Intel launches 12th Gen Intel Core P-series and U-series mobile processors for thin and light laptops

After showcasing them at CES 2022, Intel is finally launching its 12th gen Alder Lake mobile processors from both P-series and U-series. These boast to bring “Enthusiast-level performance” to thin and light laptops. Although the top-of-the-line performers are the H-series with 45W TDP, the P-series with 28W power limit and U-series with up to 15W thermal headroom come wielding the scalable benefits of Intel’s new hybrid heterogeneous architecture. This means these CPUs have both performance cores and efficiency cores at play. Not only that, they bear new features like Thermal Director and improved EVO testing standards. This certification label implies support for an instant wake, fast charging, a healthy suite of connectivity options, compact form factor, FHD displays, and FHD at 30 FPS webcams, besides high-end performance and battery life.

Let’s take a look at the specification and speeds of these chips:

Intel 12th Gen P-series and U-series Specs

To reiterate, the P-series caters to performance-centric thin and light laptops and there are 6 CPUs in this lineup including Core i7-1280P, Core i7-1270P, Core i7-1260P, Core i5-1250P, Core i5-1240P, and Core i3-1220P. The leader of the pack, i.e., Core i7-1280P incorporates a total of 14 cores (6 Performance+ 8 Efficiency). There is 24MB of L3 cache and a max clock speed of 4.8GHz. The base power limit is 28W although it can go up to 64 watts. You can check out the other model specifics in the above table.

Next up, is the U-series which is designed for lower-end thin and light devices. It comes in two sub-ranges — UP3 at 15W and UP4 at 9W. They also bear fewer cores and especially the performance-focused P-cores are limited to two on all U-series chips. You can check out the complete specs of the 15W tier above and the 9W SKU below.

Now, all new Intel 12th gen CPUs feature platform side goodies like DDR5/LPDDR5 RAM, Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 Gen 2, AV1 codec, WiFi 6E, etc.

And as already mentioned, there is support for 3rd gen EVO label requisites like at least a 1080p camera, Dynamic Background Noise Suppression, instant wakeup, fast charging, etc.

Finally, here’s when you can expect new laptops running on these mobile processors:

Intel 12th Gen P-series and U-series Availability

Intel reveals there will be 20 new mobile processors in total from these two lineups and they will be driving more than 250 laptops from brands such as Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, LG, MSI, NEC, and Samsung, among various others. They will be hitting the stores in March 2022.

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