CheckMag | Confusing customers with naming: Why you should be very careful when choosing the CPU of any 2025 laptop with Intel processors

2025 is definitely not a bad year for laptops. There are many good choices and a healthy competition between the three main CPU manufacturers in the Windows laptop space, Intel, AMD and Qualcomm. This is good for customers, but it can also be confusing, as choice so often is.

Even if you choose a CPU manufacturer, the confusion does not necessarily end. This is especially true this year for Intel, unfortunately. The struggling juggernaut of the processor world has a single product family for premium laptops processors, called the Core Ultra Series 2 - on paper. In actuality, what looks like a unified product stack is actually more fragmented, which can be very puzzling for customers. The total Core Ultra product lineup of Intel in 2025 looks like this:

• Intel Lunar Lake / Core Ultra 200V
• Intel Arrow Lake U / Core Ultra 200U
• Intel Arrow Lake H / Core Ultra 200H
• Intel Arrow Lake HX / Core Ultra 200HX

What makes it confusing for buyers is that these product lines are not actually as separate as they seem on paper. Arrow Lake HX is the outlier in this, as it is only featured on large and heavy laptops, but the other three can all power the same type of laptop. And they do.

Case in point: The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition (available on Amazon). We tested this laptop in December 2024 with Intel Lunar Lake and for many months that was the only available choice. However, since late April, Lenovo also sells the expensive ThinkPad thin and light with Intel Arrow Lake U and Intel Arrow Lake H, which leads many customers to ask: Which is the right CPU for me?

The Intel Arrow Lake U problem

While this is not ideal, it only really becomes a problem when you know that not every Intel Core Ultra Series 2 CPU is equal. The main issue lies with Intel Arrow Lake U aka Core Ultra 200U.

The naming suggests there is little difference between Arrow Lake U and the other processors, but in actuality, Intel Arrow Lake U is just a refresh of last year's Intel Meteor Lake / Core Ultra 100U, made in the newer Intel 3 process. This means that customers who buy laptops with these CPUs will not get to enjoy the progress Intel has made in terms of efficiency, which is something that Lunar Lake and the more powerful Intel Arrow Lake H share - namely, the newer Lion Cove and Skymont CPU cores made with the modern TSMC 3 nm node.

Frankly, the Intel's naming of its 2025 CPUs is simply confusing. It is unclear why "Arrow Lake U" is called Arrow Lake at all, when in reality, it should be called Intel Meteor Lake Refresh. Customers, who are contemplating a laptop with Intel Arrow Lake U, can thus comfortably also take a look at older 2024 models with Meteor Lake, as the difference between the two CPU platforms seems to be minimal.