iPad Air refreshed with Apple M3 chip, Apple Intelligence and new Magic Keyboards

Contrary to Mark Gurman's prediction, Apple has flipped the script and launched a new M3 powered iPad Air alongside the more affordable iPad 11th-gen. As its name suggests, the new iPad Air leverages the power of Apple's last-gen M3 SoC, but everything else about the compact tablet remains largely the same.

The M3 iPad Air is available in two flavours - 11-inch and 13-inch. But, the Apple M3 in question has only nine GPU cores instead of ten found on the full version. But, you get at least 8 GB of RAM on-board because both models support Apple Intelligence. Storage starts at 128 GB and caps out at 1 TB. Apart from that, little has changed over the last-gen iPad Air. The new M3 iPad Air is available in four colour variants: blue, purple, starlight, and space gray.

You can pre-order it now, starting at $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-incher in the US. Thankfully, there's no price increase this time either. Its 5G-enabled variants start at $749 and $949, respectively. Apple has also shown off two new Magic Keyboards for the iPad Air. They cost $269 (11-inch) and $319 (13-inch). Both iPad Air models and their keyboards can be bought offline from March 13.