Intel Reveals Flagship 11th Gen Thin-And-Light CPUs And A 5G Laptop Modem

Intel has added two new 11th Gen Core processors for thin and light Windows notebooks, along with is first 5G modem for PCs as high-speed embedded cellular connectivity gains traction. The Intel Core i7-1195G7 and Core i5-1155G7 will both offer Iris Xe graphics along with up to 5 GHz clock speeds.

That, Intel says, is a first in the industry for high-volume thin and light laptops, not to mention a claimed 25-percent performance bump for the new Core i7 over AMD's Ryzen 7 5800U. It's not just raw power, either; Intel says its new chip can handle up to 8x faster transcoding and up to double the video editing speed with AI acceleration, compared to AMD's processor.

Power, of course, is only part of what most laptop buyers are looking for these days. Connectivity is equally important, and Intel will be including WiFi 6E (Gig+) as a result. That supports routers using the 6 GHz band. There'll also be Intel Optane memory H20 – with solid-state storage – support.

The Intel Core i7-1195G7 has four cores and eight threads, plus 96 graphics CUs and 12MB of cache. It supports DDR4-3200 and LPDDR4x-4266 memory, and has a 12-28W operating range. The base frequency is 2.9 GHz, or up to 5.0 GHz under single core Turbo (or 4.6 GHz for all-core Turbo).

As for the Intel Core i5-1155G7, that too has four cores and eight threads, plus 80 graphics EUs. It has 8MB of cache and supports the same memory types as the Core i7, plus the same 12-28W operating range. Base frequency is 2.5 GHz, or up to 4.5 GHz in single core Turbo; all-core Turbo is 4.3 GHz.

Intel says that we can expect more than 60 designs based on the Core i7-1195G7 and Core i5-1155G7 by the holidays. Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, and MSI will have models on sale this summer.

Intel's first 5G M.2 modem doesn't exactly have a snappy brand, but that doesn't mean it's not something Windows PC-makers – and buyers – haven't been calling out for. The new embedded modem offers almost five-times the speed of a Gigabit LTE connection, the comply says.

It relies on Intel's partnership with MediaTek and Fibocom: MediaTek provides the modem firmware, and Fibocom the module itself. There's eSIM for easier provisioning, and support for sub-6 5G though not mmWave.

Still, you're looking at up to 4.7 Gbps downloads or 1.25 Gbps uploads, network depending, and the ability to fall back onto LTE Cat 19 when outside of 5G networks. It'll work with Windows, Chrome, and Linux machines.