With the launch of the MacBook Neo, Apple is entering the affordable laptop market that has been dominated by Windows. The top-spec MacBook Neo is still cheaper than an iPhone 17e and cheaper than entry-level laptops because it uses the Apple A18 Pro chip. This is the chip originally designed for the iPhone.
Today, leaked benchmark scores for the Intel Wildcat Lake chip confirm that it is indeed being developed to compete with the A18 Pro and the MacBook Neo market. The Intel Core 5 320 chip is equipped with a 6-core CPU consisting of two “Cougar Cove” performance cores and four “Darkmont” energy-saving cores.
In the Passmark single-core test, it scored 4047 points and in the multi-core test, it scored 15,222 points. The single-core score is on par with the A18 Pro but the multi-core score is 21% higher than the A18 Pro.
The Intel Core 5 320 offers higher performance but the issue now is whether Windows laptop manufacturers can offer their products at a comparable price. In Malaysia, the MacBook Neo is sold for RM2499 each with a waiting time to own it after purchase of only 3 weeks.
