Lower than a yr after upgrading its iPad Air with the M2 chip, Apple is already again with an enhanced model. Right now, the corporate introduced an all-new iPad Air, full with the M3 chipset. However the updates do not cease there—the corporate additionally unveiled a protracted overdue refresh of its base iPad mannequin, including an A16 chipset and double the storage. All tablets can be found for pre-order as we speak and can ship on March 12.
The seventh-generation iPad Air would not have any noteworthy {hardware} upgrades. As with its predecessor, you may have the selection between an 11-inch and 13-inch show sizes—each of which have slim bezels, Contact ID built-in into the highest button, a 12-megapixel panorama selfie digicam, and a 12-megapixel rear digicam.
You may discover the numerous modifications underneath the hood. Apple up to date the pill with an M3 chip, which the corporate first debuted again in 2023, alongside the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional and 24-inch iMac. It is since made its strategy to final yr’s MacBook Air (13-inch and 15-inch). It isn’t the newest chip (Apple launched the M4 again in Could), nevertheless it’s nonetheless thought-about highly effective and pretty new.
Outfitted with an 8-core CPU and 9-core GPU, Apple claims CPU efficiency is as much as 35 % sooner than the iPad Air with M1, whereas graphics are as much as 40 % sooner. The M3 additionally helps options like mesh shading, ray tracing, and dynamic caching for graphics-intensive duties.
The corporate says the Neural Engine can also be as much as 60 % sooner in comparison with the M1 for “AI-based workloads.” This may assist to energy Apple Intelligence—the corporate’s suite of AI options like Mail Summaries, Sensible Replies in Messages, Writing Instruments Cleanup in Apple Images, Genmoji, and extra. You’ll be able to learn all about these options and extra in our roundup of macOS Sequoia options.
Apple additionally launched a brand new model of its Magic Keyboard case for the iPad Air. It comes with the identical upgrades you may discover on the newest model for the iPad Professional, together with a bigger built-in trackpad together with a row of keys for features like display brightness and quantity management. It’s kind of extra reasonably priced this time round too, beginning at $269 for the 11-inch pill and $319 for the 13-inch model. As with the M2 iPad Air, it is appropriate with the Apple Pencil Professional and Apple Pencil (USB-C) as nicely.
