iPad Air iPad Air M1 next year?

[iamMacPerson]

At this point nobody can make accurate predictions about ARM v9. Anandtech were even expecting ARM v9 in the A14 last year....
It may be A15 or A16, regardless I don't expect any Air 5 this year... (only iPad 9 with A12 and maybe a new mini).
The Air will more likely skip again a generation and move to A16 and at that point Arm V9 is pretty much a given. My guess is that M2 will be v9 too. I don't expect any M2 macs in 2021. More like Spring 2022 at the earliest.
And M2 will power all base Macs and the next gen iPad pro in 2022 (which at this point might not come until after the summer) with a jump that should be similar to the move from A12X/Z (let's call it M0, after all it powered the first Apple Silicon Mac for developers ? ) to M1.

Anandtech was stupid in calling it that early. ARMv9 was only announced in March. Going off the timeline Apple had for v8 (A7 was the first v8 chip) it took 2 years to implement. That's why I doubt M2 would have it unless Apple is going to milk the M1 for two years instead of one. That's something I had not considered.

Otherwise I pretty much agree. I wonder what changes we're going to see in the 9th Gen iPad. I'm almost positive it will keep the A12, so what other features will Apple bring? Laminated display maybe? 10.5" display?

 

[throAU]

Apple doesn't sell products with crappy screens.

Hahaha... pre-retina MacBook airs say hi!

 

[brendu]

Does not make sense for them to update the Air just yet first of all. It’s the mid range device for those who want a basic but nicer iPad… The design is already similar to a pro and A14 is great for most people (hell it’s In your phone) it probably won’t get updated until late 2022.

I’m with you on this except I think it will come about 10-12 months from now in early 2022. It will get the processor from the iPhone 13 series and 5G cellular. Otherwise I expect it to remain the same as the current iPad Air in almost all other specs.

 

[Digitalguy]

Anandtech was stupid in calling it that early. ARMv9 was only announced in March. Going off the timeline Apple had for v8 (A7 was the first v8 chip) it took 2 years to implement. That's why I doubt M2 would have it unless Apple is going to milk the M1 for two years instead of one. That's something I had not considered.

Otherwise I pretty much agree. I wonder what changes we're going to see in the 9th Gen iPad. I'm almost positive it will keep the A12, so what other features will Apple bring? Laminated display maybe? 10.5" display?

They were not the only one, v9 announcement has been expected for a while and many expected it to be announced in 2020, not now, and expected Apple silicon to start with it....
In my opinion it makes sense for Apple not to release any M2 in 2021 and wait at least 2022. They can simply update the design of the air/base pro, with less bezels, magsafe, maybe even face id and 5G, especially if the 14in pro gets these features. And they could even wait for early 2022 to do that, with just M1.
Same thing as the base iPad, one year SOC update, one year external ipdates (this year move to 10.5 and, maybe, laminated, still A12)
An update to M2 with very minor external updates could come at the end of 2022 or early 2023... and that would be v9 for sure

 

[Digitalguy]

I’m with you on this except I think it will come about 10-12 months from now in early 2022. It will get the processor from the iPhone 13 series and 5G cellular. Otherwise I expect it to remain the same as the current iPad Air in almost all other specs.

I would even say autumn 2022, with A16....

 

[brendu]

I would even say autumn 2022, with A16....

Definitely possible. I’m on the fence about upgrading my 7th gen iPad to the air. I know it’s a great time to buy it still because no new air is likely to come out this year but i just haven’t been able to justify it because this ipad works just fine.

 

[Digitalguy]

Definitely possible. I’m on the fence about upgrading my 7th gen iPad to the air. I know it’s a great time to buy it still because no new air is likely to come out this year but i just haven’t been able to justify it because this ipad works just fine.

Any iPad with 3GB RAM or more is still pretty decent.... It's the same for me with the 2015 12.9.... I can't justify upgrading to the new M1 12.9 since my 2015 (with A9X and 4GB RAM) still does everything surprising well.... I'll probably wait the next gen to get the current M1 on clearance discounts....

 

[rui no onna]

I’m with you on this except I think it will come about 10-12 months from now in early 2022. It will get the processor from the iPhone 13 series and 5G cellular. Otherwise I expect it to remain the same as the current iPad Air in almost all other specs.

We might see something similar to the iPad 6th to 7th gen upgrade. Same CPU, maybe RAM gets a bump and 5G support.

 

[subjonas]

In case no one has posted this yet, here’s the history of which of Apple’s chips have been in which devices:

List of Apple processors

Apple Inc. designs its own system on a chip (SoC) and system in package (SiP) processors for its consumer devices. Marketed as "Apple Silicon", development is headed by Senior VP of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji at Apple's chip facilities in Cupertino, California and Herzliya, Israel.[1][2]...

apple.fandom.com

edit- here’s the breakdown cuz I know y’all are lazy (like me):
- all iPhones and iPad minis have used only A chips
- iPad standards/airs used both A and AX chips until the iPad Pro was launched, and have since only used A chips
- all iPad pros have used only AX/Z chips until the M1 iPad Pro