Tag: Intel Core 5 320

  • Dell MacBook Neo Rival Launch: 120Hz Touchscreen, Sleek Design

    Dell MacBook Neo Rival Launch: 120Hz Touchscreen, Sleek Design

    Key Takeaway

    – Starting price of $599.99 (for students) or $699.99
    – 13.4″ QHD+ touchscreen with 120Hz refresh rate
    – Intel Core 5 320 processor with up to 16GB RAM
    – Lightweight CNC aluminum design (2.2lbs, 12.7mm thin)
    – Quad-speaker setup with 17-hour battery life

    Dell’s new XPS 13 launched in early June 2026 with a Wildcat Lake chip

    Now the MacBook Neo rival is available for purchase, the starting price is set at $599.99 but this tag is only accessible to students. For everyone else the starting price is $699.99, which is a little higher than what the base MacBook Neo goes for but the Dell XPS 13 has some redeaming factors that make it worth considering.

    Screen and display features that stand out

    One of them is the screen which is 13.4 inches in size and features a variable 120Hz refresh rate and QHD+ resolution. What’s more important is that it’s a touchscreen and the panel has a 500 nits brightness rating. Under the hood this affordable laptop packs the Intel Core 5 320 which is a mid-range option from the Wildcat Lake series.

    Dell is offering the option to pair this low-power processor with up to 16GB of RAM which is another advantage over the MacBook Neo. As for the design the XPS 13 weighs as low as 2.2lbs (around 0.99kg) and is 12.7mm thin when closed. The laptop sports a CNC aluminum chassis that looks and feels premium.

    Battery life and audio performance

    It features a rather small 52Whr battery but Dell promises up to 17 hours of streaming after a full charge. The quad-speaker setup is another highlight of this affordable laptop and we found it to be decent-sounding. Port-wise there are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports with PD and DisplayPort alt and for wireless connectivity there’s WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0.

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  • Intel Unveils Project Firefly: Low-Cost Metal Laptops with Smartphone RAM

    Intel Unveils Project Firefly: Low-Cost Metal Laptops with Smartphone RAM

    Key Takeaway

    – Intel’s “Project Firefly” leverages the smartphone supply chain to create low-cost laptops.
    – Wildcat Lake processors (e.g., Core 5 320) use 2P+4E cores with a small but modern iGPU.
    – Cheap chips alone aren’t enough; Intel provides reference designs for fast, affordable manufacturing.
    – Reference laptops feature thin metal chassis (12.9mm), USB-C/USB-A/HDMI, and cost-reduced cooling.
    – Smartphone-origin memory and components are repurposed to further lower costs.

    We already reported in mid-May that Intel wants to utilize the infrastructure of the smartphone supply chain with “Project Firefly” to produce particularly affordable laptops based on the new Wildcat Lake processors, which are intended to compete with the Apple MacBook Neo ($589 on Amazon).

    Project Firefly’s Core Hardware

    In the video embedded below, Nish Neelalojanan, Senior Director of Client Products at Intel, explains some of the background to the project. According to him, Intel Wildcat Lake with chips such as the Intel Core 5 320 would be at the heart of the project, because with two performance cores and four efficiency cores, the chips should offer fast everyday performance, while the iGPU with two Xe3 cores is very small, but the modern GPU architecture should ensure that video streaming works flawlessly on all platforms.

    Why The Supply Chain Matterss

    Nish Neelalojanan emphasizes that a cheap processor alone is not enough to make good entry-level laptops. This is where Project Firefly comes into play. Intel has been working with smartphone factories in China to develop reference laptops that make it easier for laptop manufacturers to assemble the components selected by Intel and bring new laptops with Wildcat Lake to market quickly and cheaply. The already very mature smartphone supply chain should be able to produce these components relatively cheaply and supply them to the respective laptop manufacturers.

    Reference Design & Cost Saving Measures

    Around 19:30 minutes into the video, Intel shows one of these reference designs. Despite its low price, the 12.9 millimeter thin notebook offers a modern, colorful metal chassis and a practical port selection with two USB-C, USB-A and HDMI. To reduce costs, Intel has developed a new cooling system with a particularly thin copper heatpipe and even a new, cheaper cable to connect the ports to the mainboard. Wildcat Lake can be combined with memory chips that were originally intended for smartphones.

    Intel Technology (YouTube), via VideoCardz


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  • Intel Wildcat Lake: Surprisingly Costly but Slower Than MacBook Neo

    Intel Wildcat Lake: Surprisingly Costly but Slower Than MacBook Neo

    Key Takeaway

    1. Wildcat Lake chips are priced at $340 (Core 5 320) and $426 (Core 7 360) for 1,000 units, making them relatively expensive for performance-oriented laptop processors.
    2. The chips feature dual performance cores, four low-power cores, and a Xe3 iGPU with two cores, with a power dissipation range up to 22 watts with a fan.
    3. Benchmark results show Wildcat Lake’s Core 5 320 performs significantly better than some AMD rivals but is slightly slower than certain Apple MacBook processors.

    Intel Wildcat Lake was recently announced in mid-April and is quickly making its way into affordable laptop markets. Yet, till now, no laptops using Wildcat Lake are available to purchase, and manufacturers haven’t confirmed any prices for these chips. Intel Ark has recently shed some light on the pricing details for these new processors.

    Pricing Details Revealed

    According to the info, the Intel Core 5 320 is priced at $340 for 1,000 units, and the Intel Core 7 360 goes for $426, also based on a wholesale order of a thousand chips. It should be noted discounts might very well be offered when buying in larger amounts. The prices are quite high considering that just a few years ago, Intel’s gaming-focused laptop processors were sold at comparable prices. Interestingly, Intel hasn’t announced prices for the upcoming “Panther Lake” models, which are expected to be more powerful.

    Specifications & Performance

    Both the Core 5 320 and Core 7 360 feature two high-performance cores, four efficiency cores, and a Xe3 integrated GPU with two cores. As we’ve seen from tests on a reference machine, Wildcat Lake chips can operate on a power dissipation of up to 11 watts without a fan, but with a fan, they can go up to 22 watts TDP. This flexibility indicates their potential for various form factors and thermal designs.

    Benchmarks & Real-world Results

    Results from early benchmark tests on some laptop models with the Core 5 320 suggest it scores around 2,564 points in single-thread and 8,122 points in multi-core performance on Geekbench. These scores make it nearly twice as quick as AMD’s Ryzen 5 7520U, yet it trails behind Apple’s MacBook Neo, which scores roughly 11.1% higher at a price of about $589. The newer Intel Core Ultra 5 325, on the other hand, promises a significant 36% boost in performance.


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