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GSMArena team, 30 November, 2015

Slate of the art


Apple iPad Pro review: Slate of the art

  • Comments (51)
  • User reviews
  • iPad Pro 12.9 (2015)

5. Performance
  1. 1. Introduction
  2. 2. Unboxing, hardware overview, handling
  3. 3. Display, connectivity, battery life
  4. 4. User interface
  5. 5. Performance
  6. 6. Multimedia, loudspeaker, audio quality
  7. 7. Camera and video recording
  8. 8. Safari, text input, app package
  9. 9. Conclusion
  10.  
  11. Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2015) specification
  12. User opinions and reviews
  13. Review comments (51)

Apple iOS

Synthetic benchmarks

The iPad Pro is powered by Apple's A9X chip, which Apple says has a 64-bit desktop-class architecture. A few charts, shown at the launch event, detailed the advancements in Apple's tablet performance, and the Pro is said to pack a CPU 1.8 times more powerful than the one in the iPad Air 2 and a GPU twice as powerful.

Apple Ipad Pro review

We ran the usual tests on the iPad Pro to see just how this almighty chip compares against the rest, and we struggled a little with finding what to compare it against. For one, there aren't many tablets with such giant displays, certainly not outside of the proper desktop Windows OS realm.

The Android-running Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 / Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 come to mind but they are 2 years old now, and instead of updating them Samsung seems to be focused on making kitchen tablets. So we rounded up the latest tablets we've tested, regardless of display size, and threw in some of the flagship phones of late.

In Geekbench the iPad Pro scored nearly 5,500 points, which is on par with our current Android champ, the Meizu Pro 5. Samsung flagships with the same chip have been tweaked differently and score lower. However, the more intriguing bit here is single-core performance, and a single 2.26GHz Twister core scores upwards of 3,400 - as much as the dual-core 2.3GHz Denver CPU inside the Nexus 9.

So, Apple's claim for a 1.8x performance improvement over the iPad Air 2, doesn't seem to hold true, at least not in Geekbench - it's more like 20-something percent. The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet scores almost identical to the iPad Air 2, hence it trails the iPad Pro. The aging Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 is no match for any of the current powerhouses.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

  • Meizu Pro 5
    5578
  • Apple iPad Pro
    5476
  • Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
    5158
  • Samsung Galaxy Note5
    5124
  • Apple iPad Air 2
    4464
  • Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet v2
    4459
  • Apple iPhone 6s
    4427
  • Apple iPhone 6s Plus
    4413
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
    4275
  • Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
    4194
  • HTC One M9
    3761
  • HTC Nexus 9
    3470
  • Nokia N1
    2835
  • Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
    2703
  • Apple iPad mini 3
    2486

In Antutu, the iPad Pro still can't beat the Meizu Pro 5, but does leave the other Exynos 7420 devices behind. It also comfortably outpaces the newest Galaxy Tab S2 9.7. The current-gen iPhones score noticeably lower too.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

  • Meizu Pro 5
    74655
  • Apple iPad Pro
    72871
  • Samsung Galaxy Note5
    69465
  • Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
    68324
  • Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
    62652
  • HTC Nexus 9
    60297
  • Apple iPhone 6s
    59074
  • Apple iPhone 6s Plus
    58582
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
    52170
  • HTC One M9
    51427
  • Nokia N1
    46547

In Basemark II 2.0, however, the iPad Pro is without competition. The iPhone 6s/6s duo come closest, but still post substantially lower scores.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

  • Apple iPad Pro
    2813
  • Apple iPhone 6s Plus
    2261
  • Apple iPhone 6s
    2195
  • Meizu Pro 5
    1837
  • Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
    1789
  • Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
    1687
  • Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet v2
    1602
  • HTC Nexus 9
    1540
  • HTC One M9
    1365
  • Nokia N1
    1166

Graphics tests paint the picture of an extremely powerful GPU. Acing the offscreen part in GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan, the iPad Pro's score drops significantly for the onscreen test. It still scores an excellent 29.4fps, and don't forget that the GPU needs to push some 5.6 million of pixels worth of resolution. The aging Galaxy Note 12.2 scores a meagre 2.2fps in comparison.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

  • Apple iPad Pro
    62.5
  • Apple iPhone 6s Plus
    39.5
  • Apple iPhone 6s
    39.5
  • Apple iPad Air 2
    32.6
  • HTC Nexus 9
    31.5
  • Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet v2
    27
  • Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
    26
  • Meizu Pro 5
    25
  • Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
    25
  • HTC One M9
    23
  • Samsung Galaxy Note5
    21
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
    14
  • Apple iPad mini 3
    13.1
  • Nokia N1
    13
  • Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
    5.5

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Apple iPhone 6s
    53.6
  • Apple iPhone 6s Plus
    38.6
  • Apple iPad Pro
    29.4
  • Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
    27
  • Meizu Pro 5
    25
  • Apple iPad Air 2
    24.7
  • HTC One M9
    24
  • HTC Nexus 9
    22.6
  • Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet v2
    16
  • Samsung Galaxy Note5
    15
  • Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
    15
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
    12
  • Nokia N1
    9.6
  • Apple iPad mini 3
    8.9
  • Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
    2.8

Basemark Metal should yield cross-platform-comparable results with its Basemark ES 3.1 Android counterpart. Here the iPad Pro is in a league of its own, scoring twice as high as the iPhones, which are in turn miles ahead of anything Android has to offer right now.

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

  • Apple iPad Pro
    1818
  • Apple iPhone 6s Plus
    916
  • Apple iPhone 6s
    879
  • Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
    482
  • Meizu Pro 5
    409
  • HTC One M9
    409
  • Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
    348

In web browsing, the iPad Pro delivers as well. It only managed to run the JavaScript Kraken benchmark, but it passed with flying colors, scoring higher than the iPhone 6s and miles ahead of Android flagships. Our other usual test - Browsermark - was unfortunately a no-go on Apple's tablet, just like it was on the iPhone 6s.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

  • Apple iPad Pro
    1484
  • Apple iPhone 6s Plus
    1731
  • Apple iPhone 6s
    1737
  • Samsung Galaxy Note5
    3702
  • Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
    3767
  • Meizu Pro 5
    3907
  • HTC Nexus 9
    3953
  • Apple iPad Air 2
    4054
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
    4135
  • Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
    4226
  • Nokia N1
    5154
  • Apple iPad mini 3
    5382
  • HTC One M9
    5500
  • Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet v2
    5577

Overall, the iPad Pro aced all tests and proved that Apple has indeed built some serious hardware into it. There's hardly a tablet on the market now with more punch - at least one running a mobile OS, that is.

Next Page » 6. Multimedia, loudspeaker, audio quality
5. Performance
  1. 1. Introduction
  2. 2. Unboxing, hardware overview, handling
  3. 3. Display, connectivity, battery life
  4. 4. User interface
  5. 5. Performance
  6. 6. Multimedia, loudspeaker, audio quality
  7. 7. Camera and video recording
  8. 8. Safari, text input, app package
  9. 9. Conclusion
  10.  
  11. Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2015) specification
  12. User opinions and reviews
  13. Review comments (51)

Reviews Apple iPad Pro reviewPage 5
  • Comments (51)
  • User reviews
  • iPad Pro 12.9 (2015)

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