Intel arrived at CES this year with a clear message: the AI PC era is accelerating, and the company intends to lead from the front. With the debut of the Intel Core Ultra Series 3, the first compute platform built on the long‑anticipated Intel 18A process node, the company is marking a major technological milestone, and signaling a strategic reset as competition in AI‑accelerated laptops and desktops intensifies.
The new Series 3 family spans consumer notebooks, premium creator systems, enterprise laptops, and even industrial edge devices. More than 200 designs from global OEMs are launching with these chips, many of them debuting across the CES show floor. From ultra‑portable refreshes to high‑performance mobile workstations, Intel’s partners are clearly betting that the new architecture delivers the performance and efficiency gains the company has promised.
Intel’s pitch is straightforward: more performance, more graphics power, more AI acceleration, and better battery life, all while maintaining the broad software compatibility that x86 users expect.
At the top of the stack, Intel is introducing a new tier of high‑performance mobile processors: Core Ultra X9 and Core Ultra X7. These chips are designed to push thin‑and‑light systems into territory traditionally reserved for bulkier workstations. Intel has equipped them with up to 16 CPU cores and a significantly upgraded GPU featuring 12 Xe‑cores of integrated Intel Arc graphics. The company claims these improvements translate into up to 60 percent better multithreaded performance compared to Lunar Lake at similar power levels, while gaming performance sees gains of up to 77 percent thanks to the revamped graphics architecture.
Battery life is another area where Intel is making aggressive promises. According to the company’s internal testing, laptops powered by Core Ultra Series 3 can reach up to 27 hours of video playback, a figure that if validated in real‑world systems, would place these machines among the longest‑lasting Windows laptops available.
These flagship chips are already appearing in several CES‑announced systems, including new creator‑focused notebooks from Lenovo, HP, Dell, and ASUS. Many of these devices are leaning heavily into AI‑assisted workflows, from real‑time language translation to accelerated video editing and on‑device generative tools.
Bringing 18A to the Edge
In a notable expansion of its strategy, Intel is certifying Core Ultra Series 3 for embedded and industrial applications, a first for the lineup. This move signals Intel’s ambition to bring its newest AI acceleration capabilities to robotics platforms, smart city infrastructure, healthcare devices, and automation systems.
Intel says the new architecture delivers substantial gains in edge‑focused workloads. Large language model performance nearly doubles, video analytics see more than twice the performance‑per‑watt‑per‑dollar, and vision‑language‑action models, increasingly important in robotics and autonomous systems achieve up to 4.5× higher throughput. By integrating these capabilities into a single chip, Intel is positioning Series 3 as a compelling alternative to the multi‑component CPU‑plus‑GPU configurations that have long dominated edge AI deployments, particularly those built around NVIDIA’s Jetson platform.
The impact of Intel’s launch is immediately visible across CES. Major PC makers are rolling out refreshed product lines built around Core Ultra Series 3, signaling strong industry confidence in the new architecture. HP is integrating the chips into updated EliteBook and Spectre models, while Lenovo is bringing X9 and X7 configurations to its Yoga Pro and ThinkBook families. Dell is highlighting AI‑accelerated workflows in its new XPS and Latitude systems, and both Acer and ASUS are showcasing thin‑and‑light designs that use the upgraded Arc graphics to deliver credible gaming performance without dedicated GPUs.
Desktop manufacturers are also joining the wave, with several compact towers and all‑in‑one PCs adopting Series 3 to take advantage of its efficiency gains. With pre‑orders opening January 6 and global availability beginning January 27, Intel is moving quickly to convert CES buzz into early‑year momentum.
A Renewed Rivalry With AMD
Intel’s announcement lands just as AMD is rolling out its own next‑generation AI PC chips, including new Ryzen AI processors built on its latest Zen architecture. AMD is emphasizing high TOPS numbers, strong integrated RDNA graphics, and aggressive power efficiency, especially in ultraportables. The result is a CES defined by a renewed Intel‑AMD rivalry, but with a modern twist: the battleground is no longer just CPU and GPU performance. It’s AI acceleration, battery life, and real‑world workflow optimization, areas where both companies are racing to define the standard.
Intel’s advantage lies in its broad OEM scale and the maturity of x86 app compatibility. AMD’s strength remains its efficiency and graphics leadership. For consumers, 2026 is shaping up to be the most competitive laptop market in years.
Core Ultra Series 3 is the company’s most ambitious attempt yet to reclaim leadership in mobile computing, and the sheer number of CES designs adopting it suggests OEMs are ready to give Intel another shot at the crown.
Whether Series 3 can deliver on its promises in real‑world systems remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the AI PC race is officially underway, and Intel just fired a very loud starting gun.
