iPad Pro vs MacBook Pro showdown result might just surprise you

Apple claims that its next-generation iPad Pro models will "push what users can do on a computer further than ever before." That's a pretty lofty claim for a tablet. However, the latest benchmark tests for the iPad Pro reveal the device might actually earn its comparisons with traditional computers.

According to the latest benchmark scores from Geekbench, courtesy of MacRumors, the iPad Pro has some serious grunt beneath its bonnet. In fact, if the latest scores are accurate, Apple's new iPad Pro is comparable to the MacBook Pro.

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Benchmark scores are designed to help users quickly compare performance between different devices on different platforms. So regardless of the chipset brand and operating system, the higher the Geekbench score, the better.

According to Geekbench, the new iPad Pro models, available with a choice of 11-inch and 12.9-inch Liquid Retina displays, are capable of a single-core and multi-core scores of 5,025 and 18,106, respectively. That makes the latest generation of iPad comfortably the fastest ever built by Apple.

However, it also means the iPad Pro has a similar single-core score to the entry-level MacBook Pro 15-inch with Touch Bar, which boasts a 6-core 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor coupled with 16GB of RAM, and a Radeon Pro 555X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory. That configuration costs £2,349 and scored 4,929.

For the record, the single-core performance of the A12X Bionic chipset inside the iPad Pro also tops the latest-generation of 12-inch MacBook (3,927 score), as well as the iMac Pro (5,021 score) which launched late last year.

It's worth noting that the Apple MacBook Pro range does pull ahead of the iPad Pro when it comes to multi-core scores, with the entry-level 15-inch model recording an impressive 21,176 score compared to the 18,106 managed by the iPad Pro.

However, the fact that it's even close is a massive endorsement for the processor R&D department inside Apple, and a sad indictment of the state of the latest MacBook notebooks produced by the company.