N series CPUs don’t even compete with a few gen old i5s. The N100 in my router is roughly scores 1000/1800 in geekbench (minus a few exceptions like this heavily overclocked one) while the i5-10240u in the Thinkpad T14 that I got a year ago for $200 scores about 1300/3000. N100 devices are surprisingly rare too. You’re much more likely to see the older n5105 which is horrendous and scores like half that.

12th gen i3s would actually give 10th gen i5s a run for their money, but you’re much more likely to see an i3 in a machine that’s liquid garbage, has poor cooling (and can’t sustain those speeds for long), and falls apart in a few years. We have a few of those machines at work and they SUCK. There’s a reason older Thinkpads are the laptops of nerds on a budget everywhere.