Intel Delays Arc A-Series GPU Equipped Laptops Till End of Q2 Despite Launching Them In Q1 2022

Consumers expecting to get hands on Intel's first Arc A-series GPU-equipped laptops have to wait a bit more as the blue team has pushed back availability to the end of the second quarter despite launching them and announcing availability in Q1 2022.

Updated 3.45 PM GMT+5 4/8/2022: The Intel support account has issued a correction. Please see the updated story over here. It looks like the official launch was only meant for the South Korean market and specific to a single laptop whereas other regions will be getting Arc laptops later. Intel could technically call this a launch but it's more inclining towards a paper launch considering most of the world will not be getting Arc-equipped laptops till a few weeks.

Apologies for the confusion, we had incorrect information. Samsung systems with Intel Arc graphics are available now in Korea and will scale to other regions. Additional OEMs in other regions will have systems in the coming weeks.

— Intel Support (@IntelSupport) April 8, 2022

During the 29th March announcement, Intel confirmed that its Arc A-Series GPU-equipped laptops were shipping and available starting the same day. However, there's been an ongoing discussion on Twitter regarding the availability of these laptops and it looks like Intel Support themselves has confirmed that these products won't be available till the end of Q2 2022. This confirms that Intel's initial announcement was just a paper launch and the actual launch is planned around May or June which aligns with the rumors we had heard previously.

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

Intel also claimed that the higher-end Arc 5 and Arc 7 series GPUs will be available in Early Summer and the desktop variants are expected to land in Q2 2022. However, based on the recent statement from Intel, it looks like the high-end lineup may potentially get delayed too if even the low-end GPU lineup isn't ready to ship for the mass market.

This seems like a huge mistake by Intel's GPU and marketing division who not only themselves but with their OEM partners announced the availability and pre-orders of several Arc A-Series laptops. Laptops such as the Acer Swift X and the Samsung Book2 Pro were announced to feature the Arc 3 series GPUs but based on findings by Videocardz confirm that either the pre-order dates have now been moved several weeks back or the or have been updated with Arc-less specifications (using the Iris Xe iGPUs instead). This reaffirms the delay theory since we are one week since the launch and so far not a single Arc laptop has been reviewed or sold in any useful quantity to appear over the web.

There are definitely lots of expectations from Intel with their first discrete graphics outing as the Arc A-Series GPU lineup but delays such as these can definitely have a negative impact on the community. We definitely want to see a third player in the graphics segment and the company has the potential to put out a great product in the form of Arc but Intel isn't sharing a whole lot on the table aside from just some slides.