Intel responds to MacBook Neo with 21% faster chip for similar devices

Apple’s launch of the MacBook Neo – and in particular its incredible price/performance ratio – sent shock waves through the Windows world.

Intel has now responded by releasing a processor aimed at similarly budgeted laptops. A first benchmark suggests that it is 21% faster than the A18 Pro used in the MacBook Neo…

The price of the MacBook Neo came as a surprise, both inside and outside the Apple world. Even Windows fans were shocked by the value offered.

I Can’t Believe It: Apple’s $599 MacBook Neo Just Started a Monstrous Fire in the Windows Laptop Market – Microsoft Better Panic (…) This New Low-Cost macOS Laptop Is Everything Your Everyday Joe or Jane Would Need From a Computer in 2026.

There was nothing in the world of Windows laptops that came close to the Neo’s combination of hardware quality, performance, battery life, and price.

One reason for this is the lack of a suitable chip to power the Windows equivalent of the Neo. This is a problem that Intel reportedly solved with the launch of the new Wildcat Lake Core 300 chip.

Town of Tweak reports that the chip matches the single-threaded performance of the A18 Pro while being 21% faster in a multi-core benchmark.

On PassMark, the new Wildcat Lake chip achieved a multi-threaded score of 15,222 and a single-threaded score of 4047. To put things in context, the single-threaded score is nothing to write home about, since the processor can only boost to 4.6 GHz on the P cores. However, the multi-core result is impressive, as it edges out the Apple A18 Pro by 21%. This is the chip used in the new Apple MacBook Neo! The single-threaded result for the A18 Pro is 4066, which is essentially identical to the Wildcat Lake Core 5 320.

Of course, like Macworld’s Roman Loyola observes that there is much more to competing with the Neo than simply matching or beating the chip’s performance. Leaving aside macOS versus Windows, it remains to be seen whether the chip matches the A18 Pro when it comes to battery life – and whether Windows PC brands can come close to the build quality of the MacBook Neo at this kind of price point.