The Taiwanese PC industry is expecting Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake CPU-powered laptops to feature a very high price due to their AI tag.
Intel Meteor Lake "Core Ultra" Laptops Launching On 14th December But May Feature A High Price Tag
Yesterday, Intel formally introduced its 1st Gen Core Ultra family codenamed Meteor Lake. The new CPUs will be brand new in all departments, featuring the first chiplet design made possible using a range of process technologies but mainly "Intel 4". The CPU utilizes a hybrid core design, featuring Redwood Cove P-Cores and Crestmont E-Cores with a brand new Alchemist Xe-LPG GPU design & also packs an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) which will be responsible for handling AI-specific tasks.
During yesterday's announcement, Intel's CEO, Pat Gelsinger, only touched upon the AI aspect of the next-gen CPUs while media outlets offered a deep dive into the various components of the Meteor Lake CPUs. You can check out our deep dive here. But yesterday's presentation made it very clear to consumers that Intel's main selling point for Meteor Lake laptops would be AI as that is the buzzword around the whole tech industry these days.
The only Meteor Lake laptop shown during the event was an Intel Reference design and an ACER design. ACER is in line to be one of the first OEMs to roll out Meteor Lake CPUs as hinted by UDN's report which also has a word on pricing. The pricing in fact are estimates that are being laid out by Intel partners in the industry and the general PC market. While the actual launch is going to take its place on the 14th of December, the majority might not be able to get their hands on the latest laptops till early 2024.
According to market estimates, AI laptops from major brand manufacturers will be launched in 2024. Although the price of Intel Core Ultra processors has not yet been released, in order to provide AI computing functions in terminal devices, the processor must have high performance. In the early stage, The price of laptops equipped with this CPU has naturally increased, and the price is expected to be higher than NT$50,000. Due to the high unit price, it will help improve the performance of brand manufacturers.
That's when the entire spectrum of Intel partners will be rolling out their designs but even then, the first laptops aren't going to be cheap. In fact, it is estimated that Intel's Meteor Lake laptops would end up costing above $50,000 NTD which rounds up to around $1500 US. That's a very high price & we have to remember that the Taiwanese pricing does include taxes. But even then, it feels like the 1st Gen Core Ultra CPUs are going to be in a very premium position.
That might also explain why the Non-Core Ultra CPUs still exist as the Raptor Lake Refresh. Intel needs to have some sort of chips targeting the entry-level and mainstream segment under $1,000 US. Intel Meteor Lake CPUs are based on some bleeding edge technologies but time will tell if they are worth the extra pricing, especially when AMD Ryzen 7000 laptops with Ryzen AI tech are also out on the market and can be found for under $1000 US with relative ease.
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