You and I might be hotly anticipating what Intel’s next-generation Arrow Lake processors will do later this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get excited about what comes after or even alongside it, right? Intel’s Lunar Lake is its next, next-generation design, tentatively outlined for a launch maybe before the end of the year. Maybe alongside Arrow Lake on desktop, with Lunar Lake focused on mobile instead.
Related It’s a mobile-first architectural design with a wattage target of around 15W, suggesting Lunar Lake will be used for Intel’s traditional U-series processors. With a focus on performance per watt, it seems likely that we’ll see lower clock speeds with this generation and a focus on Intel’s efficiency cores. Indeed, one eight-core configuration leaked earlier this year , reportedly included four Skymont efficiency cores , and four Lion Cove performance cores.
Intel may also launch a low 8W power version of its Lunar Lake processors, targeting fanless laptop designs to compete with Apple’s MacBook Air more readily. Arrow Lake will then be used for higher-end mobile designs and desktops. If Lunar Lake does debut alongside Arrow Lake, though, expect availability to be limited to start with, leading to mass production in early 2025.
Rumors suggest Lunar Lake will manage a 50% performance boost over existing Meteor Lake processors. This would be an incredible inter-generational leap and a claim that we will only view through our skeptic’s glasses for now. There are also some rumors of Lunar Lake’s integrated GPU performance doubling that of Meteor Lake at a higher TDP. Lunar Lake could be amazing for low-cost, low-power gaming laptops if that proves true.