Apple iPad Air 4 Benchmarks – Compared To iPad Air 3, iPad Pro, Tab S7

The talk of the weekend among techies has been the first Apple iPad Air 4 benchmarks that came out on Friday. The new sized iPad Air won't be released before later in October, but it's useful to know how capable it is before launch.

The new 10.9-inch iPad Air 4 is Apple's first iPad to be released with the hexa-core Apple A14 processor. So the curiosity was running high.

In Geekbench 5 on Friday, the new Apple iPad Air 4 appears to have scored a single-core score of 1,583 and a multi-core score of 4,198 running iOS 14.0.1. The metal score is 12,571, and we are seeing that the new iPad Air 4 is listed with 4GB RAM as well.
Apple iPad Air 4 Benchmarks
So that tells us that the performance is up from around 1,110 in single core, 2,820 in multi-core, and 5,240 in metal score from the previous 3rd generation iPad Air with the Apple A12 processor and 3GB RAM.

With number such as these, the iPad Air 4 has bumped up its performance very significantly, and more than what is typical in a new generation tablet.

Apple iPad Air 4 Benchmark Scores
It also means that if these benchmark scores are true, which will be verified when it's released, then the new iPad Air 4 performs better running single cores in iOS 14 at the moment than the latest iPad Pros which tend perform at an average of 1,120. The octa-core iPad Pros with 50% more RAM still beats the iPad Air 4 in multi-core scores though at an average of over 4,680.

The 11-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 meanwhile is ramping up an average of 960 in single-core and 3,240 in multi-core.

So considering that the iPad Air 4 is a $599 tablet at 10.9 inches, it brings a lot of performance with it, and it's cheaper than the less powerful Android and Windows tablets of roughly the same size.

iPad Air 2020-2021
– Jim Miller