The rumors were consistent on the claims that the MacBook Neo would ship with the A18 Pro, and now that Apple is officially done announcing its most affordable portable Mac ever, our curiosity compelled us to find out what shortcuts the company took on the internal hardware side of things. Sure enough, we found one major difference between the SoC running in the latest release and the one powering the previous-generation iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
A18 Pro running in the MacBook Neo features a 5-core CPU, one less than the iPhone 16 Pro’s silicon
Where the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max feature an A18 Pro with a 6-core CPU and a 6-core GPU, Apple has once again resorted to chip-binning on the MacBook Neo and has equipped it with the same silicon, but with a 5-core GPU. The Cupertino giant’s less expensive range of products announced this week has been treated with binned parts, with the iPhone 17e shipping with a less powerful A19, and the M4 iPad Air running an 8-core CPU configuration that can shave off quite a bit of performance off the table.
Fortunately, everything else remains consistent on the MacBook Neo, including the 6-core CPU, hardware-accelerated ray tracing support, and a 16-core Neural Engine. Also, for the first time, Apple has included the memory bandwidth count of the A18 Pro, which turns out to be 60GB/s. Sadly, it is quite a measly amount compared to the company’s other chipsets, but you have to remember that the MacBook Neo isn’t competing in the top-tier weight class.
One area that we’re interested in checking out surrounding the A18 Pro is how well it can maintain its thermals when found in a bigger chassis. With the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, the chipset was thermally constrained, but on the MacBook Neo, the A18 Pro should have sufficient breathing room to deliver better sustained performance. Unfortunately, as readers are aware now, the graphics capabilities will take a hit because of one less GPU core.
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
