The iPad Air 3, expected to launch next month, will come with the A9X processor – the same chip that powers the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, according to a report from Bloomberg.
That report has been slipped into a lengthy profile about Apple executive Johny Srouji, who leads Apple’s processor manufacturing. According to “a person familiar with the plans, who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly”, an “updated iPad” with the A9X chip will be announced in March.
Though the article doesn’t quite spell it out, this iPad seems almost definitely to be the iPad Air 3, which has already been the focus of numerous rumors and reports. Given evidence that the mid-size tablet could include quad speakers and Apple Pencil support, it looks like the iPad Air 3 could be basically the iPad Pro in a smaller body… or, at least, as close to that as Apple can currently practically get.
It should be considered, for example, that Apple’s reported experiments with putting Apple Pencil compatibility into the 9.7-inch iPad line might have not advanced sufficiently to allow for this feature in the iPad Air 3. However, the tablet remains likely to include, unlike the iPad Pro, a Rose Gold color option.