Roger Fingas
Hot on the heels of Apple's 2019 iPad Air and Mini announcements, a Geekbench ranking has appeared for one of the tablets — though it's uncertain which.
Posted under the heading "iPad11,2," the benchmark identifies the iPad as having a 2.49-gigahertz processor, iOS 12.2, and 3 gigabytes of RAM. That's a gigabyte less than 2018 iPad Pros, but one more than that year's 9.7-inch "budget" iPad.
The hardware could be either an Air or a Mini, since both have a 64-bit A12 processor, the same found in 2018 iPhones. Modern iPad Pros are equipped with an A12X.
The unknown device's single-core Geekbench score is 4,806, while multi-core performance sits at 11,607. That puts it roughly on par with the iPhone XS Max, which in AppleInsider testing managed scores of 4,828 and 10,355, respectively. iPad Pros are naturally faster, with one listing showing scores of 5,030 and 17,995. That's within spitting distance of a 15-inch MacBook Pro.
The updated Air and Mini models are largely performance upgrades, with few feature or cosmetic changes. Non-processor enhancements include True Tone displays, up to 256 gigabytes of storage, and first-generation Apple Pencil support.
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3 Comments
“The updated Air and Mini models are largely performance upgrades, with few feature or cosmetic changes. Non-processor enhancements include True Tone displays, up to 256 gigabytes of storage, and first-generation Apple Pencil support.”
Maybe new features are few, but the ability to draw directly on the screen with the pencil is a huge upgrade, imo.
The current iPad Air is now a much better purchase than the previous 10.5. It's got an A12 vs an A10X. And I'm seriously thinking about the iPad mini. On the one hand I REALLY wish it had Face ID because I've tried to. unlock my iPad Pro by putting my thumb on the camera so many times, but on the other hand it's got a beef SOC in the size of the mini! Apple has literally never done t his before! This makes me really hopeful to think that they'll upgrade the iPads Pro this fall too instead of doing this stupid 1.5 year upgrade cycle they've been on. If they do and I have a job I'm totally getting one.