Apple’s MacBook Neo has been widely acclaimed for striking the balance between performance and value, all while mixing in the familiar macOS environment and signature material build. The Neo was released at an inflection point in the consumer electronics space as AI companies bought up time and inventory from chip and memory factories, cranking up prices for RAM, storage, and other parts. At $599, it was a cheap and cheerful laptop. Now at $699, it is markedly less cheap.
Most of Apple’s traditional competitors have struggled with the same challenges when it came to adapting their own products across different price brackets. Chuwi, however, seems to be an exception. This Chinese computer retailer has grown its way into prominence with shoppers on Amazon, AliExpress, and the opinion battleground of YouTube by essentially making Windows-based MacBook Neo competitors in different form factors for years: welterweight Windows notebooks, 2-in-1s, and mini PCs featuring relatively current mid-range processors or older flagship chips at cut-rate prices. But has it grown enough against Apple to vie for your hard-earned tech dollars? Most importantly, can you really trust Chuwi?
Can you trust Chuwi?
Chuwi grew out of Shenzhen, China’s Silicon Valley, back in 2004. It spent the first several years of its life focused on MP3 players before it was able to partner with Intel and Microsoft in 2013. With licenses to manufacture Windows wares, the company started out with a series of Windows 8 tablets before incorporating laptops into its lineup in 2017. Today, the company sells both form factors, as well as mini PCs, and has pushed through every online retail avenue it can, including a stint on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, where it sought pre-orders for products it thought to be out on a limb. The company proudly claims to be a top-three name in China for PCs but would otherwise seem underrated compared to the likes of Dell, HP, and Asus.
Chuwi’s track record in marketing its devices has been in doubt, especially with a major incident earlier in 2026. While it has been promoting its CoreBook X and CoreBook Plus models as featuring the AMD Ryzen 5 7430U processor, Notebookcheck reported it found units sporting older Ryzen 5 5500U chips instead — a practice AMD said in a Chinese-language statement it did not condone. The manufacturer later confirmed the mistake, blamed it on a production error, apologized, and offered refunds. Today, you’ll find both the CoreBook X and CoreBook Plus still being sold, but with only a vague mention of a Ryzen 5 processor.
How does the Chuwi UniBook compare to a MacBook Neo?
Despite the controversy, Chuwi is still making computers, and it even has a partnership with Intel to boast about. That’s why we’re hearing about the UniBook with the all-new Intel Core Series 3 304 chip based on the latest Wildcat Lake architecture. It’s an entry-level 14-inch laptop that sports 8 gigabytes (GB) of soldered-down LPDDR5 RAM at 6,500 megatransfers per second, a 1200p 16:10 IPS display, and 256 GB of storage. The company claims a list price of $569, but the promo price of $449 still seems to be the going rate as 2026 heads toward a close.
The Core Series 3 304 chip features one performance core and four efficiency cores, with a base Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 15 watts and a maximum of 35 watts. The Apple A18 Pro, as found in the MacBook Neo, has an extra performance core on top of the Intel SoC (System-on-a-Chip). That said, recent PassMark results indicate that both chips can bench similar results. With all other factors in play, it may be that the Unibook does give the MacBook a run for the money. Even so, other 304-based laptops are due out this fall, so if you have reservations about the Chuwi name, you might want to hold out for a bit or, better yet, go shopping for some deep discounts.
(BGR)