New Intel Chips Could Make Ultrathin Laptops Worth Buying

Intel fleshed out its mobile processor line this morning, adding to it a series of low-voltage chips intended for ultrathin laptops. Covering the broad spectrum of Intel’s silicon–everything from the Celeron and Pentium to the higher-end Core line–these new chips theoretically provide double the graphics performance and 35 percent to 40 percent of the computing performance of their predecessors (click graphic below to enlarge).

“The ultrathin microprocessor which fits into the ultrathin solution is addressing all of these areas–better battery life, better performance,” Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group at Intel (INTC), said while announcing the chips this morning. “It’s going to be lighter, it’s going to be smaller, and it will fit the consumer system price point. You’ll see some very affordable systems.”

This bodes well for the ultrathin laptop, which hasn’t had much success staking out a middle ground between the netbook and the laptop because its performance often doesn’t justify its price. If Intel’s new chips change that, the ultrathin segment may stand to gain a bit of traction in the portable market.