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New iPad Air 4 utilizes the previously rumored A14 chip, reveals September Apple Event

Apple's new version of the iPad Air marked the reveal and first use of the powerful A14 chip rumored to be used in the upcoming iPhone 12.

TJ Denzer

September 15, 2020 10:57 AM

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The iPad Air has long been considered the lite version of Apple’s iPad line-up, but it’s about to get quite the power boost. The recently revealed iPad Air 4 will utilize the powerful new A14 rumored to be used in the upcoming iPhone 12. This will seemingly be the first official use of the new A14 Bionic chip.

The reveal of the iPad Air 4 using the A14 chip was announced during the Apple Event livestream on September 15, 2020. The A14 Bionic chip had been teased back in May in a leak of details regarding the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Max, but we learned far more about the new chip today in its official unveiling as part of the internal technology of the iPad Air 4. The A14 Bionic is said to be the first to utilize 5 nanometer technology. It features 11.8 billion transistors in the chip, which are utilized to upgrade the performance dramatically with reduced power. With a 6-core design, it results in a 40% faster CPU over the previous iPad Air. Meanwhile, the GPU features a 4-core design resulting in a 30% increase in faster graphics processing.

Apple boasts that the iPad Air 4’s technology boost through the A14 Bionic chip ends up making it 2 times as powerful as the next leading laptop in the iPad Air’s price range. As the lite version of the iPad line-up, it doesn’t even include the improvements made to the mainline 8th generation iPad alongside which the iPad Air 4 was revealed. As mentioned previously, it’s also been teased that the iPhone 12 will also utilize the impressive technological boost of the A14 Bionic chip in some form. It will be interesting to see how when the iPhone 12 is officially introduced.

The A14 Bionic chip in the iPad Air 4 was part of a wealth of new reveals from Apple’s latest livestream event. Catch it all in our full recap of the September 2020 Apple Event.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.