What you need to know
- Intel confirms it will livestream a launch event for its new Lunar Lake mobile processors in Berlin, Germany, on September 3, 2024.
- The stream starts at 9 AM PDT (12 PM ET) with a recorded replay available via Intel's Newsroom portal.
- Lunar Lake's launch lands only a few days before IFA 2024, a technology conference also hosted in Berlin, which begins on September 6.
Initially scheduled for a Q3 2024 release window, Intel has finally confirmed an exact release date for its new Core Ultra 200 series of mobile processors, codenamed Lunar Lake. The launch event is planned alongside a live stream on September 3, 2024, at 9 AM PDT (12 PM ET) to reveal performance specifics and, presumably, a lineup of available SKUs with performance profiles.
VideoCardz previously reported an apparent leak of Intel Core Ultra 200V processors, hinting that at least nine chip variants will be released. The list ranges from a 17W Core Ultra 5 226V with 16GB of on-chip LPDDR5X-8533 memory to a 30W Core Ultra 9 288V with 32GB, with all SKUs perhaps supporting a maximum turbo power of 30W. We'll have to wait for September to confirm, but the specs seem to match Intel's performance intentions.
This launch lands slightly before the IFA 2024 technology exhibition opens to the public on September 6, 2024, in Berlin, Germany, where we initially expected Intel to announce Lunar Lake. Thankfully, the keynote livestream will be available on Intel's Newsroom for anyone to watch, with a replay hosted afterward for those who can't see it happening in real-time.
Although it hasn't been confirmed whether vendors will display Lunar Lake-powered laptops for demonstrations at IFA 2024, it seems reasonable to expect at least one to appear. Windows Central plans to have team members on the ground around the event in Berlin, so we'll keep our eyes peeled for any opportunities for hands-on testing.
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What is Lunar Lake?
Lunar Lake is Intel's codename for its latest range of mobile processors using the new 'Core Ultra' branding. It's the second generation of chips using the naming system following a change that dropped the traditional 'i5, i7, i9' patterns. The upcoming Core Ultra 200 chips in Lunar Lake follow the previous-gen Core Ultra 100, codenamed Meteor Lake.
While I saw a handful of Lunar Lake specifications unveiled during Intel's Tech Tour press conference in Taipei, including a 48 peak Tera Operations per Second (TOPS) count for at least one Neural Processing Unit (NPU) in the new Core Ultra 200 SKUs, metrics like average or peak Thermal Design Power (TDP) were kept under wraps. However, on-stage demonstrations of Intel's latest 'Skymont' Efficient Cores (E-Cores) highlighted significant gen-on-gen power management and efficiency improvements as it moves away from the power-hungry Hyper-Threading technology used in Meteor Lake's System-on-Chip (SoC.)
In a nutshell, Intel boasts higher performance-per-watt with Lunar Lake, reducing comparable consumption from Meteor Lake by up to 40%. Longer battery life and a significant performance boost are the primary selling points, though they aren't much different from the goals of any new processor generation. Perfecting the combination of CPU, GPU, and NPU tiles with on-chip LPDDR5X memory matters most if Intel wants to beat Qualcomm's revolutionary Snapdragon X platform and AMD's latest Ryzen AI 300 Series mobile chips.