Apple A18 Pro
Hacker ApprovedRanked 9 of 16 processors by recommenders
People praise the A18 Pro for strong single-core speed and low power draw, with fanless operation in the MacBook Neo, making it a efficient chip for the price.
People praise the A18 Pro for strong single-core speed and low power draw, with fanless operation in the MacBook Neo, making it a efficient chip for the price.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strong single-core performance
“The A18Pro is a very powerful CPU, besting even the M1 in single-core performance”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Apple Introduces MacBook Neo” “The A18 Pro is 50% faster in ST and maintains the ST while being fanless.”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Can Intel finally beat ARM on performance per Watt?” “The A18 Pro single core performance is on-par with the M4”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “MacBook Neo” - Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “MacBook Neo Review: No Other Budget Laptop Can Compete”
- Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Parallels Confirms MacBook Neo Can Run Windows in a Virtual Machine”
Low power consumption
“A18 chip with half the power requirement beats it in almost every other benchmark”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Can Intel finally beat ARM on performance per Watt?” “it's impressive beyond just whether or not it does so with less power”
Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “Xiaomi: New CPU matches Apple cores single threaded, much faster multithreaded” “its power consumption is lower than chips intended for desktops”
Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Apple M6 Pro achieves the highest single-core CPU score in Geekbench 7” Fanless, good thermal efficiency
“the A18 pro chip in the Neo will likely perform better with the improved thermal environment”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “MacBook Neo” “The A18 Pro is 50% faster in ST and maintains the ST while being fanless.”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Can Intel finally beat ARM on performance per Watt?”
Other processors people recommend
The four most recommended other processors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple M5 | 48 | 14 | 77% | 11 | — | Approved |
| AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 | 44 | 14 | 76% | 11 | — | Approved |
| AMD Ryzen | 25 | 12 | 68% | 11 | 1.4 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Intel N150 | 21 | 1 | 95% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Apple A18 ProThis page | 13 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
All 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“its power consumption is lower than chips intended for desktops”
“it's impressive beyond just whether or not it does so with less power”
“The A18 Pro is 50% faster in ST and maintains the ST while being fanless.”
“A18 chip with half the power requirement beats it in almost every other benchmark”
“The benchmarks for the A18 Pro are impressive”
“I want novices to try and build software on an A18 chip”
“it clearly has better single core performance overall”
“the A18 pro chip in the Neo will likely perform better with the improved thermal environment”
“The A18 Pro single core performance is on-par with the M4”
“that's up there with pretty premium desktop CPUs”
“I don't doubt its a good chip”
“The A18Pro is a very powerful CPU, besting even the M1 in single-core performance”
“A18 Pro’s where it’s at for that.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.