Home > Smartphone processors comparison > M1 (iPad) vs A15 Bionic – what's better?

M1 (iPad) vs A15 Bionic

M1 (iPad)
VS
A15 Bionic
M1 (iPad)
A15 Bionic

We compared the 8-core Apple M1 (iPad) (custom) with the newer 6-core A15 Bionic (Apple A15 GPU) SoC. Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Benchmarks
  4. AnTuTu v11
  5. GeekBench 6
  6. Specs
  7. Comments

Review

General comparison of performance, power consumption, and other indicators
CPU Performance
Single and multi-core processor tests
Gaming Performance
GPU performance in games and OpenCL/Vulkan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
NanoReview Score
Overall chip score

Key Differences

Main differences and advantages of each chip
Pros of Apple M1 (iPad)
  • Supports 100% higher memory bandwidth (68.25 against 34.1 GB/s)
  • Performs 53% better in floating-point computations
  • Shows significantly better (up to 43%) AnTuTu 11 score – 2027K vs 1413K
  • Has 2 more cores
Pros of Apple A15 Bionic
  • Higher GPU frequency (~5%)

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks
SoC:
M1 (iPad)
vs
A15 Bionic

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
M1 (iPad) +43%
2027700
A15 Bionic
1413275
CPU 629472 410975
GPU 687856 370837
Memory 214672 164151
UX 495700 467312
Total score 2027700 1413275
Samples [9 tests] [69 tests]
Submit your AnTuTu result

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
M1 (iPad) +3%
2385
A15 Bionic
2315
Multi-Core Score
M1 (iPad) +53%
8775
A15 Bionic
5753
Asset compression 331.8 MB/sec 208.1 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 174.3 pages/sec 122.9 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 223.3 Mpixels/sec 139.1 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 192.9 images/sec 125.1 images/sec
HDR 290 Mpixels/sec 179.4 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 34.7 images/sec 22.3 images/sec
Photo processing 72.7 images/sec 53.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 9.72 Mpixels/sec 6.26 Mpixels/sec
Samples 5 tests 37 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
M1 (iPad) +63%
33168
A15 Bionic
20400
Background blur 59.4 images/sec 35.4 images/sec
Face detection 71.1 images/sec 44.8 images/sec
Horizon detection 1.09 Gpixels/sec 0.62 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 1.52 Gpixels/sec 0.82 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 1.6 Gpixels/sec 0.84 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.42 Gpixels/sec 0.3 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 107 Gpixels/sec 71.1 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 3208.4 FPS 2198.2 FPS
API Metal Metal
Samples Less than 3 19 tests

3DMark

A cross-platform benchmark that assesses graphics performance in Vulkan (Metal)
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Score 1965 -
Stability 77% -
Graphics test 15 FPS -
3DMark Solar Bay
M1 (iPad) +70%
6406
A15 Bionic
3765
Score 6406 3765
Stability 83% 71%
Graphics test 24 FPS 14 FPS
Section 1 30 FPS 19 FPS
Section 2 24 FPS 14 FPS
Section 3 19 FPS 9 FPS
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
M1 (iPad) +77%
5045
A15 Bionic
2854
Score 5045 2854
Stability 76% 76%
Graphics test 30 FPS 17 FPS

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M1 (iPad)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-24 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2420 / 8793
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-04 (クラ硢)AnTuTu 112074840
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-18 (Avacada)Geekbench 6 CPU2385 / 8775
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-08 (AL10)AnTuTu 112123766
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-29 (Blizz)AnTuTu 112011970
Add View all (8)
Apple A15 Bionic
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-25 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2168 / 4988
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 -> HotPowerAnTuTu 111184759
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-19 -> HotPowerGeekbench 6 GPU21284
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-19 (Vova)AnTuTu 111297615
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-19 -> HotPowerGeekbench 6 CPU2423 / 5985
Add View all (116)

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of M1 (iPad) and A15 Bionic

CPU

Architecture 4x 3.2 GHz – Firestorm
4x 2.1 GHz – Icestorm		 2x 3.23 GHz – Avalanche
4x 2.02 GHz – Blizzard
Cores 8 6
Frequency 3200 MHz 3230 MHz
Instruction set ARMv8.5-A ARMv8.5-A
L1 cache 192 KB 256 KB
L2 cache 12 MB 12 MB
Process 5 nanometers 5 nanometers
Transistor count 16 billion 15 billion
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 14 W 6 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name - Apple A15 GPU
Architecture - Apple Bionic GPU
GPU frequency 1278 MHz 1338 MHz
Pipelines - 5
Shading units - 128
Total shaders - 640
FLOPS 2617 Gigaflops 1712.6 Gigaflops

AI Accelerator

Neural processor (NPU) Apple Neural Engine Apple Neural Engine
NPU theoretical performance 11 TOPS 15.8 TOPS

Memory

Memory type LPDDR4X LPDDR4X
Memory frequency 2133 MHz 2133 MHz
Bus 8x 16 Bit 4x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 68.25 Gb/s 34.1 Gb/s
Max size 16 GB 6 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type NVMe NVMe
Max display resolution 2732 x 2048 2732 x 2048
Video capture 4K at 60FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video playback 4K at 60FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- VP9
- Motion JPEG		 - H.264
- H.265
- VP8
- VP9
- Motion JPEG
Audio codecs - AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV		 - AAC
- AAX
- AAX+
- AC-3
- AIFF
- CAF
- E-AC-3
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV

Connectivity

4G support LTE Cat. 18 LTE Cat. 24
5G support Yes Yes
Download speed Up to 7500 Mbps Up to 7500 Mbps
Upload speed Up to 2500 Mbps Up to 3000 Mbps
Wi-Fi 6 6
Bluetooth 5.0 5.0
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS

Info

Announced November 2020 September 2021
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number APL1102 APL1W07
Successor - Apple M4 (iPad) - Apple A19 Pro

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
259 (78.2%)
72 (21.8%)
Total votes: 331

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Comments

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