This added performance is coming from a larger L2 cache (2M vs. the 1M in the EETimes article).
With a 30% IPC improvements in A57 and higher frequencies (to allow for the larger thermal headroom in a notebook), you'll get decent performance. Not to mention, they'll probably load it up with larger caches for additional IPC benefits.
Also, Apple is rolling their own CPU, so they might include additional IPC improvements that A57 does not have since they are targeting different power envelopes (phone vs. notebook).
In late 2010, the top-end Macbook Air was using a 2.13GHz Penryn. This was a shrink of Merom, so the IPC didn't go up that much. Merom was nice in that the SPECint score was roughly equal to the frequency. So a 2.13GHZ Merom would be roughly 2130 SPECints. In fact, the high volume Macbook Air "only" ran at 1.86GHz (most people bought the lower cost version), so the SPECint score was roughly 1860. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbook_air
A late-2010 Macbook Air's performance is what I'm claiming is "good-enough" for most people. That was only ~2 years ago. It's a lot closer than you think.
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