The iPad Air (5th generation), colloquially known as the iPad Air 5 or iPad Air M1, 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 computers ...

developed and marketed by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

It was announced by Apple on March 8, 2022. Pre-orders began on March 11, 2022, and shipping began on March 18, 2022. It succeeded the fourth-generation iPad Air and is available in five colors: Space Gray, Starlight, Pink, Purple, and Blue. The iPad Air (5th generation) was discontinued on May 7, 2024, following the announcement of its successor, the sixth-generation iPad Air.

Features

Hardware

The fifth-generation iPad Air uses the

Apple M1 Apple M1 is a series of ARM-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., launched 2020 to 2022. It is part of the Apple silicon series, as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) for its Mac desktops and no ...

SoC; the same chip used in the iPad Pro (5th generation). The chip has an 8-core CPU, an 8-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine which can process more than 11 trillion operations per second. Apple claims the CPU is up to 60 percent faster and the GPU has 2× faster graphics compared to its predecessor. It has 64 GB or 256 GB of internal storage, and 8 GB of RAM. It has a 10.9-inch 2360-by-1640 Liquid

Retina Display Retina display is a branded series of LCDs and OLED displays by Apple Inc. that have a higher pixel density than their traditional displays. Apple has registered the term "Retina" as a trademark with regard to computers and mobile devices with t ...

display with 3.8 million pixels. The display is laminated and has an anti-reflective coating, as well as featuring wide color, True Tone and 500 nits of brightness. The fifth-generation iPad Air features a 12 MP rear camera and an ultra-wide 12 MP front camera with Center Stage, which automatically tracks users to keep them in frame. Both cameras have Smart HDR 3. It has Touch ID integrated into the Sleep/Wake button on the top right edge of the device, and stereo speakers with dual-channel sound in landscape mode.

Connectivity

The fifth-generation iPad Air includes a

USB-C USB-C, or USB Type-C, is a 24-pin reversible Electrical connector, connector (not a Communication protocol, protocol) that supersedes previous USB hardware#Connectors, USB connectors (also supersedes Mini DisplayPort and Lightning (connector) ...

port that is used for charging as well as connecting external devices and accessories. The port is capable of transferring up to 10

Gbit/s In telecommunications, data transfer rate is the average number of bits ( bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mu ...

(ten billion bits per second, 1.25 GB/s or 1.25 billion bytes per second), allowing for fast connections to cameras and external storage, as well as support for monitors with up to 4K resolution. For wireless connection, the device comes with Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) support. Cellular models support sub-6 GHz 5G with peak speeds of up to 3.5 Gbit/s in ideal conditions.

Timeline

References

{{Apple Air 5 Tablet computers Touchscreen portable media players Tablet computers introduced in 2022 Discontinued Apple Inc. products