Amid the growing buzz around the Consumer Electronics Show 2026, Intel has moved to capture attention by announcing a new handheld gaming platform and a dedicated chip for portable devices.
The announcement signals Intel’s push to compete in the fast-expanding handheld gaming market, where major players such as Microsoft and AMD have already made strong advances.
Speaking at CES on Monday, Daniel Rogers, Intel’s vice president and general manager of PC products, said the upcoming platform will combine both hardware and software. It will be built around Intel’s Core Series 3 processors, known as Panther Lake.
These processors were introduced last year and are now entering a broader range of PCs. According to reports cited by TechCrunch, Intel is also developing a dedicated chip designed specifically for handheld gaming devices.
Intel is making its own handheld gaming PC chips. https://t.co/sR3bQ4xvFi pic.twitter.com/04CqQSHXVH
— IGN (@IGN) January 6, 2026Panther Lake chips mark a major milestone for Intel. They are the company’s first processors to use its advanced 18A manufacturing process, which entered production in 2025. This technology is expected to deliver better performance and efficiency for compact gaming systems.
Intel has long-standing roots in gaming hardware. The company has supplied chips for gaming PCs since the 1990s and expanded its gaming ambitions in 2022 with the launch of Intel Arc graphics cards.
Intel is planning a custom Panther Lake CPU for handheld PCs https://t.co/bGkSMwmIKa
— The Verge (@verge) January 7, 2026Its move into handheld gaming represents a strategic shift. The segment is currently led by AMD, which used CES to unveil its latest Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor, along with new ray tracing and graphics upgrades.
Intel has confirmed that it will share more details about its handheld gaming products later this year. The announcement has already sparked interest among gamers and industry watchers, who see the move as a potential shake-up in the portable gaming landscape.
