A new ‘Lunar Lake’ handheld PC could signal a big push by Intel

Earlier this year, Intel told the world that its next-gen Core Ultra Series 2 “Lunar Lake” chips would be out before the end of the year. And that appears to be true, but with a welcome twist: They’re power-efficient enough to appear in a handheld gaming PC.

Shenzhen Weibu Information Inc. has published details of what it calls the GP10: an 11-inch handheld gaming PC with an Intel “Lunar Lake” chip inside. Weibu will show off the handheld PC at the Computex show in Taiwan that begins the first week of June.

Unlike more well-known handheld PC vendors like Lenovo, MSI, Logitech, Asus ROG, and others, Weibu isn’t a big name in the handheld gaming space — in fact, this might be its first handheld gaming PC. Weibu provides OEM/ODM services, meaning that it makes products under contract for its customers to brand and sell.

What’s more interesting is that it has what’s claimed to be a full-fledged Lunar Lake chip inside. That’s unusual; the Lenovo Legion Go 8.8, for example, uses an AMD Ryzen Z1, specifically designed for the handheld gaming market. But MSI debuted the Claw A1M in January at CES, with a Core Ultra 5 or Ultra 7 in either of the two models, the first major handheld vendor to do so.

To date, the Claw A1M is basically the only Intel Core-based handheld PC. Which leads to the question: Does the presence of the Weibu GP10 signal that Lunar Lake will address a broad spectrum of the market, including handheld gaming? Or is Weibu’s GP10 a one-off, designed to shoehorn in a powerful processor to attract attention? Will it even come to market?

We don’t know for certain. But we do know that Lunar Lake, the follow-on to the Core Ultra Series 1 low-power “Meteor Lake,” will be the first 18A (angstrom) chip — which will potentially decrease the operating power even more than Meteor Lake did. In 2022, Intel executives told the Hot Chips conference that Lunar Lake would be optimized for ultraportables running at 15 watts and below. Lunar Lake is also expected to boast an NPU with three times more TOPS than Meteor Lake, though it’s unclear whether it alone will meet Microsoft’s reported definition of an AI PC. But as for the argument that Lunar Lake could fit inside a handheld PC — yes, that seems reasonable.

As for the specs of the GP10, we know those too:

• Display: 10.95-inch (1920×1200,120Hz, multitouch)
• Processor: Intel Lunar Lake (speed and model not disclosed)
• Memory: LPDDR5 (on-board), 64GB max
• Storage: M.2. NVMe 2280, 2TB max
• Wireless: 802.11ac/802.11ax
• Ports: USB-C, TF, 3.5mm jack

All this certainly gives credence to the fact that Intel could be preparing a concerted push into Intel Core “Lunar Lake” handhelds. We’ll have to wait to see what the company announces at Computex.