The first M1 iPad Pro orders are slated to arrive to customers later this month. Ahead of those arrivals, early benchmarks results from Apple’s newest tablet have hit Geekbench, and the results corroborate Apple’s claims that the new iPad Pro is up to 50% faster than its predecessors.
As first spotted by MacRumors, early Geekbench 5 results show that the fifth-generation iPad Pro with the M1 processor achieves single-core scores of around 1,700 and multi-core scores of around 7,200. For comparison’s sake, the 2020 iPad Pro, powered by an A12Z processor, achieves scores of 1,100 and 4,656 in single-core and multi-core benchmarking, respectively.
Here are average multi-core results for other Apple products:
- 16” MacBook Pro with Intel Core i9 processor: 6,819
- M1 Mac mini: 7,346
- iPad Air: 4,246
- M1 iPad Pro: 7,200
- A12Z iPad Pro: 4,656
- M1 MacBook Air: 7,580
So as you can see, the M1 iPad Pro’s performance is on par with M1-powered Macs, and significantly better than the A12Z iPad Pro it replaces. It even outperforms the top-of-the-line 16-inch MacBook Pro, and is only bested by select configurations of the iMac and Mac Pro.
9to5Mac’s Take
It’s worth keeping in mind that, while these benchmark results are impressive, such results rarely tell the full story. With the first iPad Pro orders arriving to customers on May 21, we expect embargoed press reviews to be published sometime next week. In fact, leaker Jon Prosser has indicated those reviews will come on Wednesday, May 19.
The natural question now is how iPadOS can take advantage of the power in the M1 processor. While their are certainly some video and photography use cases currently, it is possible that Apple tells more of the iPad Pro’s story at WWDC next month.
So far, rumors have indicated that iPadOS 15 will include dramatic changes to the iPad’s home screen for the first time. This comes after the iPhone gained home screen widgets with iOS 14 last year, but the iPad’s widgets are restricted to the sidebar only and can’t be interspersed with app icons.
What are you hoping to see in iPadOS 15 to help take advantage of the iPad Pro’s performance potential? Let us know down in the comments!
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