Intel shows off Tiger Lake, bending laptops at CES

Intel has shared its version of the future of laptops at this year's CES, unveiling the Tiger Lake line of processors and a handful of limited details on its H-series 10th Gen chips.

The company also revealed new laptop devices built to its Project Athena specification, including a bendable tablet and collaboration with Google on Chromebooks.

The first Tiger Lake chips, mobile processors that serve as a follow up to the Ice Lake range, will ship this year, the company confirmed, although it revealed little detail other than to claim double-digit performance gains – though it wasn't clear versus what – as well as AI performance improvements, integrated Thunderbolt 4, and the use of Intel's new XE graphics. The Tiger Lake systems are built on the 10nm+ architecture, the same as Ice Lake.

Alongside Tiger Lake, Intel revealed that its H-series 10th Gen processors will surpass 5GHz – not only in the i9, but also in the step-down i7 Core chips. Plus, it showed off a preview of its first XE-based discrete GPU, code-named DG1.

Alongside the chip news, Intel announced an update to its latest laptop specification, dubbed Project Athena. Intel said it now has 25 laptops matching the Project Athena standards – which includes fast wake when the lid is lifted, fast charging over USB Type C, touch displays and narrow bezels, among other requirements.

It also added a pair of Chromebooks to the pile, the Asus Chromebook Flip and the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook. Intel said it plans to add another two dozen laptops to the specification list, and will also expand it to incorporate dual-screen PCs.

Intel often uses CES to show off futuristic laptop designs, and this year was no different. The highlight for this show was a concept device called "Horseshoe Bend", a laptop with a folding display that opens up to 17in.

Datacentres also had a mention, with Intel revealing that the 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable chips, already set to arrive in the first half of this year, will include AI training accelerators built-in, helping to boost training performance.