Apple’s latest refresh of the iPad Air brings minimal changes to the design, but a faster M3 chip provides some notable upgrades. The main differences between this model and its predecessor are the M3 chip upgrade from M2 and a redesigned Magic Keyboard peripheral.
While the M3 chip offers a 16-core CPU with improved performance, the difference may not be noticeable for most users. However, gamers and professionals will benefit from enhanced hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AV1 video codec support. Additionally, this chip supports Apple Intelligence, a suite of generative AI features that have become increasingly available across Apple’s lineup.
For those looking to upgrade, the M3 chip provides subtle gains in performance, particularly for demanding 3D games and heavy-duty applications. However, these benefits are unlikely to be seen by most iPad Air users, who will instead appreciate the addition of these new features over the improved hardware-accelerated capabilities.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/hands-on-with-the-2024-ipad-air-slightly-better-slightly-faster