Apple's on-device model ties a 4-bit Llama-3.1-8B — and won't name the M1

Apple shipped an official Python SDK for its on-device Foundation Model at WWDC 2026. I put the ~3B model through the same 21-task quality suite I use for MLX models: it ties a 4-bit Llama-3.1-8B (18/21), one question behind Qwen3-4B. Quality is the only fair axis to compare — and that limitation is itself the interesting part.