Last-minute iPad Air 5 rumors put the mighty M1 chip inside

By Nadeem Sarwar March 8, 2022

With merely hours left before Apple lifts the covers from the fifth-generation iPad Air, a couple of high-reaching rumors have popped up online promising some massive upgrades without a generation-over-generation price bump. First in line is a report from 9to5Mac claiming that the iPad Air 5 will come armed with the M1 chip.

So far, rumors have been predicting the latest-gen Bionic A-series chip for the 2022 iPad Air refresh. An M1 chip inside the iPad Air 5 will push it straight into the top tiers of tablet performance rankings. Plus, it won’t be surprising to see, as Apple has already fitted the same chip inside the current-gen iPad Pro.

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If it turns out to be true, Apple will drastically undercut Samsung’s flagship Galaxy Tab S8 tablets on the pricing front without any compromises in terms of raw firepower. Additionally, 5G support is also said to be a part of the package when buying the cellular model. It’ll cost a hundred dollars or so extra, but it’ll be worth it for around-the-clock connectivity.

Another report from Korean blog Naver wades even further into the “sounds too good to be true” territory. Citing a U.S. developer, the report adds more fuel to the M1 chip rumor. It also claims that the base storage is being bumped to 128GB with the fifth-generation iPad Air, while the amount of RAM inside the base model is also being upgraded to 8GB. Per tech YouTuber Luke Miani, a purple model of the iPad Air might also be in the pipeline.

And here’s the best (read: most skeptical) part. The report claims that all those upgrades will be up for grabs at $599, the same asking price as the previous-gen iPad Air. The list of upgrades is massive, even if the design remains unchanged. However, offering all that hardware goodness for $599 sounds a tad too good to be true. So yeah, take it all with some skepticism and wait a few more hours for Apple’s event to unfold.

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