Intel to Drop Celeron and Pentium Branding From Laptop Parts In 2023
by Ryan Smith on September 16, 2022 9:15 PM EST
While we’re still over a quarter out from the end of 2022, Intel already has its eyes aimed at 2023 and its eventual refresh of its mobile processors. To that end, today the company has announced that they are making some branding changes for the low-end.
Starting in 2023, Intel will be retiring the Pentium and Celeron brands for laptop processors. In its place, Intel will have a singular “Intel Processor” brand for the low end of the market, while the Core branding (with its multiple tiers) will remain in place for the rest of Intel’s mobile product stack.
“Whether for work or play, the importance of the PC has only become more apparent as the torrid pace of technological development continues to shape the world. Intel is committed to driving innovation to benefit users, and our entry-level processor families have been crucial for raising the PC standard across all price points. The new Intel Processor branding will simplify our offerings so users can focus on choosing the right processor for their needs.”
-Josh Newman, Intel vice president and interim general manager of Mobile Client Platforms
Notably, this change only applies to future laptop parts. At this point Intel is not announcing a change for desktop parts or embedded parts. But with that said, I would not be the least bit surprised if these change ultimately came to desktops as well, as mobile is effectively Intel’s leading consumer market segment these days. So technology and names tend to percolate up to the desktop segment, keeping the two in sync.
Intel’s current generation Pentium and Celeron offerings are both based on Alder Lake-U processors with a single performance core and four (one block of) efficiency cores. The only differences between these SKUs, besides price, is clockspeeds – specifically, that the Celeron parts lack turbo. So if Intel is going to pursue a similar strategy in future generations, then it’s not outlandish to fold two similar products under a single brand. Though the decision to forgo any kind of specific branding is an unusual one for Intel.
With that said, there’s also been a notable absence of “pure” Atom parts in this segment in this generation. Intel has yet to produce a true entry-level part using its Gracemont Atom cores; so everything below the Alder Lake Pentiums/Celerons has been the last-generation Tremont Atoms. So larger changes may be afoot for Intel’s cheapest laptop product segment.
Source: Intel
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Glock24 - Monday, September 19, 2022 - link
Anything with "Atom" cores struggles even with basic web browsing. It's a real torture trying to use a computer with one of those processors.ScottTaylorMCPD - Sunday, September 18, 2022 - link
Pretty sure you meant that Intel will have a "single" brand name going forward... "singular" would mean that the new "Intel Processor" brand was "exceptional, remarkable, one-of-a-kind", and that still remains to be seen... ;)bansheexyz - Sunday, September 18, 2022 - link
Intel's naming scheme has been confusing for years and this will make it even worse. Remember when Intel was like Playstation and we had Pentium 2, 3, and 4? Clear generational separation. Now Intel has gone full retard like Microsoft with its Xbox. We now have to memorize a bunch of lakes and refer to lakes conversationally, which is pretty easy to mix up. Even processing nodes are headed the same wishy washy direction. USB went off the rails after USB3 with it's revisions and generations. At least DDR still the model of normalcy.PaulHoule - Monday, September 19, 2022 - link
Celeron and Pentium have been the poster children of brandstruction (brand destruction) for a long time.12 years ago Intel should have read the playbook of US automakers who would make crappy small cars and change the name of the cars every 2 or 3 years so that people would forget that there ever was a Chevette or Cobalt (name a car after a demon that kills miners...) or Gremlin (same) or Neon. Contrast that to Japanese carmakers who'd like to retire "Civic" and "Corolla" after decades but really can't because if they stop making new Corollas people will just bid up the prices of old Corollas.
Glock24 - Monday, September 19, 2022 - link
I didn´t know newer parts had a "big core", but I guess performace (or lack of) would still be unbearable.IMHO "Atom" based parts should be restricted to appliances like routers, NASes, mini-severs, etc.
Bruzzone - Monday, September 19, 2022 - link
Pentium and Celeron are today just fall out from sort on FTC Docket 9341 consent order not allowing Intel to disable good dice (i5 primarily) to produce bottom bin as a means of competitive targeting. In reality there is so much back generation highly discounted i7 and i5 quad and Coffee hexa and even Xeon v2 being discounted who needs Pentium and Celeron anyway? mbflgt - Tuesday, September 20, 2022 - link
The whole stack in desktop, entry level workstation, and entry level server needs to be consolidated and simplified. The ball started rolling with alder lake. Just i3, i5, i7 and every chipset has ECC support. Slim down the marketing team and save some money. They are are just creating names for ridiculously non-competitive parts.PProchnow - Thursday, October 27, 2022 - link
I got an i3-1005g and it the 2nd lowest Gen 10 in an HPlaptop and made for efficiency. I cannot believe the nice work HP and Intel do
on something so INEXSPENSIVE.
I am humbled as I thought I was in for a cheap junk trip, but the time i3 Gen 10
is terrific, dunno what the HP screen is called, it is OK too [its from Tiawan].
SO I said all that to say, ****They can kiss all the old names goodbye. ****