Apple just launched its first new iPad Air in over a year, bringing the powerful M2 chip found in the MacBook Air range to the iPad for the first time.
Revealed during the dedicated "Let Loose event", both models include a moved front-facing camera on the landscape edge and improved sound quality.
Apple has also borrowed a leaf from the iPad 10th gen by moving the front-facing camera to the landscape side of the tablet — which should make it much better for FaceTime calls when you're using the device on its side.
The M2 chip
The M2 is a powerful chip and bringing it to the Air will add power efficiency improvements in addition to a significant performance boost. Apple gave the iPad Pro range the M2 in October 2022.
M2 is a "system on a chip" complete with neural engine for machine learning tasks, CPU, GPU and a unified memory architecture.
Its addition makes the iPad Air a powerful AI device, capable of running applications like Pixelmator Pro or Luminar Neo with on-board AI image processing, allowing for image editing without relying on an internet connection or cloud computing.
Two iPad Air models
Adding the new 13-inch version of the iPad Air brings the larger screen size to the range for the first time, enabling a wider range of applications.
This is the first time Apple has offered the iPad Air in anything but an 11-inch screen size since the first Air launched.
Both models now come with a minimum of 128GB storage and go up to 1TB. Prices start at $599 for the 11-inch and $799 for the 13-inch. Orders are available today with the Air available from next week.
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