Intel opens pop-up stores across five cities featuring AI PCs from laptop manufacturers — we stopped by the NYC store, and one visitor in Munich found Panther Lake

Intel is opening pop-up stores in five cities across the globe to promote its AI PCs just in time for the winter holiday shopping season. Intel AI Experience stores have unlocked their doors in New York City, London, Munich, Paris, and Seoul from the end of October until November or December, depending on the location.

The stores feature laptops from brands like Asus, Acer, Dell, Google, HP, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, MSI, and Samsung, allowing customers to get their hands on the latest devices from these manufacturers ahead of the critical holiday shopping season.

“Intel is excited to bring this AI-powered shopping experience — in collaboration with our global retail and technology partners — to shoppers around the world for the holiday shopping season,” Intel Corporate Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Brett Hannath said. “AI technology has the potential to enable better everyday experiences for all of us, and this showcase will give shoppers an opportunity to see just how Intel and its partners are powering new ways for communities to create, game, work, learn, and connect.”

We stopped at the New York store when it opened today. The store, located a stone's throw from Rockefeller Center, was mostly showing off productivity laptops, Chromebooks, and a few gaming rigs. There was also a gaming section to play games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Marvel Rivals, and Battlefield 6.

Other than a few demos, it's mostly a chance to check out laptops that are already on the market.

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Tech YouTuber High Yield dropped by the Munich pop-up, and he shared photos of Intel CPUs that look like the upcoming Panther Lake processors on X. They also mentioned spotting some laptops that featured the new chips. That makes the Munich spot far more interesting than what we saw here in New York.

The chipmaker revealed more details about Panther Lake in October, which would be the first ones to take advantage of the company’s 18A process. They are supposed to be more power-efficient, delivering 50% more performance at the same power levels compared to Lunar Lake processors.

Intel is leaning on the AI branding, which hasn’t been that successful with customers. In fact, the company’s older Raptor Lake chips have been selling much better compared to its newer AI chips to the point that 12th-, 13th-, and 14th-gen Intel Core processors are seeing price hikes despite being older.

Research has shown that customers are buying these AI laptops not for their AI capabilities, but because they simply need new computers. Furthermore, Windows 10's end of support, which was supposed to significantly drive up demand for Copilot+ PCs, pushed demand for Apple MacBooks instead. Still, we hope that the upcoming Panther Lake chips drive sales and demand for its processors and help bring Intel back from the brink.

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