched October 24, but mobile chips likely won't arrive until early 2025.

Hopefully, laptop options will expand for power users soon with the Arrow Lake chip launch in Q1 2025, but if not, at least we know definitively that Panther Lake and Nova Lake chips won't have integrated RAM.

If you'd rather avoid generative AI in favor of pure computing power, Intel may just have the right chip for your next gaming laptop.

Thursday, Intel released the next chips hitting the Intel Core Ultra 200 family, the 200S and 200HX desktop chips. The company also offered some early details on the 200H mobile processors expected early next year.

The "Arrow Lake" Intel Core Ultra 200S, Intel Core Ultra 200HX, and Intel Core Ultra 200H processors favor high power efficiency, stronger multi-thread performance, and better graphics. The Intel Core Ultra 200S chips are intended for desktops and will launch this month, but we do have info on the 200HX, and 200H processors that will becoming early next year.

These chips will likely wind up in the next wave of gaming laptops and workstations, so let's get into what Intel's "Arrow Lake" can do for laptops.

Intel Core Ultra 200 H architecture rundown

The Intel Core Ultra 200H processor features integrated Intel WiFi 7 support, integrated Thunderbolt 4 support, Bluetooth 5.4 support, PCIe Gen 5 connectivity, DDR5 support, all in Foveros 3D packaging. Intel's Platform Marketing Manager Greg Boots referred to the Core Ultra 200H chip as a "standout platform for those who need premium portable graphics and AI capabilities" during a hardware briefing on Arrow Lake at IFA Berlin 2024.

The Intel Core Ultra 200H uses the same Lion Cove performance P-cores and Skymont efficiency E-cores as the other Intel Core Ultra 200 series chips. The exact core count hasn't been confirmed, though we will likely get more details about the Intel Core Ultra 200H chip in the coming months.

The main standout of the Intel Core Ultra 200H mobile processor family is its new Xe with XMX integrated GPU. This graphics tile offers four times the AI throughput of the Intel Core Ultra 100 "Meteor Lake" processor and supports the BFP16, FP16, int8, and int4 AI datatypes. It also offers twice the ray tracing capacity of the Meteor Lake Xe GPU with two traversal pipelines for RTU ray tracing workloads, and also has twice the cache size for an 8MB L2 cache.

The Intel Core Ultra 200H features an Intel AI Boost 3 NPU which offers up to 13 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of AI performance. The entire chipset offers up to 99 TOPS of AI computing power, with up to 77 TOPS on the GPU, 13 TOPS on the NPU, and 9 TOPS on the CPU.

A representative for Intel tells Laptop Mag that the Intel Core Ultra 200H chips are expected to launch around CES 2025 in January.

Intel Core Ultra 200HX architecture rundown

The Intel Core Ultra 200HX processor features integrated Intel WiFi 6 support, integrated Thunderbolt 4 support, Bluetooth 5.3 support, PCIe Gen 5 connectivity, DDR5 RAM support, all in Foveros 3D packaging. Manufacturers can upgrade the Core Ultra 200HX chipset to support Thunderbolt 5 and BlueTooth 5.4. Intel's VP of the Client Computing Group Josh Newman claimed Arrow Lake will "bring the AI PC to the desktop and mobile markets” when discussing the chipsets at IFA Berlin 2024.

With 16 Skymont efficiency E-cores and 8 Lion Cove performance P-cores, the Intel Core Ultra 200HX processor offers a multi-thread performance increase of about 10% over the Intel Core i9-14900K chip. The Intel Core Ultra 200HX also sees an increase of up to 30% more power efficiency compared to the Intel Core i9-14900K desktop chip.

Intel has made it easier to overclock the Intel Core Ultra 200HX chip with the new Intel eXtreme Tuning Utility with AI tool that offers granular core clock controls, a dual base clock, tile-2-tile and fabric overclocking, DLVR bypass, and AI recommendations for helping set the best clock speeds to optimize your CPU.

The Intel Core Ultra 200HX also features a larger GPU than the Intel 14th-gen chipsets. The new Xe GPU offers twice the graphics compute resources with higher clock frequencies, better architecture efficiency, and full Direct X 12 Ultimate support built in at the silicon level. The new Xe GPU features 4 Xe cores with 64 Vector engines, 1 Geometry pipeline, 4 samplers, 2 pixel backends, 4 ray tracing units, and a 4MB L2 cache.

Lastly, the Intel Core Ultra 200HX offers an Intel AI Boost 3 NPU with up to 13 TOPS of AI performance, with a total of up to 36 TOPS across the platform. Intel rates the "Arrow Lake" chips with up to 8 TOPS on the GPU, 13 TOPS on the NPU, and 15 TOPS on the CPU.

A representative for Intel tells Laptop Mag that the Intel Core Ultra 200HX chips are expected to launch around CES 2025 in January.

Arrow Lake drops the NPU in favor of CPU: What does that mean for laptops?

Intel's Core Ultra 200 series chips first launched in September with the Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" series of laptop processors. The Core Ultra 200V series of chips focused on AI performance and power efficiency, thus taking a bit of a hit to pure CPU power. Intel's Core Ultra 200 "Arrow Lake" series takes an opposing stance. These processors focus on power efficiency, enhanced graphics, and multi-thread performance, and have a less-powerful NPU based on the Intel Core Ultra 100 series "Meteor Lake" architecture.

The Intel Core Ultra 200H series of chips will launch for mobile, and we'll likely see it hit gaming laptops and workstations in the future. Though the more high-end desktop-replacement laptops will likely opt for the Intel Core Ultra 200HX desktop processor variant for increased performance.

We've seen that trend hold in the past, all the way up to last-gen, and there isn't much reason to expect that to change in the future.

While NPU performance is helpful for getting the most out of your laptops battery, a lot of AI is still programmed to run through the GPU. And "Arrow Lake" has some solid GPU AI performance, plus better integrated graphics performance than the Intel 14th "Raptor Lake Refresh" series. So you can still run generative AI on an "Arrow Lake" Intel Core Ultra 200H or HX system. You'll just get worse battery life than the Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" systems, though power efficiency should still be better with the Intel Core Ultra 200H and HX compared to the previous generation. So that should get you som extra battery time.

So for the folks confused that "Lunar Lake" didn't come in any gaming laptops, that's because "Arrow Lake" was coming just a few months later.

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Microsoft's Copilot+ program of AI PCs will expand in the coming months to include laptops powered by AMD Ryzen AI and Intel Core Ultra 200V processors, but I wonder how compelling Copilot+ will be, since you can already emulate those features with other AI tools right now.

Microsoft launched the Copliot+ program in June to coincide with the launch of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus chipsets.

And while the Copilot+ branding indicates a heightened level of AI performance thanks to Microsoft's strict 40 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) requirement for entry into the Copilot+ program, the actual Copilot+ AI offerings are a bit underwhelming.

There isn't much unique about Copilot+ AI, yet, anyway, and the lack of originality makes it far from compelling.

The marketing overwhelms the utility of Copilot+ AI I've found ways to emulate most of its features, and you can too.

Most of Copilot+'s AI features can be emulated with free tools

If you find it easier to type "black cat wearing a witch hat" into an AI image generator for your Halloween Party invitations instead of trying to draw one in Microsoft Paint, you might use Microsoft CoCreate is the company's own venture into AI image generation.

However, you can already generate images from many AI software programs, including Intel AI Playground, Google Gemini, Adobe Firefly, OpenAI's Dall-e, and Stable Diffusion. The free version of Microsoft Copilot also offers image-generation AI. Many image-generation tools can also use image prompts, so CoCreate may be late to the party.

Copilot's basic AI chatbot is free, though the Copilot+ version — a full-service application compared to the free edition — isn't. Meanwhile, you can also just use for Nvidia's Chat with RTX, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Intel AI Playground, and Google Gemini, which are out now.

Regarding Copilot+'s Live Translation, Google Chromebook Plus laptops already have live translation capabilities powered by Google Translate. Built in at the operating system level and using one of the better translation libraries, it offers a far better translation option than the Copilot+ version. You can use a version of that technology in the Android and iOS Google Translate app.

While Microsoft markets Copilot+ PCs as having access to AI in Adobe applications, DaVinci Resolve, CapCut, Cephable, and Liquid Text, you can, of course, access those AI services without using a Copilot+ laptop.

The Recall of it all

Microsoft's Recall feature was controversial when first announced, and it tweaked the AI retrieval system before its relaunch. Despite Microsoft's best efforts, there are still questions about Recall, specifically what happens to the data it stores. All of that said, Recall is the most unique offering of the Copilot+ program that can't be replicated elsewhere.

While I appreciate the ability to use AI to better find files and information that could otherwise be lost in the ever-shifting environment of my laptop's storage system, even the revamped Recall still takes constant snapshots of your PC.

While those snapshots are encrypted and stored in a locked, dedicated section of a Copilot+ PC's SSD, recalling full snapshots of windows and applications is perhaps not the best iteration of this feature.

Google Chromebooks now have a Welcome Recap feature as part of the latest ChromeOS update, which summarizes where you last left off on your Chromebook so you can easily pick tasks back up.

Welcome Recap also tracks your calendar with alerts to remind you of upcoming appointments. Combined with the other new Chromebook features — like the ability to pin a file to your Chromebook's shelf and the Chromebook Plus Quick Insert feature — this feels like a smoother and less invasive version of Recall.

The minds behind Apple Intelligence features also seemed to learn from Microsoft's Recall launch issues. For instance, the AI integration for Apple Intelligence avoids constant screenshots of your device.

Apple Intelligence queries the cloud without saving user data. However, Apple Intelligence does have a great degree of personalization compared to the Chromebook Welcome Recap, as users can ask Siri to find information from their devices. However, there are far fewer security concerns about saved user data because of the way Apple handles cloud computing for AI queries.

However, those Google and Apple options don't run on Windows 11. Thankfully, Recall is an optional feature on Copilot+ PCs. If you're still worried about privacy, you can also uninstall it.

Here's how Copilot+ AI could win me over

Honestly, I just want to see something unique from Copilot+. I want a reason to switch to a new AI PC that makes upgrading my laptop worthwhile.

In my opinion, the largest selling points of AI PCs so far have been increased performance and increased power efficiency.

But the AI features? Most don't require an NPU.

So, if Microsoft is truly going to adopt the Copilot+ PC branding for these premium AI PC laptops, it needs to be earned.

Recall just isn't enough to carry the brand. There are plenty of strange and quirky AI tools out there, and even adding just one of them to the Copilot+ program with proper exclusivity would make the Microsoft program feel more compelling.

Intel's Bringing Adventure Gaming to Life AI integration tool won our hearts at IFA because it is a niche product that speaks to the nerdy tabletop gamer hearts of many of us here at Laptop Mag. Essentially, it's a simple app and tabletop RPG aide that combines text or voice-prompted image generation through Stable Diffusion with a game master (GM) and player interface.

Some kind of AI feature in that vein could help Microsoft sell Copilot+ as a unique tier of laptops.

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The Dell XPS 13 is an old favorite here at Laptop Mag. We’ve been fond of many different XPS configurations, sizes, and form factors, but the XPS 13 is a classic. While the new, minimalist design created more of a divide regarding the aesthetics and keyboard, our high expectations for the Dell XPS 13 line remain. So, the new Intel Core Ultra 200V-powered XPS 13 has big shoes to fill in its admittedly small chassis.

The XPS 13 9350 does have its benefits, from solid performance and respectable integrated graphics to impressive battery life and impactful speakers. However, it still has that minimalist, cramped keyboard and only two USB-C ports. 

With the recent Snapdragon X Elite-powered Dell XPS 13 (9345) breaking our record for the longest-lasting laptop, has Intel already made the Snapdragon configuration obsolete? And will the Dell XPS 13 9350 be good enough to rank among our best laptops? Let’s find out.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Specs

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Price and configurations

Currently, only one configuration of XPS 13 (9350) is available with the Intel Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” processors. That model costs just $1,399 and features an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, Intel Arc integrated graphics, 16GB of memory, 512GB of storage space, and a 13.4-inch 120Hz FHD LCD display.

If you want to upgrade to 32GB of RAM like our non-OLED review model, that will cost an additional $200. If you want 32GB of RAM and a 13.4-inch 60Hz 3K tandem OLED display, that will set you back a total of $1,899. These two configurations will be available on October 15, 2024.

A Dell representative tells Laptop Mag that configuration options for increased storage space will be available after the XPS 13's initial launch with Lunar Lake.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Design

Dell has kept the InfinityEdge bezels and flat keyboard deck of the previous few XPS models for the new Intel Core Ultra 200V-powered XPS 13. So that’s either excellent or bitterly disappointing news, depending on how you’ve felt about the last couple of generations of XPS 13 models. For me, the minimalist design of the XPS 13 is elevated by just how light and thin the laptop is, making it feel more futuristic than ever. Coming in Platinum (white) and Graphite (black), the recent XPS design feels more iconic with every iteration. I wish we’d get a third colorway option, but I can’t say I’m disappointed with the two we have.

The XPS 13 (9350) measures 11.62 x 7.84 x 0.6 inches for the LCD model and weighs just 2.6 pounds. It can easily fit in any backpack or laptop bag. The OLED model weighs the same as the non-OLED version but is 0.02 inches thinner.

The Dell XPS 13 (9345), powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, is identical to our non-OLED XPS 13 model in dimensions and weight. The only differences between these two XPS versions are under the hood.

Compared to one of the other Intel Core Ultra 200V launch systems, the Asus Zenbook S 14 (12.22 x 8.45 x 0.47~0.51 inches, 2.6 pounds), the XPS 13 is just a bit thicker but just as lightweight. Meanwhile, the Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3 (12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches, 3.4 pounds) is heavier than the XPS 13, weighing 0.8 pounds more.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Ports

The XPS 13 9350 features just two Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C ports with DisplayPort 2.1 and power delivery.

So, if you rely on any USB-powered accessories, you’ll probably want to invest in one of the best USB Type-C hubs or best laptop docking stations.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Security

The Dell XPS 13 features an IR webcam suitable for Windows Hello sign-in. The XPS 13 also has a fingerprint reader for added security.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Display

While our lab has tested the OLED and non-OLED versions of the XPS 13, I have only gotten my hands on the non-OLED model so far. I can’t say I was surprised by the FHD display’s poor color, we already experienced it with a similar FHD display panel on the Snapdragon-powered XPS 13 9345 this summer. 

Instead, I was just disappointed when I booted up the trailer for upcoming scifi adventure Mickey 17 to test the XPS 13’s display. The colors were muted and gray, even in the more colorful scenes in the trailer. The red council room didn’t pop as much as it would have on a more colorful display. While the XPS 13 9350’s LCD display panel is serviceable, it’s not a joy to watch.

Our lab testing had similar findings, with the XPS 13 9350 non-OLED display covering just 69.9% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with a Delta-E accuracy of 0.23. The OLED panel was much more vibrant, covering an astounding 144.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with a Delta-E accuracy of 0.28.

The Snapdragon-powered Dell XPS 13 9345 covered a similarly grim 66.9% of the DCI-P3 gamut with an accuracy of 0.21. So the 9350 gets a marginal upgrade, but it’s nothing to celebrate. The Asus Zenbook S 14’s OLED display covered a solid 82% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with an accuracy of 0.21, and the MacBook Pro 14 covered 81.3% of the color gamut with an accuracy of 0.12. So the XPS 13’s tandem OLED panel has much better color than the MacBook Pro 14’s Liquid Retina display or the Asus Zenbook S 14’s OLED panel.

As far as brightness goes, both the XPS 13 9350 OLED and non-OLED models could stand to be brighther. The display panels are bright enough to cut through most glare with the non-OLED display offering an average peak brightness average of 357 nits, while the OLED model was a bit brighter with an average of 377 nits. The Snapdragon X Elite XPS 13 9345 was far brighter, with an average brightness of 455 nits. The Asus Zenbook S 14 (342 nits) had the dimmest display, while the MacBook Pro 14 M3 (558 nits) had the brightest panel.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Keyboard and touchpad

The Dell XPS 13 (9350) keeps the minimalist style of the keyboard, function row, and touchpad from the last few generations of XPS design. While this is a sleek look, it does lose some of the functionality of discrete function row keys and a visible border between the touchpad and the keyboard deck.

Like the other XPS laptops with this keyboard design, the lack of space between keys and lack of click activation makes for a difficult typing experience.

On the 10FastFingers advanced typing test, I managed an average of 95 words per minute (WPM), which is well above the 88 WPM average I maintain on my MacBook Pro 14 keyboard. Because a poor typing experience doesn’t mean a slow one.

The XPS 13 has a borderless touchpad that measures roughly 3.9 x 2.9 inches, smaller than most modern laptops. While there is a subtle difference between the touchpad and the keyboard deck, it can be difficult to determine the edges, especially if you’re used to scrolling by feel. The touchpad haptics are helpful for this, but unfortunately the function row still has no haptics.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Audio

The side-firing Realtek quad-speaker array gets decent volume, which is more than enough to fill a room at 100 percent. However, the speakers sound distorted, as if you’re listening through a tin can, while listening to a heavily distorted track like All That Remains’ classic “Two Weeks” at full volume. Hozier’s summer bop single “Too Sweet” was much clearer, but the bass still has that annoying metallic reverb. 

So if you’re using the XPS 13 for a lot of video or audio streaming, you’ll want one of the best computer speakers instead of the onboard sound system.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Performance

The Dell XPS 13 (9350) has a decently powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, which should handle most computing tasks. The new Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" processors are designed to be highly power-efficient for ultra-portable light and thin laptops. So its multicore performance suffers compared to previous Intel -H suffix laptop processors. But, as my hands-on experience can attest, the Core Ultra 7 258V is still powerful enough for multiple programs, over 20 Chrome browser tabs, games downloading in the background, and some light Photoshopping on top of it.

In our lab benchmarks, we found that the XPS 13 9350 non-OLED model averaged a Geekbench 6 single-core score of 2,660 and a multicore score of 10,846, while the XPS 13 OLED model averaged a single-core score of 2,772 and a multicore score of 11,033. The gap between these two laptops isn't outside the usual Geekbench score deviation and is well within Intel and Dell's expectations. 

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite XIE-80-100-powered XPS 13 9345 had a single-core average competitive with the Intel-powered laptops at 2,797. However, the Qualcomm XPS 13 dramatically outperformed its Intel counterparts in multicore performance with a score of 14,635. The Asus Zenbook S 14 had a slight edge on CPU performance over the XPS 13 9350, with a single-core average of 2,751 and a multicore average of 11,157. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3 had the highest single-core performance with a score of 3,163 and came in second for multicore performance with a score of 11,968.

On the Handbrake video encoding test, the XPS 13 9350 non-OLED took 8 minutes and 17 seconds to compress the 4K version of “Tears of Steel” to a 1080p 30fps format. The OLED model (8:28) took a bit more time, as did the Zenbook S 14 (8:30). The Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3 (5:38) was the second-fastest, and the Qualcomm-powered XPS 13 9345 (4:41) was the quickest at the encoding task.

On the Laptop Mag 25GB file copy test, the XPS 13 9350 non-OLED model took 17.5 seconds to copy over a 25GB multi-media file folder for a transfer rate of 1,534MBps. The OLED model was a bit slower, taking 17.75 seconds to complete the transfer for a rate of 1,513MBps. The Asus Zenbook S 14 took just a bit longer, needing 17.8 seconds to complete the task for a transfer rate of 1,513MBps. The Dell XPS 13 9345 took the longest, requiring 20 seconds to copy the folder, for a transfer rate of 1,342MBps.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): AI Performance and features

The Dell XPS 13 (9350) is not yet part of the Copilot+ PC program, but laptops made with Intel’s Core Ultra 200V series processors will be rolled into Microsoft’s new AI program suite in the next several months. Intel does have its own suite of on-device AI programs, but the Intel AI Playground hasn’t yet been optimized for the new Core Ultra 200 series processors; though those optimizations should arrive now that the laptops have officially launched, so users should be able to dive right in once they get their new Intel laptops.

With an Intel AI Boost NPU that boasts 48 TOPS (trillions of Operations Per Second), we were pretty eager to put the AI capabilities of the XPS 13 9350 to the test in our lab. To gauge AI performance, we ran the XPS 13 through the Geekbench AI CPU and NPU tests to test the capabilities of the laptop’s various AI accelerators. We could not run Geekbench ML on the XPS without breaking the review’s NDA, so unfortunately, we do not have any comparison numbers. 

On the Geekbench AI CPU Full Precision test, the XPS 13 (9350)’s Core Ultra 7 258V processor scored 2,292 points, which outdoes the XPS 13 (9345)’s Snapdragon X Elite XIE-80-100 processor, which scored just 2,069 points. The Asus Zenbook S 14 with the same Intel Core Ultra 7 processor as the XPS 13 (9350) scored about 100 points below with an average of 2,292.

On the Geekbench AI NPU Single Precision test, the XPS 13 (9350) with an Intel AI Boost NPU scored 18,387 points. The Asus Zenbook S 14, with the same Intel AI Boost NPU, scored a bit higher with an average of 18,619. The Dell XPS 13 (9345) with a Qualcomm Hegaxon NPU scored well below both Intel laptops, with an average of just 2,173.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Graphics and gaming

The Dell XPS 13 isn’t a gaming laptop, but Intel has made some claims about gaming performance on the new Intel Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” processors, so naturally, we had to put those to the test. I found the XPS 13 handled gaming at 1080p with Medium settings a bit smoother than the Asus Zenbook S 14. The XPS 13’s integrated Intel Arc GPU struggled a bit with motion smoothing in Genshin Impact’s newer Fontaine and Natlan zones, but it had no trouble at all maintaining a steady framerate with Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, even in the busy endgame hub city of Solution Nine.

We also ran a few gaming benchmarks on the XPS 13. On the 3DMark Fire Strike Direct X 11 gaming benchmark, the XPS 13 9350 non-OLED maintained an average of 8,053, while the OLED model scored a bit higher with an average of 8,519. The Asus Zenbook S 14 came in just a bit behind the XPS models with a score of 7,806, while the XPS 13 9345’s integrated Qualcomm Adreno GPU performed the worst with an average of 5,635.

On the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme cross-platform gaming benchmark, the XPS 13 9350 non-OLED averaged a score of 7,186 and a frame rate of 43.03fps. Again, the OLED model performed better, with an average score of 7,409 and a frame rate of 44.37fps. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3 performed the best on this gaming test, with a score of 7,861 and a frame rate of 47.1fps. The Asus Zenbook S 14 (7,037, 42.14fps) came in just behind the Intel-based XPS 13s, with the Qualcomm-powered XPS 13 (6,449, 38.6fps) performing the worst.

For a more real-world gaming test, we ran the XPS 13 through the Sid Mieier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm and Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmarks. On the Civ VI benchmark at 1080p and Medium graphics settings, the XPS 13 9350 non-OLED scored an average of 51fps, while the OLED model was a bit faster with an average of 53fps. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3 tied with the non-OLED XPS 13 with a frame rate average of 51fps, while the Zenbook S 14 trailed just behind with an average of 48fps. The Qualcomm-based XPS 13 performed the worst with a frame rate of just 22fps. 

On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark at 1080p and Highest graphics presets, the XPS 13 non-OLED model maintained an average of 21fps while the OLED model was just ahead with a 22fps average. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3 performed the best on this benchmark with a frame rate of 32fps, while the Zenbook S 14 performed the worst with a frame rate of 19fps. The Dell XPS 13 9345 was not tested on this benchmark.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Battery life

When it comes to premium ultra-light laptops, battery life is often one of the biggest deciding factors. And when comparing Intel x86 and ARM laptops, battery life was one of the main selling points of the Apple and Snapdragon platforms. But that may no longer be the case thanks to Intel’s new chip architecture. 

The non-OLED XPS 13 (9350) lasted an astonishing 18 hours and 34 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test, which sets a laptop to 150 nits of brightness and scrolls through a series of 20 static and video web pages until the laptop powers down. The OLED model XPS 13 (9350) lasted 8 hours and 40 minutes, which is disappointing but not surprising given that the tandem OLED display panel does require quite a bit more power to run than the FHD LCD panel on the non-OLED model. But that does mean the XPS 13 (9350) non-OLED comes within thirty minutes of the battery life record of 19:01 set by the Dell XPS 13 (9345) with Snapdragon X Elite. And it beats the Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3’s 17:16 battery life by over an hour.

The only other laptop with an OLED display on our comparison list was the Asus Zenbook S 14, which lasted 13:51 on the Laptop Mag battery test. While this is far better than the XPS 13 OLED, there is a difference in the OLED technologies behind both displays. The Zenbook S 14 features a more traditional OLED panel, while the XPS 13 OLED has a tandem OLED panel. So that likely accounts for the large difference in OLED battery life between the two Lunar Lake laptops.

Dell claimed 26 hours of video streaming battery life for the XPS 13 (9350), and 27 hours of video streaming battery life for the XPS 13 (9345), so while our battery test seems to be more intensive, we saw a very similar relationship between the Intel Core Ultra 200V and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite systems.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Webcam

The Dell XPS 13 has an FHD camera with IR functionality, so the camera feed isn’t the best quality. The webcam feed is naturally on the grainy side at full-screen, and there is some distortion in the color accuracy, but it's far from the worst laptop webcam we’ve seen.

However, if you’ll be using the XPS 13 for a lot of video calls and virtual presentations, I recommend using one of our best webcams instead.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Heat

After streaming a 4K YouTube video for at least fifteen minutes, the XPS 13 (9350) non-OLED model measured 79.3 degrees Fahrenheit on the touchpad, 79.9 degrees between the G and H keys, and 86 degrees on the underside, which was the hottest point on the laptop. The XPS 13 (9350) OLED model ran hotter than its LCD counterpart, measuring 88.3 degrees on the touchpad, 92.7 degrees on the keyboard, and hitting a maximum temperature of 100.4 degrees on the rear center underside of the laptop.

The max temperature on the OLED model is well above the Laptop Mag comfort threshold of 95 degrees, while the non-OLED model is well below that threshold. So, if you plan to keep the XPS 13 on your lap for most use cases, you may want to opt for the non-OLED display panel option.

Dell XPS 13 (9350): Software and warranty

The Dell XPS 13 comes with Windows 11 Home and has standard Windows apps preloaded, such as Microsoft Paint and Office 365. It also has some of Dell’s custom applications preloaded, like the My Dell and Dell Support Assistant applications.

The XPS 13 has a 1-year warranty for hardware and software support with 1-2 business day on-site service after a remote diagnosis. Accidental damage is not covered by the warranty. If you want to see how Dell customer service compares in our annual report, check out our Tech Support Showdown.

Bottom line

To the XPS 13 9350’s credit, it does have quite a lot going for it. The laptop offers solid performance, an impressive 18 hours of battery life, impactful speakers, and respectable graphics for a laptop with an integrated GPU. The OLED display panel option is vivid, while the LCD option has poor color, and both displays could stand to be brighter. With a cramped keyboard and only two USB-C ports, the XPS 13 isn’t perfect.

But if you’re in the market for a quality Dell laptop, here are the factors to consider with the XPS 13 9350. If you need a small, portable laptop with a fantastic display and you don’t care about battery life as much, the tandem OLED display panel is fantastic. If you need a laptop with battery life that can last multiple days, the LCD option gets you almost as much battery life as the Snapdragon X Elite version without that pesky ARM software emulation.

Intel Lunar Lake debuted on September 3, just ahead of IFA 2024, and we've been counting down the days until we got laptops running Intel's latest into our hands. Last week, they finally arrived, and our lab testers quickly went to work, running a combined hundreds of hours of battery, performance, display, and heat tests.

The Asus ExpertBook P5 is the lone business laptop among the first wave of Lunar Lake laptops we've received for review. Our full review is coming later this week, but the tests tell a compelling early story for the first Copilot+ PC for work from Asus.

Efficiency and productivity performance (including AI performance) were two key focuses for the Lunar Lake laptops, and based on what we've seen so far, they deliver.

These are critical battlegrounds facing up against laptops featuring Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chipset, which saw laptops like the HP EliteBook Ultra deliver over 16 hours of battery life and excellent performance earlier this summer. These were the first laptops to truly challenge the MacBook lineup in performance and efficiency in years.

Apple has been the dominant force in our guide to the laptops with the best battery life since its transition to ARM-based Apple Silicon chips in 2020. The best MacBooks still deliver in that regard, but the competition has upped its game, and the Intel Lunar Lake chips are continuing the run of challengers started by Qualcomm.

But just where does it stand among the recent titans? Here's what our lab tests are showing us.

How long does the Asus ExpertBook P5 last on a charge?

Longevity is a critical feature for most business laptops, so let's start there and see how the ExpertBook P5 compares to the competition.

The Laptop Mag proprietary battery test sets the laptop to 150 nits of brightness and cycles through a series of dynamic, static, and video webpages with standby periods in between until the battery completely runs down.

Our lab testers ran this test three separate times to arrive at a reliable average result of 14 hours and 22 minutes for the ExpertBook P5.

While it's not enough to unseat some of the recent long-lasting laptops, over 14 hours is an excellent result, particularly considering its 14-inch 2.5K 144Hz display.

This compares well with the oft-recommended Apple MacBook Air 13 M3, which, at roughly the same price and display size, delivered 15 hours and 13 minutes in our test.

While benchmark testing plays a significant role in our review process, we are still working on the full review, which will examine my real-world experience using the ExpertBook P5 to complete my work.

How does the keyboard feel? Can it handle the dozens of Chrome tabs along with a handful of apps that I tend to build up over a day? Is it robust enough to hold up to a regular commute or frequent travel?

These are all questions I'll address in the full review, but for now, here's a look at how it fares against the Dell XPS 13 (9350, Non-OLED), which is another new Intel Lunar Lake laptop, the MacBook Air 13 M3, and finally the aforementioned HP EliteBook Ultra.

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• Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406 review: a near-perfect ultraportable

The Asus Zenbook S 14 is one of the launch systems for Intel’s new Core Ultra 200V series processors launched at IFA Berlin 2024 earlier this month. These new processors promise better performance, power efficiency, and graphics. So naturally, we had some rather high hopes when testing out the first few laptops that came into the Laptop Mag office.

While our testing results supported Intel and Asus’s claims for the Zenbook S 14, I was still surprised at just how well this incredibly light and thin laptop handled multiple Chrome tabs, Adobe Photoshop, and Steam running in the background. Combined with a vivid display, powerful high-fidelity audio, and almost 14 hours of battery life, there’s little to complain about besides a lackluster keyboard and webcam.

The Asus Zenbook S 14 is good enough to be considered for our best laptop and best 14-inch laptop pages, but should it be your next laptop? Let’s find out.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Specs

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Price and configurations

The Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) costs $1,499 for an Intel Core Ultra 258V processor with Intel Arc integrated graphics and an Intel AI Boost NPU, 32GB of memory, a 1TB SSD, and a 14-inch 120Hz 3K (2,880 x 1,800) OLED touchscreen with a 0.2ms response time. This is currently the only model of Zenbook S 14 with an Intel Core Ultra 200 series processor, but there may be more configurations available in the future.

The previous Intel Zenbook S 14 model is still available. The Zenbook S 14 (UX3405) costs just $1,299 and features an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, Intel Arc integrated graphics, 32GB of memory, 1TB of SSD storage, and a 14-inch 3K OLED display. That model can also be configured with an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor for $1,399.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Design

While the Asus Zenbook S 14 doesn’t entirely escape the monochrome laptop trap, the oversized geometric Zenbook logo on the Ceraluminum chassis helps elevate the Zenbook above its more bland peers. The Scandinavian White and Zumaia Gray colorways are just different enough from most silver laptops that the design feels fresh. Our review unit came in the Zumaia Gray color, which has a subtle but compelling marbling to the Ceraluminum surface.

Measuring 12.22 x 8.45 x 0.47~0.51 inches and weighing just 2.6 pounds, you’ll have no trouble transporting the Zenbook S 14 in a backpack or laptop bag if you need to bring it on the road or transport it on your daily commute.

The Zenbook S 14 is particularly light and thin when compared to similar laptops like the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425), Dell XPS 13 (9345), Asus Zenbook S 16 (UM5606), and Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3 (2023). 

The Zenbook S 16 is similarly thin, measuring just 13.92 x 9.57 x 0.47~0.51 inches thick, which makes sense as both laptops share the same Ceraluminum chassis design. The Zenbook S 16 is a bit heavier, however, weighing 3.3 pounds. The Dell XPS 13 is thicker than the Zenbook S 14, measuring 11.62 x 7.84 x 0.6 inches, but is similarly light, weighing in at 2.6 pounds. The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425) has a thicker chassis, measuring 12.3 x 8.67 x 0.59 inches and weighs a bit more than the Zenbook S 14, weighing in at 3 pounds. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3 was the thickest and heaviest of the group, measuring 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches and weighing 3.4 pounds.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Ports

The Zenbook S 14 features two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports with support for display and power delivery (with data speeds up to 40Gbps), one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, one HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack.

While that should be enough ports for most people, if you want to use the Zenbook S 14 in a multi-display workstation, we recommend investing in one of the best USB Type-C hubs or best laptop docking stations.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Security

The Asus Zenbook S 14 features a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and Microsoft Pluton security, so you can be sure your files are safe. The Zenbook also houses an IR webcam suitable for secure Windows Hello sign-in.

In case you’re worried about the safety of your hardware, the Zenbook S 14 meets the US MIL-STD 810H for exposure to dust, high and low temperatures, high altitudes, and moisture. So even if you take the Zenbook with you on your next mountain hike, it’ll make the trip and back.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Display

The Zenbook S 14 has a glossy 3K OLED display panel, and as you may expect from an OLED display, it looks stunning with vibrant colors and minimal glare. 

Watching the trailer for Lionsgate’s upcoming adaptation of the novel Small Things Like These, starring Cillian Murphy and Emily Watson, I was impressed by just how clear and colorful the display appeared, even with the muted colors of the trailer. From deep blacks with high contrast to the warmly lit kitchen scene of the Furlong family home, the Zenbook’s display portrayed the combination of tense introspection and religious trauma the trailer deserves.

Our testing lab’s Klein K-10A colorimeter helped support my personal experience, measuring the Zenbook S 14’s display as covering 82% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with a Delta-E accuracy of 0.21, indicating a rather vibrant and color-accurate display. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3’s liquid retina display gave the Zenbook S 14 a run for its money, measuring at 81.3% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with a Delta-E accuracy of 0.12, making the MacBook a little more accurate but a bit less vibrant. The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (79.8%) and Asus Zenbook S 16 (79.7%) were just a bit less colorful, while the Dell XPS 13 (66.9%) was the least vibrant of the bunch.

In terms of brightness, the Zenbook S 14 won’t be winning any awards for the brightest screen, but it was enough to avoid most screen glare even in the bright Laptop Mag office. With an average peak brightness of just 342 nits, the Zenbook S 14 was significantly less bright than the Apple MacBook Pro 14 which measured at 558 nits. The Dell XPS 13 (455 nits) and Zenbook S 16 (357 nits) were also brighter than the Zenbook S 14, though the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 (339 nits) was a bit dimmer.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Keyboard and touchpad

The Zenbook S 14 features a backlit chiclet-style keyboard rated for 1.1mm of key travel. Much like the Zenbook S 16 we reviewed earlier this year, the chiclet keyboard feels soft and mushy under my hands. The lack of tactile feedback on the key activation and minimal key travel makes for an unsatisfying experience.

On the 10FastFingers advanced typing test, I managed an average of 86 words per minute (WPM), which is just under the 88 WPM average I maintain on my MacBook Pro 14 keyboard. So at least the chiclet keyboard didn’t greatly reduce my typing speed, even if it wasn’t the best typing experience I’ve ever had.

The 5.1 x 3.2 inch touchpad on the Zenbook S 14 is smooth with a shallow click activation, which is perfectly serviceable though it may not have the most satisfying clicker feedback.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Audio

The Zenbook S 14 has Smart Amp Technology and a built-in side-firing speaker array tuned by Harman/Kardon. I don’t often expect much from laptop audio, especially on ultra-thin laptops as the speakers are crammed into a tiny chassis. So I was pleasantly surprised by the sound volume and quality of the audio on the Zenbook S 14.

The opening bass riff of Anti-Flag’s 1999 anti-government punk anthem “Stars and Stripes” has lived rent-free in my brain for over two decades now, and it made for a great test of the Zenbook S 14’s finely-tuned speaker array. The Zenbook’s woofers captured the depth of Chris #2’s memorable bass track and the rich quality of singer Justin Sane’s raw Punk vocals and screaming guitar melodies. On the lighter side of the spectrum, the Zenbook’s sound system had no trouble presenting Debbie Harry’s crisp, smooth vocals on Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.”

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Performance

Intel’s new Core Ultra 7 258V processor features architecture designed for efficiency over pure power, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get a satisfying computing experience. I couldn’t overwhelm the Zenbook S 14 with any number of Chrome tabs, even with Photoshop, Steam, and Intel’s AI Playground running in the background.

On the Geekbench 6 cross-platform CPU benchmark, the Zenbook S 14 averaged a single-core score of 2,751 and a multicore score of 11,157. This was stronger single-core performance than the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED Q425’s Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (2,453) but worse multicore performance (12,707) reflecting the change in architecture between the Intel Lunar Lake and Meteor Lake chipsets. The Zenbook S 14 was competitive on single-core performance against both the AMD Ryzen 9 AI-powered Zenbook S 16 (2,765) and Snapdragon X Elite XIE-80-100 powered Dell XPS 13 9345 (2,797). As far as multicore performance, both the Zenbook S 16 (13,282) and XPS 13 (14,635) performed better than the Zenbook S 14. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 M3 outperformed the Zenbook S 14 on both single-core (3,163) and multi-core (11,968) performance.

On the Handbrake video encoding test, which compresses the 4K version of “Tears of Steel” into a 1080p 30fps format, the Zenbook completed the encoding in 8 minutes and 30 seconds. This was far slower than the other four laptops, with the Dell XPS 13 (4:41) being the quickest, followed by the Zenbook S 16 (5:08), MacBook Pro 14 (5:38), and Zenbook 14 OLED (6:43).

The Zenbook S 14 made up for its slow video encoding speeds with a quick SSD, taking just 17.8 seconds to complete the Laptop Mag 25GB File Copy test, for a transfer rate of 1,513 MBps. This was far quicker than even the XPS 13 which completed the transfer in 20 seconds for a rate of 1,342 MBps. The Zenbook 14 OLED took 21.7 seconds to transfer the 25GB file for a rate of 1,236 MBps. The Zenbook S 16 was the slowest, taking 29.55 seconds to copy the folder, with a transfer rate of 908 MBps.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: AI Performance and Features

While the Asus Zenbook S 14 isn’t yet part of the Copilot+ PC program, it will be added to Microsoft’s elite AI PC platform in the near future. That said, you can already access a lot of the Copilot+ AI functionality using Intel’s proprietary AI Playground and existing Large Language Model systems like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion. I spent some time messing around with the AI features of the Zenbook using the Intel Core Ultra 100 version of Intel AI Playground. I was pleasantly surprised by the Zenbook S 14’s quick response times with AI prompts even without the benefit of fully-tuned drivers.

To gauge AI performance, we ran the Zenbook through the Geekbench AI CPU and NPU tests to test the capabilities of the laptop’s various AI accelerators. We were unable to test the Zenbook on Geekbench ML without breaking the review embargo. So we don’t have quite enough data to make a proper comparison on AI performance. On the Geekbench AI CPU test, the Asus Zenbook S 14 averaged a Full Precision score of 2,194, and on the Geekbench AI NPU test, the Zenbook averaged a Full Precision score of 18,619.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Graphics and gaming

The Asus Zenbook S 14 is a premium ultra-thin laptop, not typically a recipe for great graphics, but Intel has made some promises about the new Core Ultra 200V chipset’s graphics capabilities. To prove this point, the company showed multiple gaming benchmarks and side-by-side racing comparisons. As a self-admitted MMO and gacha game addict, I obviously had to put at least one game on the Zenbook.

Genshin Impact and Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail were playable on the Zenbook S 14, particularly on Medium or Laptop (Standard) graphics presets and at 1080p resolution. The Zenbook struggled with Genshin on even Low graphics at the display’s 3K (2,880 x 1,800) native resolution. But at Medium, 1080p, the games were smooth and stutter-free, which aligns with what we’d seen from Intel’s gaming demo showcase.

On the 3DMark Fire Strike Direct X 11 benchmark, the Zenbook S 14 scored 7,806 which was just a bit worse performance than the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H-powered Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 (8,064). The Zenbook S 14 scored better than both the AMD Ryzen 9 AI-powered Zenbook S 16 (7,468) and Snapdragon X Elite-powered XPS 13 (7,468). Considering the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 features an H-suffix processor, it is more of a high-performance CPU than the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor on the Zenbook S 14. 

On the 3DMark Time Spy Direct X 12 benchmark, the Zenbook S 14 scored 3,747 which was the best performance of all four Windows laptops. The Zenbook S 16 came in just behind its Intel-powered sibling with a score of 3,728, while the Zenbook 14 OLED (3,566) and Dell XPS 13 (1,925) rounded out the rest of the category.

To test the Zenbook S 14 against the MacBook Pro 14, we also ran the laptop through the cross-platform 3DMark Wild Life Extreme gaming benchmark. The Zenbook S 14 scored an average of 7,037 with a frame rate of 42.14fps while the MacBook Pro performed a bit better with an average of 7,861 with a frame rate of 47.1fps.

Finally, for some more real-world gaming experience we tested all of the laptops on the Sid Mieier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm graphics benchmark at Medium graphics settings and 1080p resolution. The Zenbook S 14 averaged 48fps, which is solidly in the middle of the pack for gaming performance compared to the other premium laptops. The Zenbook S 16 had the best gaming performance, averaging 63fps while the MacBook Pro 14 (51fps) came in second. Both the Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 (31fps) and XPS 13 (22fps) performed worse than the Zenbook S 14.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Battery life

Battery life is often the main deciding factor with thin and light laptops, especially if you don’t have the most demanding performance or display needs. Despite downloading multiple applications, running Photoshop and Steam in the background, and keeping multiple Chrome tabs open, the Zenbook S 14’s battery life barely dipped even after a couple of hours sitting with the display on at maximum brightness. 

I completed a full day of work without having to hunt down the laptop’s charging cord, which is about all I really need out of a laptop. That said, the Zenbook S 14 lasted for 13 hours and 51 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test, which sets a laptop to 150 nits of brightness and scrolls through a series of 20 static and video web pages. The MacBook Pro 14 (17:16), XPS 13 (19:01), and Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 (15:52) all lasted longer than the Zenbook S 14. Only the Zenbook S 16 (11:35) performed worse on our battery test, so there is a bit of a battery life gap between the x86 processors and the ARM processors. The Zenbook 14 OLED Q425 does have a 75Whr battery compared to the Zenbook S 14’s 72Whr battery, which could at least partially account for the difference in battery life between the two 14-inch Asus laptops.

Intel claimed that the Asus Zenbook S 14 would last for 16 hours on the UL Procyon Office Productivity Battery Life test, and while we don’t usually run that battery life benchmark, we were able to confirm Intel’s claim as our Zenbook S 14 unit lasted for 16 hours and 21 minutes. So while Qualcomm and Apple’s ARM processors still have a lead on battery life, the gap is shrinking.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Webcam

The Zenbook S 14 has an FHD camera with IR functionality, so while its great for security, it isn’t exactly the best webcam out there. The FHD feed is incredibly grainy with some serious color distortion when pulled up full-screen on the 3K OLED display on the Zenbook. 

So if you need to take a lot of video calls or make virtual presentations, we recommend using one of our best webcams instead.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Heat

Laptop heat management is always something to consider, particularly with ultra thin systems. The Zenbook S 14 hit a high temperature of 97.7 degrees Fahrenheit while streaming a 4K video for 15 minutes, which is above the Laptop Mag comfort threshold of 95 degrees. 

The hottest point on the laptop was the rear center underside, right in front of the vent, so you’ll want to be careful about streaming video with the Zenbook in your lap. After the streaming session, the keyboard (87.3 degrees) and touchpad (78.1 degrees) stayed relatively cool in comparison, so if you put the Zenbook on a desk or table, you shouldn’t have to worry much about singeing your fingertips.

Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406: Software and warranty

The Asus Zenbook S 14 comes with Windows 11 Home and has the standard Windows apps pre-loaded like Microsoft Paint and Office 365. The Zenbook S 14 also has some of Asus’ own software installed like the My Asus app.

The Zenbook has a 1 year limited manufacturer’s warranty. If you want to see how Asus customer service compares in our annual report, check out our Tech Support Showdown.

Bottom line

From its stunning design to its vivid OLED display panel, there’s plenty to appreciate about the Asus Zenbook S 14. The laptop’s battery life may not be breaking records, but nearly 14 hours is more than enough to last you a full workday, even with more grueling task loads. The laptop’s performance is also quick and responsive on both the CPU and NPU levels. While the gaming experience wasn’t the most groundbreaking of any integrated GPU, it easily outperformed the previous generation, so we can’t say Intel didn’t meet expectations with this new hardware.

Really, as long as you don’t need a high-quality webcam and you aren’t a big keyboard snob, the Zenbook S 14 is a perfect laptop. I would prefer just about any other keyboard over the backlit chiclet keyboard on the new Zenbooks, but that’s my only major complaint.  This is an impressive launch laptop for Intel Lunar Lake and a win for Asus.

According to an exclusive report from The Wall Street Journal, Qualcomm approached Intel this month about acquiring the rival chipmaker, though experts say a deal feels unlikely.

The report explains that through "people familiar with the matter," the potential deal is "far from certain," but if it's true, this deal would mean massive changes for the tech industry.

Acquisitions happen all the time in the tech industry, but they typically involve a major tech company buying out a smaller company. Cory Johnson, Futurum Group's chief market strategist, explained on a Yahoo Finance podcast that "This would be the biggest deal in the history of the semiconductor industry, ever."

Intel and Qualcomm are two of the biggest chipmakers in the world, and the possibility of merging the two companies raises many questions and valid concerns from analysts and consumers. Most people seem to think this deal is impossible, but not everyone is convinced.

Chances are slim that Qualcomm can actually acquire Intel

Conditions are ripe for Qualcomm to acquire Intel, too: As of Monday, Intel's shares overall had dropped by 57% year-to-date (while Qualcomm's were up by around 17%), and the company is widely known to have had its fair share of financial struggles.

However, MarketWatch reports that Hendi Susanto, a Gabelli Funds portfolio manager, believes "There are more cons than pros in a hypothetical case of combining Qualcomm and Intel," with one colossal reason being that "Qualcomm will inherit all Intel's challenges."

Qualcomm has been the dominant chipmaker in the smartphone world, while Intel took on that role for PCs and servers for years. 

But with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips making an impressive debut in laptops, the company now has a strong presence in both smartphones and PCs.

Would that be enough to overcome all of Intel's financial challenges? Especially when you consider, as Reuters points out, "Qualcomm has never operated a chip factory." The business news agency observes that "Qualcomm lacks the experience needed to ramp up Intel's fledgling foundry business, which recently named Amazon.com as its first major customer."

If Qualcomm were to propose a deal, it'd have to pass through regulatory antitrust scrutiny, and there's a good chance the acquisition might not be approved. After all, antitrust laws are in place to prevent significant companies from acquiring all other major companies (among other things) in their industry, and Qualcomm and Intel are two giants in the industry.

However, Futurum Group's Cory Johnson thinks a deal could pass antitrust scrutiny. He says, "We need a strong chip industry in this country to fight against the concentration risk we have in Taiwan. And something that would help Intel survive and do better, which this merger might be seen as, might be welcomed by Washington."

MarketWatch notes that Intel declined to comment on the WSJ report, and Qualcomm didn't respond to the request. We'll keep an ear out for official updates from either company or any new reports on a potential acquisition.

Intel decided to ditch Hyper-Threading for the upcoming Arrow Lake processors, and based on a new set of leaks, it may have been for the best.

According to a leak from ECSM_Official, a reputable hardware leaker out of China, Intel's upcoming processor is seeing some big benefits to power efficiency and multi-core performance,  proving that the decision to drop the multithreaded core design makes for a stronger processor.

Here's what you need to know about what the leaked benchmarks mean for Intel's upcoming chip.

What is Hyper-Threading?

Before we get into the leaks, let's take a step back.

Hyper-Threading is an Intel-specific technology that allows more than one processor thread to run on each CPU core, allowing the processor to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. 

The main idea driving Intel's Hyper-Threading technology was that it would further enhance a computer's ability to multitask. Essentially, the additional threads on each processor core would allow the computer to do more work in parallel than just using multiple cores to handle the task. So, if you tend to work on several tasks and programs simultaneously, Hyper-Threading should provide a smoother computing experience.

This kind of parallel computing using multiple threads at the same time isn't unique to Intel; AMD and ARM processors have similar hardware. AMD's Threadripper processors essentially take that idea and run with it to the absolute limit, offering processors with up to 96 computing cores for a total of 192 threads.

Queue the benchmarks

Chinese hardware leaker ECSM_Official ran the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K on the CPU-Z benchmark, showing a sharp increase in performance over the previous generation of Intel processors. 

ECSM_Official's Core Ultra 5 245K scored 850.6 points in the single-thread performance benchmark and 10,907.1 points on the multithread performance benchmark. According to the CPU-Z archives, the record scores for the Intel Core i5-14600K are 852 points in single-core performance and 9868 points in multithread performance. So that's about a 10.5% performance increase from last gen to the upcoming Arrow Lake generation processor. The Intel Core i7-14700K CPU-Z record is 891 for single-thread performance and 12117 points for multi-threaded performance. This puts the Core Ultra 5 245K at about 90% of the Core i7's performance.

Much like the Intel Core i5-14600K, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K will be a budget desktop chip. And yet that single and multi-threaded performance allows the budget processor to rival the previous generation Intel Core i7-14700K, which is a more high-end CPU.

Additionally, these results were found on a processor that hasn't been fully optimized, as the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K processor tested by ECSM_Official was operating at a lower frequency than expected. So the chip may be even faster once the final optimizations roll out.

Why ditching Hyper-Threading is the right call

By dropping Hyper-Threading from the Intel Core Ultra 200 series Arrow Lake processors, Intel has managed to speed up multithread processor performance. At least on its more budget-conscious processors like the Intel Core Ultra 245K. 

While multitasking is a way of life for plenty of folks, it seems there is a point where multi-threaded processing is just less efficient than using multiple computing cores. Much like the processor core count race died out for most consumer-level processors, it seems we may be seeing the end of multithreaded performance on consumer machines.

Obviously, there will always be exception cases where multithreaded performance is still preferable, and we expect to see Intel keep Hyper-Threading around on the Xeon and Xeon CPU Max data center, edge, and workstation chipsets.

All of this should also mean good things for the laptop version of the Arrow Lake Intel Core Ultra 200 chips, as mobile processors operate at lower power and lower heat thresholds. So any laptop processor will greatly benefit from increased efficiency.

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An updated integrated graphics card is one of the major overhauls coming with Intel's new Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" processors. While most laptops using the new processor aren't optimized for gaming, handheld gaming PCs like the Asus ROG Ally X and MSI Claw 8 AI+ lean heavily on how well the iGPU can handle games.

We've talked a lot about Lunar Lake since the official launch ahead of IFA Berlin earlier this month, between hardware architecture breakdowns, gaming demos, battery life speculation, and benchmark previews, but we haven't done a dedicated deep-dive into the new processor's iGPU and how that might change the handheld gaming market.

Right now the MSI Claw 8AI+ is the only upcoming handheld gaming PC using the new Intel chips, as most other handheld gaming PCs have opted for either the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme or Ryzen 7 8840 processors. The original MSI Claw used Intel's previous AI chipset architecture, the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H or Intel Core Ultra 7 155H "Meteor Lake" processors. The Claw 8 AI+ not only upgrades the handheld's display and battery sizes, it also jumps to the new Intel hardware, including the new Xe2 integrated Arc graphics processor.

Between the hardware and software improvements to the new integrated Arc graphics chip on the Lunar Lake processors, the benchmarks we watched Intel perform, and the hands-on experience we were able to get at IFA, we're more positive than ever about the future of handheld gaming on Intel processors.

Xe2 GPU and XeSS

Intel has integrated a new Arc GPU inside the Lunar Lake Core Ultra 200V processors. The integrated GPU in the Core Ultra 200V chips features eight next-gen Xe2 cores, eight ray-tracing units, 8MB of cache, and XMX (Xe Matrix eXtensions) architecture for AI throughput. So the integrated Xe2 Arc GPU offers better graphics, real-time ray tracing, and AI-based upscaling.

The Xe2 GPU provides 31% faster graphics than the iGPU inside the Intel Core i7 155H chip. Intel calculated that metric by benchmarking 45 games on Medium settings at 1080p resolution, with the machines set to the "Best Performance" profile in Windows power settings.

Intel has also updated its XeSS super-sampling support to a library of over 120 games, with more optimizations still incoming. Intel claims that enabling XeSS on Lunar Lake can offer up to 60% faster gaming compared to Meteor Lake.

Based on the hardware and software gaming improvements, gaming on the new Core Ultra 200V series chips will be far smoother and shinier than on the Intel Core Ultra 100 series.

Benchmarks and first impressions

We haven't gotten a chance to benchmark any gaming handhelds running the Intel Lunar Lake chipset, but we can make some inferences from the benchmarks we do have. And we did get some hands-on gaming time with the MSI Claw 8 AI+ at IFA, which left us feeling pretty positive about the handheld overall thanks to multiple hardware improvements and a satisfying gaming experience.

Compared to AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptops running F1 2024 and F1 2022 on Medium settings at 1080p resolution, the Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" demo system left both competitors in the dust. One of our biggest complaints with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite system was its pitiful gaming experience, especially since Qualcomm spent so much time talking up how well you could game on Snapdragon with the new processors. However, AMD did manage to impress us with the gaming experience on the Ryzen AI 300 Zenbook S 16. So if Lunar Lake can outperform the latest AMD integrated graphics card, that can only mean good things for the state of the Xe2 GPU.

We also got a benchmark preview at IFA, which kicked back some pretty impressive gaming numbers. On Medium presets at 1080p resolution, the Intel Core Ultra 200V systems provided respectable frame rates on Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Cyberpunk 2077. Clocking in with 74 fps on Tomb Raider and 60 fps on Cyberpunk, that's enough performance to put even some low-end discrete graphics cards to shame.

We also went hands-on with the upcoming MSI Claw 8 AI+, and it left us feeling excited about how improved the handheld felt while playing a bit of Hi-Fi Rush. After playing around with the handheld at IFA, Laptop Mag contributing writer Stevie Bonifield commented, "The MSI Claw 8 AI+ makes a positive first impression, one that gives me hope it could live up to the promises of the original, and maybe even exceed them."

Outlook

If Intel's Core Ultra 200V processors and Xe2 integrated graphics cards can get performance close to what we've seen so far in the benchmarks and demos, we could see an Intel-based handheld gaming PC like the MSI Claw 8 AI+ outperform its AMD rivals.

Obviously, we'll have to wait a bit for the MSI Claw 8 AI+ to end up in our hands and run through our lab benchmarks and hands-on testing, but things do look pretty optimistic for MSI's second handheld. And if the Claw 8 AI+ does well, we could see more handheld gaming PCs powered by Intel processors. If that happens, we will see a shake-up in the handheld PC market, as it is currently dominated by the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally.

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Dell announced a new XPS 13 at IFA Berlin last week, powered by the new Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" processors. That shiny new XPS uses the same chassis as previous models, but the thing that makes it so interesting to us is the 26 hours of battery life Dell is claiming.

As we've previously discussed, the Dell XPS 13 9345 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip managed 19 hours and 1 minute on the Laptop Mag battery test, which wasn't too far off the initial claims made by Dell and Qualcomm. Dell claimed 27 hours of video playback for the XPS 13 9345, which is just above the 26 hours the company is claiming for the XPS 13 9350 with an Intel Core Ultra 200V processor.

Dell claims the XPS 13's battery life was based on streaming video at 1080p resolution using the Netflix Windows 11 app, with the display set to 150 nits and with wireless enabled. Obviously, there will be differences based on specific configurations and the type of battery test used, and the Laptop Mag battery test is a web surfing test as opposed to video playback, so it is unlikely our test labs will get a 26-hour battery life on the XPS 13 9350 with Intel Core Ultra 200V.

That said, the XPS 13 9350 with Intel Lunar Lake model could very well rival the XPS 13 9345 with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite for being our laptop with the best battery life.

While we don't have benchmarks for the new Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" chips yet, we can make a few predictions based on what we know about the processors' expected power draw.

How much power does a Lunar Lake chip use?

At the Intel Lunar Lake demo showcase ahead of IFA Berlin, I was able to take a look at two different power draw and performance demonstrations set up by Intel. 

The first demo measured CPU power draw between the Intel Core Ultra 200V series, AMD Ryzen AI 300, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors. All four demo laptops were running the same scripted game in DOTA 2 with hardware monitoring software tracking the power draw of the CPU and the entire system while the game was playing on a constant loop. Intel claims that the sweet spot for Intel Core Ultra 7 200V performance is around 17 Watts of CPU power while the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V has the best power-to-performance ratio at about 30 Watts. 

The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V demo model showed a CPU power draw of 17.787W to keep the gaming running at 58 fps. The Intel Core Ultra 9 288V model showed a CPU power draw of 26.453W to achieve 61 fps on the scripted game encounter. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 model was showing a CPU power draw of 28.037 Watts to keep the game running at 52 fps.

Unfortunately, Qualcomm Snapdragon chips don't support internal CPU power monitoring, so all four systems were also using external power draw monitors to determine overall system power. The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V model was running with a total of 33.3 W, the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V model was running a total of 44.8 W, the Ryzen AI HX 370 was using 46.3 W, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite XIE-80-100 was using 33.8 W of power to maintain a framerate of 48 fps.

So the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V was using just 0.5 W less power for a much higher frame rate. That said, there isn't a massive difference in the overall system power between the two processors, which could mean good things for the XPS 13's projected battery life. 

CPU Power and Battery life: Is there a correlation?

The second power demo I watched for the Lunar Lake launch in Berlin last week was specifically geared to streaming battery life. Intel set up two identical XPS models running comparable Intel Core Ultra 100 "Meteor Lake" and Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" processors, streaming the same 4K videos from YouTube. The older "Meteor Lake" XPS was using 18.3 W of total system power to stream the 4K video while the "Lunar Lake" model was using just 6.22 W of total system power. So the Lunar Lake system was almost three times more power efficient while streaming.

Of course, CPU power draw is part of a system's total power usage, and there is a correlation between the wattage it takes to keep a laptop running during a specific task and its estimated battery life while doing similar tasks. However, it isn't the kind of thing that is easy to calculate. You can estimate battery life using total system power and the Watt-hour rating of the laptop's battery, but that's not always a guarantee as batteries don't discharge in equal measures over time and power draw has a tendency to vary, even when performing the same exact task over time.

That said, based on what we've seen so far, it seems likely the Dell XPS 13 9350 with Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" processors will make it to about 19 hours on our battery test, though obviously we'll have to test that claim in our lab.

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I often complain about boring laptop designs for giving us the same gray or silver clamshells, and most of the new laptops at IFA Berlin this year didn't break that mold. So it's easy for the Asus Zenbook S 14 and Zenbook S 16 to stand out in a sea of often unremarkable-looking clamshells.

Sure, Asus may only offer a "Scandinavian White" and dark "Zumaia Gray" colorway for its S 14 and S 16 laptops, but the stylized "Zenbook" design on the top cover does a lot to elevate what would otherwise be a very simple, minimalist ultralight laptop.

There's a nice matte sheen to the unique ceraluminum chassis that helps increase the stark contrast on the Zumaia Gray model, and it helps the Zenbook S 14 and S 16 effortlessly grab your attention.

Best of IFA Berlin 2024: Asus Zenbook S14

Asus technically debuted the newly redesigned Zenbook S 14 and S 16 at Computex earlier this year. However, the new chassis is also being utilized for the models powered by Intel's new Core Ultra 200V processors.

Still, I'm constantly struck by just how much I enjoy looking at the new ceraluminum chassis on the Zenbooks — a mysterious bonding of ceramic and aluminum compounds, that's as pleasant to the touch as it is to the eye. 

While the Zenbook S design is the same across the Zenbook S 14 and the S 16, I find the 14-inch ultralight leans more heavily into what makes ultrathin-and-light laptops so popular.

While the Zenbook S 16 is only half an inch thick and weighs about 3.3 pounds, 16-inch laptops can be a bit of a beast to carry around. The 14-inch form factor is just that little bit smaller and more portable, and it makes the new Zenbook S design all the more eye-catching.

Some laptops just look and feel better on a 14-inch diagonal, and this is one of them.  It's an exceptionally designed laptop, and, even though it won't stand out too much from the crowd in terms of color, its overall build and choice of materials outshine the similarly black or silver-clad offerings at this year's IFA Berlin and makes it a more than worthy winner of our Laptop Laurels award for best design.

Intel paid for travel and accommodations for IFA Berlin. The company did not see the contents of this article before publication. 

Laptop Mag's IFA Berlin 2024 Issue celebrates one of the world's longest-running consumer tech expos, Germany's own Internationale FunkAusstellung Berlin.

Our on-the-ground team will bring you all the news emerging from the showroom floor of Messe Berlin and highlight the best in consumer tech as we announce our inaugural Laptop Laurel winners for best-in-show products.

Head over to Laptop Mag's IFA Berlin 2024 Issue for more coverage.