Intel needs low cost Home windows laptops to cease feeling low cost

Folks in every single place are speaking about Apple’s cheaper MacBook Neo laptop computer. Now Home windows is getting ready to retake the mainstream laptop computer market with Undertaking Firefly, impressed by smartphone design.

Firefly goals to ship traits related to premium laptops like all-metal development and a clear underside, freed from air flow. Inside sits Intel’s Core Collection 3 collection, aka “Wildcat Lake,” a chip that Intel re-engineered to take away manufacturing price, thus reducing the price of the completed laptop computer. Intel additionally confirmed off a processor module with reminiscence chips designed for telephones somewhat than PC.

“We name it mainstream reimagined,” mentioned Sam Gao, vp and normal supervisor of Intel’s software program and consumer product group in China. Firefly laptops might be designed for a “day of productiveness” for college students and customers, together with small enterprise prospects.

“A couple of yr in the past, a number of of us bought collectively and we thought, we now have an excellent recipe for this premium section of merchandise,” Gao mentioned. “What occurred to the extra mainstream designs? What if we have a look at this section from a special approach, not solely competing on how not solely how a lot it prices you to get a system, however what sort of expertise you’re going to get? How skinny that system might be, how quiet it may be, how lengthy a battery life it might probably [have]. Let’s do that in a different way. Let’s reimagine mainstream.”

First Athena, now Firefly?

In 2019, Intel launched “Undertaking Athena,” a reimagining of the premium laptop computer. Over time, that code identify turned the premise of the Evo model. Not solely did it symbolize a top quality product, but it surely additionally signaled the shut collaboration between laptop computer designers and Intel engineers. It’s not clear that Undertaking Firefly may head in the identical path, however historical past suggests it’d.

Intel, unusually, is totally downplaying the connection between Wildcat Lake, Firefly, and what results it may need on the laptop computer market. No less than one Wildcat Lake system was out there at CES 2026 in January, however Intel barely promoted the chip’s launch in April, after a significant CES occasion centered on the Core Extremely Collection 3 (Panther Lake). At Computex, nevertheless, my colleague Adam Patrick Murray reported that distributors have been keen to point out off Wildcat Lake techniques, even when Intel wasn’t. A current video revealed by the Intel Expertise channel represents a lot of what we learn about Undertaking Firefly thus far.

Gao denied that Undertaking Firefly was launched in response to the MacBook Neo, which is smart. In mid-2025, costs of reminiscence and storage began skyrocketing upward, and Intel was in the precise place to acknowledge and reply to the development. Gao mentioned that Undertaking Firefly started a few yr in the past, and that Firefly techniques started circulating at CES 2026 in nearly three months’ time.

So why Wildcat Lake? Nish Neelalojanan, the senior director of consumer merchandise at Intel, mentioned that the processor was designed for lower-cost laptops from the start. It has two efficiency cores, 4 low-power effectivity cores, and two embedded graphics cores. Extra importantly, Intel did away with the “tiled” chip structure that traded manufacturing flexibility for added price, making it primarily based on Intel’s in-house 18A course of expertise.

For Wildcat Lake, Intel additionally deserted its Foveros interconnect, changing it with a UCIE interconnect, and lowered the motherboard layers to 6. Neelalojanan even implied that single-channel reminiscence might be used to avoid wasting price. Intel additionally trimmed “the most recent iteration” of Thunderbolt to scale back the top worth, too, he mentioned.

What’s in a Undertaking Firefly laptop computer?

Whereas Wildcat Lake is perhaps the guts of Firefly laptops, the precise Firefly laptop computer reference design was labored along side China’s tech ecosystem, Neelalojanan mentioned. These firms have been accustomed to stripping out as a lot price as potential for China’s telephone ecosystem, and Intel leveraged that as a part of the Firefly designs. Neelalojanan referred to as {that a} “recipe” for additional innovation, and throughout the remainder of the world.

“This system itself kick-started that platform innovation for this a part of the section, and also you’ll see much more designs,” Neelalojanan mentioned.

On Intel’s video, Gao confirmed off a pair of Intel’s Firefly reference designs, each in a lilac coloration with “Intel Coloration” hooked up. One was simply 12.9mm skinny, all metallic, with a wide range of ports. Intel eliminated the underside air flow grille (which most laptops embrace) to provide it a “clear” aesthetic, Gao defined. He then wiggled the chassis, exhibiting that these weren’t typical funds laptops that felt low cost, regardless of delivery at a cheaper price.

Intel

Inside, the reference design Gao confirmed off used copper warmth piping (which might be present in some gaming laptops) to engineer a greater cooling answer that price much less. Intel additionally used a extra standardized cabling system to assist decrease price. Firefly laptops may also combine optimized encoder / decoders (codecs) utilized by smartphones for PCs.

Maybe the nerdiest, however most fascinating change is that Intel is now contemplating the usage of reminiscence historically designed for telephones to assist remedy the issue of rising reminiscence costs. Intel’s Gao confirmed off what he referred to as a “core logic module,” which included telephone reminiscence as a substitute. (The demo module Gao confirmed was primarily based on Panther Lake, not Wildcat Lake.)

Intel

“Even earlier than the reminiscence storage had gone by the roof, our engineers already forecast that if we usher in reminiscence expertise options, reminiscence from the telephone sector to the PC, proper, [it’s a] lot extra work for Intel,” Gao mentioned. “If we end it, , we outline the sign, we outline some form of interposer, you do that entire factor for all the ecosystem.”

What Intel is attempting to do, Gao defined, is the engineering work contained in the core logic to accommodate a broader vary of codecs and reminiscence, providing laptop computer makers extra alternative in a bid to decrease the general worth of the top laptop computer.

Gao mentioned that Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, and different companions can be delivery Wildcat Lake-based Firefly designs sooner or later. “A few of them already hit the market, and I heard that a few of them offered out already,” Gao mentioned, with none additional elaboration.

Presumably a few of these have occurred solely in China, as a result of the laptop computer companions I queried about Firefly didn’t point out the initiative, and no less than one unannounced Wildcat Lake laptop computer I’ve held included underside venting, and gave the impression to be product of plastic as effectively.

Nonetheless, cheap laptops are getting attractive once more, whoever makes them. Might Intel’s Undertaking Firefly evolve right into a laptop computer badge signaling a top quality laptop computer at an affordable worth? Let’s hope so. I’m unsure I can deal with one other technology of uninventive laptops at stratospheric costs.