Is Apple Set To Release A New iPad Air With An M3 Chip?

Last May, after a gap of two year, Apple released two new iPad Air models including a redesigned 11-inch and a new 13-inch device.

Both were powered by its M2 chip which features a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, and when combined with faster memory bandwidth, is reportedly almost 50% faster than the M1 chip.

Now, leaks appear to suggest that Apple is getting ready to release an M3-chip powered version of its iPad Air.

Leaker Evan Blass shared a private social media post with an image of what appears to be source code mentioning the yet-to-launch 11-inch iPad Air, 13-inch iPad Air, and iPad 11 models.

Blass’ credibility among tipsters was elevated back in 2020 when he revealed marketing images for HomePod mini and the iPhone 12 lineup hours before they were revealed publicly.

Apple’s decision to opt for an M3 chip for the Air is noteworthy, though it isn’t its top-of-the-line M4 chip which is present on its iPad Pro version.

With the new iPad Pro which was released alongside the new Air models in May last year, Apple skipped the M3 chip and went straight for the AI-ready M4 processor.

In the M4-Powered iPad Pro, Apple says that the CPU offers up to four performance cores and six efficiency cores, with next-generation machine learning accelerators, to deliver up to 1.5x faster CPU performance over the M2 in the previous-generation iPad Pro.

Apple claims that compared to the M2, the M4 can deliver like-for-like levels of performance using just half the power, and compared to the latest PC chip in a thin and light laptop, the M4 can deliver the same performance using just a quarter of the power.

There are no firm release dates or price points speculated for the new iPad Air, but the existing M2-chip version of the 11-inch Air starts from A$999 and the 13-inch model begins from A$1,299.