Intel Corp. today rolled out a new line of central processing units, including its eighth-generation U-series “Whiskey Lake” and its Y-Series “Amber Lake” chips, which are designed to power lightweight and thin personal computers such as two-in-one devices.

The U-series comes in three varieties – the Core i7-89565U, Core i5-8265U and Core i3-8145U — while the Y-series includes the Core i7-8500, Core i5-8200Y and Core m3-8100Y chips.

Intel said both new chipsets offer better connectivity and other features that make them at least twice as powerful as five-year old laptops. For example, they both come integrated with Gigabit Wi-Fi that should boost connection speeds by up to 12 times over those older models, while the Y-series also has “fast Wi-Fi and LTE support.” Overall, the U-series should deliver twice the performance for laptops it powers compared with five years ago, while the Y-series will deliver a “double-digit” performance boost.

Intel made a big deal about the connectivity speed of its U-series, saying consumers should now be able to “download their favorite shows and movies in under a minute.” It also claims the ability to create, edit and share 4K video content six-and-a-half times faster than before and play resource-intensive video games such as “World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth” and “World of Tanks” without missing a beat.

The U-series also provides support for multiple voice services, such as Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana, and for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision HDR content.

The performance gains sound impressive, but it should still be noted that the new U-series and Y-series chips use the same 14-nanometer architecture as Intel’s previous-generation chips, which means the improvements probably wouldn’t be that noticeable for anyone using a relatively new PC or laptop.

“Intel’s new notebook parts are more of an evolution than a revolution compared the prior generation of mobile processors, but for the people who will be buying new notebooks who likely have a four- to five-year-old notebook, this is a bigger deal,” said Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “I’m most excited about the new form factors I expect OEMs to bring out that are a lot thinner and lighter with improved battery life than even the Skylake designs. I am also expecting more designs to support LTE and intelligent assistants like Amazon Alexa.”

Intel said the Y-series chips, which have previously been used to power high-end ultrabooks, also provide better support for touch and stylus. As a result, it’s likely there will be more convertible laptops of this kind with the new chips. Such systems should come in at around 7 millimeters thick and weigh less than a pound, Intel said.

Intel made another big claim around battery life improvements, saying devices powered by the U-series will last for up to 16 hours on a single charge and up to 19 hours on “power-optimized” devices.

Intel said that new laptops and PCs based on the U-series and Y-series are expected to go on sale later this year.

Image: Intel