Why 2026 laptops like this Lenovo ThinkBook face an uphill battle

Basically everyone has by now heard about the RAM and SSD crisis, which pushes up prices across the whole tech market. This leads to large price increases in all PCs, including laptops of course. This means: If you buy for bang for the buck, buying a laptop in 2026 will not make you happy, or rather, it will lead your bank account being rather empty.

In addition to the price, there is something else that makes buying a 2026 laptop less attractive. That are functional regressions as well, which includes less RAM, SSDs with a smaller capacity or worse screens. But it sometimes also includes regressions in CPU performance.

Case in point: With the transition from Intel Lunar Lake and Intel Arrow Lake, the 2025 CPU generation, to Intel's 2026 Panther Lake lineup, there are some compromises. First of all, the GPU performance: Only the fastest Panther Lake variants of the Core X7 and X9 series have a faster graphics tile, while the standard Panther Lake versions are actually slower than either Arrow Lake or Lunar Lake.

Intel Panther Lake: Now always a clear-cut upgrade

Secondly, the standard eight core Panther Lake versions lag behind Arrow Lake in CPU performance, merely being able to equal the Lunar Lake CPU series, which many already saw as kind of underpowered.

A recent example would be the Lenovo ThinkBook 14 G9 IPL we reviewed. The precedecessor, the ThinkBook 14 G8 IAL, was equipped with an Arrow Lake Intel Core Ultra 7 255H, while our newer review device featured the Intel Core Ultra 5 325. Overall, the older Lenovo laptop was 32 percent faster in CPU performance, and 55 percent faster in GPU performance.