Back in 2021 roughly half a year after Apple Silicon was released to the consumer market, we got our first iteration of an iPad with a desktop-class CPU in it – the M1 iPad Pro. They chucked an M1 into an iPad Air a year later, and fast forward to 2025 – we now have the M3 iPad Air.

Not only does this iPad have bleeding edge tablet performance, but it also has a bleeding edge CPU fabrication process – using TSMC’s 3 nm process. Iteration is the key word here – it’s “the same iPad as last year, but faster”.

Hardware Accelerated Ray Tracing

The M3 chip introduces Hardware Accelerated Ray Tracing. It is a technique used in computer graphics to create highly realistic lighting and shadows by simulating the way light interacts with objects in a scene. Unlike traditional rasterization, which processes polygons and textures to render images, ray tracing follows the path of rays of light as they travel through a scene. The idea is to create realistic shadows, detailed reflections, and make gaming more life-like without as much of a performance hit.

Apple Intelligence

iOS devices running 18 and later with an A17 Pro chip or better (iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max, or all iPhone 16 models+). While device capability has increased over the years, it’s theorized by some that older devices don’t have enough RAM to properly run Apple Intelligence. This feature is slowly rolling as AI is new to the industry as a whole.

What You Need to Know

• The main advantage is the advancement from the M2 to the M3 chip. While the chip within itself itself carries a slew of upgrades for the iPad Air in 2025, the reality is it’s only part that’s really changed.
  • 5 Billion more transistors over the M2 chip
  • 1 GHz faster performance cores
  • 330 MHz faster efficiency cores
  • Higher GPU SIMD EU count (32 M2 vs 128 M3)
    • SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data Execute Unit)
  • More TOPS on AI accelerator (16 M2 vs 18 M3)
    • TOPS (Trillions of Operations per Second)
  • Smaller fabrication size (5nm M2 vs 3nm M3)
    .
• The M2 and M3 chips also share many similarities:
  • Both chips are derived from the Arm v8.6-A CPU ISA
  • 192 Kilobytes Level 1 instruction cache per performance core
  • 128 Kilobytes Level 1 data cache per performance core
    .
  • 128 Kilobytes Level 1 instruction cache per efficiency core
  • 64 Kilobytes Level 1 data cache per efficiency core
    .
  • 16 MB Level 2 unitary cache per performance core
  • 4 MB Level 2 unitary cache per efficiency core
    .
  • 8 MB “L3” SLC (System Level Cache, not per-core)

Details

• Announced March 4th, 2025
  • Available March 12th, 2025
    .
• Apple model number: A3266 (11″, Wifi only) EMC 8776
  • • MC9X4LL/A (Blue, 128 GB)
    • MCA34LL/A (Blue, 256 GB)
    • MCA94LL/A (Blue, 512 GB)
    • MCAJ4LL/A (Blue, 1 TB)
      .
    • MCA04LL/A (Purple, 128 GB)
    • MCA64LL/A (Purple, 256 GB)
    • MCAE4LL/A (Purple, 512 GB)
    • MCAU4LL/A (Purple, 1 TB)
      .
    • MC9Y4LL/A (Starlight, 128 GB)
    • MCA44LL/A (Starlight, 256 GB)
    • MCAA4LL/A (Starlight, 512 GB)
    • MCAQ4LL/A (Starlight, 1 TB)
      .
    • MC9W4LL/A (Space Gray, 128 GB)
    • MCA14LL/A (Space Gray, 256 GB)
    • MCA74LL/A (Space Gray, 512 GB)
    • MCAH4LL/A (Space Gray, 1 TB)
      .
• Apple model number: A3267 (11″, Cellular) EMC 8777
  • MCFW4LL/A (Blue, 128 GB)
  • MCG14LL/A (Blue, 256 GB)
  • MCG54LL/A (Blue, 512 GB)
  • MCG94LL/A (Blue, 1 TB)
    .
  • MCFY4LL/A, (Purple, 128 GB)
  • MCG34LL/A (Purple, 256 GB)
  • MCG74LL/A (Purple, 512 GB)
  • MCGC4LL/A (Purple, 1 TB)
    .
  • MCFX4LL/A (Starlight, 128 GB)
  • MCG24LL/A (Starlight, 256 GB)
  • MCG64LL/A (Starlight, 512 GB)
  • MCGA4LL/A, (Starlight, 1 TB)
    .
  • MCFV4LL/A (Space Gray, 128 GB)
  • MCG04LL/A (Space Gray, 256 GB)
  • MCG44LL/A (Space Gray, 512 GB)
  • MCG84LL/A (Space Gray, 1 TB)
    .
• Model ID: iPad15,3

iOS

• Requires iPadOS 18.3 (Build 22D2062) or later

Core System

Legend: L1i = L1 Instruction Cache, L1d = L1 Data cache, SLC = System Level Cache

• M3 Chip ($599): 8 Cores, 4x 4.05 GHz “M3” High Performance Cores: 768K L1i, 512K L1d, 64MB L2, 8MB System Level Cache
  • 4x 2.75 GHz “M3” energy efficient cores: 512K L1i, 256k L1d, 16MB L2, 8 MB SLC
• 16-Core Neural Engine

Memory

• 8 GB 3200 MHz LPDDR5-6400 SDRAM, 100 GB/s Memory Bandwidth

Video

• 1380 MHz Core Clocked Apple M3 GPU with hardware accelerated Metal 3 graphics
  • 128 SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data Execute Unit)
  • 18 TOPS (Trillions of Operations per Second)
  • 1024 FP32 ALU (32-Bit Floating Position, Arithmetic Logic Units)

Display

• 11″ Liquid Retina Display: 357.6 cm2 (Surface area), 80.9% STB Ratio
  • 1640 x 2360 resolution, 264 ppi, 4:3 aspect ratio with Scratch-resistant glass
  • Oleophobic Coating, 500 nits max, True Tone + Anti-Reflective coating,
  • IPS Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal display
  • Wide Color (P3) gamut, Haptic Touch support
    .
• 13″ Liquid Retina Display: 519.3 cm2 (Surface area), 86.1% STB Ratio
  • 2048 x 2732 resolution, 264 ppi, 4:3 aspect ratio with Scratch-resistant glass
  • Oleophobic Coating, 500 nits max, True Tone + Anti-Reflective coating,
  • IPS Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal display
  • Wide Color (P3) gamut, Haptic Touch support
    .
• Simultaneous support for an external display plus the built-in display at native resolution plus
  • 6K at 60Hz, Up to 4K AirPlay video mirroring, support for VGA/HDMI/DVI adapters

Drives

• Drive bus: PCIe (4.0?)-based NVMe, 1 GB/s+
  • 128 GB – ($599 or $49.91/12mo)
  • 256 GB – ($699 or $58.25/12mo)
  • 512 GB – ($899 or $74.91/12mo)
  • 1 TB – ($1099 or $91.58/12mo)
    .
• Prices in 2025 USD, for Wifi 11″ model.

Camera

• Rear – Facing: 12 MP, f/1.8, wide, 1/3.0″, 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, HDR, 5x digital zoom, Sapphire lens cover, Burst mode, Photo geotagging, 5-element lens
  • Video: 4K@24 – 60fps, 1080p@25 – 240fps; gyro-EIS
    .
• Front – Facing: 12 MP, f/2.0, 122˚ (ultrawide), HDR
  • Video: 1080p@25 – 60fps; gyro-EIS

Sound

• Built-in Landscape stereo speakers
• Built-in Dual Microphones

Battery

• 11″ 7606 mAh Lithium-ion polymer battery (28.93 Wh)
  .
• 13″ 9705 mAh Lithium-ion polymer battery (36.59 Wh)
  .
• All Wifi models: Up to 10 hours of Wifi video or web
  .
• All Cellular models: Up to 9 hours of Wifi video or web

Expansion / Misc

• 1x USB-C style USB 3.0 port (Up to 10 Gb/s)
  • Support for DisplayPort, data transfer and charging
• Wifi 6E 802.11ax
• Bluetooth 5.3
• Touch ID integrated into Power Button
• Accelerometer, Barometer, Ambient Light Sensor, 3-axis Gyro

Included Peripherals

• iPad Air 11″ or 13″ (In your color, size  and storage of choice)
• USB-C to USB-C style USB 3.0 cable
• 20W charging brick
• Introductory papers and documentation

Physical

• 11″ Size (H x W x D): 9.75″ x 7.03″ x 0.24″, (247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1 mm)
  • Weight: 1.01 Lb (460 grams)
    .
• 13″ Size (H x W x D): 11.05″ x 8.46″ x 0.24″, (280.6 x 214.9 x 6.1 mm)
  • Weight: 1.36 Lb (616 grams Wifi, 617 grams Cellular)

See More

• Tech Specs on: EveryMac, Apple’s Website, (11″) GSM Arena, (13″) GSM Arena