iPad Air (3rd generation)

Revives the iPad Air brand by bringing a 10.5-inch laminated True Tone display, Smart Keyboard support, and A12 Bionic to the mid-tier price point.

Generation delta

What changed?

10.5-inch laminated Retina display on Air line
2224 x 1668 resolution at 264 ppi with P3 wide color, True Tone technology, full lamination, and anti-reflective coating (500 nits brightness).
Display
Apple Pencil (1st generation) support on iPad Air
Brings low-latency stylus drawing and note-taking to the Air series.
Ports
Smart Connector on iPad Air
Side three-pin contact interface enabling Apple Smart Keyboard attachment without Bluetooth pairing or charging.
Connectivity
A12 Bionic chip
7nm SoC with 6-core CPU (2 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores), 4-core GPU, and Apple's 8-core Neural Engine.
Silicon
Gigabit-class LTE and eSIM
Cellular support expanded up to 28 LTE bands with Gigabit-class throughput.
Connectivity
Bluetooth 5.0 wireless technology
.
Connectivity

Display size increase
Display grows from 9.7 inches (iPad Air 2) to 10.5 inches with narrower side bezels.
Display
Front camera upgrade
Upgraded from 1.2MP to 7MP FaceTime HD camera with 1080p HD video recording.
Camera
Performance jump
70% boost in CPU performance and 2x graphics capability compared to iPad Air 2.
Silicon
Storage configurations
64GB and 256GB capacities.
Storage

Touch ID (2nd generation)
Embedded in physical Home button.
Sensors
Lightning connector
For charging and peripheral connection.
Ports
3.5 mm headphone jack
Audio port preserved.
Ports
8MP rear camera
f/2.4 aperture with 1080p HD video recording.
Camera
Ultra-slim unibody aluminum profile
6.1 mm thin, weighing 456 g (Wi-Fi) / 464 g (Cellular).
Connectivity
10-hour battery life
Powered by a 30.2-watt-hour battery.
Power

Technology DNA

Reversible digital connector introduced on iPhone 5.

High-density display branding introduced on iPhone 4 and later expanded across product families.

Fingerprint authentication introduced on iPhone 5s.

Canonical predecessor