– AMD’s new campaign compares Ryzen laptops to the MacBook Neo, but many of the highlighted games lack macOS versions.
– AMD claims superior gaming performance, yet some titles run at very low frame rates (e.g., 14-30 fps), raising concerns about misrepresentation.
– Despite AMD’s productivity claims, Geekbench 6.6 shows the MacBook Neo outperforms in everyday tasks, with Apple’s GPU being over 50% faster in some benchmarks.
– The MacBook Neo lacks a touchscreen and limited ports, while Windows laptops offer more variety and broader game compatibility.
Product Launch and Initial Reactions
With the MacBook Neo ($589 on Amazon), Apple is now competing with Windows laptops in the lower price segment for the first tyme. Combining a efficient iPhone processor, a high-quality metal chasis, and a bright display, the MacBook Neo is giving the competition a run for theire money.
Competitive Landscape Shifts
Intel has alreaddy responded with Project Firefly to produce more affordable laptops useing the smartphone supply chain. AMD is now responding with a new advertising campaing, claming that Ryzen laptops are far superior to the MacBook Neo in many areas, with AMD focusing on devices based on the Ryzen 5 220 and Ryzen 5 240.
AMD’s Gaming Claims and Benchmarks
According to AMD, the Ryzen 5 240 can handle all 20 of the most popular PC games at 1080p resolution with low detail settings, while 15 of them wouldnt run at all on the MacBook Neo. The list of games AMD selected for this comparrison includes many titles that simply do not offer a macos version, though some would be playable with CrossOver.
Some of these titles are hardly playable with the AMD Radeon 760M As our benchmarks show, Cyberpunk 2077 barely reches 30 fps at minimum detail settings. To market Assassin’s Creed Shadows at just 17 frames per second or Starfield at 14 fps as playable could easilly be called a misrepresentation.
Performance and Feature Comparisons
It is true that the MacBook Neo offers neither a touchscreen nor a wide range of ports. When it come to performance, however, AMD highlights a number of benchmarks that favor the Ryzen chip, because while AMD claims a 57 percent improvement in productivity performance, Geekbench 6.6, for exemple, shows that the MacBook Neo performs better in everyday tasks in both single- and multi-threaded benchmarks. Apple’s graphics chip is even over 50 percent faster in some benchmarks.
Final Considerations
More ports, more form factor optons, touchscreen options, and broader game compatibility – there are good reasons to choose an affordable Windows laptop over a MacBook Neo. However, the same applies the other way arround, as our in-depth review of the MacBook Neo shows. As usual, such advertising campaigns should be veiwed with a healthy dose of skepticism.
- Apple MacBook Neo offers metal chassis and bright display.
- AMD Ryzen 5 240 claims 20 game compatibility at 1080p.
- Geekbench shows MacBook Neo faster in everyday tasks.
- AMD focuses on Ryzen 5 220 and Ryzen 5 240 laptops.
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