Intel strikes back against Windows on Arm

Windows laptops are getting exciting again. Over the past few years, Apple has dominated the laptop performance and battery life conversation, thanks to its transition to its own silicon. Now, Qualcomm has shaken up the Windows laptop market with its new Snapdragon X chips, even challenging Apple’s power efficiency in its bid to make Windows on Arm successful. With laptop makers already eyeing up AMD chips in larger numbers, it really looked like Intel would be the loser in a laptop chip war, but this week, it began striking back with its Lunar Lake chips and calling out Qualcomm along the way.

At the IFA trade show in Germany, it was clear that a fierce battle is emerging between Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm over the future of Windows laptops. On one side, you have Intel and AMD trying to catch Qualcomm on power efficiency and battery life, and on the other, you have Qualcomm trying to catch x86 on app compatibility and push Windows on Arm laptop price points even lower. 

Intel kicked off the week with a ton of details about its new Core Ultra 200V lineup, known as Lunar Lake. Intel claims Lunar Lake will be 18 percent faster in CPU tasks over its previous generation, with double-digit increases in performance per watt, too. While Intel made comparisons against AMD chips, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is firmly in its sights.