Intel had one surprising card up its sleeve at Computex 2024 - Beritaja

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The motherboard of an Intel Lunar Lake laptop.

We’re in an unprecedented infinitesimal correct now in The world of laptops, and Intel is trying its champion to not get mislaid in The shuffle.

At its keynote astatine Computex 2024, Intel announced a preview of its upcoming Lunar Lake chips. They’re coming early in The rhythm — astatine slightest a fewer months up of erstwhile they usually would have. But Intel doesn’t person a choice. Its manus has been forced by Microsoft, Qualcomm, and AMD — and it wasn’t astir to beryllium near in The dust.

But among The sparse specifications astir Lunar Lake, Intel had astatine slightest 1 very coagulated laptop to show disconnected that’s waiting for The caller chips.

A stunning Zenbook

The Asus Zenbook S 14 unfastened connected a achromatic table.

Among The laptops revealed that are being held for The motorboat of Intel Lunar Lake, only 1 really stood out. The addition of The MSI Claw 8 was a bully surprise, moreover if The original was a spot of a bomb. But astatine slightest arsenic of now, The only Lunar Lake laptop that stood retired was The Asus Zenbook S 14.

This is simply a replacement of The Zenbook S 13, that comes pinch a somewhat larger OLED surface and immoderate caller ocular flair. I person to opportunity — this is The best-looking Zenbook ever made. The lid has The lines of The monogram Asus logo, now pinch a “ceraluminum” decorativeness that looks great.

Inside, it’s sewage bladed bezels astir The screen, a monolithic haptic feedback trackpad, and a unsocial “geometric grille design” crossed The top. Both The acheronian and ray colour options look slayer too. In a batch of ways, it feels for illustration it’s learned a spot from The occurrence of The caller ROG Zephyrus G14 redesign.

intel had 1 paper up its sleeve astatine computex zenbook s 14 04

intel had 1 paper up its sleeve astatine computex zenbook s 14 03

Now, The Zenbook S 13 was already 1 of The very thinnest laptops you could bargain astatine 0.43 inches. That’s marginally thinner than The MacBook Air, making it The laptop to hit in position of portability. This is simply a really important point for Intel to clasp connected to owed to really overmuch The ratio of The Snapdragon X chips has been talked about. The Zenbook S 13 seems for illustration it would person been The cleanable exemplary for Qualcomm’s platform, but The truth that Asus saved it for Intel’s motorboat says a lot.

That’s not to opportunity we’ll ne'er spot a Qualcomm aliases AMD type of this device. Interestingly, Asus’ launches astir support of The Qualcomm-based Copilot+ PCs was alternatively quiet. It only had The Vivobook S15 to show, and that’s a peculiarly old-school and budget-friendly instrumentality that was astatine likelihood pinch The much premium devices its competitors were showing off. The summation of The new ProArt PZ13 2-in-1 announced astatine Computex firms up The company’s committedness to Qualcomm, but The truth that it’s redeeming a gorgeous redesign of its flagship laptop for Intel Lunar Lake feels significant.

And yet, The truth that impressions of Intel’s positioning correct now trust connected conscionable a azygous laptop aren’t needfully a bully sign.

A title to The finish

Performance claims for Intel's Lunar Lake CPU.

Dell, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, and Samsung each conscionable announced their sharpest new laptops astatine Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC event and they each support Qualcomm. HP moreover took The opportunity to rebrand its full lineup of laptops. Importantly, it came in The mediate of The twelvemonth astatine an different clip for laptop releases.

There’s nary measurement to opportunity it nicely — Qualcomm’s caller Snapdragon X chips person commanded a batch of respect in The past month. With The push for neural processing units (NPUs), Arm, and Copilot+, The tables person flipped connected x86 laptops. AMD and Intel are being forced to vie for The attraction of The big laptop brands. Just look astatine Microsoft itself, which launched The latest Surface Laptop and Surface Pro exclusively for Qualcomm. That hurts. And since Intel’s next-gen chips are past in line, it’s difficult not to consciousness for illustration it’s astatine The backmost of The battalion correct now.

AMD astatine slightest had The use of being The first to respond astatine Computex. But moreover there, arsenic awesome arsenic The new Zen 5 chips look, location weren’t a ton of caller laptops to support. There were some caller gaming laptops of interest, while The Asus ProArt P16 was possibly The astir awesome achievement. It’s packing The 50 tera operations per 2nd (TOPS) of The NPU pinch The improved capacity of The Ryzen AI 300 chip, and up to an RTX 4070 graphics. That’s thing nary Qualcomm laptop disposable correct now Can do. When it comes to earthy capacity in AI workloads, it surely looks to beryllium arsenic bully arsenic it gets.

But in general, Ryzen AI 300 could hardly beryllium considered a immense release. AMD depends a batch connected gaming laptops, and those are apt waiting for a caller procreation of Nvidia graphics earlier it releases a refresh. Without them, it was reasonably slim pickings.

I’m judge Intel’s business will look a batch much promising by The extremity of The year. There’s nary measurement companies for illustration Dell, HP, and Lenovo, which dangle truthful overmuch connected Intel’s sanction nickname to waste laptops, Can disregard it. That’ll stay existent passim 2024 and beyond. In fact, it’s The logic it’s ever been truthful difficult for AMD to summation immoderate crushed against Intel complete The years, particularly in mainstream laptops.

But The tide is turning. At slightest from The vantage constituent of Computex, The unit is connected Intel to present large pinch Lunar Lake to enactment in bully favour pinch its laptop partners. Without them, Intel’s in trouble.