Tuesday March 10, 2026 4:30 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple is set to launch two new low-cost devices tomorrow, 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 has Apple's A18 Pro chip inside, which was first used in the iPhone 16 Pro models, while the iPhone 17e has a newer A19 chip. Unsurprisingly, thanks to the newer chip, Apple's $599 iPhone outperforms the CPU in its $599 Mac.
The iPhone 17e earned a multi-core score of 9,241 on early Geekbench benchmarks, while the MacBook Neo earned a multi-core score of 8,668. Single-core chip results also favored the iPhone 17e, which earned a score of 3,607, while the Neo had a single-core score of 3,461.
Metal scores for the GPU were closer, with the MacBook Neo scoring between 30,000 and 31,400 the iPhone 17e earned scores ranging from 31,000 to 31,600.
Both the iPhone 17e and the MacBook Neo have the same 8GB RAM for Apple Intelligence support, and while that might not sound like enough for a Mac, early reviewers felt that 8GB RAM was sufficient for everyday light workloads.
The MacBook Neo is the first Mac that Apple has designed with an A-series chip instead of an M-series chip, and its benchmark results suggest that it is essentially an iPhone that runs macOS. It will be interesting to see how well the MacBook Neo sells given that its CPU performance trails Apple's low-cost iPhone.
Apple Released Seven New Products Today
Wednesday March 11, 2026 7:05 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Starting today, the seven new Apple products that were announced last week are available at Apple Stores and beginning to arrive to customers. The colorful MacBook Neo and all of the other new products are on display at most Apple Store locations around the world starting today. Apple Stores have inventory of the new products for both walk-in customers and Apple Store pickup, but...
Apple Planning 'MacBook Ultra' With Touchscreen and Higher Price
Apple is planning to launch an all-new "MacBook Ultra" model this year, featuring an OLED display, touchscreen, and a higher price point, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Gurman revealed the information in his latest "Power On" newsletter. While Apple has been widely expected to launch new M6-series MacBook Pro models with OLED displays, touchscreen functionality, and a new, thinner design...
Apple this week unveiled seven products, including an iPhone 17e, an iPad Air with the M4 chip, updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, a new Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and an all-new MacBook Neo that starts at just $599. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's A19 chip, MagSafe for magnetic wireless charging and magnetic...
