The iPad Air 3 haven’t been revealed this year, just further firing up rumors about it being the last device sporting an Air brand. Rumors talk about Apple revealing the upcoming tablet during 2017, maybe even dropping the Air brand and staying just with the Pro models. When will iPad Air 3 be revealed, what the biggest changes will be, and will Apple make Air 3 to be compatible with Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard Cover? Stay with us and find out.
Design changes
The iPad Air 2 is more than two years old now, still sporting solid specs, nice design, and excellent display. The device sports a modern design, with metal case, thick bezels for a better grip and a large 9.7-inch screen dominating the front.
In terms of design, the iPad Air 3 could sport a Smart Connector, making the tablet compatible with Smart Keyboard Cover. The Pro models proved that a proper physical keyboard can really make a tablet solid choice for going work on the go. If this proves to be true, another improvement could include a larger battery, since the Keyboard Cover is powered by iPad’s battery. Apple Pencil is another cool new accessory debuted with the iPad Pro. It makes usage easier and allows for new actions to be performed. Many iPad Air owners would love to be able to use the Apple Pencil, and if Apple wants to keep the high selling numbers, the company should make the iPad Air 3 compatible with the stylus.
The iPad Air 2 is just 6.1 mm thick; it’s really thin, with an extremely slender profile. If Apple continues with the trend of making new models thinner, the iPad Air 3 should be thinner than its predecessor, but if Apple wants to make the upcoming tablet compatible with the Smart Keyboard Cover, maybe it will make the battery larger, sacrificing slim design in favor of better battery capacity.
Other design changes iPad Air 3 could sport are the removal of the headphone jack, pressure-sensitive Home button, and 3D Touch support. Also, Apple might choose to equip the upcoming tablet with AMOLED screen, sporting the same resolution iPad Air 2 has (1536 x 2048 pixels), and having True Tone features with Wide Color support.
Hardware Upgrades
The iPad Air 2 is powered by Apple A8X chipset (Triple-core 1.5 GHz Typhoon combined with PowerVR GXA6850) and has 2 gigs of RAM. The hardware is a bit old, but still pretty capable, especially since iOS is highly optimized.
The iPad Air 3 might come with the upcoming Apple A10X under the hood, a processor that might be made in the 10nm production process. The CPU should be less power hungry, and visibly faster than Apple A10 Fusion. The tablet should come with at least 3 GB of RAM. Other notable hardware upgrades might include a 12 MP rear camera with LED flash, 4K video recording support, and a better front-facing camera.
Release Date, Pricing
The probable release date for the iPad Air 2 might be March 2017. Apple is known to have two big yearly events, the one in March and the main one in September. Since iPads were ignored during the last September event, and since the iPhone turns 10 years in 2017, we believe Apple will present new tablets in March, and then will make a huge iPhone 8 presentation in September. Some rumors state that the company might drop the Air branding and just continue with Pro models. This seems unlikely since iPad Pro models are expensive, powerful devices that aren’t targeted towards all tablet users. We think Apple will keep the Air branding, at least for now.
Prices should stay the same, but the storage options might change. Instead 16 GB we’ll probably see 32 GB model as the most affordable one. The storage options might include 32/128/256GB, dropping the 16 GB model completely.
What do you think? Will Apple release the new iPad Air 3 during March 2017? Will tablet sport A10X processor, or will it keep the A10 Fusion? Will the upcoming model include AMOLED screen? Let us know in the comment section below.