Apple recently announced its next-generation iPad Mini 7 with A17 Pro chipset and Apple Intelligence support. Fans of the ultraportable iPad lineup are overjoyed that the new iPad Mini 7 matches the capabilities of the iPhone 15 Pro, and would offer the same high-level performance as the Pro iPhone. However, that’s not the reality. The revealed Geekbench scores confirm that the iPad Mini 7 has 8GB of RAM and also show how the A17 Pro chip in the iPad performs. Unfortunately, the iPad Mini 7 doesn’t perform the same as the iPhone 15 Pro. Yes, the iPad Mini 7 is slower than the iPhone 15 Pro despite having the same chipset.
The new iPad Mini 7, identified as iPad 16,2 on the Geekbench database, features the same A17 Pro chipset which debuted with the iPhone 15 Pro models last year. The six-core chip is clocked at 3.78 GHz, which matches the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro models, but there’s a catch. The A17 Pro chipset in the iPhone 15 Pro models has a 6-core CPU and a 6-core GPU, paired with 8GB of RAM. However, the iPad version of the A17 Pro has a 5-core GPU, one less than the iPhone version. This backs the speculations and rumors that the iPad Mini 7 has a binned version of the A17 Pro chip.
Here’s a quick comparison between the iPad Mini 7, iPad Mini 6, and iPhone 15 Pro benchmarks:
Chip RAM GPU Cores Single-core CPU score Single-core CPU score Metal GPU Score iPad Mini 6
2021A15 Bionic 4GB 5 2,121 5,367 19,486 iPad Mini 7
2024A17 Pro 8GB 5 2,840 6,982 25,895 iPhone 15 Pro
2023A17 Pro 8GB 6 2,888 7,169 27,144
The new iPad mini 7 achieved a Geekbench score between 2,710 and 2,840 in single-core performance and 6,274 to 6,982 in multi-core performance. For reference, the iPhone 15 Pro with A17 Pro scores around 2,888 in single-core and 7,169 in multi-core tests. That means, the iPad Mini 7 is slower than the iPhone 15 Pro both single-core and multi-core performance.
That said, the iPad Mini 7 benchmarks confirm that the new iPad mini delivers a significant performance boost over the older iPad Mini 6, which achieved single-core scores of 2,121 and multi-core scores of 5,367.
The Geekbench listings also confirm that the iPad Mini 7 has an upgraded 8GB of memory, which is a significant boost compared to the 4GB RAM on the 2021 iPad Mini. Well, it was expected that the new Mini would have a boost in RAM to support Apple Intelligence features, and the revealed Geekbench listing has backed it up.
At the moment, the newly launched iPad Mini 7 is the cheapest way to experience the Apple Ecosystem. However, with a binned version of the A17 Pro chipset, you can’t expect an iPhone 15 Pro-like graphics performance on the iPad Mini 7. Well, this shouldn’t affect everyday tasks on the iPad Mini 7. Of course, it would have been nicer if the iPad Mini 7 had an A18 or A18 Pro chipset for better future-proofing. After all, we don’t get to see a new Mini every year.
