Apple iPad Pro review: Slate of the art

Synthetic benchmarks

The iPad Pro is powered by Apple's A9X chip, which Apple says has a 64-bit desktop-class architecture. A few charts, shown at the launch event, detailed the advancements in Apple's tablet performance, and the Pro is said to pack a CPU 1.8 times more powerful than the one in the iPad Air 2 and a GPU twice as powerful.

We ran the usual tests on the iPad Pro to see just how this almighty chip compares against the rest, and we struggled a little with finding what to compare it against. For one, there aren't many tablets with such giant displays, certainly not outside of the proper desktop Windows OS realm.

The Android-running Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 / Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 come to mind but they are 2 years old now, and instead of updating them Samsung seems to be focused on making kitchen tablets. So we rounded up the latest tablets we've tested, regardless of display size, and threw in some of the flagship phones of late.

In Geekbench the iPad Pro scored nearly 5,500 points, which is on par with our current Android champ, the Meizu Pro 5. Samsung flagships with the same chip have been tweaked differently and score lower. However, the more intriguing bit here is single-core performance, and a single 2.26GHz Twister core scores upwards of 3,400 - as much as the dual-core 2.3GHz Denver CPU inside the Nexus 9.

So, Apple's claim for a 1.8x performance improvement over the iPad Air 2, doesn't seem to hold true, at least not in Geekbench - it's more like 20-something percent. The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet scores almost identical to the iPad Air 2, hence it trails the iPad Pro. The aging Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 is no match for any of the current powerhouses.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Meizu Pro 5
  5578
• Apple iPad Pro
  5476
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  5158
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  5124
• Apple iPad Air 2
  4464
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet v2
  4459
• Apple iPhone 6s
  4427
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  4413
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  4275
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  4194
• HTC One M9
  3761
• HTC Nexus 9
  3470
• Nokia N1
  2835
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  2703
• Apple iPad mini 3
  2486

In Antutu, the iPad Pro still can't beat the Meizu Pro 5, but does leave the other Exynos 7420 devices behind. It also comfortably outpaces the newest Galaxy Tab S2 9.7. The current-gen iPhones score noticeably lower too.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Meizu Pro 5
  74655
• Apple iPad Pro
  72871
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  69465
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  68324
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  62652
• HTC Nexus 9
  60297
• Apple iPhone 6s
  59074
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  58582
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  52170
• HTC One M9
  51427
• Nokia N1
  46547

In Basemark II 2.0, however, the iPad Pro is without competition. The iPhone 6s/6s duo come closest, but still post substantially lower scores.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Pro
  2813
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  2261
• Apple iPhone 6s
  2195
• Meizu Pro 5
  1837
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  1789
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  1687
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet v2
  1602
• HTC Nexus 9
  1540
• HTC One M9
  1365
• Nokia N1
  1166

Graphics tests paint the picture of an extremely powerful GPU. Acing the offscreen part in GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan, the iPad Pro's score drops significantly for the onscreen test. It still scores an excellent 29.4fps, and don't forget that the GPU needs to push some 5.6 million of pixels worth of resolution. The aging Galaxy Note 12.2 scores a meagre 2.2fps in comparison.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Pro
  62.5
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  39.5
• Apple iPhone 6s
  39.5
• Apple iPad Air 2
  32.6
• HTC Nexus 9
  31.5
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet v2
  27
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  26
• Meizu Pro 5
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  25
• HTC One M9
  23
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  21
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  14
• Apple iPad mini 3
  13.1
• Nokia N1
  13
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  5.5

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s
  53.6
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  38.6
• Apple iPad Pro
  29.4
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  27
• Meizu Pro 5
  25
• Apple iPad Air 2
  24.7
• HTC One M9
  24
• HTC Nexus 9
  22.6
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet v2
  16
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  15
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  12
• Nokia N1
  9.6
• Apple iPad mini 3
  8.9
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  2.8

Basemark Metal should yield cross-platform-comparable results with its Basemark ES 3.1 Android counterpart. Here the iPad Pro is in a league of its own, scoring twice as high as the iPhones, which are in turn miles ahead of anything Android has to offer right now.

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Pro
  1818
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  916
• Apple iPhone 6s
  879
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  482
• Meizu Pro 5
  409
• HTC One M9
  409
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  348

In web browsing, the iPad Pro delivers as well. It only managed to run the JavaScript Kraken benchmark, but it passed with flying colors, scoring higher than the iPhone 6s and miles ahead of Android flagships. Our other usual test - Browsermark - was unfortunately a no-go on Apple's tablet, just like it was on the iPhone 6s.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Apple iPad Pro
  1484
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  1731
• Apple iPhone 6s
  1737
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  3702
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  3767
• Meizu Pro 5
  3907
• HTC Nexus 9
  3953
• Apple iPad Air 2
  4054
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  4135
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  4226
• Nokia N1
  5154
• Apple iPad mini 3
  5382
• HTC One M9
  5500
• Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet v2
  5577

Overall, the iPad Pro aced all tests and proved that Apple has indeed built some serious hardware into it. There's hardly a tablet on the market now with more punch - at least one running a mobile OS, that is.