Late last year, Intel unveiled its new Intel Core Ultra processor family, aiming to usher in the era of AI-powered PCs with the company’s first processor to feature a built-in NPU. Following this launch in December, the company’s OEM consumers have come up with systems that deserve credit. Although some AI programs are still in their infancy, Intel is certainly one of the corporations that can turn a new generation into a new feature widely followed in the mass market.
At the just-concluded Mobile World Congress 2024 event, Intel once again showcased a number of new Intel Core Ultra-based PCs, as well as its vPro enterprise generation aimed to bring the AI PC to the enterprise. Two of Intel’s largest OEM partners, Dell and Lenovo, were at the forefront, showcasing new business laptops with vPro and Core Ultra to enable the latest AI reporting in an enterprise environment.
Dell unveiled a lineup of advertising PCs at MWC 2024 that combine Intel Core Ultra and vPro. For starters, Dell has announced updates for its entire line of Latitude business laptops, catering to business users on many other models, porting them from the previous generation 3000. series to Dell’s flagship bill of materials, the 9000 series. The two-in-one Dell Latitude 9450 is what Dell claims is the world’s smallest 14-inch advertising PC with mini-LED demo technology; It also comes with a new HDR webcam and Wi-Fi 7. Moving down the stack, the Latitude 7000 series is available in 13-inch, 14- and 16-inch screen sizes and offers a two-in-one form. as well as ultra-light 13-inch and 14-inch models. Obviously, Dell offers a lot of diversity within the 7000 series.
The Ultralight 73five0 and 74five0 laptops with Intel Core Ultra and five-MP webcams are two flagship products in the family. There’s also a 73five0 pull-out model, which Dell says is the world’s most usable advertising pull-out model, powered through Dell’s Project Luna. Further down the stack, the Latitude five000 series offers AI features in 13-inch, 14-inch, and 15-inch sizes, as well as a 13-inch two-in-one. On the back of the stack is the (new) Latitude 3000 series, which still provides a hotspot for users to upgrade to the AI PC. The removable Dell Latitude 73five0 will be available in the second quarter of 2024, while the rest of the Latitude lineup will be available in March.
The Precision line of computers is Dell’s family of cellular workstations, which also benefit from Intel Core Ultra processing, along with Nvidia’s latest generation of Ada GPUs. For the Dell Precision family, there are two levels of functionality: the 3000 series and the 5000 series. Dell will offer the 3490 and 3590 workstations with up to RTX 500 Ada graphics paired with Core Ultra, while the Precision 5490 and 5690 will offer 14-inch and 16-inch models with up to an Nvidia RTX 5000.
Not to be outdone in the AI PC sales evening, Lenovo also announced a wide variety of new PCs that take advantage of the new Core Ultra processors. Lenovo’s ThinkPad series is the tip of its line of advertising computers and makes up the bulk of its new AI advertising PCs. powered by Intel Core Ultra and vPro technologies. That said, all PCs announced through Lenovo come with Intel Core Ultra; Notably, the ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 (AMD 14-inch) features AMD’s new Ryzen 8040 processor with AMD’s XDNA AI architecture. (To learn more about AMD’s strategy for AI-enabled PCs, check out this article I wrote in December. )
Lenovo’s T16 Gen 3 computer ships with Core Ultra processors, but it also uses Lenovo’s new and improved repairability thanks to the company’s collaboration with iFixit, whose repairs were provided at Lenovo’s booth at MWC 2024. Lenovo also announced an Intel edition of the ThinkPad. T14 with Intel Core Ultra with vPro, and announced an Intel-based T14s Gen 5, which also offers improved repairability thanks to the iFixit partnership.
The T16 and T14s models are at the center of Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup, which means Lenovo is serious about repairing some of its core products. At the end of the day, repairability is smart for the user and smart for the business because it reduces repair costs. and it allows systems to stay in service longer, which is inherently greater than trying to recycle them.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad X12 Gen 2 is a sleek formula with a 3:2 aspect ratio obviously designed to rival the Microsoft Surface. The X12 Gen 2 also comes with Intel Ultra U-Series processors and supports up to 32GB of LPDDRfiveX RAM, which is capable of achieving significant productivity. It has a five-MP front-facing webcam and an IR camera for Windows Hello. It also has an 8MP universal camera for video and photos, although the photo and video capture experience on Windows is missing. The formula also perpetuates an oddity I’ve noticed recently in other ThinkPad formulas: it supports 4G LTE, but surely doesn’t mention fiveG. While I sense that some corporations are actively rolling out cellular services, it doesn’t make sense to support 4G, given that many networks disapprove of the policy and 4G speeds.
Last but not least is Lenovo’s ThinkBook Project Crystal concept system, which gained a lot of press attention at Mobile World Congress. This 17. 3-inch computer is already larger than most systems released today by Lenovo. The company claims to take advantage of the MicroLED transparent display generation. to allow for an absolutely seamless viewing experience. This achieves two results: it creates the option of an internal computer AR display, and it means that the screen can allow for an absolutely bezel-less viewing experience, creating an even smaller footprint for such a giant screen. It’s still a concept, but one of the biggest sacrifices would likely be losing Windows Hello and a webcam, at least until Lenovo and its demo partners figure out how to implement this generation with the new display.
Following Dell and Lenovo’s upgrades to their Intel Core Ultra-based systems, the Samsung Bookfour family of PCs is similar in its iterative nature. There doesn’t seem to be any significant difference from the last generation, as Samsung continues its circle of four-device relatives by adding the Galaxy Bookfour, Bookfour 360, Bookfour Pro 360 and Bookfour Ultra. The Book 4 Pro is the only model available in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, while the 360 only comes in 15. 6-inches and the Pro 360 and Ultra come in 16-inches. (They’re all 2X AMOLED displays. ) Once again, Ultra is the only SKU to offer the faster Intel Ultra nine 185H series processor and Nvidia RTX discrete graphics. That said, it’s wonderful to see Samsung enter the era of AI-powered PCs with the rest of the PC OEMs, and it’ll be wonderful to find out how those systems perform against the competition.
Intel and its partners had a strong presence at MWC 2024 with an extensive collection of newly revamped advertising PCs powered by the new Core Ultra processors. The current goal of Intel and its partners is to update as many Intel Core Ultra systems as possible with AI without disturbing. The rest of the formula is too much. This means focusing on making sure that Core Ultra-powered machines provide an improved overall experience with the added benefits of an integrated NPU for AI applications.
Intel’s vision rarely focuses entirely on NPUs, given that it also sees other cores, adding GPUs, CPUs, and ASICs, playing a critical role for AI. That said, there’s no doubt that most developers, as well as Intel’s competition, are focused on the NPU part of those processors for high-performance, energy-efficient AI applications. The CES AI tsunami continued through MWC 2024, and frankly, I think we’ll continue to see AI in the middle of the maximum. things this year, especially since at most each and every PC announced at CES and MWC can be AI PCs. There are still more releases later this year, adding those from Microsoft and Qualcomm, so there’s still a lot to do as the market evolves. and embraces local AI computing.
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