Apple does its best to keep keynotes simple and free from the gritty details – hence why we’re only just finding out about this.
The new 9.7-inch iPad Pro won’t be as fast as last year’s 12.9-inch iPad Pro, despite being powered by the same chip.
That’s because the A9X processor in the new iPad Pro has been slightly underclocked, in contrast to the full-throttle A9X featured in the 2015 model.
Apple reveals this in a product comparison that shows processing speeds for both tablets side by side:
The A9X chip in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is 2.5x faster than the A7 chip, while the 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s processor is just 2.4x faster.
The same disparity is true for the A9X’s GPU: the new iPad Pro’s A9X is 4.3x faster than the A7 for graphical processing, compared to the 5x faster A9X featured in the old iPad Pro.
It’s likely that the new iPad Pro's size is to blame for the underclocking of the processor. With a 9.7-inch chassis, Apple has a harder job of dissipating heat when compared to the 12.9-inch body of the iPad Pro (2015). As such, Apple has chosen to reduce the clock speed of the chip.
Fortunately, the differences between the two tablets are likely to be minor, at least in terms of processing heft. What’s more, the new iPad Pro has a number of advantages over its bigger brother, most notably the vastly superior camera it boasts.
