Core G3: Intel Panther Lake chip for handheld consoles reportedly pushed back

While Intel showed off a plethora of Panther Lake products at CES 2026, there are still a few more out there that haven’t been shown. One happens to be the handheld-focused Core G3 chip that was first hinted at last month. Initially slated for a Q1 2026 launch, the Core G3 has supposedly been pushed back to Q2. Given Panther Lake, in general, won’t be available anytime soon, the delay doesn’t come as a surprise.

The information comes from well-known Weibo leaker Golden Pig Upgrade (via Videocardz). To recall, the Core G3 was tipped to arrive with a 14-core CPU with 2 P-cores and 12 E-cores. For the GPU, it was meant to use an Arc B360 SKU with 10 Xe3 cores. A higher-specced variant, called the Core G3 Extreme, was to use an Arc B380 variant with 12 Xe3 cores.

Based on our Panther Lake deep-dive, the Core G3 Extreme should easily be able to trade blows with AMD’s  Ryzen Z2 Extreme thanks to its superior power efficiency and raw GPU power. Its lack of P-cores might result in lower raw performance, but the abundance of E-cores will almost certainly improve battery life. Unlike Lunar Lake, Panther Lake has no memory-on-package restrictions. It will allow OEMs to ship handhelds with as little memory as possible to keep costs in check.