Intel Panther Lake laptop CPU review: call it a comeback
Key Points:
- Intel’s new Panther Lake laptop chips, built on the 18A process, mark a significant performance and efficiency improvement over previous generations, with the flagship Core Ultra X9 388H delivering strong multitasking, 1080p gaming, and excellent battery life in the Asus Zenbook Duo.
- Panther Lake CPUs feature up to 16 cores combining performance and efficiency cores, paired with Intel Arc B390 graphics, and outperform AMD’s high-end Strix Point chips in most benchmarks, while competing closely with Apple’s M5 chips.
- Real-world testing showed Panther Lake’s responsiveness in demanding tasks like 50-megapixel RAW photo editing and 4K video export, with battery performance nearly matching plugged-in speeds, a notable achievement for Windows