CES 2025: Intel Core Ultra 200V, 200U, 200H, 200HX CPUs for Laptops Announced

To kick off CES 2025, Intel has expanded its Core Ultra (Series 2) lineup with a slew of new CPUs aimed at multiple laptop categories, ranging from thin-and-light to gaming and workstation models. There’s also a new set of mainstream desktop CPUs. Predictably, AI is a big talking point for Intel, with most new CPU models featuring integrated NPUs for AI acceleration.

Laptop CPUs with Core Ultra 2XX model numbers are based on Intel’s two recently launched architectures, Lunar Lake for more portable models, and Arrow Lake for bigger but more powerful ones. New Core (Series 2) CPUs without the Ultra suffix, based on the older Raptor Lake architecture are also now available to laptop OEMs. 

The new Core Ultra 200V models announced at CES are part of Intel’s vPro lineup for business productivity laptops. In addition to integrated NPUs, these processors enable corporate security and manageability features aimed at large-scale corporate IT deployments. They will support Microsoft’s Copilot+ platform for AI features.

Core Ultra 200U-series chips are aimed at the entry-level and ultra-low power segment, with up to two performance cores and eight efficiency cores. These are based on the Arrow Lake architecture. For gaming, high-performance and enthusiast markets, the Core Ultra 200HX chips feature up to eight P cores and 16 E cores, while 200H-series have up to six P cores with eight E cores plus two additional low-power E cores. Intel boasts of improved multi-threading performance and integrated Intel Arc graphics. While these CPUs do feature integrated NPUs, they are not Intel’s latest-gen which is found only in Lunar Lake. Total platform power including acceleration on the GPU is rated at up to 99 TOPs. The Core Ultra 200HX platform supports up to 48 PCIe 5.0 and 4.0 lanes, and some models will support overclocking.

For mainstream desktop users, the Core Ultra 200S series gets new models, joining the previously announced high-end overclockable options. These chips are available in 65W and 35W options, with and without integrated graphics. On the platform level, Intel supports Wi-Fi 7 and Thunderbolt 5.  

The Core Ultra 200H and 200U series should show up in laptops in February this year, while HX-series laptops have a less specific “first half of 2025” availability date. Core Ultra 200V-based laptops are available in stores and to corporate customers right now. The new desktop CPUs will go on sale in retail and in prebuilt OEM PCs starting next week. 

On stage at CES, Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel and CEO of Intel Products also previewed the next-gen “Panther Lake” architecture, showing off a sample. This generation will use Intel’s 18A process node. Engineering samples are already with Intel’s OEM partners, and this generation will be launched in the second half of 2025. If it stays on schedule, this will mark a return for Intel to using its own chip fabrication capabilities, rather than contracting to rival TSMC. The success of this process is also seen as crucial to establishing Intel’s struggling foundry services business, which was a keystone of its turnaround plans.