Intel Delays Panther Lake CPUs For Gaming Handhelds, Leaker Says
The vast majority of PC gaming handhelds run on AMD hardware, though Intel hasn't ignored the market completely. Notably, MSI injected Intel's Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake silicon into its Claw handhelds, and now with Panther Lake roaring to life, Intel is specifically targeting the form factor with part of its latest-generation lineup. However, you may have to wait a little longer than expected.
According to Golden Pig Upgrade, a prominent leaker who frequents Weibo, the handheld version of Panther Lake is delayed to the second quarter of this year. That means a launch as late as June or no earlier than April. The good news (depending on your perspective) is that we're already a week into February. Folks, for better or worse, 2026 is flying by.
We're optimistic about what Panther Lake will bring to gaming handhelds. In the laptop space, we've already reviewed Intel's Core Ultra X9 388H, which demonstrated killer iGPU performance, improved efficiency, and strong battery life.
Additionally, Intel hasn't been shy about promoting the prowess of Panther Lake's Xe3 iGPU. As far back as October, Intel's Tom 'TAP' Peterson was saying "the graphics hardware in Panther Lake is going to set a new standard for us, and we actually think for the industry," and hype train hasn't slowed since then.
In the realm of handhelds, Intel has yet to announce specific SKUs. All we know for certain is that it's targeting handhelds and has lined up several hardware partners, including Acer, GPD, MSI, and others.
While nothing is official yet, the folks at Videocardz have repeatedly pointed to Intel eventually launching Core G3 and Core G3 Extreme silicon based on Panther Lake. According to the site, both chips will feature 2 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores for 14 total cores.
The differences come down to clock speeds and graphics—the standard G3 is set to feature a 4.6GHz max boost clock and Arc B360 graphics with 10 Xe3 cores clocked at up to 2.2GHz. Intel's Core G3 Extreme reportedly the ups the ante with a 4.7GHz max CPU boost clock and Arc B380 graphics with 12 Xe3 cores clocked at up to 2.3GHz.
We'll find out soon enough, though not before April if the rumored delay turns out to be true. There's also the question of pricing. In the laptop landscape, Moore's Law Is Dead has been telling anyone who will listen to expect average pricing for models with the top Xe3 iGPU configs to be higher than initially expected, likely due to the same old story (rising RAM and storage costs).
