Panther Lake Puts Intel Back on Top, Outspeeding Apple's M5 in Laptops
WIRED tests two Panther Lake laptops—MSI Prestige 14 Flip with Core Ultra X7 358H and a 16‑inch Lenovo reference with Core Ultra X9 388H—finding Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 delivers its biggest laptop win in years: the X9 outperforms Apple's M5 by about 33% in multi‑core workloads, XeSS upscaling boosts gaming, and battery life can reach around 22 hours on thin‑and‑light systems. Still, single‑core performance lags Apple, and gaming performance in some titles trails RTX 4050, but Panther Lake marks a meaningful step forward built on Intel 18A manufacturing in Arizona with CHIPS Act backing.
