Intel Wildcat is pretty tame: Our first Core 7 350 benchmarks show just modest performance numbers

Laptops sporting Intel Wildcat Lake are about to ship to directly challenge the popular MacBook Neo in the sub $1000 price range. The 2026 Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15 is one of the first such models configurable with Wildcat CPUs ranging from the Core 3 304 to the Core 5 215, Core i5 320, or Core 7 350. After testing the Core 7 350 SKU, however, the new CPU doesn't have anything particularly exciting to distinguish itself from the existing lineup of Intel U-series CPUs.

As shown by our comparison charts below, the Core 7 350 is roughly on par with the Core i7-1355U while being only 10 percent faster than the Core 7 150U when it comes to multi-threaded loads. GPU performance is even worse as the integrated Graphics 2 Xe3 is noticeably slower than the common years-old Iris Xe Graphics G7 96 EUs.

Perhaps the most notable bright spot to the Core 7 350 is its improved performance-per-watt. While still quite slow, running FurMark on the Lenovo would average only 20 W compared to 34 W on the Core 7 150U-powered MSI Cubi. Even so, the latter offers up to 35 percent faster graphics performance over our Lenovo test unit.

More benchmarks and comparisons with Wildcat Lake can be found on our review of the 2026 Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15. Users in the market for a laptop may want to consider a used Lunar Lake-V system instead which runs laps around Wildcat Lake while running under similar power envelopes.