When we consider Microsoft’s Office apps alone, the data is pretty clear. Intel’s Core Ultra 300 (Panther Lake) chips outperform everything else by a significant amount, though Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon X2 Elite makes a valiant effort to overtake it. AMD’s last-generation Ryzen AI 300 processor finishes in the middle of the pack. (Though AMD announced its Ryzen AI 400 processor at CES in January, we have yet to receive a laptop with one inside of it.) The superb graphics capabilities of Intel’s Panther Lake chip doesn’t really meaningfully affect these scores. All this test tells you, thoug
Tested: The smartest work laptop chip of 2026 came out in 2024The Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG is the newest ultra-compact mini PC from MSI, and is built on Intel’s latest Panther Lake platform. The Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG runs a previous-gen Lunar Lake chip and focuses on AI-assisted productivity with a built-in microphone, speaker hardware and Copilot features. The Cubi NUC AI 1UMG uses an earlier Core Ultra platform but supports DDR5 SO-DIMM memory, allowing upgrades up to 64GB if you need that later.
The MSI AI PC Buyer’s Guide: From Mini AI PCs to Powerful AI Workstations… Solving a series of test equations took 7.5 seconds on the Surface Pro, and 4.7 seconds on the Panther Lake machine. In Outlook, it took the Pro 8 seconds to search for a specific email, versus about 5 seconds for Panther Lake. …
… It will face a strong performance from its own Panther Lake productivity chips, which games quite capably from its own integrated GPUs. …
… A year ago, the lack of integrated GPU was far more worrisome than it is now, but Intel's mobile Panther Lake CPU made up for that with a robust processor that offers the gaming power of a discrete GPU. …
… In my productivity tests, the performance-per-watt efficiency of Panther Lake was right in the middle of the other mobile platforms, with AMD's Ryzen AI 300 finishing at the bottom of the heap. …
… Each model features modern Intel® Core™ Ultra processors, including Panther Lake and Lunar Lake platforms, and is capable of driving multiple displays while maintaining efficient, low-power operation designed for continuous use. …
… However, the 2026 laptop platforms for all three PC processor makers, including Intel’s Panther Lake, will not support Thunderbolt 5 except via a more expensive discrete chip. …
… Thunderbolt 5 isn't integrated into Intel's Lunar Lake mobile processor, and it's not in the desktop or mobile versions of Arrow Lake, either. Maybe Panther Lake? …