Even though Apple's iPad Mini 3 is less than a year old, it is fitted with the company's previous generation A7 chipset, a component that is present in the iPad Air, iPhone 5s and the company's iPad Mini 2. The product was released alongside the iPad Air 2, which is powered by the impressive A8X processor, but at the end of the day, it appears that Apple had very little intention of improving the performance gap between the iPad Mini 3 and the iPad Mini 2.
However, according to the information posted in Macotakara, there are rumors that the company's iPad Mini 4 will be running the company's A8 chipset, the same one that is present in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. In addition, the upcoming tablet is also expected to run an 802.11 ac wireless adapter, which will grant superior Wi-Fi speeds to the user (only if other conditions are satisfied as well). The only differences currently separating the iPad Mini 3 and the iPad Mini 2 is that the former possesses a Touch ID fingerprint scanner along with an updated operating system running 'out of the box' and a $399 price tag.
Apart from that, there are no differences when the internal specifications of both devices are concerned. If the iPad Mini 4 is incorporated with the A8 chipset, it will be able to exude performance and energy efficiency that will give the Snapdragon 810 and Exynos 7420 a run for their money. According to the latest benchmarking reports, the A8 chip is able to hold its own in a variety of tests, even though it still manages to get beaten by the aforementioned products.
While there is still time for the iPad Mini 4 to be announced, which will most likely be during mid-October, the Cupertino tech giant is currently prepping to release its iWatch and its updated lineup of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks.
