Apple unveiled the iPad mini 7 earlier this week, which I take into account a tremendous improve over its predecessor although it’s virtually equivalent to the iPad mini 6 when it comes to design. At $499, you get a pill that may run Apple Intelligence due to the iPhone 15 Professional’s chipset. That’s the A17 Professional that Apple launched final 12 months, paired with 8GB of RAM.
As soon as Apple introduced the pill, we realized the iPad mini 7’s chip isn’t precisely the identical model of the A17 Professional Apple used for the iPhone 15 Professional. As an alternative, it’s a binned model, sporting one much less GPU core than the iPhone variant.
I stated on the time the iPad mini 7 could be a tremendously highly effective pc regardless of rocking much less potent chips when it comes to graphics. We now have benchmarks that show the iPad mini 7 efficiency is in keeping with the iPhone 15 Professional. Additionally, the benchmarks present the smaller iPad is the second-best Apple pill you should purchase, performance-wise, after the M4 iPad Professional.
iPad mini 7 Geekbench 6 benchmarks popped on-line a number of days after Apple’s announcement, seemingly in time for subsequent week’s embargoed opinions. They present the pill scoring round 2,800 factors in single-core checks and virtually 7,000 factors in multi-core checks. The checks additionally verify what we already know relating to the reminiscence. The iPad mini 7 has 8GB of RAM.
Comparatively, the iPhone 15 Professional fashions reached 2,900 factors in the identical single-core checks and topped 7,100 in multi-core scores. This means the efficiency distinction betwee the iPhone 15 Professional and iPad mini 7 is minimal.
I’ll additionally remind you that the iPhone 15 Professional outperformed the M1 and M2 chips in single-core checks (above). The iPad mini 7’s scores additionally prime these outcomes. The M2 chip Apple used for the iPad Air 6 and 2022 iPad Professional fashions scored over 2,500 factors in single-core checks. The multi-score consequence favors the Air, nevertheless, at over 9,700.
To place issues in perspective, the M4 iPad Professional tops 3,700 factors in single-core benchmarks. The multi-core efficiency can attain effectively over 14,000 factors.
On the identical observe, I’ll spotlight the A18 Professional’s benchmark outcomes that adopted the iPhone 16 Professional launch again in September. Apple’s greatest telephones rating over 3,400 and eight,400 in the identical checks. The next comparability additionally reveals the scores for the M3 Professional MacBook Professional launched a few 12 months in the past.
Lastly, if you wish to evaluate the A17 Professional to the A15 chip Apple used for the iPad mini 6, the latter tops 2,100 and 5,300 scores in the identical checks. Apple used the identical A15 chip for the iPhone 13 sequence.
All of this could let you know how massive of a efficiency enhance the iPad mini 7 bought. And, once more, at $499, that’s an unbelievable feat. And sure, these are simply benchmarks, so real-life efficiency is what issues essentially the most. However the benchmarks are a powerful indicator of how an Apple machine will behave, contemplating that Apple nonetheless makes the quickest cellular and desktop chips on the town.
I’ll additionally remind you that rumors say the iPhone SE 4, due early subsequent 12 months, will get the A18 chip that powers iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus telephones. We’ll cross that bridge after we get there, however I’m already assured that even a binned model of the A18 chip ought to guarantee spectacular efficiency for a telephone that Apple can’t probably worth over $600.
