Apple downgrades the M2 chip powering the iPad Air (2024) tablets

Not quite a month ago, Apple’s “Let Loose” event introduced the first iPad models to sport an OLED display (actually, a tandem OLED display with two layers of OLED which makes the display brighter and more durable). At the same time, Apple gave those who want a 13-inch tablet but don’t want to pay $1,299 and up for the larger-screened OLED iPad Pro, the opportunity to pay only $799 and up for a brand new 13-inch iPad Air model with an LCD display.

When Apple introduced the new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air (2024) tablets, it announced that they would be powered by the M2 chip, an upgrade from the M1 chip that was running the previous 2022 iPad Air model. During the “Let Loose” event, Apple said that the M2 comes with a 10-core GPU but has since revised that figure down by one core to nine cores. The tech giant didn’t make a big deal about this, it merely changed the tech specs page for the iPad Air (2024) under the section for the M2 chip.

According to archive data that 9to5 Mac looked at, the change was made on the tech specs page for the iPad Air sometime within the last 10 days. Apple has yet to fully update other documents including a support document for the 11-inch iPad Air (2024) which states that the iPad Air (2024) M2 has a 10-core GPU.

The press release for the unveiling of the new iPad Air (2024) models also has yet to be updated with it still showing Apple’s comment that “The M2 chip brings another big boost in performance to iPad Air, featuring a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU (Italics added). M2 is a powerful chip that offers several improvements over M1, delivering a huge leap in performance for those upgrading from previous-generation iPad Air models.”