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Intel turned up to CES 2026 to herald the birth of the Core Ultra Series 3, a new range of chips offering exceptional performance. It says the mobile processors, formerly known as Panther Lake, deliver great graphics and battery life alongside the aforementioned grunt. And that, for the first time, the silicon has been certified for embedded and industrial use cases, including robotics and smart cities. But, like so many stories about Intel these days, the launch is loaded with so much subtext youll need a copy of Cliffs Notes to understand it.On the face of it, these are just some snappy flagship chips, available in Core Ultra 7 and 9 ranges as well as Core X7 and X9, which ship with 12 Xe graphics cores over the usual four. Almost all of them offer 16 total cores and threads, and all bar two have total NPU performance of 50 PTOPS.Image of the Core Ultra Series 3IntelThese chips are going to be famous for two key reasons: First, Intel claims theyre the most advanced chips ever manufactured in the US. Second, theyre the first to be made using Intels long awaited 18A process, which has dogged the company for several years. 18A was a key plank of former CEO Pat Gelsingers rescue plan to restore Intel to the top of the chip world. But sadly that comeback didnt come fast enough to prevent the CEO from being (unfairly, in my mind) deposed at the end of 2024. It didnt help that, for all of the money spent on 18A, as recently as August 2025, the company was reportedly still suffering from low yields and high defect rates.18A is short for 18 Angstrom, a measurement thats far smaller than the nanometers we currently use to denote transistor size in chips. 18 Angstrom is roughly equivalent to 1.8 nanometers, putting it on the same rough level as the most advanced manufacturing process N2 available at TSMC in Taiwan. At CES, Intels new CEO Lip Bu-Tan said the company was now ahead of schedule for ramping production on 18A, which could mark an important shift in the global chip market. You should expect to see these chips show up in laptops from all the usual suspects, including HP, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, Samsung and the rest across this year. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/ces-2026-intel-hopes-its-core-ultra-series-3-chips-are-the-start-of-a-comeback-000155611.html?src=rss
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Who among us hasn't looked at the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 and said, "That's great and all, but what if it had more Hideo Kojima?" Well, our cries have been heard. Behold, the ROG Flow Z13-KJP, a collaboration between ASUS and Kojima Productions.On the inside, this model is no different than the standard version we reviewed last May. The device takes a Surface Pro-like form factor and beefs it up into something thats more like a gaming laptop. (Ergo, ASUS's pitch of the product as a "gaming tablet.")But on the outside, you'll find a design "for Ludens who dare." The Death Stranding influence is evident, but you may pick up on some Metal Gear-adjacent touches as well. The tablet's gold color, symbols and integrated carbon fiber conjure Kojimas Ludens mascot. This variant is slightly larger than the standard one, most noticeably in the detachable keyboard.ROG Flow Z13-KJPASUSThere will also be matching accessories available, including a mouse, case, headphones and a desk mat. Depending on your region, those may or may not be bundled with the device. (We'll update this story when we find out more.)Fortunately, once the design novelty wears off, you're left with a fairly powerful gaming machine. The Copilot PC has a 13.4-inch IPS touchscreen with a 180Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness. Its port selection is surprisingly generous: two USB 4 Type-C ports, one USB-A port, HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm audio and a microSD slot. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip inside has integrated graphics that punch above what you'd expect. You can configure it with up to 128GB LPDDR5X 8000 RAM.More Kojima than you ever expected from a "gaming tablet"ASUSASUS hasn't yet revealed pricing or availability for the ROG Flow Z13-KJP. You can read more about the standard version in Sam Rutherford's review.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/ces-asus-made-a-special-hideo-kojima-version-of-the-rog-flow-z13-000000768.html?src=rss
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A couple years ago ASUS made its first dual-screen laptop in the ZenBook Duo. Now at CES 2026, the company has taken that idea and branched off in a somewhat unexpected way with the ROG Zephyrus Duo, which might just be the worlds first true dual-screen gaming laptop.Unlike a more traditional productivity notebook with two built-in displays, the concept of a dual-screen gaming notebook doesnt translate quite as naturally because powering two screens comes with a performance hit. Plus, in the heat of battle, its not like you have a lot of opportunity to utilize that second monitor. But if you view this Zephyrus Duo as more of an all-purpose portable content creation and gaming station, things begin to make a lot more sense. Both of Zephyrus Duos 16-inch Nebula OLED panels have strong specs including support for HDR with up to 1,100 nits of peak brightness, NVIDIA G-Sync, stylus integration and a very strong Delta-E (which measures color accuracy) of less than one. Performance also looks solid with ASUS offering the latest Core Ultra processors from Intel and up to an NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPU. Sure, with a TDP of 135 watts, the Zephyrus Duo wont be quite as punchy as a comparable single-screened 16-inch gaming notebook, but those wont be nearly as adaptable as the ROG either. Just like the Zenbook Duo, the Zephyrus Duo comes with a detachable wireless keyboard that can be charged up magnetically. This allows users to set up the laptop in all sorts of positions, which are enhanced thanks to a built-in kickstand. The one people will use the most is probably the stacked arrangement with one display above the other. However, you can also keep the Duo and clamshell mode, slide the keyboard forward for drawing, lay it down flat on a table or even put it into tent mode and game on it. Though even ASUS admits that may not be super practical as apps will need to specifically support that use case. Though at the very least, you can mirror your screen for a friend on the other side of a desk/table.The ROG Zephyrus Duo comes with a built-in kickstand which makes it easy to set it up in all sorts of different positions, even if it is a bit heavy. Sam Rutherford for EngadgetNow I will admit that after messing around with the Zephyrus Duo in person, it is a bit ungainly due to its weight of 6.28 pounds. But ASUS managed to do a good job of keeping it relatively thin (0.77 inches) without skimping on features like sound thanks to the Duos six-speaker stereo system and cooling which features a vapor chamber and a liquid metal thermal material. You also get a surprising amount of ports including multiple USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, USB-A, HDMI 2.1 and a full-size SD card slot, plus a decently large 90Whr battery. The one important thing we dont know yet though is how much it will cost, particularly because this thing almost certainly wont be cheap (Im guessing a starting price of around $2,500). A dual-screen gaming laptop might not make a lot of sense, but I appreciate how ambitious ASUS is being with the ROG Zephyrus Duo and Im looking forward to testing it out sometime later this year. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/the-asus-rog-zephyrus-duo-is-big-weird-and-kind-of-awesome-000000156.html?src=rss
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