Apple's budget laptop is slower than its budget phone: iPhone 17e faster than MacBook Neo

Apple's new MacBook Neo may prove to be the slowest device it currently offers.

According to initial Geekbench 6 scores, the MacBook Neo (model Mac17,5) scores lower than the iPhone 17e (model iPhone 18,5) in both single- and multi-core tests. The budget iPhone beat its laptop cousin by roughly 5% in both tests on average. 

This shouldn't be too surprising, as the MacBook Neo runs on a modified version of Apple's A18 Pro SoC, which was used in last year's iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. Compared to the 17e's newer A19 chip, the A18 Pro is just a hair slower in CPU performance. In terms of graphics, both chips compare well to each other with no clear winner across the variety of benchmark submissions.

Initial reviews of the MacBook Neo have been fairly positive, especially in terms of price to performance. It's a testament to how far Apple's mobile silicon has come, and this comparison goes to show that even Apple's lowest-price iPhone is likely more than powerful enough for most users. Considering initial reviews of the Neo suggest the laptop should be adequate for most consumers, that speaks well to Apple's current iPhone lineup. 

Of course, a true comparison for the Neo would be against similarly-priced Windows laptops, which are still rolling out. Notebookcheck's review of the MacBook Neo will be published in the near future, which will give a very detailed look at its performance against our massive database of laptops.