Intel's often leaked "Arrow Lake Refresh" processor family was not put under an official spotlight at CES 2026—supposed desktop variants (aka "ARL-S R") took fourth place in TechPowerUp's " Biggest No-shows " of the recently concluded trade event. Team Blue's main focus was the truly new-gen "Panther Lake" mobile series, with a wide swath of manufacturing partners showing off related devices on the showroom floor. Understandably, mid-gen product refreshes are less exciting than the freshest and shiniest products. A very low number of hints were dropped in Las Vegas; reportedly at the Gigabyte and Minisforum booths. Web sleuths are still seeking signs of any pre-launch Core Ultra Plus "Arrow Lake Refresh" information, and a new discovery has brought to light a new "Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus" SKU. Yesterday afternoon, an "Acer Predator PHN18-I71" test system was tracked on the Geekbench Browser database. Initial investigations point to the possible recent evaluation of an upcoming Helios 18 AI gaming laptop.

A Geekbench 6.5 diagnostic session mentions an ARL iX2_ARX board, 64 GB of system memory, and a 24-core "Genuine Intel Family 6 Model 198 Stepping 2" processor. The test platform's socket package is listed as an LGA 1851 type; a big error—since Team Blue's "Arrow Lake-HX" chip line is usually paired up with the BGA "FCBGA2114" format. The not-yet-launched "Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus" model seems to be prepped to take top billing over the current "Arrow Lake-HX" (non-refreshed) Core Ultra 9 285HX mobile chip. The latest leak shows that there is some nomenclature overlap with a flagship desktop equivalent— Core Ultra 290K Plus . Intel's "Plus" designation seems to indicate refreshed status. Yesterday's Geekbench 6.5 results look to be incomplete—with lower than expected scores and clock speeds; VideoCardz proposes that the evaluator ended benchmarking partway through the session.