New Details Make the 9.7-Inch iPad Pro Seem Less of a ‘Pro’

When Apple officially took the wraps off its long-rumored and highly-anticipated 9.7-inch iPad Pro at Monday morning’s “Let Us Loop You In” media event, most potential buyers and industry pundits were all but convinced that, as the device’s name implies, it really was essentially a dwarfed variant of the company’s top-tier, 12.9-inch iPad Pro — boasting the same internal components, to the same magnitude, and adding a few treats to sweeten the pot and make it a worthy upgrade over the iPad Air 2.

However, as more and more intricate details about the device continue to trickle in, the Cupertino-company’s smaller ‘iPad Pro’ is starting to seem less and less worthy of bearing the ‘Pro’ adage.

Unfortunately, as some recent tests have revealed, not only is Apple’s zippy A9X processor in the 9.7-inch iPad clocked at a lower speed than on its 12.9-inch brother, but the smaller iPad Pro also only includes 2 GB of DDR RAM — exactly one-half that of the 12.9-inch iPad’s 4 GB.

Matthew Panzarino of Tech Crunch recently reported — after having run some Benchmarks with both Apple’s new 9.7-inch iPad Pro and the iPhone SE — that he discovered how both devices apparently feature the same 2 gigabytes of RAM. However, for its part, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro features the considerably faster A9X processor, while the iPhone SE boasts the entry-level A9 SoC.

At only 2 GB, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro contains the equivalent amount of RAM as its predecessor — Apple’s iPad Air 2.

And while the Silicon Valley tech-giant often tries to downplay the significance of its device’s technical specifications, the fact of the matter is: more RAM = greater speed and more benefits — including, for instance, the enabling of apps and Safari windows to stay open in the background longer.

On the other hand, however, there are other costs associated with more RAM, too, such as an increased impact on battery drain.

Additionally worth noting, as determined by Panzarino’s subsequent tests, Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad Pro features a slightly under-clocked version of the 2.26 GHz dual-core chip in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. To be more specific, Apple presented a comparison of its A9X chips — in relation to that of the company’s first generation, 64-bit A7 processor. The verdict? Well, while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro’s A9X SoC is approximately 2.5 times faster than the A7, the same chip in the 9.7-inch model is slightly slower than that — clocking in at approximately 2.4 times faster.

Moreover, there appears to exist an even greater disparity between the two chips insofar as graphics performance is pertinent. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro, for instance, boasts graphics processing power that’s roughly 5 times faster than that of the A7 chip, while the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is only 4.3 times faster.

Of course, for Apple’s part, there might be a good justification for reducing the RAM and processor speed on the smaller iPad Pro. After all, the more RAM a device features, and the faster its chipset, the more of a drain on battery you’ll notice as you go about your day. And seeing as how the 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s battery has only a 27.5 Wh capacity — compared to the 12.9-incher’s 38.8 Wh — we’d say it was probably a safe move on Apple’s end to reduce the specs so as to boost the battery.

Plus, there’s always the plethora of other awesome ways that the 9.7-inch iPad Pro trounces its 12.9-inch brother — like that cinematic 12 MP camera capable or recording 4K video, 5 MP FaceTime camera, the first-of-its-kind ‘True Tone’ display, and much, more more.

What do you think about Apple’s move to reduce the specifications on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro? Do the disparities substantiate the benefit to battery performance?

Learn More: iOS 9.3 Said to Be Rendering Some Older iPad Models Useless