There's more than size and cost savings, of course. Apollo Lake borrows the graphics technology from Intel's Skylake architecture, which brings full hardware-based 4K video playback and an overall boost to visual performance. It'll also help drag lower-cost computers into the modern era with richer support for technologies like USB-C.

Intel isn't yet revealing clock speeds, pricing and a few other key details for its new platform, but it's promising Celeron- and Pentium-branded processors in the second half of 2016. They won't make you forget about higher-end Core CPUs when they ship, but they might just raise the bar for computing -- that starter laptop or tablet won't be as likely to choke on basic duties.