Intel’s First Macbook Neo Rivaling Laptops Arrive Next Week, Wildcat Lake With Mainstream Prices

Intel's Core Series 3 "Wildcat Lake" laptops are seemingly hitting retail shelves as early as next week, as the first products get listed at Chinese JD.com.

Intel Sets Up Its Wildcat Lake "Core Series 3" Laptop Launches For Next Week, Challenging Apple's MacBook Neo

Chinese retail outlet, JD.com, has listed various Intel Core Series 3 "Wildcat Lake" laptops online. The retail outlet is currently offering customers the opportunity to make pre-order appointments, and the final dates end on either the 18th or 22nd of May.

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Wildcat Lake laptops available on May 18？ pic.twitter.com/OZsCRvuL9r

— 孤城Hardware (@realVictor_M) May 17, 2026

The laptops include 14" and 16" designs from Honor and ASUS, though many more OEMs are expected to offer their own respective designs.

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What this goes on to show is that we will see the first laptops hitting retail as early as the upcoming week, or Monday (which is when Honor's deadline for pre-orders is). The Honor design is listed for 9999 RMB, but it looks like a placeholder for now. Also, we weren't able to find any Core 7 or Core 3 listings. The models at the retailer are Core 5 320 designs, which target mainstream users.

Everything We Know About Intel's Core Series 3 "Wildcat Lake" SoCs

So, talking about Intel Core Series 3 or Wildcat Lake SoCs, they feature the same processor architectures as Panther Lake (Cougar Cove P-Cores / Darkmont E-Cores), the same GPU architecture as Panther Lake (Xe3), and the same NPU as Panther Lake (NPU5). The only thing that's changed, which is the case with every cost-optimized variant, is the difference in the overall specs and capabilities of each chip.

• Intel Core Series 3 is Intel’s first hybrid AI-ready Core Series processor, supporting AI workloads with up to 40 platform TOPS.
• Support for modern connectivity, including up to two integrated Thunderbolt 4 ports, Intel Wi-Fi 7 (R2), and Intel Bluetooth 6.
• Intel Core Series 3 is designed for all-day battery life and everyday productivity, with up to 2.1x faster creation and productivity, up to 64% lower processor power, and up to 2.7X AI GPU performance versus previous generation Intel Core 7 150U processors.

So while MacBook Neo is based on a smartphone SoC, Intel takes the Panther Lake config, tweaks it as much as possible, and to an extent that makes sense for everyday users, and builds upon it in Wildcat Lake.

In terms of specifications, Wildcat Lake "Core Series 3" SoCs offer up to 6 CPU cores in a 2 P-Core and 4 E-Core combination. It features 2 Xe3 iGPU cores, quite shabby compared to Panther Lake, which starts at 4 Xe3 cores and scales up to 12 Xe3 cores, and 40 TOPS of AI compute, which meets the Copilot+ certification for the Windows AI PC ecosystem.

With these, Intel claims some big bumps in performance versus its older Core Series 1 chips, such as up to 2.1x faster creation and productivity performance, up to 2.7x faster AI performance, and massively reduced power figures.

The lineup features a total of six SKUs, with all except one featuring a 5-core layout while the rest retain 6 cores. The 5-core SKU also features a single Xe3 core. All Core Series 3 SKUs are rated at 15W base power & a maximum power rating of 35W. We expect to see retail listings in the US and EU markets soon, which should give us a better idea of how these challenge MacBook Neo in the value segment.

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