We've known for a little while that Intel's Nth-generation branding, which has lasted for well over a decade, will be no more with the launch of Meteor Lake chips this December. However, as the picture begins to become clearer for how Intel will brand its CPUs from Meteor Lake onwards, I'm becoming more and more certain that I'm not a huge fan. Intel's old branding wasn't perfect, but it's looking like Intel is replacing a decent naming scheme with a much worse one.

The new branding just seems boring and confusing

What we know about Intel's new branding is that it's split into two: The Intel Core Ultra lineup and the Intel Core lineup. Meteor Lake has been confirmed as Intel Core Ultra, and we've seen leaks for chips like the Core Ultra 9 185H. I actually think this name is perfectly fine and on its own, I don't mind it. However, from what we can see for the overall brand, it looks like things might be a bit of a mess.

According to PCWorld's Mark Hachman, Meteor Lake chips are getting branded in full as "Intel Core Ultra Series 1," and although this branding is transparent, it's also pretty boring. Intel used to have Nth-generation, AMD has Ryzen 7000 or 5000 or whatever, but now Intel is going with this "Series" branding, and I honestly can't say it's an improvement in either clarity or quality. It just sounds really bland, boring, and corporate.

While I can accept a more boring brand, a more confusing brand is hard to tolerate. One thing I know I'm going to dislike is how there's a parallel naming scheme going on between Core Ultra and Core. I'm particularly worried there's going to be lots of confusion as a result of the overlap in numbering, as there's Core 5 and Core 7 but also Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7. I can already imagine all the forum posts asking about the difference between these two brands.

To be fair to Intel, we don't know exactly what the difference is with Core Ultra and Core, but I can't think of a possibility that sounds appealing. Based on what we know so far, it might shake out one of three ways:

• Core Ultra could be the highest-core count version of a given chip (such as Meteor Lake), while Core denotes a model with the same architecture but fewer cores.
• Intel may offer a lineup consisting of the latest chip as Core Ultra and a refreshed version of the last generation as Core, sort of similar to how Apple offers the latest chip in the iPhone Pro Max but an older chip in the regular iPhone and iPhone Plus.
• Maybe Core Ultra just includes CPUs with unlocked overclocking, plus the full chip with all cores enabled for Core Ultra 9 (since there's no Core 9), while Core CPUs are locked down.

I can't pretend that I've thought of all the possibilities, but I don't think I've come across a theory for Intel's new naming scheme that I like so far.

The generational branding difference could be more opaque than before

What I'm especially concerned about is Intel's intentions to move away from making the generation of a CPU clear. Intel has already said it intended to do this, so this isn't a surprise, but another detail Mark Hachman reported is that "Intel will only use Series 1 to differentiate from Series 2," which would be based on Intel's upcoming Lunar Lake chip built on the company's 18A process.

I don't think this means we're going to get a new Core Ultra 9 185H or whatever chip with every generation and that a Series 1 or Series 2 or so on will be tacked on somewhere to tell people how old it is. When Intel announced its new branding, it said the generation would still be expressed in the first one or two digits of the CPU's product name, which is how it works right now. So what exactly does this mean?

My interpretation is that Intel will stop naming its CPUs with the product name plus the architecture name, like Intel 13th-generation Raptor Lake, and instead will just call it by the product name, like Series 1. One of the main reasons why I think Intel would want to name product stacks like this is because 13th-generation is not 100% Raptor Lake. In fact, the Core i3-13100(F) and the Core i5-13400(F) are rebranded versions of the Core i5-12100(F) and Core i5-12600K(F). If Intel is going to do stuff like this, it might as well not imply to users that all CPUs in a series are brand-new.

There was one other tidbit I noticed in Hachman's report: Series 1 is Meteor Lake and Series 2 is Lunar Lake. What's interesting about this is that Meteor Lake is skipping the desktop in favor of Arrow Lake, and Lunar Lake is probably coming soon after, with both potentially coming in 2024. So is Arrow Lake also going to be branded Series 1 and both laptops and desktops will get Lunar Lake as Series 2? Or will desktop get whatever chip comes after Lunar Lake as Series 2? This is all speculative of course, but it is interesting to think about.

I'm not a fan but I hope this new branding works out fine

Intel has been incredibly consistent with its branding for over a decade, beating out both AMD and Nvidia when it comes to it. Nth-generation Core and that little "i" lasted for 15 years and outlasted AMD's Phenom, Phenom II, FX, and A-Series brands, while Nvidia's GPUs went from the GTX 200 series to the 900 series before getting reset to the GTX 10 series. Even though the marketing landscape for both desktops and laptops shifted over the years, Intel stayed consistent.

That's all at an end with the introduction of Core Ultra and Core, including that "i" we've grown used to for over a decade. While I think Intel is probably making a mistake here, I do hope that the company's new naming scheme is clear enough to at least be tolerable. Who knows, maybe we'll even come to like this new brand; I just wouldn't bet on it.