The MacBook Neo Outperforms These M-Series MacBooks.
The MacBook Neo could easily eclipse the iPhone Air as Apple’s most exciting product in years. This machine offers buyers a full suite of macOS features, in a choice of vibrant new colors, for $599 ($499 for students ). Not long ago, Apple’s cheapest laptop, the MacBook Air—long priced at $999, but now up to $1,099 with the release of the current M5 model—seemed like a bargain. Now, you can get a device that includes all the latest Apple Mac features for just half that price.
Of course, the Neo is no MacBook Air. To get the Neo’s price down to $500 or $600, Apple had to make some compromises , such as using a mechanical trackpad instead of a modern tactile one; ditching Touch ID on the base model’s keyboard; using outdated USB-C technology, including a single USB 2.0 port; and lacking a backlit keyboard. Many users won’t notice these changes or miss them much, given the price. But what really keeps the MacBook Neo’s price down is perhaps its most interesting feature: while all Apple Macs now run on an M-series chipset, the Neo uses the A18 Pro, the same chip Apple used in the iPhone 16 Pro, paired with 8GB of RAM.
The MacBook Neo not only uses the iPhone SoC, but also has one less GPU core than the A18 Pro in the iPhone, as Apple uses a “select” version of the chip for this laptop. During chip manufacturing, some are superior to others. The best are sold as high-performance chips, while others are sold as lower-performance, or “select” chips. In this case, the MacBook Neo uses the A18 Pro processors, which weren’t up to the standards of the iPhone 16 Pro. This is evident from the Neo’s specifications: while it has the same six-core processor as the iPhone 16 Pro, the Neo has a five-core GPU, one less than the six-core GPU in the iPhone 16 Pro.
It might seem safe to assume that a MacBook running on a chip that replaces the iPhone’s, with 8GB of RAM, won’t handle the latest version of macOS as well as a computer specifically designed for it. But in reality, things are much more complicated.
The MacBook Neo matches some M-series MacBook models in performance tests.
While full reviews of the MacBook Neo are still unavailable, initial benchmark results spotted by MacRumors look quite promising. Initial Geekbench tests show the A18 Pro processor achieving 3,461 points in single-core testing, 8,668 points in multi-core testing, and 31,286 points in the Metal (GPU) test.
These numbers mean nothing unless compared to other devices, of course. Let’s look at the iPhone 16 Pro first: despite having one more GPU than the Neo, the 16 Pro scores slightly lower in the single-core (3445) and multi-core (8624) tests. The sixth GPU core likely helps it achieve a Metal score of 32575. However, overall performance is relatively similar between the two devices, despite running completely different operating systems.
However, the truly impressive results begin when you compare the Neo chip running in “iPhone mode” to Mac chips in other MacBooks. For example, the MacBook Air with the M1 processor scores 2346 points in single-core mode, 8342 points in multi-core mode, and 33148 points in Metal mode. While the M1 outperforms the Neo in Metal mode, the A18 Pro chip in the Neo significantly outperforms the M1 in single-core mode and even wins multi-core mode by several hundred points. This means that simple tasks that don’t require much computing power will run faster on the Neo than on the M1 Air, as will complex tasks—though not as quickly.
Even the MacBook Air with its M4 processor doesn’t completely outperform the Neo. The M4 Air scores 3,696 in single-core, 14,730 in multi-core, and 54,630 in the Metal test. Yes, the M4 Air significantly outperforms the Neo in multi-core and resource-intensive tasks. But in single-core tasks, it beats the Neo only by a smaller margin than the Neo beats the M1 in multi-core. In simple tasks, the performance of the M4 Air and Neo will likely be comparable.
The MacBook Neo could be a big success for Apple.
Benchmarks don’t always reflect real-world performance, so we won’t know how the MacBook Neo compares to Apple’s M-series MacBooks until reviewers actually test it. But these numbers only strengthen my confidence that the MacBook Neo will be a huge success for Apple. Not only is it a great alternative to a Chromebook or budget Windows PC, but it also appears to be a good MacBook in its own right. You can buy an older MacBook, say, with an M1 or M2 processor , or you can get a brand new Neo and enjoy the benefits of a new purchase.
However, one area that benchmarks don’t measure is multitasking. The Neo has 8GB of RAM, which should be sufficient for single tasks, but as soon as you start running too many processes at once, the system can start to lag. Open too many browser tabs or run too many apps simultaneously, and you might start to feel this. This isn’t an issue if you’re choosing between the Neo and a MacBook Air with an M1 processor and 8GB of RAM. But if you can find a MacBook Air with an M1 processor and 16GB of RAM at a similar price, it might be the better option. You’ll get comparable performance and greater multitasking flexibility—not to mention some future-proofing thanks to the extra RAM, as macOS becomes increasingly complex.