The iPad Air (3rd generation) (colloquially referred to as iPad Air 3) is a

tablet computer A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...

developed, and marketed by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

It was announced and released on March 18, 2019, alongside the 5th-generation iPad Mini. Its case design is identical to the iPad Pro 10.5 inch; internal hardware includes an upgraded

Apple A12 Bionic The Apple A12 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. It first appeared in the iPhone XS and XS Max, iPhone XR, iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Mini (5th generation), 8th generation iPad and Apple TV 4K (2 ...

SoC, a 10.5-inch Retina Display, 3GB of

LPDDR4X Low-Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR), also known as LPDDR SDRAM, is a type of synchronous dynamic random-access memory that consumes less power and is targeted for mobile computers and devices such as mobile phones. Older variants are also known as ...

memory, and support for

Bluetooth 5.0 Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...

and Apple Pencil (first generation). It was discontinued on September 15, 2020, following the introduction of the

iPad Air (4th generation) The iPad Air (4th generation), informally referred to as iPad Air 4, is a tablet computer designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. It was announced by Apple on September 15, 2020. Pre-orders began on October 16, 2020, and shipping began ...

Features

Hardware

The third-generation iPad Air features an upgraded, 7MP front camera (used first in the

iPhone 7 The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are smartphones that were designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. They are the tenth generation of the iPhone. They were announced on September 7, 2016, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Fr ...

and up to the iPhone XS), compared to the 1.2MP camera found in the previous generation. However, it retains the same, older 8MP rear camera which cannot record in 4K video as such. The third-generation iPad Air has a 2.49GHz six-core processor, the

chip. That chip has a 66% faster clock speed than the 1.5GHz triple-core

Apple A8X The Apple A8X is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. and manufactured by TSMC. It first appeared in the iPad Air 2 and only is used in the iPad Air 2, which was announced on October 16, 2014. It is a variant of the ...

in the second-gen. It also has a True Tone display, which allows the LCD to adapt to ambient lighting to change its color and intensity in different environments, and P3 wide color gamut to allow the LCD shows more vibrant colors. This iPad Air retains the

Lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

port, keeps the headphone jack, and has a slightly larger battery of 30.2 watt-hours (up from 27.6 W·h), rated by Apple to provide the same "10 hours" of active use. The third-generation iPad Air is the final model to include a home button, Lightning port and headphone jack; the fourth-generation iPad Air does not.

Software

The third-generation iPad Air first shipped with iOS 12.2. In September 2019 it received an

iPadOS 13 iPadOS 13 is the first major release of the iPadOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for their iPad line of tablet computers. The successor to iOS 12 on those devices, it was announced at the company's 2019 Worldwide Developers ...

update. In September 2020, third-generation iPad Air was listed as one of the devices that can be updated to

iPadOS 16 iPadOS 16 is the fourth and current major release of the iPadOS operating system developed by Apple for its iPad line of tablet computers. The successor to iPadOS 15, it was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on ...

Reception

The third-generation iPad Air received positive reviews. It was praised for its laminated screen,

Smart Keyboard The Smart Keyboard is a hardware keyboard and cover designed by Apple for the iPad Pro (1st generation) and 2nd generation, iPad Air (3rd generation), and iPad (7th generation) and later. The cover was redesigned and renamed to Smart Keyboard ...

case capability, as well as a speedy SoC. However, it only supports the first-generation Apple Pencil, uses the 2017's 10.5-inch

iPad Pro The iPad Pro is a premium model of Apple's iPad tablet computer. It runs iPadOS, a tablet-optimized version of the iOS operating system. The original iPad Pro was introduced in September 2015, and ran iOS 9. The second-generation iPad P ...

design and only has two speakers compared to four on the Pro models. In addition, while the current Pro models provide some support for HDR, the Air 3 does not.

Hardware issues

Some devices of this model, which were manufactured between March 2019 and October 2019, have issues where the screen may flicker or flash before permanently dying. As a result of this Apple released a recall program which allows users to send in their device for replacement up to two years from the date of purchase. 2nd generation iPad Pro and 3rd generation iPad Air models can develop a bright white light on the display which is located above the home button.

Timeline

Apple products use the convention 1 GB = one gigabyte (one billion bytes), meaning that 16, 32, 64 and 128 GB storage devices contain a total of 14.9, 29.8, 59.6 and 119.2

GiB The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

, respectively. Formatting and apps take up some of this total storage, leaving 11.5, 27.5, 56.5 and 114 GiB available to the user.https://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/ipad/whats-iphone-ipod-ipads-true-formatted-storage-capacity-3511773/ Macworld

References

{{Apple Air 3 iPad (9) Tablet computers Touchscreen portable media players Tablet computers introduced in 2019