Apple's new iPod touch debuts underclocked but powerful A8 SoC, Bluetooth 4.1

Although the A8 system-on-chip incorporated into Apple's latest iPod touch models are clocked at lower speeds compared to other A8-toting devices, the silicon is plenty fast for what is essentially a stripped-down 4-inch version of the iPhone 6. Any perceived loss in speed is likely more than made up for in power savings, as the iPod touch must pack its internals into a chassis 0.6mm thinner than Apple's current iPhone.

At 1.1GHz, the iPod touch's A8 is clocked well below the same component on iPhone 6, which runs its SoC at 1.39GHz. Still, according to benchmarks snagged by TechCrunch, iPod touch is no slouch when it comes to performance and turned in a Geekbench single core score of 1,379 and a multi-core score of 2,440. The results match up with iPhone 6 scores submitted to Geekebench Browser, which showed rough single- and multi-core score averages of about 1,600 and 2,900, respectively.