Perhaps the biggest unveiling at CES 2026 earlier this month was Intel’s new code-named Panther Lake architecture. Intel says these Core Ultra Series 3 mobile processors will power “more than 200 designs,” and benchmarks so far are extremely positive. Reviewers have been busy testing the latest Panther Lake-powered laptops, and one thing that stands out is the incredible battery life.

Intel has been striving for efficiency in its mobile chips. Despite this architecture being centered around notebooks and lightweight laptops, the integrated graphics have proven to be viable for gaming, too. This is in part thanks to support for Intel’s latest XeSS 3 upscaling tech, which offers Multi Frame Generation.

Intel Panther Lake battery life tested

Battery life benchmarks (courtesy of German publication ComputerBase) reveal just how well Intel is doing as far as productivity battery life goes. Interestingly, the new Panther Lake-powered ASUS Zenbook Duo didn’t come out at the very top, but it’s still ahead of any of AMD’s offerings, lasting 13 hours and 5 minutes, equipped with a 99Wh battery. This is based on the Procyon Battery Life Benchmark, running at 200 nits display brightness.

The results show Intel’s last-gen code-named Lunar Lake Core Ultra Series 2 chips still offer more. Of course, results will vary depending on the OEM model, but this new CPU (the flagship X9 388H in this case) clearly performs well. Among the top rankings for battery life are Snapdragon’s X1E processor, an ARM64 processor.

As far as x86 goes, it’s clear Intel is still on top, while AMD lags behind. The top AMD chip in this particular benchmark is the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, powered by Strix Point architecture. Intel recently made it clear that it doesn’t intend to compete directly with Team Red’s Strix series processors, claiming that its “not that competitive” on a power or performance-per-watt basis. The latter point has been proven with these battery life benchmarks presenting a sizeable gap between the two rivals.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.