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Apple Could Launch M4 iPad Air This Spring, Skipping M3 Chip Entirely
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Well, the M4 gen feels like the first genuine upgrade from the original M1 line.
If work will go EXTREMELY WELL this year, I'll replace my M1 Ultra with an M4 Ultra.
Fingers crosses 🤞
If work will go EXTREMELY WELL this year, I'll replace my M1 Ultra with an M4 Ultra.
Fingers crosses 🤞
True, but having different nomenclature gives the perception that M4 can do stuff a M2 or M3 can't.
And those who don't know better will spend more on the M4. It's all about the upsell.
Of course there is. I think that assumption is just coming from people who don’t know how to push the iPad / don’t have any use case for it.
Why would you wait until 2030, just get the previous version of the iPad Pro and you're good to go. They will end up costing less that the current air when they go on sale based on past sales. Thats like the best dirty little secret about iPads in general. You may not need the features the pro has but you will appreciate them and again it will cost the same price as the current air. Pro motion, better speakers, better chip, better screen, better microphone etc.
I recently watched one or two iPad battery comparison videos, and the ipad Air Models with M2 had horrible battery life, especially compared to those M4 models. Here is hoping that a) the M4 chip and b) the slightly „thicker“ size compared to the Pro models have a positive impact on battery performance.
I can’t lie, my M1 Air that is almost 2 years old handles everything I throw at it with ease. I’m not even thinking about replacing it for at least 2 more years.
So, for an M4, I don’t see the point unless Apple will raise the minimum requirements for Apple Intelligence in iPadOS 19.
So, for an M4, I don’t see the point unless Apple will raise the minimum requirements for Apple Intelligence in iPadOS 19.
There will be no new M3 or A17 based products from Apple: the TSMC N3 process node they’re built on is being phased out. It’s much cheaper for Apple to produce the newer chips.
Pretty much what I was going to say, worth looking at third party retailers still selling old stocks of M2 based products to see if they are winding down.
M4 with the Apple Intelligence feature would be what Apple are interested in getting in the hands of more people and a binned M4 is surely the way to go there.
Great, I guess, but will it matter to users? I have a M1 Pro and don’t find it taxed under almost any circumstance.
M2 iPads are perfectly capable of using Apple Intelligence, like the M4 iPads.
Even M1 iPads are capable although their performance may be a bit slower due to the M1 silicon particularities.
It's not about stressing the SoC, it's about getting as much performance as possible within the constraints of the device; physical size, thermal ceiling, and power consumption. Also, by including the M-series in iPads, the cost of those Mac SoCs drop because of the increase in production.
BTW, Geekbench on iPadOS has no problem stressing the M2 in the iPad - How else do you think they're able to report those scores!? There's nothing inherently limiting in iPadOS, that disallows apps from stressing the SoC.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the case and I suspected the N3B node the M3 uses was a temporary release to catch up with the competition until the M4 was ready for release.
However, I don’t quite understand Apple’s decision on putting the A17 Pro in the new iPad mini. Maybe they have too much stock of that chip, and the mini is a low volume selling device?
I’d say they don’t want to be making old cpus in volume unless they have to. Perhaps Apple have a deal to make A17 pro for 2-3 years (economies of scale) and need products to help fulfil that contract as soon as iphone 16 pro is out of production. This is why I’m wondering if iPhone SE 4 and Apple TV 2025 might use that cpu if iPad 11 is going to use it.
It’s fair to say that m2 would be capable of Apple intelligence, but also fair to say that Apple won’t want to keep making old chips once they start discontinuing older CPU’s from production. Maybe the 3 year deal for M2 is running its course? And perhaps the contract for m3 and m4 ran together?
Yeah, I just love the saturated colours of the iPad 10. But seeing that the new mini received pale colours, I wouldn’t be too optimistic…
Nothing to do with the soc choice
Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn’t Get the Basics Right
Let me cut to the chase: sadly, I don’t have a new iPad Pro to review today on MacStories. I was able to try one in London last week, and, as I wrote, I came away impressed with the hardware. However, I didn’t get a chance to use a new iPad Pro over the pastwww.macstories.net