An Intel executive has some pretty blunt criticism for AMD’s handheld hardware, as Team Blue’s new Panther Lake architecture wows at this year’s CES. Panther Lake aims to excel in low-power gaming solutions, including lightweight laptops, where integrated graphics get Multi Frame Generation and other AI-accelerated features in the XeSS 3 suite.

It seems that Intel is primed to become a larger contender in the handheld market, a space that has been and continues to be dominated by AMD chips. You’ll find AMD hardware in popular devices such as the Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally series (including the latest ROG Xbox Ally handhelds), and the Lenovo Legion Go. The most notable Intel-powered handheld is the MSI Claw.

AMD is “selling ancient silicon,” says Intel

In an interview with PCWorld at CES 2026, the senior director of product management for client at Intel, Nish Neelalojanan, slammed AMD’s current-gen hardware, saying, “They’re selling ancient silicon, while we’re selling up-to-date processors specifically designed for this market”. He added, “We think that the low-power E-cores are particularly appropriate for gaming”.

The integrated Radeon 890M iGPU in AMD’s latest Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor, which features in the latest generation of ROG Ally and Legion Go handhelds, is still based on RDNA 3.5 architecture, rather than RDNA 4, which was launched early last year with the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 XT desktop GPUs. AMD’s brand-new Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 also uses the 890M, and is essentially a copy of the last-gen Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 with higher clock speeds.

Looping back around to the Claw, MSI has actually announced two new models, though you may be disappointed to hear that these are simple color swaps for the Claw 8 AI+, rather than actual new hardware. The Claw 8 AI+ features the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V. In its CES presentation, Intel was keen to boast its new architecture, noting that there will be “an entire handheld gaming platform” for Panther Lake. As you can see in the image above, MSI is listed as one of Intel’s handheld partners, alongside Acer.

Perhaps the biggest problem that faces Intel is that the availability of MSI Claw handhelds has been lackluster in the Western market, and Acer’s Nitro Blaze handhelds are nowhere to be seen lately. While no Panther Lake-powered handhelds have been announced just yet, they already look promising, especially as Intel boasts up to 82% better performance than AMD right now.

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.