According to 9to5Mac, the new iPad Air that Apple is rumoured to introduce at tomorrow's "Peek Performance" event might use the same M1 processor as the 2021 iPad Pro. The iPad Pro was the first iPad to receive Apple's M-series CPU last year, and adding the M1 to the iPad Air would bring it on level with the current iPad Pro versions as well as the 2020 MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini.
Previous speculations regarding the iPad Air stated that it will be comparable to the iPad mini, with the same A15 CPU and 5G connectivity. Adding the M1 to the iPad Air would make it very similar to the more expensive top-of-the-line iPad Pro, and if Apple does decide to do so, the main differences between the iPad Air and the iPad Pro lines would be ProMotion display technology (with mini-LED in the 12.9-inch model) and the LiDAR camera.
The M1 chip has an 8-core CPU and a 7 to 8-core GPU, but the A15 chip has a 6-core CPU and a 5-core GPU, hence the M1 chip outperforms the A-series processors in terms of speed.
Apple's "Peek Performance" event will begin at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time tomorrow, so we won't have much more time to find out what chip Apple is including in the iPad Air. We'll have coverage on MacRumors.com as well as our MacRumorsLive Twitter feed.
