Intel Ramps Up Efforts to Support Handheld Gaming Console Manufacturers WIth Dev Kits, Support Staff

Intel is working on ramping up its support for handheld gaming consoles, as demand for these compact PCs continues to increase. The chipmaker faces competition from AMD, which makes the Z1 and Z1 Extreme chips that power the Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally X. However, the company has taken several steps to support the development of handheld gaming PCs. These range from providing dev kits to offering developers and developers access to specialist staff for its next generation chip technology.

Intel Seeds Prototype Handheld PCs to Game Developers

The chipmaker is improving its support for manufacturers of handheld gaming consoles like the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and Asus ROG Ally X. In an interaction with Laptop Mag, Robert Hallock, Intel VP and GM of AI and Technical Marketing, said that the company is seeding prototypes of handheld gaming consoles to game developers.

As part of its efforts to support these manufacturers, Intel is also offering access to its specialists, while the company's new internal programs will help these console makers with performance profiles to optimise their devices. Intel is also providing developers with dev kits ahead of the arrival of its next-generation CPUs.

Intel's Panther Lake Chips Could Offer Improved Memory Customisation

Intel's Arrow Lake (Core Ultra Series 2) processors were launched in October 2024, and the company's next generation Panther Lake CPUs are already in testing. Hallock told the publication that unlike Lunar Lake, the company's Panther Lake chips do not include system memory on the CPU package. This means that product manufacturers will be able to offer customised RAM configurations.

Some handheld devices equipped with the latest Arrow Lake H-series chips were shown off at CES 2025, and these are expected to be unveiled in the coming months, with improved performance over other models with Lunar Lake CPUs. There's currently no timeline for the launch of Intel's Panther Lake chips, which are likely to power mobile devices like laptops and handheld gaming PCs.