Credit: Tom's Guide
Posted on 11/05/2018 7:27:11 PM PST by Swordmaker
When Apple introduced the new iPad Pro, the company boasted that its slim slate is more powerful than 92 percent of PCs out there. Now that we've benchmarked the 12.9-inch iPad Pro for our review over at Laptop Mag, it looks like that claim could very well be legit.
The 7-nanometer A12X Bionic chip processor inside the iPad Pro packs four performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, and there's a new GPU that promises twice the graphics performance as the A10X processor inside the last iPad Pro.
And the benchmark results are quite impressive.
On Geekbench 4, which measures overall performance, the iPad Pro notched a score of 17,995. That blows past the Surface Pro 6 with a Core i5 CPU and even the Core i7 version of the Dell XPS 13.
Samsung's Qualcomm Snapdragon 850-powered Galaxy Book 2 (3,945) doesn't even come close to Intel-based PCs, nevermind the iPad Pro. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Core i7 chip was just slightly below the iPad Pro at 17,348.
To test the A12X Bionic's real-world power, we turned to Adobe Rush, a video editing app. We took a 12-minute 4K video and transcoded it to 1080p at 24 frames per second. And once again the iPad Pro blew away the field.
Apple's tablet took just 7 minutes and 47 seconds to complete our task. It took the 13-inch MacBook Pro 25 minutes and 53 seconds, and the Dell XPS 13 (31:03) and Surface Pro 6 (31:54) both took over half an hour.
We then turned to Adobe Lightroom to see how long it would take to export 50 RAW images to the JPEG format, and the iPad Pro once again outperformed the competition--though not by as large a margin.
The iPad Pro took 59 seconds to complete the batch export, while the Surface Pro 6 (1:35) and 13-inch MacBook Pro (1:36) were about 30 seconds behind. Strangely, the Core i7 XPS 13 took 2:01 on this test.
If you're wondering how efficient the A12X Bionic processor is, you'll probably be glad to know that the new iPad Pro offers pretty great battery life. On the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves web surfing at 150 nits of screen brightness, Apple's tablet lasted for 13 hours and 41 minutes.
The Surface Pro 6 lasted about 4 hours less at 9:20 and the Dell XPS 13 with Core i7 and 4K display mustered 8:53. The Qualcomm-powered Galaxy Book 2 came closest to the iPad with 10:41.
The new iPad Pro's sheer speed is undeniable. In fact, if I were Apple, I would be finding ways to bring this chip over to the Mac. But keep in mind that performance is just one consideration when deciding between the iPad Pro and a more traditional PC.
If you prefer a desktop interface, the Surface Pro 6 is the better choice, and it also offers a better keyboard with touchpad and built-in kickstand. But if you can see yourself working within iOS, the iPad Pro should make quick work of whatever you need to do.
Did you see my post why folks end up buying android smartphones this morning on regards to the iPhones?
I’m sure it’s a great iPad.
But if I can’t plug in a USB drive or connect to ethernet, then not so much.
Can it play Blizzard games like overwatch?
Why do you need an antique interface? Why do you want to be tethered to a 1.4 pound device when you could walk around listening to your music without it even being near you? Alternately there are other solutions that do the same thing better if you absolutely want to be tethered to the device by a white cable. There are headphones that plug right into the USB-C jack on the device that work just fine but why bother?
There is a file system. I understand what you say, but technology is heading in this direction.
Does your 3 year old machine do it without any fans and weigh only 1.4 pounds? I doubt it. . . Nice try.
Stuff a 40,000 Intel Xeon workstation processor into a notebook and do it without a fan or ten.
While we’re talking Apple, I received a message box from my iMac telling me that I should upgrade to the new Mojave O/S. Should I take them up on their offer?
Tom's Guide and Laptop magazine made it plain they were talking about Windows laptops CURRENTLY being offered on the market today, not outdated, discount models. They compared to current Microsoft and Dell models being sold NOW, not discounted closeout models. Nice try, Fireman15, but no banana.
I'll ask you the same thing. . . are they doing it with a machine that weighs 1.4 pounds, and has ZERO fans? The answer is NO, they are not.
If you don't want to read the Apple threads, skip them. You are not the moderator. . . There are plenty of other threads that demand your attention. There are almost 800 other Freepers who are members of the Apple Ping List who ARE interested.
Not impressed... If I need to do some intensive calculations, my XP blows all of them away... on Workbench 3.2 it scores 2,500,132
Who ever told you that iPads and iOS devices were not capable of connecting to networks? They gave you bad advice. . . but why would you want to connect to an Ethernet and be hardwired to a network. WIFI can be configured to be quite secure. . .
The new iPad Pro uses a USB-C connector. . . and we have never had problems connecting to external devices with the Lightning connectors that carried all kinds of connectivity.
You have obviously never used what you are slamming
Very few do. . . the installed base of iPhones in the US is quite large. As of May 2018, approximately 44.5% of the US population use Apple iPhones. That's ONE COMPANY competing against over 750 manufacturers of Android phones.
There are over 1.4 BILLION iOS devices in use around the world compared to about 2.4 billion Android devices.
I have and I love it. . . I like the dark mode. . .
5.25 floppy or the yuppie 3.5 inch?
Gad you’re a robot. I own two iPads, including and iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil. I have also developed for iPad, and worked for a company that - in addition to workstation software - invested in developing an iPad version of their software.
In other words, I’m knowledgeable with first-hand experience, and I’m objective. I recommend backing away from the Cupertino Kool-aid…
Can I run Turbotax on it?
Then you aren't really using them to their full capabilities. It's the kind of thing I see non-users come back with when they are challenged.
What were you developing for the iPad that you've never mentioned it before? What kind of "Workstation software" would you desire to move to an iPad if you truly don't think they are capable? I regularly access my file system on my Mac and iCloud from my iOS devices. Don't you? Or weren't you aware of that capability?
Adobe has just completed announced a fully functioning Photoshop for iPad. . . it will be out next quarter. That requires a lot of horsepower and file systems. Just because you don't seem to be aware of the improvements does not mean they are not there.
Yup, but you can on almost any device by doing them TurboTax online.
You guys understand Mac users like the Media understand Trump voters.
You suppose Mac users don't hate the high prices and the way they have been screwed over in the past? They buy Macs because they run mac OS same with iOS, there is absolutely no other reason to overpay for hardware.
We do get the bonus of using Macs for up to ten years before disposing of them.
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