Intel has quietly introduced the Core Ultra 7 251HX, a new member of its Arrow Lake HX processor family. The chip surfaced first in Lenovo Legion 5i 2026 and MSI Raider 16 HX listings before appearing on Intel's website without any formal announcement. This 18-core, 18-thread processor features 6 Performance cores and 12 Efficient cores, positioning it between the Core Ultra 5 245HX and Core Ultra 7 255HX in Intel's lineup.

The 251HX maintains the same 12 E-cores and 30 MB of Smart Cache as its higher-tier sibling while dropping two P-cores and two threads. Power specifications remain identical at 55 W base and up to 160 W maximum turbo power. The chip achieves a maximum turbo frequency of 5.1 GHz, slightly below the 255HX, but offers improved base clock speeds with E-cores running at 2.5 GHz and P-cores at 2.9 GHz. Memory support extends to DDR5-6400.

Integrated graphics see a reduction to three Xe3 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz, down from four on the 255HX, which trims AI performance from 33 TOPS to 30. While these changes aren't dramatic, they could impact workloads that rely heavily on NPU performance. The 251HX effectively fills a gap in Intel's HX lineup, offering a middle-ground option for users who need more cores than the 245HX but don't require the full capabilities of the 255HX.