Intel To Bolster Budget PC Market With Apollo Lake Pentium And Celeron SoCs

Intel lifted the curtain on its Kaby Lake architecture earlier this week, its second consecutive "tock" in what used to be its "tick-tock" release cadence and also its 7th generation Core architecture. While that dominated the headlines, Intel also launched its budget-oriented Apollo Lake line, which is the latest generation of its low-power Atom family.

Apollo Lake is the successor to Braswell and is built on the same 14nm manufacturing process. It uses Goldmont core and will slip into low-cost devices, such as budget-priced 2-in-1 systems and affordable laptops. While that doesn't sound particularly exciting (from an enthusiast standpoint, anyway), Apollo Lake gives Intel an opportunity to dominate cheaper markets.


Intel's Apollo Lake lineup for the desktop includes a trio of processors at the moment, those being the Pentium J4205, Celeron J3455, and Celeron J3355. Here's how they break down:

• Intel Pentium J4205: 4 cores, 4 threads, 1.5GHz base, 2.6GHz boost, 10W, $161
• Celeron J3455: 4 cores, 4 threads, 1.5GHz base, 2.3GHz boost, 10W, $107
• Celeron J3355: 2 cores, 2 threads, 2.0GHz base, 2.5GHz boost, 10W, $107

The top-end Pentium chip features the fastest graphics of the bunch, Intel HD 505 with 18 execution units (EUs) with a 250MHz base frequency and 800MHz boost frequency. Both the Celeron chips uses Intel HD 500 graphics with 12 EUs, the J3455 clocked up to 750MHz and the J3355 clocked up to 700MHz.

Over on the mobile side, Intel's Apollo Lake architecture is represented in the Pentium N4200, Celeron N3350, and Celeron N3450. Here's how those look:

• Intel Pentium N4200: 4 cores, 4 threads, 1.1GHz base, 2.5GHz boost, 6W,  $161
• Intel Celeron N3450: 4 cores, 4 threads, 1.1GHz base, 2.2GHz boost, 6W, $107
• Intel Celeron N3350: 2 cores, 2 threads, 1.1GHz base, 2.4GHz boost, 6W, $107

The integrated graphics break down the same, with the top-end Pentium part rocking Intel HD 505 graphics and the other two chips using Intel HD 500 graphics, the only difference being the clockspeeds—the Pentium N4200 redlines at 750MHz, while the Celeron N3450 and Celeron N3350 top out at 700MHz and 650MHz, respectively.

Devices built around Apollo Lake will probably show up over the next several weeks. According to recent rumors, they'll be thinner than ever with RAM that's soldered to the system (in other words, no replaceable or upgradeable).