‘They’re promoting historic silicon’: Intel warns handheld battle is coming

AMD might personal the hand held PC gaming market, however Intel has plans to steal it again with its Core Extremely Collection 3 chip, or Panther Lake. Intel plans to launch a model of Panther Lake later this 12 months particularly for handhelds, executives instructed PCWorld.com.

AMD’s processors with built-in graphics energy the overwhelming majority of handheld PCs, a distinct segment market that has shortly grown as players sought cheaper gaming options that they may additionally tackle the go.

Intel’s earlier processors have proven up in handheld gaming PCs earlier than; in 2024, Intel’s Core Extremely Collection 2 (Lunar Lake) was revealed in a handheld earlier than Computex. However Intel’s chip did not make a dent.

Partly, that was as a result of the hand held gaming market was in its infancy, Nish Neelalojanan, senior director of product administration for consumer for Intel, instructed me in an interview at CES 2026. At the moment, among the groundwork has been laid, akin to Microsoft enabling a unified full-screen interface for the gaming market.

However right now’s Panther Lake chips have a bonus, Neelalojanan stated: a return to the low-power E-cores that initially debuted in Intel’s first-generation Core Extremely chips and have been handed over within the second-generation Lunar Lake. “We predict that the low energy E-cores are significantly acceptable for gaming,” he stated.

AMD has loved success in handhelds as a result of it has persistently powered sport consoles, whose systems-on-a-chip are related in idea to the SOCs inside handhelds. The ROG Xbox Ally and Lenovo Legion Go each use AMD processors, particularly the Z1 and Z2 chips.

However Neelalojanan additionally had some blunt phrases relating to AMD within the handheld gaming market: “They’re promoting historic silicon, whereas we’re promoting up-to-date processors particularly designed for this market.” Or shall be promoting, anyway.

With the launch of the Core Extremely Collection 3 chip, Intel not too long ago sanitized its listing of processors, eliminating lots of the single-letter suffixes that have been a staple of its product listings. Slightly than merely take an current Panther Lake chip and provides it to handheld prospects, Neelalojanan stated that there shall be a customized spinoff optimized for the market.

Will there be a brand new Intrel handheld model, although, or a brand new household of processors? “You’ll have to attend and see,” Neelalojanan stated.