> Intel is willing to pay for the transistors, and Apple reserves them for the M3 Pro instead.
Apple is also willing to pay for it. You just happen to be comparing the higher tier Intel to the lower tier Apple chip.
Intel just doesn’t have a suitable answer in that tier level yet because they haven’t launched the Core Ultra 3.
If you were to map the Intel levels to Apple, they’d roughly line up like so (ignoring Intels power delineated lines):
Core 3 -> base M series
Core 5 -> M pro
Core 9 -> M Max
The Ultra 9 288V you quote is their highest spec device and has a recommended range of 17-37W.
The Ultra 5 226V is the closest to an M3 at 8-37W but loses a lot of the performance numbers you quote and still consumes more power as a whole.
Full pricing on Lunar Lake is not available yet, but for example, XPS 13 with with an Ultra 7 is $1399 (16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD) https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-computer-laptops/new-xp...
Thinkpads will probably be a bit more...Acer a bit less...Asus will probably be around the same or less.
Here's a high spec Asus (32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD). https://shop.asus.com/us/90nb14f4-m00620-asus-zenbook-s-14-u... for $1499... Apple's equivalent is $2,599!
Neither of those laptops you linked are comparable to the MacBook Pro on a number of points, primarily the display.
Just like Intel doesn’t have an M3 competitor out, Apple doesn’t have a competitor for the lower end of premium laptops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnJw54oyfLE
14.0-inch, 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED 16:10 aspect ratio, 0.2ms response time, 120Hz refresh rate, 500nits HDR peak brightness, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, 1,000,000:1, 1.07 billion colors, PANTONE Validated, Glossy display, 70% less harmful blue light, SGS Eye Care Display, Touch screen, (Screen-to-body ratio)90%, With stylus support
vs
14.2-inch (diagonal) Liquid Retina XDR display;1 3024-by-1964 native resolution at 254 pixels per inch
1,000,000:1 contrast ratio XDR brightness: 1000 nits sustained full-screen, 1600 nits peak2 (HDR content only) SDR brightness: 600 nits Color
1 billion colors Wide color (P3) True Tone technology Refresh rates
ProMotion technology for adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz Fixed refresh rates: 47.95Hz, 48.00Hz, 50.00Hz, 59.94Hz, 60.00Hz
> Intel is willing to pay for the transistors, and Apple reserves them for the M3 Pro instead.
Apple is also willing to pay for it. You just happen to be comparing the higher tier Intel to the lower tier Apple chip.
Intel just doesn’t have a suitable answer in that tier level yet because they haven’t launched the Core Ultra 3.
If you were to map the Intel levels to Apple, they’d roughly line up like so (ignoring Intels power delineated lines):
Core 3 -> base M series
Core 5 -> M pro
Core 9 -> M Max
The Ultra 9 288V you quote is their highest spec device and has a recommended range of 17-37W.
The Ultra 5 226V is the closest to an M3 at 8-37W but loses a lot of the performance numbers you quote and still consumes more power as a whole.