Apple’s MacBook Neo may have new competition, and I’m not talking about discounted Windows laptops. New PCs from Honor, ASUS and HP have been spotted at Chinese retailers. All three laptops are powered by the Intel Core 5 320 processor.
VideoCardz He highlighted the three new laptops. Since the PCs are listed on a China-based retail site, their prices are in RMB. A rough conversion to USD puts them all in a similar price range to the MacBook Neo.
|
Laptop |
RMB price |
USD (with 13% tax) |
USD (without taxes) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Honor X14 2026 Notebook |
4399 RMB |
~$646 |
~$571 |
|
ASUS Intrepid 14SE 2026 |
4599 RMB |
~$675 |
~$597 |
|
HP OmniBook 3 |
5099RMB |
~$748 |
~$662 |
The Intel Core 5 320 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor. It has two performance cores and four energy-efficient cores, according to intel.
The Intel Core 5 320’s benchmarks compare favorably to those of Apple’s A18 Pro, which powers the MacBook Neo. PassMark figures show a single-core score of 4,047 and a multi-core score of 15,222 for Intel’s new chip. The A18 Pro scored 4,066 single-core and 11,993 multi-core.
The Intel Core 5 320 is a Intel Wildcat Lake CPU Made for affordable laptops.
The new laptops are listed in China, but we should see other PCs with Intel Wildcat Lake chips in other markets soon.
Windows 11 vs MacOS
The MacBook Neo’s price is the main way the laptop revolutionized the market. Before the introduction of the MacBook Neo, people would have to buy a used MacBook to get into the sub-$600 price range. You could argue that even in 2026 a MacBook with an M1 processor is a better option than the MacBook Neo, but that’s not really the point. Many people want to buy new devices instead of relying on the second-hand market.
Windows has dominated the budget space for years. The financial reality is that, for many, a MacBook wasn’t even an option worth considering for a long time. The MacBook Neo changed that and pitted Windows 11 against macOS in a new price band.
The fashionable view is to assume that this means the MacBook Neo will dominate Windows laptops in the same price range. Many critics, bloggers, and social media users would have you believe that the only thing stopping macOS from being king across the board is the lack of a budget option. I’m not sure that’s the case.
I’m sure some people will choose the MacBook Neo as their first device. College campuses will have plenty of colorful laptops come fall. But Windows has been around for a long time and has billions of users for a reason.
Even the Windows Central team’s reaction to the MacBook Neo was divided. Our senior editor Zac Bowden argued that Microsoft should panic. Our senior editor Ben Wilson I lost interest in the MacBook Neo. after seeing its specifications.
I argued that Microsoft abandoned the true budget market and left the door open for the MacBook Neo. But these were hardware made by Microsoft, not Windows laptops in general. The new laptops from Honor, ASUS, and HP show that other OEMs can step up and fill the gap on the Windows side.
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