Benchmarks leaked over the weekend gave us some insight into the performance of the A14 Bionic chip in the iPad Air that's set to launch soon, and also revealed another tidbit -- Apple's newest tablet has 4GB RAM.
That's 1GB over the prior-generation iPad Air that had an A12 Bionic processor, but less RAM than is available in the iPad Pro models. Apple's 2020 iPad Pro models all have 6GB RAM.
With the jump in RAM and the impressive performance of the A14 chip, the new iPad Air is quite a bit speedier than the prior-generation model, plus it has the all-display design with Touch ID Power button, a first for Apple.
The A14 iPad Air Geekbench result that was leaked featured a single-core score of 1583 and a multi-core score of 4198, a solid improvement over the single-core score of 1112 and multi-core score of 2832 earned by the third-generation iPad Air with A12 Bionic.
Notably, the benchmark results suggest other devices equipped with the A14 chip, such as Apple's iPhone 12 lineup, will also see notable speed improvements. The A14 is a step up in terms of performance and efficiency because it is Apple's first chip built on a smaller 5-nanometer process. Reduced node sizes result in higher power chips that use less power, bringing gains in battery life and speed. The 5-nanometer A-series chips are also expected to be used in upcoming Macs with Apple Silicon, though the Macs may use an upgraded A14X variant that's even faster.
Apple is planning to release the new iPad Air with A14 chip at some point in October, though no launch date has been announced. It's reasonable to expect the new iPad Air to come after the debut of the new iPhone 12 models because the tablet does contain new technology (the A14 chip) that Apple may not want inspected thoroughly ahead of the debut of its flagship iPhone lineup, despite the benchmark leak.
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I don't want Apple to always try to have the latest hardware and best specs, but come on. 4GB is just embarrassing in 2020. It is frustrating if you use multiple apps.
Their cheapness is legendary, but they are priced and marketed as a premium brand.
The new air is very impressive, but the problem with it remains price/storage. Unless you’re ok with 64 GB, the Air gets very close in price to the Pro, which still has a number of advantages (including the RAM, as mentioned here).
