Introduction
Intel has just officially announced its lineup of Core Ultra 200V chips, also referred to as Lunar Lake. These are meant to go toe-to-toe against Qualcomm’s recently announced Snapdragon X Elite and AMD’s Strix Point chips. Intel says these new chips include the best of everything: the fastest CPU, the fastest GPU, and the best AI performance. But have they been worth waiting for?

Key Features of Intel’s Core Ultra 200V Chips
The lineup of Core Ultra 200V introduces significant improvements to laptop processing power. Intel bills these chips as featuring “the fastest CPU core,” “the world’s best built-in GPU,” and “the best AI performance.” The laptops running these chips, like the Dell XPS 13, boast up to 26 hours of Netflix streaming. This represents a 44% increase over predecessors.

Performance Claims vs. Competitors
New Intel chips try to outcompete both Qualcomm and AMD in key departments. The chip Core Ultra 9 288V promises 68% better frame rates than Qualcomm’s X1E-84-100 and 16% better than AMD’s HX 370 when gaming at 1080p medium settings. That would put Intel finally ahead of AMD in some aspects of gaming, while Qualcomm lags.

Intel even boasts its chips grant batteries with longer lives in machines such as the Asus Zenbook S 14, beating larger-battery counterparts such as AMD’s Asus Zenbook S 16.

Possible Flaws of Lunar Lake
But, among all the roar, there are a couple of limitations with these Core Ultra 200V chips: They’re designed for thin laptops and also support only up to 32GB RAM, without the possibility of future upgrades. The chips don’t feature hyperthreading either, which might affect their performance in multi-threaded tasks concerning older or more powerful chips, such as Intel’s own Meteor Lake or the upcoming Arrow Lake.

Further, while Intel promises huge dividends in terms of efficiency and performance, this may be to a lesser degree depending on the power supply. High-watt tasks may still see better performance from AMD’s HX 370 or Intel’s Meteor Lake chips.

What to Expect and When
Laptops boasting Intel’s new chips won’t start shipping until September 24th. But would-be buyers may want to wait for in-depth reviews to appear before pulling the trigger. Past experience with both Qualcomm and AMD indicates these initial claims will often differ from actual real-world performance.

Conclusion: Should You Wait?
Yes, some exciting promises are certainly made with the Core Ultra 200V chips from Intel, but in reality, performance and value for money can only be told once independent reviews are in. More powerful options on the horizon, such as Arrow Lake, mean maximum performance buyers will appreciate holding off that little bit longer before pulling the trigger.