ASUS at the 2025 International CES showed off some of the first NUC desktops that meet Microsoft Copilot+ AI PC logo requirements. The new ASUS NUC 14 Pro AI measures 130 mm x 130 mm x 34 mm. It runs an Intel Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" processor. Depending on the processor model, you get 16 GB or 32 GB of hardwired LPDDR5X memory. You also get the processor's Xe2 "Battlemage" iGPU. Its NPU provides up to 45 AI TOPS of performance, meeting Copilot+ requirements. Storage is care of an M.2-2280 slot with NVMe Gen 4 x4 wiring. I/O options include two 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 4 ports including DisplayPort passthrough, and networking that includes Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7.

ASUS won't (or probably can't use the "NUC" moniker with AMD processors), and so there's the ExpertCenter PN54 for those who want essentially the same device, but with an AMD Ryzen AI 300 series processor. This mini PC has the same exact dimensions as the NUC 14 Pro AI, and is powered by a Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" processor, with options going all the way up to the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. This chip includes the XDNA 2 NPU with 50 AI TOPS on tap, which means it meets Microsoft Copilot+ AI PC logo requirements. It also features the Radeon 870M RDNA 3.5 graphics with 16 CU. The chip uses standard dual-channel DDR5-5600 using SODIMMs. Storage includes an M.2-2280 slot with Gen 4 x4 wiring. In place of Thunderbolt 4, you get a couple of USB4 ports with 40 Gbps bandwidth and DP passthrough. Comms include Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7, just like on its Intel-powered sibling.

ASRock Industrial is proud to announce the launch of its highly anticipated NUC(S) Ultra 200 BOX Series and NUC Ultra 200 Motherboard Series built to revolutionize AI-driven computing. Powered by Intel Core Ultra 200H processors (Arrow Lake-H), the series delivers up to 99 TOPS of AI inferencing power, offering cutting-edge performance in a compact form factor. Designed to meet the growing needs of industries such as AI-enhanced business operations, immersive content creation, and high-performance gaming, the NUC(S) Ultra 200 BOX Series is engineered to provide next-level computing power with Intel's latest performance hybrid architecture, Intel Arc GPU, and NPU.

These compact systems are built for users who demand powerful multitasking capabilities, from AI inferencing to media-rich applications and data processing. With its space-saving design and exceptional versatility, the NUC(S) Ultra 200 BOX Series ensures efficient, high-speed performance across a range of applications—redefining what's possible in modern computing.

The Core Ultra 200H series of mobile processors is designed to cover the majority of mobile device use-cases from the next-generation. These chips are very much based on the latest "Arrow Lake" microarchitecture, but with a few clever design changes. This is a tile-based processor, just like the 200HX series; but the various tiles are different. The Compute tile, which packs the main CPU complex, is noticeably smaller, with 6 "Lion Cove" P-cores, and two "Skymont" E-core clusters with 8 E-cores sharing a 24 MB L3 cache, and a ringbus interconnect. Things get interesting with the SoC tile, which now contains two Low-power Island E-cores. At this point, it is unclear if these are "Skymont," or are older generation "Crestmont" cores, which would mean that Intel has carried over the SoC tile from "Meteor Lake-H."

The SoC tile also contains at 13 TOPS-class NPU, which means these chips miss out on Microsoft Copilot+ AI PC logo. The idea behind this could be that Intel is trying to promote the Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake," which comes with a powerful 45 TOPS NPU. The company is announcing several new models of "Lunar Lake" today, including vPro ones. Switching focus back to "Arrow Lake-H," and our attention is drawn back to the SoC and I/O tiles, which miss out on the number of PCIe lanes, particularly Gen 5 ones, which the Core Ultra 200HX chips come with. The game changer for this chip, however, is the large Graphics tile. The iGPU of "Arrow Lake-H" is based on the same Xe-LPG graphics architecture as the one on "Meteor Lake," and not Xe2 "Battlemage" like on "Lunar Lake." However, this iGPU is vastly different from the one the "Arrow Lake-HX" comes with.

Last week, we reported on a massive leak that gave us a glimpse at a surfeit of upcoming ROG gaming laptops from ASUS boasting Arrow Lake-HX and Strix Halo processors, along with RTX 50-series Laptop GPUs. The company has now gone ahead and officially teased its ROG Flow Z13 laptop and the ROG Strix 18 laptop, the videos for which were obtained by VideoCardz. Considering that these were just teasers, the details shared were sparse, but undoubtedly intriguing regardless.

The ROG Strix 18, will likely boast the Core Ultra 9 285HX and Core Ultra 9 275HX CPUs along with NVIDIA "Blackwell" Laptop GPUs, with up to an 175-watt RTX 5090 Laptop with 16 GB of GDDR7 VRAM. Multiple other GPU options will also be available, with the RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU being the entry-point as per the leaked listings. Clearly, the Strix 18 is poised to be a powerful and power-hungry desktop replacement-class laptop, along with a massive 18-inch mini LED screen with a speedy 240 Hz refresh rate. Needless to say, the G18 has no intention of being affordable.

Intel is significantly expanding its desktop Core Ultra 200 "Arrow Lake-S" lineup with new 65 W models along the sidelines of the 2025 International CES, but more importantly, it is bringing the "Arrow Lake" microarchitecture to the mobile space. The company is planning to launch at least 22 processor models this January, but not all of them are based on "Arrow Lake." Tom's Hardware reports that the lineup broadly revolves around the "Core 2-series" processor model numbering.

The Core Ultra 200H series consists of H-segment (conventional thickness notebook) processors in the 28 W to 45 W class, and are based on the "Arrow Lake-H" silicon. The Core Ultra 200HX series targets premium gaming notebooks and portable workstations, and consists of 55 W to 65 W class processors, including CPU overclocking capabilities on certain models. Things get interesting with the Core Ultra 200U series. These chips are based on the "Meteor Lake Refresh" silicon—an older microarchitecture—targeting the 7 W to 28 W segments for ultraportables. Lastly, there's the Core H 200 and Core U 200 series (no "Ultra" in the branding), which are based on the older "Raptor Lake" monolithic silicon, targeting mainstream notebooks.

Apple's much awaited M4-based Mac Mini is finally here. As previously indicated by analysts, the Mac mini has received a massive redesign - its first in over a decade. With an amazingly compact chassis that is significantly smaller than before, the Mac mini boasts impressive computing horsepower thanks to the M4 and M4 Pro chipsets, now starting with 16 GB of unified memory.

We are already quite familiar with the M4, which made its debut in the OLED iPad Pro last May. However, the M4 Pro is all-new, boasting up to a 14-core CPU with 10 P-cores and 4 E-cores along with up to a 20-core GPU. The standard M4 packs only 4 P-cores by comparison, and manages to quash Intel's Core Ultra 9 288V in synthetic benchmarks by as much as 60% while trading blows with AMD's Strix Point APUs. The M4 Pro features more than twice the number of P-cores, making it a suitable competitor for Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake-H lineup as well as AMD's Strix Halo.

As we await the launch of Intel's "Arrow Lake-S" Core Ultra 200S series of processors for desktops, we are getting some new leaks about Intel's mainstream mobile "Arrow Lake-H" update. A month ago, we got the specification table of the high-end mobile "Arrow Lake-HX," and now, thanks to Jaykihn X, we have the mainstream laptop chip specifications as well. The top-of-the-line includes Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, a 45 W TDP SKU with six P-cores, eight E-cores, and two LPE cores. The CPU packs integrated Xe2 graphics with eight cores and 24 MB of total L3 cache and has a maximum boost of 5.4 GHz for P-cores.

Moving down the stack, there are Core Ultra 7 265H and Core Ultra 5 255H SKUs, which feature the same P/E/LPE core configuration. However, these SKUs are rated for 28 W TDP, having lower maximum frequencies and the same iGPU configuration. This time, we also have two Core Ultra 3 SKUs, with Core Ultra 3 235H and 225H bringing four P-cores, eight E-cores, and two LPE-cores in the 28 W package. The Core Ultra 3 235H has eight Xe2 cores in its iGPU, while the lowest-end Core Ultra 3 225H has only seven Xe2 iGPU cores. For a complete set of specifications, including all clock speeds in base and boost, please check out the table below.