Asus Zenbook S14 OLED with Intel Core Ultra 200V

A storming debut for Intel's Core Ultra 200V processor, even if you never knowingly use local AI

- TIM DANTON

To say Lunar Lake, the codename for Intel’s second-generation Core Ultra processors, is a big deal for Intel understates things in the same way that winning the presidency is a big deal for Donald Trump. For the first time since its foundation in the 1960s, Intel is under existential pressure: its historically low share price means other companies could consider hostile bids; its bold but expensive plan to set up its own foundries in the USA is floundering; and Qualcomm’s partnership with Microsoft to create the first Copilot+ PCs had seen its rival racing off into the distance while Intel was left at the starting line, still lacing up its shoes.

But write Intel off at your peril. It faces stiffer competition than ever, through the AMD-Nvidia axis in the data centre and AMD-Qualcomm in PCs, but this is a company with an unmatched heritage for CPU design. And that heritage shows in the Intel Core Ultra 200V chips.

These processors are designed with a purpose: to deliver performanceper-watt that’s exactly right for thin and light laptops. Unlike AMD with its Ryzen AI 300 series chips (see issue 361, p48), Intel isn’t looking to come out top in all benchmarks here; instead, it wants to deliver battery life that rivals Snapdragon chips and snappy all-round performance that brings a smile to the lips of laptop users.

Power moves

That meant big decisions, the first of which is to drop Hyper-Threading. We’re so used to seeing this in Intel’s CPUs that it almost sounds like heresy – who doesn’t like two threads for the price of one? – but Intel’s designers worked out they could deliver more performance-per-watt by focusing on single-thread efficiency in its all-new Lion Cove P-cores. This doesn’t mean Intel is turning its back on HyperThreading – it still makes sense in chips where power efficiency isn’t the priority – but it is a major change.