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Back in April, Intel announced a new entry-level processor platform, dubbed "Wildcat Lake," designed to beef up its CPU offerings for budget laptops. It's something of a little brother to Intel's well-received Core Ultra 3 Series "Panther Lake" family, which has been appearing in laptops over the last few months. The Panther chips have shown some strong test results on multiple fronts, but they're not a budget solution.
Now, courtesy of Lenovo, I have our first Wildcat Lake system in hand for benchmark testing. A number of high-profile systems in recent months—notably, the 2026 reboot of the Dell XPS 13—were announced with plans to use Wildcat Lake chips, at least in some of their cheaper configurations. However, we could only speculate on what sort of performance these new CPUs would deliver, especially versus also-new competitors like the Apple MacBook Neo's A18 Pro iPhone chip. I have a much better idea of that now. But it's far from a cut-and-dry thing.
Lenovo provided us with a 15-inch IdeaPad 3 Gen 11 laptop for testing, and inside, it packs an Intel Core 7 350 processor, the second-from-the-top Wildcat Lake chip in the line. This laptop, expected to sell for around $800, is our first test subject for the Wildcat Lake platform. While this is one chip in a line of several, and a higher-end one at that, it's neither a runaway hit nor a flop. Here's what I found in my first few days of testing.
Wait, What's 'Wildcat Lake'? All About Intel Core Series 3
You might have missed the initial news on Wildcat Lake; entry-level laptop processors aren’t the most buzzworthy categories at the best of times. So, I'll run you through a quick refresher.
(Credit: Intel)Wildcat Lake is the code name for what are officially known as Core Series 3 processors, which are notably not the same thing as the Core Ultra Series 3. Intel initially introducing its Core Series 3 line (the umbrella name for the whole generation) with just the AI-ready "Panther Lake" Core Ultra Series 3 chips and not the "Wildcat Lake" Core Series 3 chips may cause some buyer confusion because of the overlapping names. Both are manufactured on the same 18A manufacturing process, and while differences in series' names haven't always traditionally equated to power levels, in this instance, the Core Series 3 Wildcat chips are the lower-power versions of the Core Ultra Series 3 Panther models, which have more robust graphic solutions and more and higher-powered CPU cores.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)We should see Core Series 3 CPUs deployed in the most affordable range of full-fledged Windows PCs going forward. (The only likely even lower-end exception on the Intel side are truly basic laptops based on Intel N100-series processors, generally under $500.) Prices fluctuate with the chaotic market and from device to device, but expect to see Core Series 3 laptops generally priced between $600 and $800; we may see some exceptions creep closer to $1,000.
Spoiler: Based on the performance results, I wouldn't pay near $1,000 for laptops with these chips. They lack the speed of other laptops in the $1,000 tier. But I would expect most of them to stay strictly in that lower range. The power I saw in the Core 7 offering I have on hand doesn't justify spending four figures, and even an $800 Wildcat Lake laptop may be a stretch. That said, $800 in laptop dollars in 2026 isn't the same as $800 was last year.
The Core Series 3 line itself includes different power tiers across Core 3, Core 5, and Core 7 options. As shown above in the spec matrix, Intel's initial Wildcat Lake rollout has a single Core 3 chip, three Core 5 chips, and two Core 7 chips.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Inside our test system is the second-most-powerful option in the Wildcat Lake stack, the Core 7 350. Like all of the offerings, its base power is 15 watts, with a "maximum turbo power" of 35 watts. It features six total cores (two Performance cores, zero Efficient cores, and four Low-Power Efficient cores) and support for six threads (which is to say, no multi-threading). That’s a relatively low core count in the modern many-core era, but this chip prioritizes background efficiency for less power consumption, longer battery life, and just enough speed for your active task.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Using similar reasoning, the Xe graphics cores have also taken a hit, with just two Xe cores in every Core Series 3 chip, with the exception of the Core 3 304, which has just one Xe core (as well as one less CPU core than the rest). Don’t expect much graphics horsepower—that's the Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” platform's calling card, especially in its Ultra X7 and X9 flavors. But you won't find those chips in under-$800 laptops.
Testing the Intel Core 7 350 CPU: Expect Modest Power
Now, we come to testing the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Gen 11, one such budget laptop that the Core Series 3 chips were made for. In addition to the Core 7 350 CPU, it includes 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD. Its 15.3-inch display features a 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate.
We put the IdeaPad and its Wildcat Lake chip through our usual benchmark suite, testing its proficiency across a range of processing and graphics workloads. Each test is described below along with the results, but first, here is a rundown of the systems and processors we’re comparing the new chip against...
This is a varied batch of mostly budget systems, with one exception. The Dell XPS 16 is here to show the step up in performance you'll see from the Core 7 350’s Panther Lake cousin, the Core Ultra X7 358H. So far, we’ve only seen these potent Panther Lake chips in expensive laptops, so the XPS 16 is included here despite the large price disparity between the two.
Outside of that, I've gathered a range of budget-friendly alternatives: The MacBook Neo and its A18 Pro phone-derived chip, the Intel "Arrow Lake" (last-generation) laptop CPU inside the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 16, the competing AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 within the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1, and the 2025 model of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-Inch with its Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X alternative. (The latter is from the original Snapdragon X Plus generation, not the latest Snapdragon X2 Plus series, as we have yet to complete tests on one of those systems.)
Note that I’ve added the CPUs to the product names in the charts below for easier comparison, since the specific chips are what's most relevant to these tests. You'll also notice a few instances where the Apple and Qualcomm systems are absent. They were not compatible with select tests, due to their reliance on macOS and Windows on Arm, respectively.
Intel Wildcat Lake Productivity and Content Creation Tests
Our primary overall benchmark, UL's PCMark 10, puts a system through its paces in productivity apps ranging from web browsing to word processing and spreadsheet work. Its Full System Drive subtest measures a PC's storage throughput. (Macs do not support these tests, so the MacBook Neo is missing from those charts below.)
Three more tests we rely on are CPU-centric or processor-intensive: Maxon's Cinebench 2024 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene; Primate Labs' Geekbench 6.3 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning; and we see how long it takes the video transcoder HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute clip from 4K to 1080p resolution.
Finally, workstation maker Puget Systems' PugetBench for Creators rates a PC's image-editing prowess through a variety of automated operations in the seminal photo editor Adobe Photoshop 25.
If you were wondering if Intel made performance concessions to hit Wildcat Lake's targeted prices, the answer is a pretty clear “yes.” (The CPU core count and core types should have been a pretty clear signal.) This isn’t a case where the new silicon meets the speed of a previous higher-end generation just by virtue of being new; even this higher-end Core 7 350 part performed as the budget-tier chip that it is. The Core 7 350 generally lagged the Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm alternatives across the board—more in some cases than others.
Tellingly, it was closest to the A18 Pro, which demonstrates the compromises required for laptops in this price tier. Intel's CPU and Apple’s chip traded blows throughout the tests, ending in a dead heat on Photoshop.
In short, this chip looks about quick enough for simpler daily workloads, just like the MacBook Neo's processor. These chips are destined for college laptops, kids' laptops, and generally cheap laptops for the basics. Anything beyond that—media editing, moderately demanding professional work—is for faster machines.
Intel Wildcat Lake Graphics Tests
We challenge all systems’ graphics with a quintet of animations or gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark test suite. The first two, Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K), use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. The next pair, Steel Nomad's regular and Light subtests, focuses on APIs more commonly used for game development to assess gaming geometry and particle effects. We normally run a fifth test, 3DMark Solar Bay, to measure ray-tracing performance, too, but the chip we're testing here was unable to complete this benchmark.
I don't have much to add here that isn’t evident in the results. Integrated graphics—especially in entry-level chips—are generally not up to the task for 3D workloads, graphics-intensive editing tasks, or robust AAA gaming, and that was the case here too. None of the inexpensive chips distinguished itself here.
While Apple's GPU notably outpaced the Wildcat Lake chip's graphics, the pricier Panther Lake X7 processor was the obvious standout. As mentioned, Panther Lake X7- and X9-class chips' many Xe cores deliver superior graphics horsepower among integrated graphics, and you have to pay up for that privilege.
Early Wildcat Verdict? Basic Performance at a Budget Price, No Surprises
Simply put, the entry-level Intel Core 7 350 performs as I would expect from a budget chip, failing to kick up any surprises but coming ready to compete in its price class. (The strong results we'd seen so far from Panther Lake configurations gave us some hope that some of its magic might rub off on Wildcat Lake.)
I've been waiting to get an idea of the performance we can expect from Wildcat Lake processors, and now we have a clear answer. Everyday tasks like web browsing, modest workloads like note-taking and word processing, and light entertainment are all possible on this chip. If you plan to routinely perform more demanding tasks, I'd recommend a more powerful (and more expensive) laptop.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)This Wildcat Lake chip's performance was broadly similar to what we saw from the MacBook Neo's repurposed iPhone processor, which makes sense as they target a similar audience in a similar price band. It’s also worth remembering that this is one of the top chips in the Wildcat Lake Core Series 3 stack—most will have less power, and likely show up in even cheaper (and/or smaller) laptops.
We’ll have a fuller picture of the whole stack as the year rolls on, but this Core 7 Series 3 chip, at least, looks like a suitable fit for your next budget laptop—just watch those prices. With the MacBook Neo suddenly a $699 prospect rather than a $599 one, Wildcat Lake has a bit more breathing room, but we'll have to see a broader range of the kind of machines it shows up in before locking in how good a solution it really is.
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Back in April, Intel announced a new entry-level processor platform, dubbed "Wildcat Lake," designed to beef up its CPU offerings for budget laptops. It's something of a little brother to Intel's well-received Core Ultra 3 Series "Panther Lake" family, which has been appearing in laptops over the last few months. The Panther chips have shown some strong test results on multiple fronts, but they're not a budget solution.
Now, courtesy of Lenovo, I have our first Wildcat Lake system in hand for benchmark testing. A number of high-profile systems in recent months—notably, the 2026 reboot of the Dell XPS 13—were announced with plans to use Wildcat Lake chips, at least in some of their cheaper configurations. However, we could only speculate on what sort of performance these new CPUs would deliver, especially versus also-new competitors like the Apple MacBook Neo's A18 Pro iPhone chip. I have a much better idea of that now. But it's far from a cut-and-dry thing.
Lenovo provided us with a 15-inch IdeaPad 3 Gen 11 laptop for testing, and inside, it packs an Intel Core 7 350 processor, the second-from-the-top Wildcat Lake chip in the line. This laptop, expected to sell for around $800 (about AED 2,950 / SAR 3,000), is our first test subject for the Wildcat Lake platform. While this is one chip in a line of several, and a higher-end one at that, it's neither a runaway hit nor a flop. Here's what I found in my first few days of testing.
Wait, What's 'Wildcat Lake'? All About Intel Core Series 3
You might have missed the initial news on Wildcat Lake; entry-level laptop processors aren’t the most buzzworthy categories at the best of times. So, I'll run you through a quick refresher.
(Credit: Intel)Wildcat Lake is the code name for what are officially known as Core Series 3 processors, which are notably not the same thing as the Core Ultra Series 3. Intel initially introducing its Core Series 3 line (the umbrella name for the whole generation) with just the AI-ready "Panther Lake" Core Ultra Series 3 chips and not the "Wildcat Lake" Core Series 3 chips may cause some buyer confusion because of the overlapping names. Both are manufactured on the same 18A manufacturing process, and while differences in series' names haven't always traditionally equated to power levels, in this instance, the Core Series 3 Wildcat chips are the lower-power versions of the Core Ultra Series 3 Panther models, which have more robust graphic solutions and more and higher-powered CPU cores.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)We should see Core Series 3 CPUs deployed in the most affordable range of full-fledged Windows PCs going forward. (The only likely even lower-end exception on the Intel side are truly basic laptops based on Intel N100-series processors, generally under $500.) Prices fluctuate with the chaotic market and from device to device, but expect to see Core Series 3 laptops generally priced between $600 and $800; we may see some exceptions creep closer to $1,000.
Spoiler: Based on the performance results, I wouldn't pay near $1,000 for laptops with these chips. They lack the speed of other laptops in the $1,000 tier. But I would expect most of them to stay strictly in that lower range. The power I saw in the Core 7 offering I have on hand doesn't justify spending four figures, and even an $800 Wildcat Lake laptop may be a stretch. That said, $800 in laptop dollars in 2026 isn’t the same as $800 was last year.
The Core Series 3 line itself includes different power tiers across Core 3, Core 5, and Core 7 options. As shown above in the spec matrix, Intel's initial Wildcat Lake rollout has a single Core 3 chip, three Core 5 chips, and two Core 7 chips.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Inside our test system is the second-most-powerful option in the Wildcat Lake stack, the Core 7 350. Like all of the offerings, its base power is 15 watts, with a "maximum turbo power" of 35 watts. It features six total cores (two Performance cores, zero Efficient cores, and four Low-Power Efficient cores) and support for six threads (which is to say, no multi-threading). That’s a relatively low core count in the modern many-core era, but this chip prioritizes background efficiency for less power consumption, longer battery life, and just enough speed for your active task.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Using similar reasoning, the Xe graphics cores have also taken a hit, with just two Xe cores in every Core Series 3 chip, with the exception of the Core 3 304, which has just one Xe core (as well as one less CPU core than the rest). Don’t expect much graphics horsepower—that's the Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” platform's calling card, especially in its Ultra X7 and X9 flavors. But you won't find those chips in under-$800 laptops.
Testing the Intel Core 7 350 CPU: Expect Modest Power
Now, we come to testing the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Gen 11, one such budget laptop that the Core Series 3 chips were made for. In addition to the Core 7 350 CPU, it includes 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD. Its 15.3-inch display features a 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate.
We put the IdeaPad and its Wildcat Lake chip through our usual benchmark suite, testing its proficiency across a range of processing and graphics workloads. Each test is described below along with the results, but first, here is a rundown of the systems and processors we’re comparing the new chip against...
This is a varied batch of mostly budget systems, with one exception. The Dell XPS 16 is here to show the step up in performance you'll see from the Core 7 350’s Panther Lake cousin, the Core Ultra X7 358H. So far, we’ve only seen these potent Panther Lake chips in expensive laptops, so the XPS 16 is included here despite the large price disparity between the two.
Outside of that, I've gathered a range of budget-friendly alternatives: The MacBook Neo and its A18 Pro phone-derived chip, the Intel "Arrow Lake" (last-generation) laptop CPU inside the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 16, the competing AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 within the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1, and the 2025 model of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-Inch with its Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X alternative. (The latter is from the original Snapdragon X Plus generation, not the latest Snapdragon X2 Plus series, as we have yet to complete tests on one of those systems.)
Note that I’ve added the CPUs to the product names in the charts below for easier comparison, since the specific chips are what's most relevant to these tests. You'll also notice a few instances where the Apple and Qualcomm systems are absent. They were not compatible with select tests, due to their reliance on macOS and Windows on Arm, respectively.
Intel Wildcat Lake Productivity and Content Creation Tests
Our primary overall benchmark, UL's PCMark 10, puts a system through its paces in productivity apps ranging from web browsing to word processing and spreadsheet work. Its Full System Drive subtest measures a PC's storage throughput. (Macs do not support these tests, so the MacBook Neo is missing from those charts below.)
Three more tests we rely on are CPU-centric or processor-intensive: Maxon's Cinebench 2024 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene; Primate Labs' Geekbench 6.3 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning; and we see how long it takes the video transcoder HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute clip from 4K to 1080p resolution.
Finally, workstation maker Puget Systems' PugetBench for Creators rates a PC's image-editing prowess through a variety of automated operations in the seminal photo editor Adobe Photoshop 25.
If you were wondering if Intel made performance concessions to hit Wildcat Lake's targeted prices, the answer is a pretty clear “yes.” (The CPU core count and core types should have been a pretty clear signal.) This isn’t a case where the new silicon meets the speed of a previous higher-end generation just by virtue of being new; even this higher-end Core 7 350 part performed as the budget-tier chip that it is. The Core 7 350 generally lagged the Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm alternatives across the board—more in some cases than others.
Tellingly, it was closest to the A18 Pro, which demonstrates the compromises required for laptops in this price tier. Intel's CPU and Apple’s chip traded blows throughout the tests, ending in a dead heat on Photoshop.
In short, this chip looks about quick enough for simpler daily workloads, just like the MacBook Neo's processor. These chips are destined for college laptops, kids' laptops, and generally cheap laptops for the basics. Anything beyond that—media editing, moderately demanding professional work—is for faster machines.
Intel Wildcat Lake Graphics Tests
We challenge all systems’ graphics with a quintet of animations or gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark test suite. The first two, Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K), use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. The next pair, Steel Nomad's regular and Light subtests, focuses on APIs more commonly used for game development to assess gaming geometry and particle effects. We normally run a fifth test, 3DMark Solar Bay, to measure ray-tracing performance, too, but the chip we're testing here was unable to complete this benchmark.
I don't have much to add here that isn’t evident in the results. Integrated graphics—especially in entry-level chips—are generally not up to the task for 3D workloads, graphics-intensive editing tasks, or robust AAA gaming, and that was the case here too. None of the inexpensive chips distinguished itself here.
While Apple's GPU notably outpaced the Wildcat Lake chip's graphics, the pricier Panther Lake X7 processor was the obvious standout. As mentioned, Panther Lake X7- and X9-class chips' many Xe cores deliver superior graphics horsepower among integrated graphics, and you have to pay up for that privilege.
Early Wildcat Verdict? Basic Performance at a Budget Price, No Surprises
Simply put, the entry-level Intel Core 7 350 performs as I would expect from a budget chip, failing to kick up any surprises but coming ready to compete in its price class. (The strong results we'd seen so far from Panther Lake configurations gave us some hope that some of its magic might rub off on Wildcat Lake.)
I've been waiting to get an idea of the performance we can expect from Wildcat Lake processors, and now we have a clear answer. Everyday tasks like web browsing, modest workloads like note-taking and word processing, and light entertainment are all possible on this chip. If you plan to routinely perform more demanding tasks, I'd recommend a more powerful (and more expensive) laptop.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)This Wildcat Lake chip's performance was broadly similar to what we saw from the MacBook Neo's repurposed iPhone processor, which makes sense as they target a similar audience in a similar price band. It’s also worth remembering that this is one of the top chips in the Wildcat Lake Core Series 3 stack—most will have less power, and likely show up in even cheaper (and/or smaller) laptops.
We’ll have a fuller picture of the whole stack as the year rolls on, but this Core 7 Series 3 chip, at least, looks like a suitable fit for your next budget laptop—just watch those prices. With the MacBook Neo suddenly a $699 prospect rather than a $599 one, Wildcat Lake has a bit more breathing room, but we'll have to see a broader range of the kind of machines it shows up in before locking in how good a solution it really is.