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As soon as I was starting to get used to the codename Panther Lake, Intel Core Ultra Series 3 is set to be made official at a CES 2026 keynote on Monday, January 5. After a couple of years of disappointing laptop silicon, this is Team Blue’s fightback moment, and after testing the chips myself, they’re coming in heavy with a big generational leap.
And you can expect to see them in so many laptops announced in Vegas. Here’s how you can watch the announcement live with us, and specific details you can expect Intel to cover.
How to watch Intel at CES 2026
The Intel keynote is set to kick off on Monday, January 5 at 3pm PT / 6pm ET / 11pm GMT. There is a livestream page with a countdown timer over on Intel’s website. But currently beyond that, there’s no YouTube livestream available for this yet. I’ve no doubt that one will be shared on Intel’s YouTube page soon enough
What to expect from Intel at CES 2026
This is the most obvious one to predict, because there’s no prediction whatsoever. As Intel itself says on the event page, Senior VP Jim Johnson is going to talk to us about Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors — codenamed Panther Lake.
I’ve already had the chance to test these quite a lot last year, and to put it simply, you’re in for a treat. These chips pair the raw performance of Arrow Lake with the power efficiency of Lunar Lake, and combines them into one chunk of silicon for quite the generational leap in laptop prowess.
In practice, this leads to a 50% improvement in CPU and GPU performance, a 40% reduction in the power needed to achieve those highs, and NPU improvements that aim to make on-device Agentic AI a real thing this year.
It gets even more tasty when you look at the X-series chips (rumored name) — the top of the range ones I tested that sports that mighty 12-core GPU on the chip die. With Intel’s Xe3 technology driving the latest iteration of Team Blue’s XeSS AI trickery in gaming, I was able to play AAA titles in excess of 120 FPS on integrated graphics.
Outlook
Intel is one of three companies jumping headfirst into the CPU wars of 2026 with a CES keynote — Qualcomm and AMD are also stepping up too. It will be interesting to see how the company’s innovations here from the new 18A architecture to putting transistors on the backside of the chip will help the big I in this war.
Look forward to all the latest announcements as they happen live in our CES 2026 coverage, alongside plenty more hands-on coverage with systems sporting these chips.
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More from Tom's Guide
- Intel Panther Lake could power the future of handheld gaming — here's why AMD should be nervous
- Intel Panther Lake vs Snapdragon X2 Elite vs AMD Gorgon Point — one chip is already pulling ahead in 2026's CPU war
- I think 2026 will be a breakout year for laptops and a brutal one for buyers
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