The iPad continues to be the most popular tablet around. The current iteration is the excellent iPad Air 2, however Apple never stands still for long and so we'll expect another model soon – most probably called the iPad Air 3. This article will take a quick look at what exciting new features we can expect, when it will be out, how much it will cost and also have an educated guess at its specifications.
So why should care about a tablet that doesn't even exist yet? Well maybe your current iPad is getting a little long in the tooth, struggling to run the latest version of iOS and the best apps? If so you may well be tempted to head out and snap up an iPad Air 2 to replace it. But should you hang on until nearer the end of the year and buy the newer iPad Air 3?
We're here to answer that question to the best of our ability based on the knowledge we have today.
RELEASE DATE
This is one of the things we can be pretty sure about. Since 2012 the new iPad models have launched in late October or early November. This is in order to capitalise on the Christmas present giving rush, with the new models available in time for the holidays. So the new iPad Air 3 will launch within a week or two of the 1st of November, or we'll eat our hats.
PRICE
Again we're pretty confident we've got this one covered. New iPads cost £399. Now we've been expecting Apple to slip that initial price downwards for years now, but its domination of the tablet marketplace means there's no reason for it to compete on price, and so every iPad has launched at this price.
However, with the iPad Air 2, Apple did make one concession, reducing the fairly silly price of upgrading the internal storage to 64GB. With the iPad Air 3 we're really hoping that Apple gets rid of the basic 16GB model and goes with a far more practical 32GB of storage at the standard £399 price.
If you're thinking of getting an iPad Air 2 then it's worth noting that the older iPad Air dropped in price by £80 upon the Air 2's launch, and we'd be hoping for a similar price drop for the Air 2 later in the year. However, it's possible that Apple will simply keep the original Air as the budget model and phase out the Air 2 in preference of the Air 3, in order to keep a clear difference between its high-end and more reasonably-priced models.
SPECS
The iPad Air 2 used a three-core A8X processor, a modified version of the A8 seen in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The logical step for the iPad Air 3 then would be to take that chip up to a full quad-core design for even greater parallel processing power. This could easily be achieved within the same space and power requirements by a reduction in the manufacturing process. The A8X uses a 20nm process, but the latest Samsung handsets (and Samsung has made a lot of Apple's chips in the past), such as the Samsung Galaxy S6, use a far more compact and power efficient 14nm process.
With Apple recently updating its hardware to 64-bit and doubling the RAM to 2GB, we can't see either of these facets of the design changing.
DESIGN AND BATTERY
We've said it before, but we really, really can't see Apple making the new iPad Air significantly slimmer than the current model. If it does manage to reduce the size of anything internally we'd much rather see that space put to use with a larger capacity battery. The iPad Air 2's super-skinny design meant a reduction in battery capacity from 8,600mAh to 7,340mAh compared to its predecessor.
Apple has a fancy new battery technology too, as seen in the recent new MacBook. This allows for slices of battery to be layered on top of each other in a staggered manner in order to make the most of the curved edges of the chassis. Apple might put that technology to use in the new iPad Air 3
NEW FEATURES
There's a lot we'd like to see, but it's a bit of a wish list for now. Better speakers are a regular complaint from our team but Apple doesn't seem too bothered. We might see the USB Type-C connector from the MacBook too, but again we feel Apple won't switch away from Lightning yet.
One idea that probably has some wings is the idea of including the 'Force Touch' or 'Taptic Engine' technologies from the MacBook and Apple Watch. These could provide both a touchscreen that can detect how hard you're pressing on it, as well as giving you a little tap of feedback.
