Yes, you heard it right, 9to5Mac is pretty confident that their exclusive info says today Apple will announce the iPad Air 5, as we all know already, however, the fact is the Cupertino giant might launch it with an M1 chip could make you crazy.

But the rumor absolutely makes sense because it takes less than $50 to make the M1 chip and given the fact that they have a lot of stock of these SoCs they could practically use it on the iPad Air 5. Previously, it was widely reported that iPad Air would sport the A15 Bionic as it has always been the case for iPads, but with an M1 chip, iPad Air could give iPad Pro level performance.

This will not only be game-changing but also a key USP for Apple to sell a new iPad, as 9to5Mac says the upcoming iPad Air 5 (codenamed J408) will have the same M1 chip that Apple uses in the 2021 models of the iPad Pro. As we know this 5nm based ARM SoC is very efficient, so Apple with its expertise could practically fit the M1 chip into the iPad Air effortlessly.

Crazy rumor: Upcoming iPad Air 5 to sport M1 chip & 5G

Also, in terms of performance, using the M1 chip will make the iPad Air 5 almost 50% faster than the current A15 Bionic and nearly 70% more powerful than the A14 Bionic (used in previous iPad Air). Why? It is because while the A15 Bionic has a 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU configuration the M1 chip comes with an 8-core CPU and 7-core GPU.

Not only this, while Apple could have used 4GB RAM with A15 Bionic, the base config of the M1 chip requires 8GB RAM which will indeed make this new mid-range tablet from Apple the fastest against the competition. The rest of the specs will mostly remain the same as the last iPad Air with the same display resolution and is confirmed to be 5G compatible as well.

The Apple Event will be held today at 10:00 a.m. PT/1:00 p.m. ET/ 11:30 p.m. IST, so are you excited? We will bring you all rumors and updates before and after the event, stay tuned!