Apple just revived the iPad with the help of some pretty exciting software features shipping in iOS 11 that will make it behave more like a traditional computer when it comes to productivity needs. There’s a file browsing app, support for drag-and-drop, a dock that’s home to more than just a handful of apps, and plenty of new multitasking tricks to name just a few. To power it all up is a brand new processor, the A10X Fusion, that’s supposed to deliver an even better performance than the iPhone 7’s A10 Fusion chip.
Apple, of course, bragged about the new iPad Pro’s chip on the stage, detailing the improvements under the hood. But it turns out that Apple lied. But for once, that’s actually good news.
You see, as Motley Fool puts it, Apple “totally undersells” the A10X’s powers.
Apple on stage said the A10X is 30% faster than the A9X chip in the previous iPad Pro generation. That number is accurate only for the single-core performance, as fresh tests are revealing. The A10X hits 3929 in Geekbench 4 compared to 3031 for the A9X chip. That’s a 30% increase in line with Apple’s estimates.
But on the multi-core side, things are even better. Apparently, the A10X chip goes all the way up to 9372, which is a whopping 82% more than the 5138 score that an A9X iPad Pro might reach. That’s something Apple doesn’t mention on its site, although it does note that the iPad is “more powerful than most PC laptops.”
Sure, these are synthetic benchmarks that do not replicate real-life use. But Apple’s A-series chips have no rival in the mobile universe. Not even the latest chips from Qualcomm and Samsung can outperform the iPhone 7 in single-core performance — which is what matters most to Apple considering its “lie.”
But the fact that the A10X chip is capable of such performance is very exciting. First of all, a new chip generation is around the corner, the A11 that’ll power 2017 iPhones and should be even faster than the iPhone 7’s chip. With that in mind, the A11X going into next year’s generation of iPads should be incredible.
For comparison purposes, the entry-level 15-inch MacBook Pro hits 4255 in the same test, and 13727 in multi-core speeds. It sure looks like a MacBook Pro running on a custom A-series chip is just around the corner.
