tech
January 27, 2026
Intel Panther Lake laptop CPU review: call it a comeback
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TL;DR
- The Intel Panther Lake chip (Core Ultra X9 388H) features 8- or 16-core versions with Cougar Cove P-cores and Darkmont E-cores.
- It boasts an Intel Arc B390 GPU with 12 Xe graphics cores, a 25W base power, and up to 80W turbo power.
- Panther Lake shows improved efficiency and power compared to Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake chips.
- In benchmarks, it competes strongly, often outperforming AMD's Strix Point chip and matching MacBook Pro performance in tasks like 4K video export.
- Real-world usage, including photo editing on Adobe Lightroom Classic with RAW files, is snappy and comparable to MacBook Pro.
- The chip maintains high performance on battery power, a significant advantage for Windows laptops.
- Battery life with dual OLED displays is impressive, lasting over 14 hours in rundown tests and a full workday of multitasking.
- For gaming, Intel claims its graphics are on par with Nvidia's RTX 4050 laptop GPU, with early tests showing it near a desktop RTX 3050 at 1080p.
- Titles like Cyberpunk 2077 can achieve 40fps at 1920x1200 on Ultra settings, and 60fps on High with XeSS enabled.
- Intel's XeSS multi-frame generation can significantly boost frame rates for smoother gameplay.
- Panther Lake is positioned as a leading Windows laptop chip, facing future competition from AMD and Qualcomm.