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M4 iPad Air Review: The Best iPad for Most People Just Got Better

Apple’s M4 iPad Air hits the sweet spot between the base iPad and iPad Pro, delivering faster performance, better longevity, and premium features without Pro-level pricing.

7 min read ·
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The new M4 iPad Air is the kind of Apple product that doesn’t look dramatic on paper, but makes a ton of sense the second you zoom out.

No redesign. No wild new feature. No OLED. No Face ID. No Thunderbolt.

And yet this might be the smartest iPad Apple sells.

That’s the story here. The M4 iPad Air is not trying to be flashy. It’s trying to be correct. For most people, that’s even better.

The M4 iPad Air finally owns the middle

Apple’s iPad lineup can look crowded if you stare at the spec sheet long enough. But in real use, the positioning is actually pretty clean.

  • The base iPad is for people who want the cheapest way into iPadOS
  • The iPad Pro is for people who want the absolute best hardware Apple can make
  • The iPad Air sits in the middle and, increasingly, that middle is the best place to be

That has been true for a while. With the M4 upgrade, it becomes even more true.

The iPad Air now gives you a lot of what people actually care about:

  • fast performance
  • a premium design
  • support for Apple Pencil
  • Magic Keyboard compatibility
  • two screen sizes
  • solid battery life
  • enough power to stay relevant for years

What it doesn’t give you is the last 5% to 10% of Apple’s best tablet hardware. And honestly? Most buyers do not need that last 5% to 10%.

M4 iPad Air review: performance is more than enough

Let’s just say it directly: the M4 iPad Air is overpowered for typical tablet use.

That’s not a criticism. That’s the value proposition.

For browsing, email, streaming, reading, note-taking, schoolwork, multitasking, office apps, photo edits, and even a surprising amount of creative work, the M4 chip is total overkill. In a good way.

Reported benchmark gains over the previous M3 iPad Air are meaningful:

Test M4 iPad Air M3 iPad Air
Geekbench single-core 3,747 3,049
Geekbench multi-core 12,978 11,687
Geekbench Metal 52,876 44,420

Those numbers tell a simple story: this thing is fast now, and it’s going to feel fast for a long time.

Apple also reportedly bumps memory to 12GB, up from 8GB on the prior model, alongside faster memory bandwidth. That matters more than people think. It helps the iPad Air feel less like a “good enough” device and more like a genuinely high-end tablet that just happens to stop short of Pro branding.

If you keep tablets for four, five, or even six years, this is the kind of upgrade that matters.

Same design, and that’s totally fine

The easiest complaint to make about the M4 iPad Air is that it looks basically the same.

True.

It also still looks great.

You still get Apple’s flat-edge design, slim body, narrow bezels, and premium aluminum feel. From the front, it can easily pass for something much more expensive. This is not a device that feels compromised in the hand.

The available sizes remain one of the iPad Air’s biggest strengths:

  • 11-inch iPad Air for portability and everyday use
  • 13-inch iPad Air for people who want more canvas without jumping to iPad Pro pricing

That 13-inch option matters a lot. A large-screen iPad used to be a luxury purchase. Now it’s attainable without going straight into four-figure territory, and that changes the equation for students, remote workers, artists, and people who mainly use an iPad for reading, watching, and light productivity.

The display is good, just not Pro-good

This is where Apple draws the line, and it does so very intentionally.

The M4 iPad Air keeps its Liquid Retina LCD display instead of moving to OLED. Brightness is still rated at up to 500 nits on the 11-inch model and 600 nits on the 13-inch model. You still get P3 wide color, True Tone, and a fully laminated panel.

In practice, that means the screen is good. Really good, actually.

It just isn’t iPad Pro good.

If you care deeply about OLED blacks, extreme HDR punch, or the absolute best display Apple makes, the Pro remains the answer. But for everyone else, the iPad Air display is already in the zone where it stops being a problem and starts disappearing into the experience.

That’s the goal.

iPad Air vs iPad Pro: this is where the real decision happens

If you’re comparing the M4 iPad Air and the iPad Pro, here’s the honest answer: the Air is the rational choice, and the Pro is the aspirational one.

The Pro still gives you meaningful extras:

  • OLED display
  • thinner chassis
  • Face ID
  • Thunderbolt
  • higher-end chip configuration
  • more premium overall hardware

But the iPad Air gets you close enough that the price gap starts to feel very real.

For a lot of people, the question is not “Is the Pro better?” Of course it is.

The question is: Does it matter enough for how you actually use an iPad?

Most of the time, the answer is no.

That’s why the M4 iPad Air is so compelling. It gets close enough to Pro territory that you stop feeling like you’re settling.

What’s new besides the chip

The chip is the headline, but there are a few under-the-radar upgrades too.

According to reported testing and specs, the new iPad Air adds:

  • Wi-Fi 7 support
  • Bluetooth 6
  • Apple’s newer wireless silicon
  • faster cellular performance on 5G models
  • improved efficiency for mobile connectivity

Now, to be clear, these are not features that will change your life today. Most people are not sitting around waiting for Bluetooth 6. But they do help with longevity, and longevity is a huge part of the iPad Air pitch.

This is a tablet you buy and keep.

Future-proofing matters.

Cameras, speakers, battery life: all good, all sensible

The rear camera remains a 12MP shooter, while the front camera is also 12MP with landscape orientation and Center Stage support. That last part matters more than megapixels. The camera is in the right place for video calls, and that’s how most people actually use an iPad camera.

You also get:

  • 4K video recording up to 60fps
  • Center Stage for video calls
  • stereo speakers in landscape
  • USB-C with up to 10Gb/s transfer speeds
  • Touch ID in the power button

Battery life is still around the classic all-day mark, with up to 10 hours of Wi-Fi web use and around 9 hours on cellular. In other words, exactly what most people want from an iPad: dependable battery life without drama.

Again, this product is not trying to win on headline-grabbing novelty. It’s trying to remove friction.

And it does.

The M4 iPad Air is not for every current iPad Air owner

This is where the hype needs to calm down a bit.

If you already own an M3 iPad Air, this is probably not your upgrade.

If you own an M2 iPad Air and it still feels fast, it’s probably not your upgrade either.

The M4 model looks like a classic “skip a generation or two” device. It makes the most sense if you are coming from:

  • an older A-series iPad Air
  • a base iPad and want a meaningful step up
  • an aging iPad Pro that no longer justifies Pro-level spending
  • a laptop-plus-tablet workflow where the Air can serve as your flexible second machine

That’s the key point. The M4 iPad Air is a fantastic buy. It’s just not a mandatory upgrade.

11-inch vs 13-inch M4 iPad Air

This is the buying decision that actually matters more than chip comparisons.

Buy the 11-inch iPad Air if:

  • you want maximum portability
  • you mainly browse, read, stream, and travel with it
  • you want the easiest one-hand or lap-friendly iPad

Buy the 13-inch iPad Air if:

  • you use split-screen apps regularly
  • you read large documents, PDFs, or magazines
  • you want a laptop-like canvas with the Magic Keyboard
  • you do light creative work and want more room without paying for a Pro

The 13-inch model is especially interesting because it gets you most of the big-screen iPad experience at a much more reasonable price than the iPad Pro. For many buyers, that alone is the killer feature.

Who should buy the M4 iPad Air?

The M4 iPad Air is ideal for people who want one device to do a lot of things well without obsessing over top-tier specs.

It makes the most sense for:

  • students
  • professionals who travel
  • writers
  • note-takers
  • casual creators
  • families buying a long-lasting iPad
  • users who want a premium tablet but don’t want to overspend

It is especially strong if your definition of “productivity” is realistic rather than aspirational.

A lot of people buy iPad Pro hardware for a fantasy version of their workflow. The iPad Air is for your actual workflow.

That’s a big difference.

Final verdict: the best iPad for most people

The M4 iPad Air is not the most exciting iPad Apple has ever released.

It might be the most convincing.

It nails the part of the market that matters most: people who want a premium iPad experience without paying premium-Pro money. It is fast, polished, portable, capable, and future-proof in all the ways that count.

Could Apple have added OLED? Sure. Could it have added Face ID or Thunderbolt? Absolutely.

But then it wouldn’t be the iPad Air. It would just be a cheaper Pro, and Apple clearly doesn’t want that.

Instead, the company made something smarter: an iPad that gives most people nearly everything they need, almost nothing they don’t, and enough power to stay relevant for years.

That’s not boring.

That’s great product strategy.

And it’s exactly why the M4 iPad Air may be the best iPad to buy in 2026.