New iPad Mini 7 scores slightly lower than iPhone 15 Pro Max in an early Geekbench run
The updated iPad Mini 7 got a noticeable performance boost over its A15-powered predecessor. This new tablet comes with the A17 Pro, the chip Apple introduced with its iPhone 15 Pro series.
However, as we've noted in our launch coverage, the A17 Pro inside the Apple iPad Mini 7 isn't the same as the one that powers the iPhone 15 Pro phones. It's a downgraded variant with a five-core GPU instead of the six-core version found in the flagship phones.
Regarding the CPU, it has the same six-core configuration as the A17 Pro of last-gen Pro phones. The clock speeds are the same as well, but at the current stage, the 2024 iPad Mini can't offer an identical benchmark score to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. More specifically, as a recent Geekbench listing shows, the new tablet scores lower, with 2,847 in the single-core test and 7,042 in the multi-core test.
To compare, in one of the Geekbench listings for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the A17 Pro scores 2,925 in single-core and 7,299 in multi-core. That means in these two specific listings, the iPad Mini 7 lags behind in the single-core test by 2.7% and in multi-core by 3.5%.
These are negligible differences, and it's worth noting that the tablet was tested with iPadOS 18.0 while the phone was running iOS 18.1. So, it's possible that the iPad Mini 7 will offer similar scores to the iPhone 15 Pro Max when it gets updated to iPadOS 18.1.
