Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Sami13496

macrumors 6502a
Jul 25, 2022
692
1,528
Because the “MX” chips in the iPad are already significantly more thermally limited than even the MacBook Air.
And the “MXPro” chips are even more power-hungry than that, only being included in devices that also have active cooling.

An M3Pro iPad would have awful battery life and even worse thermal issues.

Meanwhile, the baseline M chips are literally designed for machines without active cooling and tiny thermal envelopes, like the iPad.
Remember, not only is the iPad about half as thick as a MacBook Air, but also all of the components have a heat producing screen laid right on top of them, and a smaller battery than any MacBook.
I see. I was thinking more from marketing perspective.
 

LAS011519

Cancelled
Mar 18, 2024
9
8
Everyone’s betting that the iPad Air is getting the older M2… but I’m that “some people” betting the almost year old M3 for the Air. M3 rn is acceptable, M2… not so much. After all, like the OP said, “The iPad Air getting an M2 now, while MacBooks are already on M3, the iPad Pro is on M4, and the remaining M2 machines such as the minis will be upgraded to M4 later this year, leaves the Air in a bad space if it gets an M2 in mid-2024.” All the “iPad Air is getting M2” rumors are old (like the chip lol) and fake (to me). It was possible for an M2 Air before. But if we’re gonna start skipping chips, I see M4 Pro and M3 Air tomorrow, I don’t care what anybody says! “Oh, but this unnamed leaker said it’s t8112, which is M2”… remember the rumors that the 24” iMac was gonna get M2? Well, that was fake rumors as it came with *drumroll* M3 instead. Also, remember when the M2 iPad Pro came out in October 2022? Honestly, it wasn’t worth the upgrade (M2 was 10-20% faster than M1, Apple Pencil Hover and WiFi 6E support) and most people preferred the M1 Pro (if any available). So, in conclusion, iPad Air going from M1 to M2… not worth the upgrade, no matter what people say. Going from M1 to M3… that’s very reasonable; M3 is 60% faster than M1.
 

Isengardtom

macrumors 65816
Feb 14, 2009
1,346
2,193
It could be worth the upgrade if they up the storage to 128GB. Which is something I’m predicting for the Air.
Probably Also a front camera shift and potentially better camera’s
 

ApplesAreSweet&Sour

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2018
2,288
4,235
Going harder and harder on incentivizing sales of the high-end Pro models while gradually starving the low-end and mid-tier models on the other end more is what Apple is striving for within each of its product line-ups, respectively.

The next iPad Air will remain one SoC generation behind iPad Pro.

This is already the case for the current iPads Air and Pro, M1 in the Air and M2 in the Pros. Why should it change?

If Apple wanted equally good sales for all iPad models it would never have segmented the line-up into three-to-four tiers, iPad 9 & 10, iPad Air, and iPads Pro.

You're supposed to spend no less than $799+ if you want a new iPad that isn't significantly behind the flagship model in nearly every way. Period.
 
Last edited:

Carrotstick

Suspended
Mar 25, 2024
230
418
Everyone’s betting that the iPad Air is getting the older M2… but I’m that “some people” betting the almost year old M3 for the Air. M3 rn is acceptable, M2… not so much. After all, like the OP said, “The iPad Air getting an M2 now, while MacBooks are already on M3, the iPad Pro is on M4, and the remaining M2 machines such as the minis will be upgraded to M4 later this year, leaves the Air in a bad space if it gets an M2 in mid-2024.” All the “iPad Air is getting M2” rumors are old (like the chip lol) and fake (to me). It was possible for an M2 Air before. But if we’re gonna start skipping chips, I see M4 Pro and M3 Air tomorrow, I don’t care what anybody says! “Oh, but this unnamed leaker said it’s t8112, which is M2”… remember the rumors that the 24” iMac was gonna get M2? Well, that was fake rumors as it came with *drumroll* M3 instead. Also, remember when the M2 iPad Pro came out in October 2022? Honestly, it wasn’t worth the upgrade (M2 was 10-20% faster than M1, Apple Pencil Hover and WiFi 6E support) and most people preferred the M1 Pro (if any available). So, in conclusion, iPad Air going from M1 to M2… not worth the upgrade, no matter what people say. Going from M1 to M3… that’s very reasonable; M3 is 60% faster than M1.
I would have agreed if M3 was cheap. M3 is very expensive to produce, N3B the node has low yields and TSMC charges a lot.

The iMac starts at $1299 and therefore can have the M3.

The iPad Air on the other hand starts at $599. Notice how the Mac mini is skipping M3 and likely getting M4 that’s because M4 is cheaper to make.

M2 isn’t even that bad. The GPU is very good and it’s still used in the Vision Pro. I am still on the side M2 for iPad Air and M4 for iPad Pro.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iPadified

steve123

macrumors 65816
Aug 26, 2007
1,155
718
iPad Air going from M1 to M2… not worth the upgrade
Exactly. Such an announcement would not be worthy of an event. Apple could be planning a drive by like they did last year with the Mac Pro update. The negative press would be harmful to sales. It would be better that Apple not announce it at all and then drop the spec bump late on a Friday afternoon.
 

Carrotstick

Suspended
Mar 25, 2024
230
418
Exactly. Such an announcement would not be worthy of an event. Apple could be planning a drive by like they did last year with the Mac Pro update. The negative press would be harmful to sales. It would be better that Apple not announce it at all and then drop the spec bump late on a Friday afternoon.
The star of the show is the iPad Pro.
 

iPadified

macrumors 68020
Apr 25, 2017
2,014
2,257
I am very likely 100% wrong regarding M4 in Airs. However, I would aim to sell as many devices for the AI as possible so it means M4. The reason would be to be able to say "Apple is not behind in the AI race" even if Apple in reality is. Short term profits may come back and bite you later.
 

shadowboi

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2024
643
1,129
Unknown
I don’t really care about SoC they put in it. There are barely few apps on the AppStore that can challenge even M1 performance. What I care about is that they definitely putting OLED in all their new iPads. And for me that is disaster, I cannot even use their microLED iPads.

My eyes literally rain because these new displays are painful to look at, as well as I get headache instantly. And Apple gives 0 fs about the issue. Also they use lots of dithering to fake 10 bits color on cheap 8 bit matrix.

Old LCD/IPS was much easier for my eyes, as well as colors looked way more natural and this is especially important when it comes to photography and color grading. As hobbyist photographer I honestly didn’t like colors in my old iP11 Pro.

Will probably have to upgrade to iPhone 16 Pro or Plus because Apple gave me no choice – all these devices are OLED now. Before that I was thinking about iPad, since those will be OLED too there is no point as iPhones have basically the same OS.

And I don’t even think about migrating to any other platform – Android competition is just a joke without any privacy whatsoever and with ZERO pro apps for photography and video making.

I’ve heard many people like me who have issues with OLED just put matte screen protector on their devices and it helps a lot, will probably try
 
  • Like
Reactions: philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,402
278
Howell, New Jersey
I am older 1957 was when I was born. I have had cataracts repaired in both eyes and I have issues with colorblindness.

I had a samsung tab 8 which I traded in for a samsung tab 9 ultra. huge screen 14 inches. it works for my troubled eyes.

Now I am waiting for ipad to come i will get rid of my ipad mini which I am using now.

I may go for the air as it will not be heavy the mini is too small I had it since 2022 .

I do not seem to have the issue you do with oled screens.
 
  • Like
Reactions: shadowboi

MayaUser

macrumors 68040
Nov 22, 2021
3,177
7,196
Its simple, if the ipad pro gets M4, then the iPad air gets the M3 (they still have spares)
If ipad pro gets M3....then, its kind of irrelevant if the air gets the M3 or M2
 

shadowboi

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2024
643
1,129
Unknown
I am older 1957 was when I was born. I have had cataracts repaired in both eyes and I have issues with colorblindness.

I had a samsung tab 8 which I traded in for a samsung tab 9 ultra. huge screen 14 inches. it works for my troubled eyes.

Now I am waiting for ipad to come i will get rid of my ipad mini which I am using now.

I may go for the air as it will not be heavy the mini is too small I had it since 2022 .

I do not seem to have the issue you do with oled screens.
I guess it might be not vision-related but something about how our brains work. There are many people who experience issues with flickering.

Also it might be because of the glasses – I often take my glasses off just to give eyes some time to rest.

At the same time, it is just hard for me to understand why I can work with my old 2012 iMac for hours and hours and will feel tiredness with my fresh Macbook Air M1.

There are soo many things at play such as display resolution, screen size, display tech and even OS design and aesthetic. It is really hard to know what is the exact reason
 

Lioness~

Suspended
Apr 26, 2017
3,408
4,249
Sweden
The iPad Pro might get M3 Pro, we haven't seen those chips yet on iPads, or have we?
Then Air can still get the M3.

I doubt M4 will come now - but surprise me Apple.
 
  • Like
Reactions: steve123

johannnn

macrumors 68020
Nov 20, 2009
2,315
2,602
Sweden
Of course only the iPad Pro will get the M4. That's how Apple is upselling us for the Pro model. People that think/hope that Apple will put the fastest newest greatest chip in the iPhone/iPad base models are delusional, or just new to the Apple ecosystem. They were the first 3 trillion dollar company for a reason.

Edit: it got the M2, no one is surprised.
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.