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The M1 iPad Pro 12.9 scored a total of 1,060,247 points in AnTuTu- 240,997 in the CPU test, 514,792 in the GPU test, and 199,527 and 105,221 in the memory and UI/UX tests, respectively. This was one of the maxed-out iPad Pro variants with 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM. As mentioned earlier, the MacBook Air fared marginally better with its score of 1,118,243- 282,265 for the CPU, 538,944 for the GPU, 189,921 for the memory, and 108,113 for the UI/UX. Interestingly enough, this particular MacBook Air ran a paltry 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. A higher-specced configuration would have resulted in a better score.
Given that AnTuTu is platform-agnostic, we can rule out the differences between macOS and iPadOS as a reason for the iPad Pro’s performance. AnTuTu states that cooling has a part to play in the equation. Although both devices are passively cooled, the MacBook has a significantly larger surface area to dissipate heat. It’ll be interesting to see how the off-the-shelf M1 iPad Pro 12.9 performs compared to its cousins, as the one used in the test above was very likely a pre-production unit.