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iPad Air 3 predictions

A

asim1999

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 15, 2015
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I think Apple will pull an iPhone 4S on us and just upgrade CPU and maybe camera.

My predictions:

1) Same resolution as current iPad or iPad Pro. It would be stupid to fragment their products even more. At the very least, they will keep the same, or at the very best, give it the resolution of the Pro and market it as the Retina HD display or something with 375PPI.

2) Use the regular old A9 chip. It would be stupid to use the A9X with its beefed up graphics as it would destroy the iPad Pro in performance due to the lower resolution. They will probably overclock it.
Plus, anyone see a trend here? A4,A5,A5X/A6X,A7,A8X,A9?.
Seems to me that they will use a non-X chip this year.

3) Potentially better camera, it seems like a good idea to upgrade the camera, as now with the A9 chip, you can edit 4K natively.

4) Thinner and lighter (probably more bendable). Rumoers have circulated that apple will make this around 5mm-6mm thin. Seems plausible as they are doing that with the iPod Touch and the iPad is just bigger.

Your thoughts?
 
I see the whole tablet industry fading away. There are just too many tablets on the market and they all do the same thing. Heck you can still buy brand new iPad Air's - the original model. It won't happen overnight naturally but I think in twenty years it will be over. I mean you can only go so thin and light. So they come out with different size screens and put in a different processor but at the end of the day tablets do essentially the same things they did five years ago.
 
baypharm said:
I see the whole tablet industry fading away.
Click to expand...

Well a least tablets market are not fading away just like netbooks(they was soo horrible) did very very far from fading away in fact as lots of people are still buying and using tablets and use tablets as there main computer/replaced there laptop/desktop, and I don't really see tablets completely disappeared in the next 20 years, I don't see a reason why should tablets should go away.

2 main reasons why tablets are declining is phablets and people are keeping tablets for much longer and does not need to be replaced as often because the people who want one has a tablet and the tablet they got years ago are still good enough so tablets are more like PC then Smartphones.

And it really does NOT matter if tablets do the same things 5 years ago I mean just look at laptops, laptops all do the SAME THING from 20 years ago and people are still buying laptops so it be the same for tablets!!

As I said million times before tablets definitely have a place and definitely are the future and I am glad that tablets have replaced netbooks and tablets are ultra portable computers which it is great!! :)

I am a huge huge fan of tablets and have been using tablets for over 2 years and I have completely replaced/ditched my laptop with tablets and it is AWESOME and I NEVER go back to using laptops and i will ONLY buy and use tablets and 2/1, Hybrids in the future!! :) :)
 
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they will add the force touch like the 6s def. however, I'm not overly a fan of that yet. Or maybe I just haven't learned how hard to touch yet because I can seldom do the action I want on the first click.

Tablets are perfect for people (like myself) that like to work and/or relax laying on their bed with their head propped up with a pillow.
 
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Computers were (still are?) supposed to be on their way out but have from time to time had surprising sales spikes. There is a ton of competition out there from a lot of different kinds of devices that all do similarish things. Some small time vendors will probably have to cash out (remember Sony VAIO?) but tablets, laptops, etc. aren't fading away until something that can truly replace both of them comes out. Figure out what that is and you might be the next Steve Jobs.

Touch ID, more RAM, maybe force touch (consensus seems to be going back and forth). I'd like to see pencil support and a smart connector (even if Apple doesn't plan to release a keyboard for the Air 3 themselves) but will not be surprised if both are kept exclusive to the Pro. The CPU I am less concerned about, newer than the Air 1 ideally (though I haven't found an app the first Air can't run well). I'd like some bells and whistles over the Air 2 but if we get just another modest upgrade (no way after two years, right?) I'll probably go with a Pro.

I'm hoping to upgrade my iPad this year to 128 GB + cellular so I'll be disappointed if the Air 3 doesn't come out.
 
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This is my wishlist.

- Same retina screen resolution
- Slightly smaller bezels
- Apple Pencil
- Touch ID 2
- A9 processor
- 3GB RAM
- 5.5mm thick and 399g
- No headphone jack
- 32GB, 64GB, 128GB storage options
- 14 hours battery life
- Adopting the iPad Pro 'wireless' power connector for a keyboard accessory

Massive outside predictions.....
- They'll call it the 'New iPad' or 'New iPad Air' no numerical moniker (why have iPad Mini, iPad Air and iPad Pro and no 'iPad?!')
- They will also raise the base retail price
- Reveal End of March 2016
 
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Air 3 will not get the pencil or 3D touch. Each of them use different types of screens and I am not sure both can co-exist. Let alone adding 3D touch will increase the weight and the "air" moniker won't be as relevant anymore. The pencil will stay with the "pro" model for a while.
 
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AbSoluTc said:
Air 3 will not get the pencil or 3D touch. Each of them use different types of screens and I am not sure both can co-exist. Let alone adding 3D touch will increase the weight and the "air" moniker won't be as relevant anymore. The pencil will stay with the "pro" model for a while.
Click to expand...
I agree; I think that the Air 3 will be treated a lot like the Mini has been the past couple iterations and it will be a marginal upgrade while the big innovations will come exclusively to the next iPad Pro in 2017.
 
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Even though I am a Mini fanatic, I do like the Air as well. My wife has no use for the Mini at all but loves her Air 2. We both take our devices everywhere, always.
The Mini 4 and the Air 2 are well built, magical devices. There is no real reason to upgrade each year, but everyone that has either will continue to use/love it and will upgrade when they see fit.
The Pro is a different animal. It is not on the same playing field. It is too big to be used as a mobile device as we use ours imo, but is a fantastic device for artistically inclined individuals and the horsepower it has is amazing. I was beyond impressed trying it out in the Apple store.
There is a place for all three iPads.
We all have different needs and buy and use the devices that suit our needs.
Granted, the Mini was skipped over a year, and the Air is taking its turn. Of course Apple wants to give the Pro a chance to take it's place in the line up without undue competition.
 
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I predict the Ipad Air 3 will be a good upgrade from the Air 2 with a improved CPU(A9X) will be more powerful and a improved display and as always it will be thinner and lighter and maybe 3/4GB of RAM but 2GB of RAM is plenty at the moment! :)

And i think the Air 3 will be announced in March or around September/October time this year!
 
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I could see it getting an iPad mini 4 type upgrade. Last year's iPhone's processor but beefed up a little with memory, clock speed, etc. They are not putting the A9X in the 9.7 inch iPad. I think it's too powerful for the size and wouldn't have enough area to displace the heat. Also it would suck the battery dry. On top of the CPU upgrade *maybe* do 3D Touch but it would be hard for me to believe that they would have a major feature like that available only on the now middle of the road iPad but not the premium one. Apple probably will be dumb and make the iPad even thinner, shrink the battery in the process, and cause more vibration/distortion problems. I hope they make the device a little thicker/sturdier with a better battery to be honest but I doubt that will happen.

I wouldn't complain too much about a beefed up A9, it still would be quite a bit better than the A8X. Not too okay with the beefed up A8 for iPad mini 4 though, that thing could barely handle the 6 Plus. I don't think some RAM and a little faster clock speed has fixed animation issues completely. Heck, even the Air 2 is struggling. I don't know though, still have yet to use a mini 4.
 
Smeaton1724 said:
This is my wishlist.

- Same retina screen resolution
- Slightly smaller bezels
- Apple Pencil
- Touch ID 2
- A9 processor
- 3GB RAM
- 5.5mm thick and 399g
- No headphone jack
- 32GB, 64GB, 128GB storage options
- 14 hours battery life
- Adopting the iPad Pro 'wireless' power connector for a keyboard accessory

Massive outside predictions.....
- They'll call it the 'New iPad' or 'New iPad Air' no numerical moniker (why have iPad Mini, iPad Air and iPad Pro and no 'iPad?!')
- They will also raise the base retail price
- Reveal End of March 2016
Click to expand...
- Same Retina display : The Current display is good enough for another year or two
- The Bezels are rightly sized to hold and use, any smaller will cause fingers to overlap the screen borders
- Touch ID 2 is a luxury. The current Touch ID may be comparatively slow but I don't see the need for a 50-100 ms difference in Touch ID operation.
- A9X processor would be the ideal upgrade. A9 is a bit close matched by the A8X and in fact is beaten in Multicore Geekbench 3 and very close in base mark Overall.
- 2 GB RAM is more than sufficient. 3 GB RAM may sound great for spec sheets and android devices but unnecessary for iOS
- Why would anyone kill the headphone jack to reduce the already "thin and petite" Air 2 ?
- I get regularly a real usage time of 12+ hours on the Air 2. But better battery life is always better :)
- Great wish list but some things are better left untouched I think. No other tablet comes close to the Air 2 even after more than a year. Unless some break through in display tech or iOS comes, it would be better to let the iPad be the same as it is now.
 
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I just want to know if it will have pencil support. It's literally the only think holding me back from buying a mini 2.
 
Its time for a redesign. This design is as old as the first mini.
 
I think reports are that the Air 2 won't get 3D Touch. My vote is for a better processor and more ram. iOS 10 is a milestone year and I imagine they'll do a significant iOS 7 style redesign plus a heap more. They'll need more under the hood to handle that. This may be the first year that they can't go 3 or 4 generations back for compatibility.

But of course I'm guessing..except for the 3D Touch issue. I think that's been reported in most blogs.
 
baypharm said:
I see the whole tablet industry fading away. There are just too many tablets on the market and they all do the same thing. Heck you can still buy brand new iPad Air's - the original model. It won't happen overnight naturally but I think in twenty years it will be over. I mean you can only go so thin and light. So they come out with different size screens and put in a different processor but at the end of the day tablets do essentially the same things they did five years ago.
Click to expand...

LOL. I don't mean to be patronising, but have you any idea of how long a time is 20 years in technology/computing terms?
Heck, just over 20 years ago is when the Web was invented (Mosaic, the first graphic browser in 1993). That is how much has the world changed in the last 20 years.

Tablets in 20 years? Probably. Laptops? Less likely.
I don't think there are many people knowing what the world will look like in 20 years. They are called futurologists, they are very well paid and mostly they make educated guesses.
Personally I think (guess) that Google glasses are the closest thing to what we might be using in 20 years time. But who knows for sure.
 
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The iPad Air 2 and A8X processor has likely thrown a spanner in the works for iPad upgrades. As has been pointed out before the CPU scores for the A8X (Air 2) and A9 (6s) are pretty similar, so Apple can't just put in an A9 (the new iPad wouldn't be as fast as the iPhone). The only option would be to put in the A9X chip but likely lower the clockspeed to help the heat discipate. Similarly the RAM is fine at 2 GB, TouchID2 is a given and it would be good for the keyboard connector to be added. However, I don't think pencil support is comming just yet and as has been reported, force-touch can't yet be scaled to iPad screen-sizes.

So, what can Apple do to pevent the Air 3 being another 'pointless' upgrade like the Mini 3?
 
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