Wesley Hilliard
Early benchmarks reveal the A15 in the iPad mini is downclocked slightly versus the iPhone 13.
The benchmark results reveal that the iPad mini 6 uses a clock speed of 2.9GHz versus 3.2GHz used in the iPhone 13 lineup. The performance difference is negligible, however, as Geekbench results show only a 2% to 8% lower score.
The new Geekbench score was first reported by MacRumors, which contacted Geekbench founder John Poole to verify the report's accuracy. Poole said the results appear legitimate, including the 2.9GHz clock speed.
The iPad mini scored 1596 for single-core performance, and 4558 for multi core. That's compared to the iPhone 13 with the same A15 processor scoring 1,730 for single core and 4,660 for multi core.
Despite the downclocked processor, users upgrading from the iPad mini 5 will notice considerable performance improvement. According to the Geekbench scores, there is a 40% performance improvement for single-core scores and a 70% improvement for multi-core scores when compared to the older model.
The iPad mini 6 is a complete redesign, similar to the iPad Air 4, and is available now for pre-order. It ships alongside the iPhone 13 lineup on September 24.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
6 Comments
Anyone want to hazard a guess on Apple's thinking here? Battery life would come to mind IMHO.
I'd put my money on binning. You can only build so many chips at scale without a lot of serviceable losers. Couple that with an industry-wide shortage…
(as someone who's buying one ASAP, this does not bother me in the slightest, regardless of what the explanation is)
I'd bet binning and product segmentation. The two factors converge nicely for the iPad mini.
The 2022 Mini 6 will have the same clock speed as the iPhone 13 or slightly faster. Apple just did this to tell buyers that Mini 6 is still not equal to the upcoming Air 5! Apple hates the iPad Mini and gives it minimum RAM like 4GB while the Pro gets 8GBs, no 120 hz Pro Motion, Cellular gets no nm Wave 5 support, etc...