A new rumour has popped up surrounding potential new Apple products - and I don’t mean the Apple Vision Pro; we could be treated to new iPad and MacBook Air models as soon as April, with each product receiving a decent spec bump and (hopefully) a slightly refreshed look.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (a journalist who has a good track record when it comes to accurate Apple leaks) notes in his Power On newsletter (in a Q&A section that is behind a paywall) that “in terms of new products, Apple is aiming to release fresh iPad Airs, including a larger model, revamped iPad Pros and M3 MacBook Airs in the spring.”
If Gurman is right we could see refreshed 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air laptops fitted with the incredibly powerful M3 chip. He hints at the new releases coming out all at once in April, rather than having separate launch dates for the MacBook and iPads. This potential update to the MacBook Air follows last year's release of the MacBook Pro lineup and the much-needed refresh of the 24-inch iMac, which debuted the new M3 chip.
However, the M3-equipped MacBook Air was notable by its absence. The MacBook Air is Apple’s most popular laptop, and the company launched new models to showcase the M1 and M2 chips when they were revealed, which left many of us wondering what happened to the M3 version.
With the M3, the potential new MacBook Air laptops will have serious improvements to their CPU performance, including better energy efficiency as well as accelerated ray tracing and a better gaming experience. The proposed April release for the new MacBooks would make sense considering the M2 MacBook Air is coming up to two years old, so it’s about time Apple’s thin and light laptop got an upgrade.
iPads as powerful as MacBooks?
Regarding the iPads, we might see them inch closer and closer to MacBooks in terms of performance with these rumoured updates.
The 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models could be the first iPads equipped with OLED displays, which would immediately improve the brightness, contrast ratio, power consumption and of course picture quality when compared to existing models with LCD panels.
Apple already uses OLED displays for the latest iPhones and Apple Watches, so it’s about time we had a fully kitted-out iPad Pro for the artists and designers out there who would appreciate the boost an OLED display will bring. We could see the iPad Pro release with M3 chips as well, considering the current models available to buy from Apple were released two years ago and still sport the M2 chip.
According to the rumours, the iPad Air seems to be getting a minor update compared to the iPad Pro and MacBook Air, with a larger size of 12.9-inches, as well as a possible redesign for the camera bump. The larger size makes sense if you’re looking for an iPad that offers more workspace without having to fork over the money for an iPad Pro.
If all this is true, we’re looking at an exciting start to the new year from Apple. With the launch of the Apple Vision Pro headset just days away and the potential for these new product refreshes on the horizon, this could be a great year for Apple fans.
