iPad Air 5 is every bit as fast as iPad Pro

iPad Air 5 is every bit as fast as iPad Pro

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iPad Pro does not have better performance than iPad Air 5.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Early benchmark scores for the soon-to-be-released iPad Air 5 show the tablet has approximately the same performance as the iPad Pro models that cost much more.

That’s not a surprise considering the new Air has the same M1 processor as the Pro.

M1 processor gives iPad Air 5 equal performance as iPad Pro

The fifth-generation iPad Air isn’t out yet, nor are there any hands-on reviews, but benchmarks for the tablet are already available online.

There are quite a few listings for the new tablet — which has product number iPad13,17 — on the Geekbench 5 public database. As is typical for benchmark tests done on a variety of devices and conditions, the Multi-Core scores range quite a bit. They go as high as 7354, but there are many results in the 7200 range.

Compare that to the official Geekbench 5 score for the 11-inch iPad Pro: 7218. And the 12.9-inch version of the Pro pulls in a 7219 score.

These tests just confirm that anyone buying a tablet for processing power doesn’t have to pay extra for the Pro series. The iPad Air 5 is just as quick.

It’s a tie… for now

Apple made headlines when it put the M1 processor in the 2021 iPad Pro. Until then, everyone had though the M-series was only for Macs.

A year later, the same chip is in the the fifth-generation iPad Air. Which makes deciding between the 11-inch iPad Pro and the 10.9-inch iPad Air 5 a challenge.

Temporarily, anyway. The next iPad Pro models supposedly will run on an Apple M2 processor, bringing a jump in performance.