Apple is releasing two new budget devices today , the iPhone 17e and the MacBook Neo . Both devices use A -series chips , which have historically been limited to the iPhone and iPad.
The MacBook Neo features A18 Pro chip , which was first used in the iPhone 16 Pro models, while the iPhone 17e features the newer A19 chip. As expected, thanks to the newer chip, Apple's $599 iPhone outperforms the similarly priced Mac in CPU performance — shocker.
See also: Apple now manufactures one in four iPhones in India
Differences between MacBook Neo and iPhone 17e
The iPhone 17e achieved a multi-core score of 9,241 in early Geekbench benchmarks , while the MacBook Neo achieved a multi-core score of 8,668 . The single -core results also favored the iPhone 17e, which achieved a score of 3,607 , while the Neo had a score of 3,461 .
The Metal scores for the GPU were closer, with the MacBook Neo scoring between 30,000 and 31,400 and the iPhone 17e scoring scores ranging from 31,000 to 31,600.
It's worth noting that both the iPhone 17e and MacBook Neo feature the same 8GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence, and while that may not sound like enough for a Mac, early reviewers felt that 8GB of RAM was sufficient for everyday light tasks.
See also: M5 Pro & M5 Max MacBook Pro review
MacBook Neo reviewer Patrick Tomasso played back 4K video in DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro, edited a photo in Adobe Lightroom, and used multiple tabs in Google Chrome on the laptop without any issues.
The MacBook Neo is the first Mac that Apple has designed with A-series chips instead of M-series chips. Benchmark results suggest that it's essentially an iPhone running macOS. It will be interesting to see how well the MacBook Neo sells given that CPU performance lags behind Apple's budget iPhone.
See also: MacBook Neo 2 may feature a touchscreen
However, the device's arrival on the market has sparked heated debate. In a conference call for financial results, an ASUS executive reportedly admitted that Apple 's more affordable MacBook Neo is a "shock" to the PC industry . In the US, the MacBook Neo starts at $599 and is even more affordable for students ($499).
