The new iPad Air has floated down from Apple’s spaceship headquarters in Cupertino, California. As CEO Tim Cook said Monday, “there’s something in the air.” Still, you may not be surprised to learn it looks very similar to last year’s model, though now it should be faster with an M3 chip rather than last year’s M2.
The 2025 model of the iPad Air starts at $600 for the 11-inch version and $800 for the 13-inch variant. Both come with M3 chips, the last-gen silicon featured in the 2024 MacBooks. Apple skipped a generation for its iPad Pro, shoving an M4 chip inside the 2025 model along with its ultra-thin frame sporting a pretty tandem OLED display. The new Airs, by comparison, include a similar thin frame to last year’s rendition. We also still get a kick out of the fact the Pro is thinner and lighter than the Air. The 13-inch iPad Pro is 5.1 mm thick, while the new iPad Air models are 6.1 mm. Does that matter? Not really, though an 11-inch iPad Pro is also slightly lighter at .98 pounds compared to the 1.01 pounds on the same sized Air.
The new chip on the iPad Air is the same whether you opt for the 11-inch screen or the 13-inch one. This M3 includes an 8-core CPU broken up into four performance cores and four efficiency cores. The 9-core GPU supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and dynamic caching, which may be a benefit for users who want to game on their iPad Air or work with any 3D rendering software. The M3 was a step up from M2 in many ways, especially with graphical performance. Still, Apple is angling this device as the upgrade for people still using a M1 or A14 Bionic-level CPU. The M3 MacBook Air also sports 8 GB of RAM, same as the Air from last year.
The company claims the M3 on iPad is two times faster than the version with M1. Apple also wants to promote these tablets for use with Apple Intelligence. Sure, any M-series chip can use the relatively few AI features on iPad, from the ChatGPT integration to Image Playground, but the M3 should offer 60% faster performance for AI tasks, according to Apple.
You still have the same storage options starting at 128 GB, going all the way up to 1 TB. For an additional $130, you can get it with the Apple Pencil Pro or spend an extra $80 on the Apple Pencil USB-C. No, unfortunately it won’t support the older Apple Pencil designs, as the tech giant said it had to reconfigure its magnet attachment points for the latest iPad designs.
While last year’s M2 iPad Airs included the old version of the Magic Keyboard, the new tablets can come packaged with an optional $270 or $320 Magic Keyboard (depending if you order a 11- or 13-inch model) that includes the function row, so you better pretend your tablet is actually a MacBook. You’ll still have all the multi-tasking issues that come from iPadOS, but as somebody who appreciated the iPad Pro’s magnetically attached keyboard, it’s not a bad thing to see it coming to Air. As for color options, you have the choice between the usual slate of space gray, blue, purple, and the yellow-gray “starlight.’
There’s Also a New Version of the iPad, Though It Won’t Support Apple Intelligence
Then there’s the new version of the iPad updated with the A16 chip, though still sporting the 10th-gen design. The new iPad’s chip includes a 5-core CPU and 4-core GPU, alongside Apple’s 16-core neural engine. It was first featured in the iPhone 14 Pro and later came to the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. The extra benefit of the new version is that it includes more storage at 128 GB for its base $350 starting price.
This is a strange development, considering the base iPad even with the upgraded chip is not technically available to receive Apple Intelligence. Meanwhile, the iPad mini from 2024 can receive Apple’s AI with the A17 chip also found in the iPhone 15 Pro.
We suspect Apple may not be done with its “Air” announcements this week. Recent reports from reliable leakers indicate the M4 MacBook Air is on the horizon, so if you don’t have any interest in another tablet, Apple hopes to entice you with yet another lightweight laptop design.
This is a developing story. We will be updating with more information throughout the day.