iPad Air M3 announced — price, release date, specs and all the upgrades

(Image credit: Apple)

There's something in the Air all right.

Apple has just announced a new iPad Air powered by the M3 chip. So you should expect better performance and more responsiveness when using Apple Intelligence features.

In addition, the new iPad Air M3 supports a new Magic Keyboard with a larger trackpad and a dedicated function row for controlling various settings.

iPad Air M3 specifications

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Row 0 - Cell 0	iPad Air M3 11‑inch	iPad Air M3 13‑inch
Starting price	$599	$799
Display	11-inch Liquid Retina display (2360 x 1640)	13-inch Liquid Retina display (2372 x 2048)
Rear camera	12MP main (ƒ/1.8)	12MP main (ƒ/1.8)
Front camera	12MP (f/2.0)	12MP (f/2.0)
Chipset	Apple M3 chip	Apple M3 chip
Storage	128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB	128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Battery	28.93 wH	36.59 wH
Size	9.74 x 7.02 x 0.24 inches	11.04 x 8.46 x 0.24 inches
Weight	16.226 ounces	21.72 ounces
Colors	blue, purple, starlight, space gray	blue, purple, starlight, space gray

iPad Air M3 release date and price

iPad Air M3 Image Playground — (Image credit: Apple)

The 11-inch iPad Air M3 starts at $599 and the 13-inch model starts at $799. You can pre-order the iPad Air M3 starting today, March 4, and the release date is March 12.

New iPad Air: M3 chip

Apple says the new iPad Air's M3 chip offers a serious speed upgrade. For example, the iPad Air M3 is nearly 2x faster than the iPad Air M1 and up to 3.5x faster than the older iPad Air with A14 Bionic.

You get a more powerful 8-core CPU, which makes the M3 up to 35% faster for multithreaded CPU workflows than iPad Air M1. There's also a 9-core GPU on board with 40% faster graphics performance than M1.

Gamers will appreciate that the M3 also brings advanced graphics technology to the table, including dynamic caching, as well as hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing.

New Magic Keyboard for iPad Air M3

iPad Air M3 Magic Keyboard — (Image credit: Apple)

The other notable hardware upgrade for the iPad Air M3 is the new Magic Keyboard. It now offers a larger trackpad (so it feels more MacBook-like). Plus, there's a dedicated 14-key function row for accessing features like volume and screen brightness.

The Magic Keyboard attaches magnetically to the iPad Air M3.

It starts at $269 for the 11-inch version and $319 for the 13-inch model.

iPad Air M3 Apple Intelligence features

As you might expect, the iPad Air features a ton of Apple Intelligence features built in. This includes handy tools like Clean Up in Photos and Image Wand in the Notes app (which works great with Apple Pencil).

You can also create images on the fly using Image Playground and create your own emoji with Genmoji.

The new Siri is on board, too. So you get a more conversational assistant, as well as the ability to ask all sorts of product knowledge questions.

Plus, ChatGPT is integrated into Writing Tools and Siri, so you can go beyond what Apple offers on its own.

Outlook

These new iPad Air M3 models are turbocharged for productivity with the addition of the M3 chip and Apple Intelligence. This pairing will allow people to create and do even more on the iPad, and when paired with the new Magic Keyboard, could finally bridge that gap between laptop and tablet functionality.

Mark Spoonauer is the global editor in chief of Tom's Guide and has covered technology for over 20 years. In addition to overseeing the direction of Tom's Guide, Mark specializes in covering all things mobile, having reviewed dozens of smartphones and other gadgets. He has spoken at key industry events and appears regularly on TV to discuss the latest trends, including Cheddar, Fox Business and other outlets. Mark was previously editor in chief of Laptop Mag, and his work has appeared in Wired, Popular Science and Inc. Follow him on Twitter at @mspoonauer.