Apple launches the new iPad Air featuring M3 silicon, maintaining the same price.

      Apple has recently introduced an updated version of the iPad Air, featuring the M3 silicon. The design remains consistent, with 11-inch and 13-inch models available once more. Notably, a newly designed Magic Keyboard is specifically tailored for the latest iPad Air models.

      The key highlight is the enhanced M3 processor, which Apple claims is twice as fast as the previous iPad Air model equipped with the M1 chip. The M3 silicon includes an 8-core CPU and a 9-core GPU. Apple states that the M3 chip provides up to a 35% performance increase in multithreaded CPU tasks compared to the M1-driven iPad Air, while graphics performance sees a 40% improvement.

      According to Apple, “M3 also incorporates Apple’s advanced graphics architecture into iPad Air for the first time, featuring support for dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading, and ray tracing.” Consequently, graphics rendering tasks are reported to be up to four times quicker on the new iPad Air, which is beneficial for AAA games developed using the Metal framework that have been launched on the Apple Store in recent years.

      The AI accelerator engine in the M3 is also quicker, with Apple highlighting a 60% enhancement for AI-related tasks. On the software side, it operates on iOS 18, including a complete suite of Apple Intelligence features like Siri-ChatGPT integration, Image Playground, Genmoji, and more.

      In terms of hardware, the new iPad Air closely resembles the iPad Air M2, with the addition of hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a ProRes encode and decode engine, AV1 decoding support, and a media engine capable of handling hardware-accelerated 8K HEVC, 4K H.264, ProRes, and ProRes RAW. These features are primarily linked to the M3 silicon upgrade and cater to users engaged in demanding tasks such as video editing and playing next-gen games like Resident Evil: Village and Death Stranding: Director’s Cut. I thoroughly enjoyed playing these games on my M1 iPad Pro, and I expect a similar experience with the iPad Air.

      The smaller model offers an 11-inch screen (2360 x 1640 pixels) with a peak brightness of 500 nits, while the larger model features a 13-inch display (2732 x 2048 pixels) with a higher brightness of 600 nits. Regarding stylus support, the new tablets are compatible with Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil USB-C.

      The M3 silicon retains the specifications of the M2 chip, including an 8-core CPU, a 9-core GPU, and a 16-core NPU. The refreshed iPad Air is equipped with 8GB of RAM, aligning it with the entry-level iPad Pro featuring the M4 processor.

      Battery performance remains the same, with Apple claiming up to 10 hours of web browsing or video playback on a single charge when connected to Wi-Fi, and nine hours in cellular mode. There's a 12-megapixel rear camera capable of recording 4K videos at 60fps and full-HD slow-motion videos at 240fps. The front camera also utilizes a 12-megapixel sensor, but lacks FaceID support. Biometric authentication is managed by a TouchID button integrated into the power button. The new Magic Keyboard for iPad Air, influenced by its iPad Pro counterpart, features a floating design.

      The keys provide 1mm of travel and utilize a scissor mechanism. At the top, there is a 14-key function row along with an additional USB-C port for pass-through charging.

      In terms of pricing, the 11-inch iPad Air starts at $599, with an education discount bringing it down to $549. The 13-inch version is priced at $799, the same as its predecessor. Available color options include blue, purple, starlight, and space gray. Storage options for the M3 iPad Air range from 128GB to 1TB in increments of 128GB.

      The new Magic Keyboard is priced at $269 for the 11-inch model, while the 13-inch version costs $319. Pre-orders for the new iPad Air model begin today in the US, with deliveries starting from March 12.