Apple to Bring the iPad Air Refresh Early 2024—Will It Get the M3 Chip?

It has been almost two years since Apple last released the iPad Air's fifth-generation model, but reports now claim that the next one will arrive by early 2024 to bring the refresh for this tablet. There are high speculations regarding the technology and features that would arrive with the upcoming release, especially now that the M3 arrived last October for the world.

The iPad Air is best known for adopting the M-series chip in 2022, with Apple giving it the original M1 processor, but did not wait for the M2.

Apple to Bring an iPad Air Refresh by Early 2024

Renowned Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, claimed that there will be an iPad Air update coming next year, and this release would refresh the lineup with the Cupertino giant centering on a new build. First off, it will feature two releases including the 10.9-inch and the 12.9-inch models, and this would be the first time that Apple will bring two display size options for this tablet.

It will start its mass production by the first quarter of next year.

The new development here is the 12.9-inch variant, and Kuo claimed that it will not receive the mini-LED display, but will bring an Oxide backplane which is essentially "the same spec as the existing mini-LED of the iPad Pro."

Will Apple fit the iPad Air with the M3 Chip?

MacRumors, on the other hand, claimed that the iPad Air coming early next year will not feature the recently released M3 chips, as Apple would most likely equip it with the M2 chip, the same as what it gave the iPad Pro. Moreover, it will also get upgrades to WiFi 6E, as well as Bluetooth 5.3, also following what Cupertino equipped the iPad Pro with.

Apple's iPad Series Developments

Last year saw the arrival of the iPad Air with the M1 chip, and it was a decent release from Apple as this renowned Silicon chip gave it stellar performance which ushered in new capabilities for the tablet. Before this, Apple only gave the iPad Air, iPad Mini, and the iPad Classic its long-time used SoC, the A-series Bionic chips, best known to be the iPhone's main processor.

There have been complaints regarding the last iPad Air release from Apple, especially as customers claimed its poor build quality, and it may have been the reason why it was not that popular in the market. The owners of the iPad Air claimed that there are creaking noise whenever using the device, centering on its thin aluminum panel back regarded as the culprit.

And while it skipped this year for its anticipated update, and the same goes for others from the iPad lineup, it is still something that the public anticipates that Apple will release. As far as speculations go, there would be an upcoming iPad Air refresh coming this early 2024, about the same time as its previous March 2022 release, and it would come with the M2.