Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
All iPads Same A7 clock speed on both iPads?
- Thread starter Sangdushi
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apple never confirms this. But it is safe to assume that. The iPad Mini has a smaller battery, so in order to keep the same runtime, we can guess the A7 in the mini will be underclocked a bit to extend battery life.
I mean, since we are guessing, we might as well make them educated guesses...
Not necessarily. The smaller display would already require less battery life. The original iPad Mini had 16.3 Wh battery while the iPad 2 has a 25 Wh battery so that's 35% smaller battery at the same resolution and the Mini still had better battery life compared to the iPad 2.
The retina Mini has 23.8 Wh battery compared to the iPad Air with 32.4 Wh so 26% lower this time around. In terms of screen area, the 7.9" iPad Mini is smaller than the 9.7" iPad Air by 34%.
When you think about it, it doesn't matter if the iPad Air is bigger. Both of these have the same 2048*1536 resolution and the processing power required to push the same number of pixels is the same.
Pure conjecture, but I'd expect the electricity usage due to the screen/backlight will be the same on both. I think this primarily due to the fact that the density of the Mini screen is so insanely high. The backlights will have to run brighter than an equivalent backlight on an iPad Air due to how tight the pixels are. Of course, the Air has more to area to cover.
Probably a wash. I don't know if the CPU will be throttled in one version vs. the other.
Probably a wash. I don't know if the CPU will be throttled in one version vs. the other.
While I don't think Apple will put an underclocked A7 in the mini retina, it also wouldn't surprise me if they did. We just learned the A7 in the 5s is 100mhz less than the A7 in the Air. With a smaller battery, I could see the possiblity of the 5s A7 in the mini retina. The Air comes with a 12V adapter, while the mini-retina comes with a 10V...I assume this is because the battery on the mini-retina is smaller, and has nothing to do with the SOC.