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Everything We Know About the 2022 iPad Air Coming in March

TheYayAreaLiving ? said:
I really hope it's 6GB. 4GB of RAM is just not enough on an iPad.
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What are you talking about? I have the 12.9” 2nd Gen iPad Pro and it came with 4GB RAM, it runs all applications fine. If it was such a problem Apple would have not released the redesigned one in 2018 with 4GB RAM only to increase it to 6GB across the entire line up.
 
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GabooN said:
Yeah, the current is capable, but I figure if I'm looking to buy an air around this time I may as well wait for the processor bump and camera update.
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iPad Air 4th Gen is nice but compared to an iPad Pro it cannot compete.
 
JPack said:
Only question remaining is RAM. Will it be 4GB or 6GB?
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Does it even matter? Apple will be supporting 3GB RAM in iPadOS for sometime to come. Unless iPadOS gets more capable the extra RAM will not see much benefit.
 
code-m said:
What are you talking about? I have the 12.9” 2nd Gen iPad Pro and it came with 4GB RAM, it runs all applications fine. If it was such a problem Apple would have not released the redesigned one in 2018 with 4GB RAM only to increase it to 6GB across the entire line up.
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I agree with you but it would be nice if Apple can upgrade the RAM. The 6GB would be ideal for me. It's long over due.

forums.macrumors.com

iPad Air 4 has 4 GB RAM

This is as expected but the iPad Air 4 has 4 GB RAM. https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/4006878
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
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dabi said:
Was hoping they'd bring a 120 Hz/promotion display to the Air, since it's becoming a standard even on budget devices from the competition. Oh well.
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Apple may upgrade the budget iPads and iPhone to under 120Hz and call it ProMotion and 120+Hz up to 240Hz as ProMotion Plus. Just a thought.
 
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 said:
I agree with you but it would be nice if Apple can upgrade the RAM. The 6GB would be ideal for me. It's long over due.

forums.macrumors.com

iPad Air 4 has 4 GB RAM

This is as expected but the iPad Air 4 has 4 GB RAM. https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/4006878
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
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If Apple does increase base RAM it’s reasoning maybe related to hopefully a more capable iPadOS. Presently it runs fine on 2GB and well on 3GB. Apple may also just update the Air and mini to synchronize it’s specs in 2023 like it did with mini 5 and Air 3.

I suspect a base storage upgrade to 128GB but RAM to be 4GB until 2023. Considering iPad Pro 2020 models received 6GB across the lineup this will provide a hardware separation of 3 years.

Sounds like an iPad Pro might be better suited for your requirements.
 
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This (and my convo in Apple Cherry Creek last night) would explain the delay in the mini (now delivering 3/15): A15 chips are being prioritized for the 3/8 Air lunch.

I was in Apple Cherry Creek last night, and one of the team there said that Apple was reprioritizing chips to higher-end iPads. He went on to add "it makes business sense, when you think about it." To which I thought "maybe, but makes no sense to the guy here ready to go home with a mini tonight." 😜
 
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lazyrighteye said:
This (and my convo in Apple Cherry Creek last night) would explain the delay in the mini (now delivering 3/15): A15 chips are being prioritized for the 3/8 Air lunch.

I was in Apple Cherry Creek last night, and one of the team there said that Apple was reprioritizing chips to higher-end iPads. He went on to add "it makes business sense, when you think about it." To which I thought "maybe, but makes no sense to the guy here ready to go home with a mini tonight." ?
Click to expand...

There is no shortage of A15 chips. Even the $329 iPad (A13) is facing a 5-6 week delay.

The shortage comes from more basic components like power management chips and capacitors. Those components have been prioritzed for iPhone since late last year.
 
easy4lif said:
I’m hoping for the A15 chip with the 5 gpu cores & 6gb of ram
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It may probably be the same chip as the regular iPhone 13.

Unless Apple is planning on diverging the regular iPhone chip and specs for iPad mini and iPad Air gets the iPhone Pro chip and specs. At some point the regular iPad will catch up.
 
code-m said:
Does it even matter? Apple will be supporting 3GB RAM in iPadOS for sometime to come. Unless iPadOS gets more capable the extra RAM will not see much benefit.
Click to expand...

As usual, it's something for the future.

Owners of iPad 5th and 6th gen are now seeing the effects of 2GB RAM when multitasking. It seems likely iPadOS will continue to grow with more multitasking and additional external display support.
 
So what this says is a spec bump for the most part and my TouchID iPad Air is not outdated. ?
 
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JPack said:
There is no shortage of A15 chips. Even the $329 iPad (A13) is facing a 5-6 week delay.

The shortage comes from more basic components like power management chips and capacitors. Those components have been prioritzed for iPhone since late last year.
Click to expand...
Ahh... That too, makes sense.
 
JPack said:
As usual, it's something for the future.

Owners of iPad 5th and 6th gen are now seeing the effects of 2GB RAM when multitasking. It seems likely iPadOS will continue to grow with more multitasking and additional external display support.
Click to expand...
It’s not in Apple’s business interest to make a consumer iPad future-proof compared to the more expensive Pro models. Apple wants to sell more hardware, making an iPad Air with 6GB that costs less than a Pro model (not by much) and having the user not requiring to upgrade for 6-8 years means lost revenue. There is nothing special that the present iPadOS version does that 4GB of RAM cannot handle with ease.

I have a 2nd Gen 12.9” Pro with 4GB RAM and it handles multitasking well even with multiple Safari windows.
 
After seeing the geekbench comparison of the iPad mini 6 and Air 4, I’m no longer sure if I should get the iPad Air 5 or just go with a (hopefully) reduced iPad Air 4.
The difference in the scores wasn’t that significant that I’d really feel a difference in my use case.
And if they were to get rid of the nice green ice got my eye on, then that’d be another reason to g with the 4 ?
 
I had the current, soon to be old, version of the air. Coming from an iPad Pro 10.5, it was nice to have a new design. But the promotion and 4 speakers kills it for me. I can’t go back to a non-pro now. I’d rather have a year old pro than a current air. I was able to find an M1 pro 11 for about $150 more than I sold my air for. Worth every penny.
 
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