(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)
The first laptops built around Intel's new Wildcat Lake chips have shown up in China, priced around $600, with double the DDR5 memory and storage of the new budget-laptop darling, the Apple MacBook Neo, VideoCardz reports. They might only have a handful of cores, but with global electronics prices rising across the board, affordable, capable laptops are likely to be some of the most popular options this year.
Despite the RAM crunch, Apple dropped a bomb on the affordable laptop market with the MacBook Neo in March. It's powerful, has a bright and attractive screen, and most importantly, starts at just $599. Although there are some competitive Windows laptops around the same price, the new Wildcat Lake designs are clearly designed to compete directly, and they're already showing big advantages.
As cost-competitive as the MacBook Neo is, it's still a little light on the most expensive components in 2026—memory and storage. Where the base $600 Neo comes with just 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the newly listed Wildcat Lake laptops all sport 16GB and 512GB, even with competitive pricing.
The Honor Notebook x14 2026 Combat Edition, Asus Fearless 14SE 2026, and HP OmniBook 3 each sport the Intel Core 5 320 CPU with six cores (two performance, four Low-power efficiency). That's comparable to the Apple A18 Pro in the MacBook Neo, though it's not clear how the chips would compare, core to core. It's possible the Intel CPU would hold an advantage in real-world performance, though, as it can call upon 16GB of memory to accelerate tasks, rather than the mere 8GB in the MacBook Neo.
For this kind of entry-level hardware, though, price is the big keystone of the decision-making process. At $599, the MacBook Neo is an attractive buy, but the Wildcat Lake laptops are pretty close. The Honor Notebook is priced around $650, but that's with China's 13% Value Added Tax applied. The Asus Fearless is $675, and the HP OmniBook is $750, both with the 13% tax.
It's possible these prices will rise once you factor in international shipping, potential tariffs, and premiums on key components. But if manufacturers can keep them close to where they are now, and these laptops make their way to Western markets, they could give potential buyers looking for a new laptop a broader choice of affordable options.