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More details about upcoming Apple products are being leaked as the company prepares for its “Peek performance” event. A new report claims that the iPad Air 5 is getting a major upgrade that could bring its performance up to the same level as the 2021 iPad Pro series.
For months now, the iPad Air 5 has been rumored to ship with a faster processor. Most Apple fans may have assumed that “faster processor” means the A15 Bionic chipset. However, 9To5Mac claims to have seen information that the iPad Air 5 will be powered by the M1 chip, which Apple also used on MacBooks released in 2020 and iPad Pros shipped last year.
The M1 is an octa-core chip with four performance cores and four efficiency cores. It also has an 8-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. Using the M1 on iPad Pros allowed Apple to increase the available RAM capacity to 8GB and 16GB on the latest iPad Pros.
It is unclear if the iPad Air 5 will receive the same RAM upgrade, but it is a possibility considering Apple has been presenting the latest iPad Air and iPad Pro as worthy replacements for laptops. It is also worth noting that using M1 increases the likelihood that iPad Air 5 will support 5G connectivity.
Meanwhile, the same report noted that Apple will still maintain a clear distinction between the iPad Air 5 and iPad Pro in terms of technical specifications. While they are rumored to have similar processors, the latter is expected to be the only iPad that supports the 120Hz ProMotion display technology after Apple’s event this week.
The new leak also agreed with previous reports that the iPad Air 5’s camera tech is due for an upgrade by adding support for Apple’s Center Stage feature. This should not be a surprising move, though, since Center Stage is already available on the iPad mini 6.
The iPad Air 5 has been one of the upcoming products consistently rumored to be announced at Apple’s spring 2022 event. Soon, tech fans will see if it is accurate as Apple’s “Peek performance” event will happen on Tuesday, March 8, at 10 a.m. PT.
Photo by Sanjeev Mohindra on Unsplash
