2021 iPad mini Features Downclocked Version of A15 Bionic Chip

As spotted by the folks over at MacRumors, the newly announced 2021 iPad mini’s Geekbench benchmark results show a downclocked version of the A15 Bionic chip, as compared to the one found in the flagship iPhone 13 lineup.

The A15 Bionic SoC in the new iPad mini has a clock speed of 2.9GHz, whereas it is 3.2GHz in all iPhone 13 models. The downclocked chip in the iPad mini appears to have around 2-8% impact on overall performance compared to iPhone 13 models.

Based on early Geekbench 5 results, the new iPad mini has average single-core and multi-core scores of around 1,595 and 4,540, compared to averages of around 1,730 and 4,660 for the iPhone 13 Pro.

It’s unclear why Apple has downclocked the A15 chip in the iPad mini, but most users are unlikely to encounter any issues with performance using the device. Even with a downclocked A15 chip, the new iPad mini is up to 40% faster in single-core performance and up to 70% faster in multi-core performance compared to the previous-generation iPad mini with an A12 chip, according to benchmarks.

Geekbench founder John Poole has also confirmed the legitimacy of new iPad mini benchmarks, including the 2.9GHz clock speed.