The new iPad mini has an underclocked A15 compared to iPhone 13, but it still owns

Iphone 13 A15 Facts (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

Both iPhone 13 and iPad mini 6 have Apple's A15 chip inside, but the latter has a lower clock speed.
Early benchmarks show a slight performance difference, but it won't be an issue for users.

Apple announced its new iPad mini during the California Streaming event, and while it will have an A15 Bionic chip just like the new iPhone 13, it won't be quite the same in terms of clock speed. The iPad mini will have a lower speed than the iPhone, although not by much.

According to Geekbench results first spotted by MacRumors, the new iPad mini will have an A15 Bionic chip clocked at 2.9GHz. The new iPhone 13 will have an A15 Bionic clocked at 3.2GHz, meaning a 300MHz difference for reasons unknown.

Ipad Mini 6 2021 Lifestyle Touch Id (Image credit: Apple)

Based on the Geekbench results, the iPad mini will be up to 8% slower, at least when running the benchmarking app. These are early results, however, so it's possible these numbers could all change when new versions of Geekbench are released or Apple tweaks iPadOS 15. Based on those early results, the new iPad mini manages a score of 1,595 in the single-core test and 4,540 in the multi-core test.

Both of those scores are more than reasonable and still compare very well with the 1,730 and 4,660 scores produced by an iPhone 13 Pro.

Apple's new release will be the best iPad for a lot of people and it will definitely be a fast one, no matter what the clock speed is. Pre-orders for the new tablet are open now, with sales beginning next Friday, September 24.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.