Exclusive: $599 MacBook Neo easily beats $1,119 Dell laptop on Windows 11 benchmarks - yes, macOS may well be the best platform ever for Microsoft's OS

The MacBook Neo, along with the Mac mini, is Apple's most affordable computing option at just $599. And yet it is a formidably capable device, possibly, a once-in-a-generation product. Why? One unknown I wanted to clear up was how well it ran Windows 11 in a virtual machine.

So I asked the team at Parallels to benchmark a Windows-equipped Neo, and what they delivered shocked me.

I didn't have high expectations given the Mac Neo's limited specifications. It uses similar hardware to the iPhone 16 Pro Max: an Apple A18 Pro with six cores, 256GB storage and 8GB of unified memory.

Against a $1,119 Dell Pro 14 laptop (Intel Core Ultra 5 235U @ 2.00 GHz, 10-core, 16GB RAM, running Windows 11 build 26200 natively), a MacBook Neo with a virtualised Windows 11 (build 26200) with six vCPU and 6GB vRAM (via Parallels Desktop 26) delivered approximately 20% higher single-core CPU performance than natively on the Dell computer.

That's across five industry-leading benchmark packages: Geekbench, PassMark, 3DMark, PCMark, Blender, and Unigine. I reached out to Parallels to obtain the raw data from these tests and will update the article once it is received.

For typical office productivity workloads, overall performance is approximately 20% slower than native Windows 11 on the Dell laptop.

Parallels said this “remains responsive and practical,” meaning it should be fast enough for everyday use. They also added that "this setup works well for standard office productivity (Microsoft Office, email, calendar), web applications and browser-based tools, business productivity software, and light development and testing".

There are obvious caveats - you still need to buy a copy of Parallels and a Windows 11 license - and this certainly warrants more extensive tests, something that I hope my peers will carry out.

Apple is only warming up

I cannot stress enough how important this finding is.

Here we have an Apple laptop that was never destined to run Windows 11, capable of running Microsoft’s flagship OS in a virtual machine, better than a Dell laptop designed to run Windows 11 natively.

Not only is the Dell laptop far more expensive, but its CPU is also expected to be more powerful. What we have seen is the fruit of vertically integrated platform, something that Apple mastered by kicking out Intel and Samsung from its Mac and iPhone range.

Own the hardware and the software and you can perform miracles.

This is mind-blowing and both Apple and Parallels deserve a big pat on the back for achieving this. It's too early to say the writing is on the wall for Windows laptops, but expect Apple to sell millions of these in the current financial year. Could it become Apple's best-selling computer ever? I wouldn’t bet against this.

Matt Hanson, who reviewed the MacBook Neo for TechRadar, quipped that “While I wouldn't recommend using Windows 11 on the MacBook Neo full-time, as native macOS performance is always going to be better, Apple's affordable laptop has put budget laptop and Chromebook makers on notice. It's not perfect, but the performance, build quality and design mean there's really no choice if you're looking for a laptop under $600: buy the MacBook Neo”.

Matt gave it a 4.5 out of 5, noting the presence of USB 2.0 ports, the lack of a keyboard backlight, and limited RAM as the only significant drawbacks of an otherwise stellar laptop.

I will not buy Apple’s cheapest laptop just yet but I - and I am sure millions of others - would find it hard to resist a $99.99 refurbished MacBook Neo in a few years.

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