New iPad Air 2022: latest news and rumors

The iPad Air 2022 is expected to be released in the coming months, and it's one of Apple updates we're most looking forward to, because all of the other iPads have been refreshed more recently.

Despite that, the current iPad Air (2020) absolutely remains one of the best tablets for people, thanks to its mix of size, features and price – and so when the iPad Air 2022 comes in to update it with even better features, it's probably going to be a winner.

It's likely that the iPad Air 2022 will be unveiled at an Apple Spring Event in the coming months, and based on what we've seen from the most recent iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2021) and iPad mini 6, we have a pretty clear idea of what to expect.

There hasn't much in the way of rumours around the iPad Air 2022, yet there are still clear signs that it's coming soon, which tells us a certain amount in itself – that this is going to be evolution, not revolution. But we're still expecting some cool upgrades, so let's dig into them.

iPad Air 2022: release date

A new device running iPadOS 15 was recently spotted in a regulator database (alongside a new iPhone), which appears to the be the iPad Air 2022.

The next Apple Event is expected to be in March or April 2022, with the latter looking more likely – Apple's 2021 spring event was in April. 

This all means The iPad Air 2022 will likely be announced in April 2022, then, with the actual release date probably being a week or two later – perhaps even in early May.

iPad Air 2022: price

The current iPad Air starts from £579/$599/AU$899 with 64GB of storage. We don't expect any major change here, with the iPad mini 6's price being the strongest sign of this: the smaller iPad costs £479/$499/AU$749. Apple likes its pricing structures to be nice and clear, and in all cases, there's a good step up from the smaller iPad mini to the iPad Air.

The iPad mini 6 was also released with 64GB of storage in its cheapest model, so while it's possible that Apple would boost the iPad Air to 128GB of storage at the same price just to add some more differentiation between them, it's definitely not a slam dunk.

So we expect the iPad Air 2022 to launch at £579/$599/AU$899 too.

iPad Air 2022: features

We're not expecting any big design changes to the iPad Air – there haven't been any leaks of a new look, and with the current design only having been introduced in 2020 (and only mimicked by the iPad mini 6 in late 2021), we'd say the design is currently in "not broke, don't fix" territory. That said, we might see new colour options in the same design.

There haven't been many rumoured big feature upgrades either, but we can be sure of some based on what changed in the iPad mini 6.

For a start, the iPad Air 2022 will almost certainly use the Apple A15 processor from the iPad mini 6, which is a mildly tweaked version of what's in the iPhone 13. And that will also bring 5G support along with it – again, just like the iPad mini and latest iPad Pros.

We're also certain to see a new Centre Stage front camera, which can follow you around if you move while video calling, and can reframe its angle if it needs to focus on more than one person. We'll also see a new quad True Tone flash on the rear camera – and better image processing will slightly boost the rear camera's quality.

Outside of that, there may not be much to write home about here. I don't expect the screen to change – and it definitely won't switch to OLED yet. We also won't see the mini-LED screen from the iPad Pro here, and I think 120Hz support is unlikely too – at the moment, the main thing separating the 11-inch iPad Pro's screen from the iPad Air's is 120Hz support, so I think Apple will keep that in place (unless the iPad Pro gets an update too! Which is very possible).