Since Valve launched Steam Deck, many hardware manufacturers have jumped on the gaming handheld bandwagon in an attempt to emulate its success. Asus came up with ROG Ally, MSI got its Claw, and Ayaneo has enough models to fill cargo pants. Each had its fair share of fame and controversy, but none offer a particularly long battery life.
Due to their compact size, you can’t simply slap a 99Wh battery inside and call it a day. Even if it was possible, this would only push the playtime to about three hours using ROG Ally’s boost mode. For reference, most gaming handhelds hover around the two-hour mark or a bit more if you run eco mode, which isn’t too bad for 40Wh batteries – or 50Wh in the case of Steam Deck OLED.
The road towards longer play times must include less power-hungry hardware. Steam Deck is a great example of this. Thanks to its less demanding processor, Valve’s handheld tops many competitors while carrying the same or less battery capacity. After all, what’s the point of having a battery-powered machine if you can enjoy your game only one hour at a time?
Enter Intel with its Core Ultra 200V Lunar Lake processors. Unlike desktop, where its chips have a hard time beating AMD in the efficiency department, its new mobile CPUs are the complete opposite. With a power target of only 17W, these chips are a match made in heaven for gaming handhelds. Pair that with the new integrated GPU based on Battlemage architecture, and it looks like a winning combination for portable gaming performance.
Inside a well-ventilated frame with a slightly larger battery, Core Ultra 200V holds the potential to double ROG Ally’s average of two hours with AAA titles. After all, it almost halves the 30W asking price of the Z1 and Z1 Extreme, while narrowing the performance gap in the process. This estimate will vary depending on the game, power profile, and screen type (OLED is a must), but the sky’s the limit, as they say.
Specs
How does Intel manage this? Smart engineering, and lots of it. Instead of cramming a ridiculous amount of CPU cores that many games won’t know what to do with, Team Blue opted for a balanced approach that leaves more silicon space for the GPU. Regardless of model, each has four performance cores and four efficient cores across the board.
The main changes are the NPU TOPS, which doesn’t matter to gamers, and the integrated GPU, which gets either seven or eight Xe2 cores. Take a look for yourself:
| CPU | Base Power | Cores (P/LP E) | Threads | Turbo (P/E) (GHz) | RAM | GPU | Max. Freq. (GHz) | NPU (TOPS) |
| Core Ultra 9 288V | 30W | 4/4 | 8 | 5.1/3.7 | 32GB | Arc 140V | 2.05 | 48 |
| Core Ultra 7 268V | 17W | 4/4 | 8 | 5.0/3.7 | 32GB | Arc 140V | 2.0 | 48 |
| Core Ultra 7 266V | 17W | 4/4 | 8 | 5.0/3.7 | 16GB | Arc 140V | 2.0 | 48 |
| Core Ultra 7 258V | 17W | 4/4 | 8 | 4.8/3.7 | 32GB | Arc 140V | 1.95 | 47 |
| Core Ultra 7 256V | 17W | 4/4 | 8 | 4.8/3.7 | 16GB | Arc 140V | 1.95 | 47 |
| Core Ultra 5 238V | 17W | 4/4 | 8 | 4.7/3.5 | 32GB | Arc 130V | 1.85 | 40 |
| Core Ultra 5 236V | 17W | 4/4 | 8 | 4.7/3.5 | 16GB | Arc 130V | 1.85 | 40 |
| Core Ultra 5 228V | 17W | 4/4 | 8 | 4.5/3.5 | 32GB | Arc 130V | 1.85 | 40 |
| Core Ultra 5 226V | 17W | 4/4 | 8 | 4.5/3.5 | 16GB | Arc 130V | 1.85 | 40 |
Performance
Though Core Ultra 200V-powered gaming handhelds have yet to be released, we can use the available laptops as a base for what we can expect. For example, the Core Ultra 9 288V found inside the Asus Zenbook S 14 we reviewed recently delivered good performance even in modern AAA titles. To be fair, upscaling was enabled when possible, but still, the chip packed a punch for its size. You can see more details below.
| Benchmark | 1080p | Native (2,880×1,880) |
| Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail (High settings) | 64.2fps | 43.1fps |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (Medium settings, FSR 2.1 Ultra Perf) | 67.5fps | 45.6fps |
| Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord (High settings, no upscaler) | 72fps | 63fps |
| Black Myth: Wukong (Low Settings, FSR 40, Frame Gen) | 54fps | 35fps |
| Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Low settings, XeSS Performance) | 22fps | 16fps |
With that in mind, gaming handhelds will probably be powered by the 17W Core Ultra 7 268V or Core Ultra 7 258V. The reason is that these house the best iGPU, i.e. the Arc 140V packing eight Xe2 cores, without gobbling 30W. Again, the closest we can get to a handheld is by checking the performance of laptops rocking such processors.
According to ETA Prime’s testing, the Ultra 7 258V delivers 70fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p Low with XeSS Performance. Enabling FSR 3 Frame Generation pushes the frame rate further to the 90fps range. In less demanding games such as Fallout 4, the Arc GPU can maintain a locked 60fps at 1080p High. Even the fans’ favourite Red Dead Redemption 2 runs smoothly, albeit at 1080p Low with FSR Balanced.
Final Thoughts
If I had to bet, the Core Ultra 7 258V is what most manufacturers will choose for their machines thanks to its 32GB of DDR5-8533 RAM – half of which can be dedicated to the iGPU. Its 50MHz lower GPU clock won’t make a dent in performance, and the 1TOPS lost on the NPU doesn’t mean anything to gamers. That said, the entry-level Core Ultra 5 228V is definitely capable of providing a good experience too, as its performance should be about 12% below the Ultra 7 258V.
What is sure is that the efficiency of Lunar Lake is what makes it perfect for handhelds. Though AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 wins when blasting power, Core Ultra leaves it in the dust in a 15W head-to-head. This means that next-gen gaming handhelds will have the choice between a power-hungry, performant chip or a less strong but efficient one. I, for one, can’t wait to see them in action.
