Update: iPadOS 16 beta just fixed biggest complaint — Stage Manager is coming to older iPad Pros.
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.
Geekbench 4
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.
MORE: New iPad Pro vs. Surface Pro 6: Which Should You Buy?
Video Editing (Adobe Rush)
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.
Photo Processing (Adobe Lightroom)
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.
Battery Life
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.
Bottom Line
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.
