There have been conflicting rumors about what chip will be shipping in the 2025 iPad Air. Mark Gurman’s previous reporting suggested that Apple might give the Air the M4 chip, just like the iPad Pro. I argued in a previous post that it seemed more likely for Apple to use the M3. The iPad Pro required the upgraded display engine and increased efficiency of the M4, but the iPad Air, with its current design and technology, doesn’t need those upgrades (yet).

The Problem with the M3

The M3 chip is manufactured using TSMC’s first-generation 3nm process, which was reportedly costly to run and yielded poor results. The A17 Pro chip was also manufactured on this same process. It’s been speculated that Apple would want to transition to the next generation of this process as soon as possible, and discontinue the production of these presumably expensive chips. The M4 family of chips is built using TSMC’s second generation 3nm process.

Apple defied expectations by putting the A17 Pro in the 2024 iPad Mini and is rumored to be using this same chip for the eleventh-generation iPad. The fact that Apple hasn’t been rushing to get the MacBook Air onto the M4 would suggest that there have been improvements to this 3nm process that make it more feasible to continue using for some products.

Code Strings Found

MacRumors reports on code strings found by a leaker that indicate the next iPad Air will indeed have the M3 chip. M3 will provide a number of benefits over M2, including around 20% faster performance, and improved graphics with support for hardware accelerated ray-tracing.

We also continue to expect a new or updated Magic Keyboard to be released alongside the updated iPad Air.

Link: MacRumors