Apple introduces M3-powered iPad Air

The 'something in the air' that Tim Cook teased yesterday turned out not to be an M4 MacBook Air, but an M3 iPad Air. Okay, we'll take that.

It's always fun when events overtake you as a writer. Back in the print days, it would be a nightmare, and your outdated story would be sitting in front of you for a week or a month until your next update. In these online times of course, you can just edit it or delete it entirely, with only anyone who can be bothered to drive the Wayback Machine able to resurrect your duff copy and info.

But there was some fun stuff about Apple reusing its own taglines at the bottom of our story earlier today speculating about new M4 MacBook Airs, so we'll leave it in place. Plus, they'll be announced at some point so it's an interesting piece of historical data out there in the vastness of the internet. And below we can talk about what Apple is really releasing today.

Ahem.

The tagline for the two new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models could well be 'more for the same' as Apple has managed to stuff an M3 chip inside them and keep the pricing the same as before. That means a starting price of just $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch model

Given that the iPad Air with M3 is nearly 2x faster than the iPad Air with M1, and up to 3.5x faster than iPad Air with A14 Bionic, that's not a bad deal.  

Games are going to fly with that M3 chip

Apple keeps pumping out benchmarks around this. Featuring a more powerful 8-core CPU, M3 is up to 35% faster for multithreaded CPU workflows than iPad Air with M1 and features a 9-core GPU with up to 40% faster graphics performance over M1. It also brings Apple’s advanced graphics architecture to iPad Air for the first time with support for dynamic caching, along with hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing. For graphics-intensive rendering workflows, iPad Air with M3 offers up to 4x faster performance than iPad Air with M1, enabling more accurate lighting, reflections, shadows, and extremely realistic gaming experiences.

Designed specifically for iPad Air, there's also a new Magic Keyboard too. A larger built-in trackpad and a new 14-key function row allows easy access to features like screen brightness and volume controls. The new Magic Keyboard attaches magnetically, and the Smart Connector immediately connects power and data without the need for Bluetooth; a machined aluminum hinge also includes a USB-C connector for charging. Pricing starts at just $269 for the 11-inch model and $319 for the 13-inch model.

Oh, and almost as an afterthought, especially after you've read through all the guff about Apple Intelligence that Apple insists on pumping into all its PR at the moment, it also revealed an update to the base spec iPad. This now comes with an A16 chip, replacing the former A14, and has doubled storage to 128 GB without changing the $349 intro price. Not bad.

tl;dr

• Apple introduced the M3 iPad Air with two models available: 11-inch starting at $599 and 13-inch at $799, maintaining the same pricing as previous models.
• The M3 chip offers nearly double the performance of the M1 iPad Air and up to 3.5 times faster than the A14 Bionic, enhancing gaming and overall usage.
• The new Magic Keyboard designed for iPad Air features a larger trackpad and a 14-key function row, connecting magnetically and starting at $269 for the 11-inch model.
• An updated base iPad now includes the A16 chip and doubles storage to 128 GB while keeping the introductory price at $349.