First look: Intel is bringing its 18A process technology to value-oriented notebooks with the launch of Intel Core Series 3, a line of mobile processors built on the foundation of the Panther Lake-based Core Ultra Series 3. The processors are aimed at value buyers, commercial systems, and essential edge deployments.

Intel describes Core Series 3 as an upgrade path for small businesses and home users following a typical five-year refresh cycle, offering performance gains over five-year-old PCs and previous-generation low-power Core processors such as Core 7 150U.

Compared to a five-year-old PC, Intel cites up to 47% better single-thread performance, up to 41% better multi-thread performance, and up to 2.8× better GPU AI performance, based on the company's internal benchmarks.

Within its own stack, Intel says Core Series 3 can deliver up to 2.1× faster "creation and productivity" performance, up to 64% lower processor power consumption during a YouTube 4K streaming workload, and up to 2.7× higher AI GPU performance compared to the previous-generation Intel Core 7 150U, based on the company's reference measurements.

Intel describes Core Series 3 as its first hybrid, AI-ready Core Series processor, with platform AI performance rated at up to 40 TOPS. The company says this figure applies to platform-level AI workloads, including computer vision and speech AI, and positions the same silicon for both PCs and edge deployments.

Intel also lists support for up to two integrated Thunderbolt 4 ports, Intel Wi-Fi 7, and Intel Bluetooth 6, subject to OEM implementation and regional 6 GHz Wi-Fi regulations.

Intel also highlights "essential edge computing" as a major focus beyond laptops, including applications such as robotics, smart buildings, point-of-sale terminals, and smart metering. The company says the processors offer a balance of CPU performance, integrated AI acceleration, and power efficiency in these scenarios, including in comparisons with Nvidia's Jetson Orin Nano.

In internal tests, an Intel Core 7 350 configuration is said to deliver up to 1.5× higher object detection performance, up to 1.9× faster image classification, and up to 2.2× higher performance in video analytics compared to Nvidia's Jetson Orin Nano, using YOLOv5m, MobileNet-v2, and a 1080p30 video analytics pipeline in Intel's reference workloads.

Intel says more than 70 OEM designs are due to launch in the coming months. Early systems include Acer's Aspire Go 14, 15, and 16; several Asus Vivobook and ExpertBook models; HP's Omnibook 5 14; and MSI's Modern 14S and 16S, along with systems from Colorful, Haier, Tecno, and Wiko.

Lenovo, Dell Technologies, and Samsung are listed as "coming soon." Consumer and commercial systems powered by Intel Core Series 3 will be available from OEM partners starting April 16, 2026, with additional designs arriving throughout the year, while edge systems built on the new processors are scheduled to ship beginning in the second quarter of 2026.