New 9.7-inch iPad Pro and iPhone SE Have 2GB of RAM

Max Buondonno March 22, 2016

Yesterday, Apple unveiled a smaller, 9.7-inch iPad Pro which is basically the 12.9-inch Pro packed inside the body of the iPad Air 2. However, this statement seems to be false, at least according to the RAM and CPU of the new tablet…

According to Matthew Panzarino on Twitter, the new iPad Pro only has 2GB of RAM, while the larger 12.9-inch model comes with 4GB. This is something really unexpected as Apple stressed yesterday that all the same internals of the 12.9-inch Pro could be found in the 9.7-inch Pro. And while they’re right when it comes to A9X processor, it looks like it’s been slown down in the new model to 2.16Ghz, opposed to 2.24Ghz found in the larger model.

Here’s a single Geekbench run with stats on iPad Pro 9.7″ pic.twitter.com/vwqlKtsIUm

— Matthew Panzarino (@panzer) March 22, 2016

This move Apple made with the 9.7-inch iPad Pro will for sure disappoint some people, as 4GB of RAM in an iOS machine is very useful. However, don’t expect performance to be all that bad, as 2GB of RAM is plenty for iOS 9 as it tends to not use too much RAM, therefore saving room for more applications to be open at once. And even though the 12.9-inch Pro outperforms the smaller Pro in this case, the 9.7-inch model does have it’s own set of advantages, what with that 12MP camera that shoots 4K video alongside the new True Tone display which can adapt to the temperature of any lighting scenario. That alone is enough to make the 9.7-inch Pro the best 9.7-inch iPad ever. Still, it would be nice to have 4GB of RAM inside.

Panzarino was also able to confirm that the iPhone SE, something Apple also announced at their event yesterday, also has 2GB of RAM aside the A9 chip, something we were expecting to find in the new 4-inch smartphone.