New iPad Mini has slower A15 chip
On Tuesday, Apple announced the redesigned iPad Mini — which supports 5G connectivity but does not support millimetre-wave — at its “California Streaming”.
Support for 5G was one of the stand-out features of Apple’s iPad Mini reveal; however, the device specs show that it only supports low- and mid-band 5G connectivity.
Fast 5G connections rely primarily on coverage, which is limited in South Africa but is expanding with MTN, Rain, and Vodacom rolling out their 5G networks in new cities.
The exclusion of mmWave 5G support in the new iPad Mini may not be a huge loss for the device due to the lack of millimetre-wave 5G in South Africa.
Currently, Comsol is the only company that has announced mmWave 5G trials in South Africa.
MacRumors reported that the new iPad Mini also features a downclocked version of the A15 chip available in the new iPhone 13.
Their report comes after benchmark tests revealed that the iPad Mini’s chip has a 2.9 GHz clock speed — compared to 3.21 GHz in all iPhone 13 models.
However, it appears that the downclocked chip has a small impact on the iPad Mini’s performance compared to the iPhone 13.
The iPad Mini’s benchmark scores were 2-8% lower than the iPhone 13, but it is still 40% and 70% faster than its predecessor in single-core and multi-core performance, respectively.