Apple’s MacBook Neo was supposed to be the great budget laptop upset, a $599 machine with an A18 Pro chip and the usual cloud of Cupertino incense.
But early benchmark numbers from Intel’s upcoming Core 3 304 suggest the story is not quite as glorious as Apple fans hoped.
According to PassMark results spotted by Digital Trends , the Core 3 304 has reached an average CPU Mark score of 11,543 points. Apple’s A18 Pro inside the MacBook Neo averages 11,804 points, which puts Intel only 2.2 per cent behind.
For a low-end Intel chip aimed at affordable Windows laptops, that is not exactly the crushing Apple victory some reviewers were preparing to recite in their best devotional voice.
The single-threaded gap is wider, with Intel trailing by about 7.7 per cent on average, although one benchmark submission reportedly matched the A18 Pro’s peak result.
That still leaves Apple ahead in some areas, but the important point is how small the gap has become. Intel is doing this with a 5-core, 5-thread design, while Apple’s A18 Pro has a 6-core, 6-thread setup.
In other words, Intel’s entry-level part is close enough to make Apple’s supposed budget laptop miracle look much less miraculous.
The MacBook Neo has Apple’s usual weaknesses. Buyers are still dealing with Apple’s locked-down hardware choices, limited upgrade paths and the usual “pay an arm and a leg if you want the version you should have had in the first place” routine.
The Neo starts at $599, but the budget charm fades once buyers look at storage, memory and the missing comforts that cheaper Windows laptops may handle better.
Synthetic benchmarks do not decide the whole laptop market. Battery life, thermals, graphics, build quality and real-world software performance will matter when Core 3 304 machines actually ship.
But the benchmark does puncture the idea that Apple has somehow conquered the low-cost laptop sector by dropping an iPhone chip into a MacBook shell.
If Intel and its OEM partners can deliver decent screens, acceptable battery life and fair pricing, Windows laptops could have a much stronger answer than Apple expected.
Apple needed the MacBook Neo to feel like a once-in-a-generation bargain, not a pretty budget machine that Intel can nearly match before the first wave of rival laptops has even arrived.
