When Intel launched its Arc Alchemist mobile GPU line-up, availability for Arc 3 powered laptops wasn't supposed to be far behind. However, there has been a weird absence of new laptops. Now, it looks like the first Intel Arc A-series laptops won't be available for quite some time.
As per Intel Support, the first laptops with Intel Arc graphics are expected to launch “by the end of the second quarter of 2022”. The comment hasn't been corrected, so it doesn't appear to be referring to the Arc 5 or Arc 7 laptop GPUs, which are expected to launch in the summer.
Hi! Laptops with Intel ARC will be available for purchase by the end of the second quarter of 2022. We suggest you follow our newsroom at https://t.co/AlNpzzMu5P for all the updates.
— Intel Support (@IntelSupport) April 6, 2022
According to VideoCardz, the shipping of some laptops equipped with Intel Arc A-series has been delayed. Two examples are the Acer Swift X equipped with the Intel Core i7-1260P and the Core i5-1240p, which will only ship on June 13th (previously listed for May 25th).
Another case is the Samsung Book2 Pro which was supposed to be the first laptop with an Intel Arc Alchemist GPU. Pre-orders for this laptop started on March 17th, and many of them were already fulfilled. When trying their new laptops, Samsung Forum users were surprised by the absence of an Arc discrete GPU. Instead, they only had the Iris Xe iGPU.
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KitGuru says: Whatever the holdup here is, hopefully Intel can figure it out in time for its other GPU launches this year, including higher-end mobile GPUs and the first desktop graphics cards.