The iPad Air has been rumored to get updated really soon, and initial reports claimed that the next iPad Air could feature the M4 chip as Apple is trying to move away from its first-generation 3nm technology. However, more sources indicate otherwise, including leaker Evan Blass and also an anonymous source from today, both now speculate that the next iPad Air will feature the M3 chip instead. Since it appears more likely, it all makes sense, and here’s why.
When Apple updated the iPad mini back in October, it featured the A17 Pro chip, which is based on the first-generation 3nm process. And since Apple has had leftover stock for its A17 Pro chip when producing the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple could bring that same chip to the upcoming iPad 11. Furthermore, Apple has also had leftover stock for its base model M3 chip, so Apple would continue to use its existing resources to cut down R&D costs overall by bringing the M3 chip to the iPad Air and continue to sell just the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M3 chip when Apple introduces the M4 lineup of MacBook Airs sometime soon.
The anonymous source also claims that the next base iPad could feature at least the A16 chip. It’s going to be a very solid update for the iPad Air as it will finally support hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading along with AV1 decoding. Both the iPad 11 and the iPad Air (M3) are expected to feature Apple’s first 5G modem, and we should expect to see Apple introducing those models in March or April, so they’re just around the corner.
