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New iPad Air Models With M3 Chip Seemingly Confirmed by Leaker

ericinboston said:
But I never saw the dire importance of having Face ID on any Apple device.
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No Apple pay and no secure confirmation of bank transfers without face ID.
Face ID is one of the most important features of iPhones and iPads.
I can easily and securely log into my online banking and confirm bank transfers via my iPhone.
An iPhone without Face ID would be useless for me.
 
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I find that odd, as my understanding was the M3 was sort of a stopgap design, which is why the M4 was released only six months after the M3. Namely, that there were yield issues with the M3's process design that resulted in a higher-cost-per-functioning-chip, and that it's notably less energy-efficient than the M4 in performance-per-watt. Perhaps they have sorted out the process issues and gotten the cost down, or perhaps they have a surplus of M3s they didn't manage to sell in the high-end devices, so they're sticking them in the lower end models to dump them as a sunk cost, and we'll see M4 updates of them sooner than most generations once they burn through the supply?
 
Santiago said:
I find that odd, as my understanding was the M3 was sort of a stopgap design, which is why the M4 was released only six months after the M3. Namely, that there were yield issues with the M3's process design that resulted in a higher-cost-per-functioning-chip, and that it's notably less energy-efficient than the M4 in performance-per-watt. Perhaps they have sorted out the process issues and gotten the cost down, or perhaps they have a surplus of M3s they didn't manage to sell in the high-end devices, so they're sticking them in the lower end models to dump them as a sunk cost, and we'll see M4 updates of them sooner than most generations once they burn through the supply?
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M3 was likely a lower risk design as the first product on 3nm. Process issues would have been solved before launching M3 by adjusting clocks or even cutting cores.

A17 Pro based on the same N3B for iPad mini uses freshly fabbed chips (proven by date codes), not surplus or binned chips.
 
abatabia said:
Strange update if you ask me. Why so soon? Why not wait for M5 and give it M4?
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One could argue from both sides, that's M3 iPad Air is too little to warrant the upgrade, or that it's just a minor spec bump and thus too easy and inexpensive for Apple to not do.

It could also just be about Apple launching one or two new keyboards or cases for iPad Air. Combining the release of the keyboards and cases with a minor spec bump for iPads Air would give decent incentive for buyers to get a new iPad.

Apple has done lesser releases like M3 MacBook Air and AirPods Max 2024. Barely any improvement but still happened.

And on that note, maybe M3 iPads Air will get some of the colors we got for AirPods Max 2024?

All very boring. But also very likely.
 
So the iPad Air gets the M3, the iPad Pro gets the M4, the MacBook Pro gets the M4 chip to start, but also the Pro and Max chips, the Studio has the old M2 Max and Ultra, the Mac Mini has the new M4 and M4 Pro, the Mac Pro has no “Pro” chip and also uses old M2 Max and Ultra chips, and the basic iPad gets the “Pro” chip in the A17 Pro.

Apple definitely isn’t confusing normie users at all!
 
macduke said:
So the iPad Air gets the M3, the iPad Pro gets the M4, the MacBook Pro gets the M4 chip to start, but also the Pro and Max chips, the Studio has the old M2 Max and Ultra, the Mac Mini has the new M4 and M4 Pro, the Mac Pro has no “Pro” chip and also uses old M2 Max and Ultra chips, and the basic iPad gets the “Pro” chip in the A17 Pro.

Apple definitely isn’t confusing normie users at all!
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This is the Cook Doctrine. Supply chain is driving the product choices rather than the other way around.
 
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abatabia said:
Strange update if you ask me. Why so soon? Why not wait for M5 and give it M4?
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Probably to make the cost to fab at volume worth it. They’ve moved on in other products but likely are using this to absorb the rest of the production contract on that node.
 
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AND411 said:
No Apple pay and no secure confirmation of bank transfers without face ID.
Face ID is one of the most important features of iPhones and iPads.
I can easily and securely log into my online banking and confirm bank transfers via my iPhone.
An iPhone without Face ID would be useless for me.
Click to expand...
I do both Apple Pay and online banking with my M2 iPad Air all the time. Touch ID works just as well. Am I missing something as to why Face ID is a must?
 
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Santiago said:
I find that odd, as my understanding was the M3 was sort of a stopgap design, which is why the M4 was released only six months after the M3. Namely, that there were yield issues with the M3's process design that resulted in a higher-cost-per-functioning-chip, and that it's notably less energy-efficient than the M4 in performance-per-watt.
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Bold emphasis mine.

I don't know to what extent if any the following 2 things had a bearing on the rather quick release of the M4 chip family:

1.) Artificial Intelligence was making the news big, and Apple Intelligence sounded half-baked with a slow roll out.

2.) Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips appeared ready to bring the Windows world similar benefit to those of Apple Silicon on Macs, and while the switch to an ARM processor with partial compatibility with software made for Intel (though apparently quite good) was a concern, Microsoft came out backing it, and 'Copilot' PCs were really making the news.

Since then, Intel brought out Lunar Lake, which if I understand correctly offered similar benefits while retaining full x86 chip-based software compatibility, so if I were shopping for a PC notebook right now, what to buy would be about as clear as mud.

All that major M4 series Mac buzz made the news at a convenient time, plus headed into the holiday shopping season.

Notice the sequence - iMac first, so everybody focused on the M4 chip without the Pro or Max stealing its thunder, then the iMac Mini so the M4 Pro got the spotlight, then finally the MacBooks with the M4 Max option. That's some 'buzz management' right there!
 
Aka757 said:
M3 in the iPad Airs makes more sense to me than M4. Why would they jump from M2 to M4 in the iPad Air, when the Pros have the M4 (even if they update those to M5 later this year)? Doesn’t make sense from a product segmentation perspective, although I don’t know anything about the chip yield side that might play into that decision.
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LOL iPad lineups made very little sense nowadays. At some point, the Air shared the same chip as the Pro (M1). At other times, 10th gen iPad has landscape FaceID while the Pro kept the portrait one. "Make sense" and "iPad lineup" can't be in the same sentence. 😁
 
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I have an Air 4 (2020), the first non-Pro iPad to have the current design. It's the longest I've had an iPad without upgrading. I kinda feel like they made it too good. The Pro is overkill for me, and no subsequent Air has offered any compelling reason to upgrade. The design hasn't changed, it's still plenty fast for my usage, and I don't care about the new A.I. feature. Still, I have the itch for something new, so I hope this year's Air gives me a reason to upgrade.
 
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iSayuSay said:
LOL iPad lineups made very little sense nowadays. At some point, the Air shared the same chip as the Pro (M1). At other times, 10th gen iPad has landscape FaceID while the Pro kept the portrait one. "Make sense" and "iPad lineup" can't be in the same sentence. 😁
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No iPad other than the Pro has ever had FaceID.
 
AND411 said:
No Apple pay and no secure confirmation of bank transfers without face ID.
Face ID is one of the most important features of iPhones and iPads.
I can easily and securely log into my online banking and confirm bank transfers via my iPhone.
An iPhone without Face ID would be useless for me.
Click to expand...
You can do all those things with TouchID and always could, since the iPhone 5s.
 
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Maybe the M5 is not coming to the iPad Pro this year. In this case both the Air and the Pro will be on M4 for more than 12 months, at least till March of 2026. To differentiate, Apple will be going for the older chip for the Air models.
 
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It’s kind of weird how the air keeps getting chip upgrades and things like WiFi 6e and pencil pro support but still lacks features the pro has had a long time, like quad speakers, promotion, thunderbolt, and faceID. I don’t know how they decide which features to update and which to hold back for differentiation, but for my money, a pro M1 or M2 remains much more appealing than an Air M2 and likely more than an Air M3. The speed of the chip is not going to hold back many iPad users.
 
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This sounds like it'll be a nice upgrade from my iPad Air 2. The M3 iPad would go nicely with my M3 Pro MacBook Pro, and A8X to M3 is one heck of a jump!
 
QCassidy352 said:
It’s kind of weird how the air keeps getting chip upgrades and things like WiFi 6e and pencil pro support but still lacks features the pro has had a long time, like quad speakers, promotion, thunderbolt, and faceID. I don’t know how they decide which features to update and which to hold back for differentiation, but for my money, a pro M1 or M2 remains much more appealing than an Air M2 and likely more than an Air M3. The speed of the chip is not going to hold back many iPad users.
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For iPad/Air users, many will be concerned about length of support. Comparing an M2 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air, the Air will get longer iPadOS support due to it being launched later.
 
JPack said:
For iPad/Air users, many will be concerned about length of support. Comparing an M2 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air, the Air will get longer iPadOS support due to it being launched later.
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Are there examples of that being the case in similar situations? I can’t think of one offhand, and it would surprise me.
 
Octavius8 said:
Similar CPU.
But extremely poor displays and RAM.
The price should be half at most for that miserable hardware.
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The screens are not that bad, Laminated P3 colour 60 Hz LCD but they are a down grade if using Promotion displays on the Pro models, and they have the same 8 GB RAM as the base Pro models. Does exactly the same tasks as the Pro models e.g. Stage manager. Also Air M2 is about 60% cost compared to iPP M4, so almost 50% 🤷‍♂️. Excellent bang for buck iPad IMO.
 
I thought Apple wanted to away from M3 chips as soon as possible. Do they just want to clear them from stock with the Airs?
 
Corefile said:
It's completely pointless having these spec bumped iPads if the iPad OS still remains as neutered as it does. iPad OS is just a junk OS.
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Was thinking the same. Devs obviously develop apps with the mass appeal device in mind (iPad) which does not even run a M chip, therefore they need to make sure everything runs smooth enough even on this entry model iPad and not a M2, 3 or M4.

Still rocking an iPad Air 4 btw. runs great
 
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