Next-Generation iPad Air With M3 Chip Already Rumored

[Macaholic868]

While I’m sure there are some Pro users who benefit from a faster processor for the rest of us it doesn’t matter. iPadOS is the real limiting factor that prevents me from being able to replace my laptop with an iPad and until that changes for me the iPad is basically useless. I can do just about anything on my iPhone that I could do on my iPad and my phone has a cellular chip and WiFi built in. If I need something more I’ve got my laptop if I truly want to multitask with iOS apps I can use the AVP to have 4 or 5 apps open and running that I can place anywhere in the room. If I need the laptop I can look at it with the AVP, grab the Apple Bluetooth keyboard and Magic Trackpad I bought for it and use those to fire up MacOS from the AVP on my laptop and use whatever desktop class apps I need. When it comes to consuming content on a large screen nothing beats watching it on a screen the size of a a wall in the room.

I was really looking forward to the new iPads until I experienced the AVP. I’ve got zero need for one now. The only time I’ve used my iPad since I got the AVP has been to install iPadOS betas for the fun of it and check out new features just to keep up with what’s happening with it since my parents and in-laws only use iPads around their respective houses and call me if they have issues.

If there was some kind of reasonably priced support assist app I could run to allow me to either take control of their devices from the AVP or just see their screens I’d never use it at all and so far this year no one in my family has called me with any iPad issues they need my help with. 🙏

 

[Lioness~]

But Apple probaly have a few M3 chips stored, and I want an M3 iPad Air to go with my M3 MBA.
They will come in the end of the year, and I hope Apple have earned my trust back enough at that time.

 

[UltimaKilo]

They need to slap an A16 on the baseline iPad with 6GB of RAM.

 

[cdsapplefan]

M3 N3B is toast because of high cost to put in Apple devices, so the next iPad Air and Mini will be on the M4 node chip, the basic one though.

 

[bodonnell202]

This will 100% not happen
Apple wants to ditch N3B as soon as possible
Air will probably get M4 when the pro will get M5

Agree. The likelihood of this rumor coming true is very low. M3 is not still going to be around and in production in 1.5-2 years when Apple updates the iPad Air again. I expect all products with N3B chips (A17 and M3) to be updated within the next year. For the iPad Air they’ll skip to M4 around the time that the iPad Pros go to M5.

 

[Student of Life]

Yep, I just came here to say that. You were faster pal!

I’m already interested in the M4 iPad Air, as long as it keeps using the LCD technology for the display, because the new iPad Pro seems to have PWM (saw it on some hands-on videos). By then, I guess all M4 will be the unbinned version. I only wish they give the option to get more RAM.

It would also be nice to have a higher refresh rate display on the Air.

Why not get the M2 iPad Pro in the meantime ?

 

[Populus]

Why not get the M2 iPad Pro in the meantime ?

It’s what I have, a great device, although the 128GB of storage is quite constraining.
I guess I’ll keep using it, exporting the files to a portable SSD when the storage is getting full.

 

[OferJ]

If you have that hard of a time picking then the lowest entry model is for you. The higher tiers are for people that know what they need.

 

[bmot]

Combined with Apple's surprise debut of the M4, today's rumor suggests that Apple plans to keep the iPad Air one step behind the iPad Pro in terms of processor generations.

Can you count? The iPad Air is two processor generations behind.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Agreeing with the others here, Apple needs to draw down M3 production, TSMC wants to shut down production on that interim process and moved to the enhanced process ASAP, which means Apple should be moving towards M4 as quickly as possible along those product lines currently enjoying M3 SoCs. I suspect we’ll see quite a few updates right after the back to school season and possibly a couple before is macOS 15 is going to have any AI aspirations this go round. This summer should be very interesting indeed.

 

[DavidMalcolm]

Nope. They’re probably going to do the 10th gen iPad until at least fall after next or next Spring and then that will move to whatever the cheapest iPhone chip they can currently fab that’s better than the A14 is. Once the iPad Pro is ready for something newer than the M4 (which might be the M5 might even be the M6) they’ll then move the iPad Air to a newer chip, most likely the M4 but it’ll all depend on what at the time is more powerful and is more cost effective.

The Pro line is about providing the best tablet Apple can make at a price that the high end will pay for. The air is about selling an iPad with parts that the Pro hot economics of sale on to bring down the price on and improve reliability on. The base model iPad is about providing the least expensive iPad that Apple can make while still offering specs that will provide a great essential iPad experience for the majority of casual users.

The M3 probably won’t even stay in the iMac and MacBook Air that long. They’re probably going to keep those until they’ve used all of the more expensive M3 run and then move those over.

 

[svish]

Expecting to see a refresh to both the iPad Air and Pro only by late 2025

 

[snipr125]

Oh we know in 2 years time when the Air gets refreshed it's still going to stay at 60Hz. Apple doesn't do trickle-down.

Thats exactly what Apple does do, literally the Pro model gets the new features and then these features trickle down to the air models and then entry level. They been doing this for years.

 

[Populus]

Expecting to see a refresh to both the iPad Air and Pro only by late 2025

Probably by the M6 series