Benchmark scores for Apple's Developer Transition Kit unit, with A12Z chip used in iPad Pro, suggest it outperforms Surface Pro X even under Rosetta 2 emulation
Juli Clover / MacRumors :
Context & Ripple Effects
This is one more data point in a long-running arc the related coverage has tracked since at least 2015: Apple's A-series chips repeatedly benchmarking at laptop-class levels. The 2018 iPad Pro Geekbench results put the A12X on par with 2018 MacBook Pro i7 models, and before that the A11 Bionic beat an i5 MacBook Pro outright.
What is new here is that the A12Z — the same chip as the current iPad Pro — does this inside a Mac Developer Transition Kit while emulating Intel code through Rosetta 2, and still beats Microsoft's native-ARM Surface Pro X. The trajectory ends where the coverage later lands: M1-powered iPad Pros shipping less than a year after this story.
First-order effects
- Developers building apps on the Transition Kit now have benchmark evidence their ARM ports will run competitively despite Rosetta 2 translation overhead — de-risking the migration Apple is asking them to make.
- Microsoft's Surface Pro X takes a direct competitive hit: a rival tablet-class chip running emulated x86 code outscores its native Windows-on-ARM silicon.
Second-order effects
- Intel-based portable machines face pricing pressure from a chip family that already matches them in single-core work per the earlier Geekbench coverage — and Apple has shown no need to wait for Intel's roadmap.
- Microsoft and Qualcomm are forced to defend Windows-on-ARM on software compatibility rather than raw performance, the exact ground where Rosetta 2 just demonstrated strength.
Third-order effects
- If the A-series-to-laptop pattern holds, the hardware distinction between iPad and Mac thins to the operating system — a convergence the M1 iPad Pro update in the coverage makes concrete.
- The broader shift is benchmark-driven credibility for ARM in the desktop/laptop market: each generation of Apple silicon beating an x86 reference point (i5, i7, Surface Pro X) erodes the assumption that emulation penalties keep ARM a niche.
The trend: Apple's mobile SoC lineage is scaling from tablets into laptops, with Rosetta 2 removing the emulation penalty that historically kept ARM out of the desktop mainstream.