Retailer lists Intel Meteor Lake laptops before official release

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Intel’s 14th generation of Core processors, known as “Meteor Lake,” has debuted on an online Bulgarian retailer before the official release date. This early introduction follows Intel’s announcement of a rebranding strategy for the upcoming Meteor Lake launch on December 14th. They are bidding farewell to the iconic ‘i’ that has been synonymous with their processor series for 15 years. Moreover, reports suggest that these laptops will come with a notably high price tag, a notion supported by the prices listed on the Bulgarian website. Laptops powered by Meteor Lake Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 5 were spotted for sale with price tags of $1,600 and $1,400, respectively.

In a recent statement, an Intel VP stated, “To better align with our product strategies, we are introducing a branding structure that will help PC buyers better differentiate the best of our latest technology and our mainstream offerings.”

This new branding will be implemented for the upcoming Core and Core Ultra processors, starting with Meteor Lake. The new series of chips drops the ‘i’ and features the new Intel 4 process node, advanced 3D packaging technology, improved power efficiency, enhanced graphics performance, and the integration of Intel AI Boost for dedicated AI processing. Specifically, Intel designates the Intel Core Ultra processor brand for higher-end processors and tailors the Intel Core brand for mainstream offerings. Both incorporate a tiering system (Intel 3/5/7/9) for upcoming processors.

The Bulgarian site listed two Meteor Lake powered laptops based on Lenovo’s Yoga Pro 7. Notably, they feature a 14.5-inch 3K resolution display and a 120Hz touchscreen panel. Additionally, they contain 32GB of DDR5 memory and a1TB PCIe SSD storage. One features the Core Ultra 7, and the other comes with the Core Ultra 5 CPU.

Laptops with Meteor Lake chips have already made an early appearance ahead of the official launch date on December 14th

The Meteor Lake Core Ultra 7 155H powered YOGA Pro 7 appears with a price listing of $1594. The Yoga 7, powered by the Core Ultra 5 125H, carries a price tag of $1395. These preliminary prices suggest potential higher costs for customers interested in owning a Meteor Lake-powered laptop. The official launch date for Meteor Lake is December 14th, and prices are subject to change. However, early reports suggest that devices powered by Meteor Lake will carry a premium price.

Meteor Lake incorporates the latest ARC Alchemist graphics architecture within its integrated GPU. It promises to deliver substantial performance improvements over previous Intel iGPU efforts. Initial tests of the Meteor Lake Core Ultra 5 135H reveal a decrease in single-core performance. These performance tests are in comparison to the previous Raptor Lake Core i5 13500H. However, multi-core performance is much closer. These tests are based on pre-production hardware, so we can expect official performance figures to be even higher.

2023-10-31 15:07:45