MacBook Neo is actually faster than the M1 MacBook Air despite using a phone chip, benchmarks show
MacBook Neo is actually faster than the M1 MacBook Air despite using a phone chip, benchmarks show
Publish Date: 2026-03-06 08:30:00
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We have our first glimpse at MacBook Neo performance thanks to some benchmarks uploaded to Geekbench. Apple launched the new $599 laptop on March 4, with pre-orders available ahead of the full release date on March 11. Apple calls it its “most affordable laptop ever,” and it’s obvious that some compromises had to be made to achieve such a feat.
MacBook Neo features Apple’s A18 Pro chip, rather than the M-series silicon that features in any recent Air or Pro laptops. Before the Neo, the A18 Pro has only been present in the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, so it seems fair to call it a phone chip first, and a laptop chip second. Despite this, the A18 Pro clocks in some impressive scores – outdoing 2020’s M1 MacBook Air.
MacBook Neo benchmarks versus MacBook Air & iPhone 16 Pro
While the M1 MacBook Air still has the edge in terms of Metal benchmarks (Apple’s graphics API), the 13-inch MacBook Neo comes out on top in single-core, with 47.5% performance uplift. Multi-core, however, is much more on par at around 3.9%. Single-core performance lies somewhere between M3 and M4 – the A18 Pro is just 6-7% slower than the latter. We can see from the comparison table below that this was to be expected based on existing iPhone 16 Pro benchmarks.
| Benchmark | MacBook Neo | M1 MacBook Air | M4 MacBook Air | iPhone 16 Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-core | 3,461 | 2,346 | 3,696 | 3,445 |
| Multi-core | 8,668 | 8,342 | 14,730 | 8,624 |
| Metal | 31,286 | 33,148 | 54,630 | 32,575 |
MacBook Neo: Geekbench (1), (2) / Others: Geekbench (1), (2)
The A18 Pro chip in the MacBook Neo offers 6 CPU cores, paired with a 5-core GPU, so it’s obvious why the M4 MacBook – which comes fitted with up to 16 CPU cores – easily takes the crown in this specific comparison. Way up the spectrum, Geekbench is also home to some Apple M5 Max benchmarks – so be sure to check…
