First MacBook Neo Benchmarks Are In: Here’s How It Compares to the M1 MacBook Air

Benchmarks for the new MacBook Neo surfaced today, and unsurprisingly, CPU performance is almost identical to the iPhone 16 Pro. The ‌MacBook Neo‌ uses the same 6-core A18 Pro chip that was first introduced in the iPhone 16 Pro, but it has one fewer GPU core.

The ‌MacBook Neo‌ earned a single-core score of 3461 and a multi-core score of 8668, along with a Metal score of 31286.

Here’s how the Neo’s scores compare to ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro and other devices that make apt comparisons:

• iPhone 16 Pro – 3445 single-core, 8624 multi-core, 32575 Metal
• M1 MacBook Air – 2346 single-core, 8342 multi-core, 33148 Metal
• M4 MacBook Air – 3696 single-core, 14730 multi-core, 54630 Metal
• M3 iPad Air – 3048 single-core, 11678 multi-core, 44395 Metal
• iPad 11 – 2587 single-core, 6036 multi-core, 19395 Metal

Since the ‌MacBook Neo‌ has one fewer GPU core than the ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro, it makes sense to see a slightly lower Metal score.

When comparing the ‌MacBook Neo‌’s performance to existing Macs, the A18 Pro’s multi-core performance is on par with the M1 chip in the MacBook Air, but single-core performance is much higher than it was with the ‌M1‌. It’s closer to the M3 or M4 chip.

High single-core performance is a good fit for the ‌MacBook Neo‌ audience, because single-core speeds are important for activities like web browsing, using document apps, and streaming video. The ‌MacBook Neo‌ isn’t really built for video editing, music creation, 3D modeling, and similar tasks where multi-core performance makes more of a difference.

Apple does not compare ‌MacBook Neo‌ performance to other Macs, iPads, or iPhones. The company’s low-cost MacBook focuses on competing with similar-priced Windows PCs and Chromebooks. In its marketing materials, Apple says the A18 Pro is up to 50 percent faster for “everyday tasks” than the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5. It’s also up to 3x faster for on-device AI workloads and up to 2x faster for photo editing.

We’re only seeing one benchmark result so far, so averages could be slightly different when more Neo machines are benchmarked, but the scores are right in line with what’s expected.

The ‌MacBook Neo‌ is priced starting at $599, and it is available for preorder now. It is set to launch on March 11.