Intel has launched a new range of laptop processors aimed at bringing modern performance and basic artificial intelligence features to affordable computers used by students, small businesses and everyday buyers.
The chips, called Core Series 3, are built using the same advanced manufacturing process as Intel's more expensive processors but with fewer components, allowing laptop makers to offer significantly lower price points.
Intel's manufacturing processes are measured in nanometres, a unit so small that a human hair is roughly 80,000 nanometres wide, and these new chips are made on what the company calls its 18A process, currently among the most advanced in the industry.
The processors will appear in more than 70 laptop designs from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung and others, with the first models available from today and more following through the year.
Intel is positioning the range as the budget counterpart to its Core Ultra Series 3 family, the premium laptop chips it unveiled at the CES technology show in January, which power high-end machines costing upwards of $2,000.
The new chips use a simplified design with fewer processing cores, the individual units within a chip that handle calculations.
The most powerful version, the Core 7 360, has six cores split between two high-performance cores for demanding tasks and four efficiency cores that handle lighter work while consuming less power, an approach that helps extend battery life.
An integrated graphics processor handles visual tasks, and a dedicated unit called a neural processing unit, or NPU, provides the computing power needed to run AI features such as noise cancellation on video calls, real-time translation and intelligent photo editing directly on the laptop without relying on an internet connection.
Intel rates the chip's total AI processing capability at up to 40 trillion operations per second, a measure of how much mathematical work the AI hardware can perform, with the NPU contributing 17 trillion of those operations on the top two models.
Compared with its previous generation of budget processors, the company says the new chips use up to 64% less power during common tasks such as streaming video, and deliver roughly double the speed in office productivity work.
Battery life figures from Intel's own testing suggest the chips can sustain nearly 19 hours of streaming video playback, about 12 and a half hours of office work, and close to 10 hours on a video call with AI-powered visual effects running.
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The chips also include modern connectivity features such as Wi-Fi 7, the latest wireless networking standard, two Thunderbolt 4 ports for fast data transfer and display connections, and Bluetooth 6.
Early laptop models featuring the new processors include the Acer Aspire Go range, the HP Omnibook 5 and the MSI Modern 14S and 16S, with additional designs from Asus, Dell, Lenovo and Samsung expected later in the year.
The recap
- Intel launches Core Series 3 (Wildcat Lake) for value laptops.
- Six consumer SKUs plus one edge-only variant on Intel 18A.
- More than 70 laptop designs expected from vendors through 2026.