Still the best, but need to change next time

Apple's new iPad Air is only ten months after the previous model, and the new iPad Air is just a silicon bump, which means the only change is that the chip is upgraded to a new one. Otherwise, everything else from display technology to size to construction is exactly the same.

My initial reaction to this version was: “Do we already need a new iPad Air? The last model isn't even a year old?”

But then I realized that this is the wrong way to look at it. Apple's iPad, especially the best-selling iPad Air, is a product that is everywhere around the world. So, this new iPad Air powered by the M3 chip isn't necessarily aimed at people who just bought the M2 iPad Air in the past 10 months. Instead, it aims to use older iPad Air from 2022 or further back. It is also aimed at anyone looking to buy the first tablet.

That's the mainstream level of success Apple has achieved: its products are considered “default purchases” for example – some people even refer to any tablet as “iPads,” so that means there will always be someone in the market who wants to buy one.

Additionally, the M3 chip does bring some significant improvements to the M2 chip due to a powerful GPU that can better handle hardware ray tracing.

So, the iPad Air will continue to be on sale lists in 2025 and continue to be the default tablet for most people because of its attractive price. The tablet comes in two sizes (11-inch and 13-inch) and costs $599 and $749, respectively.

Anyway, let's say you've been living in a cave or just woke up from a seven-year coma and not familiar with the design and hardware of the iPad Air, let's take a quick look at it:

This is a tablet with an IPS LCD display panel contained in an integrated aluminum housing. The construction is advanced: the buttons are clicking, the body has seams, everything feels solid.

The screen looks very good. Of course, the OLED panel in the flagship phone produces a deeper black to make it more pleasing, but this iPad air screen still covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color range and provides excellent viewing angles. I do wish I had the option to add the anti-reflective nanotextured coatings that I saw in the high-end iPad Pros and MacBook Pros. But again, this screen is very good and costs $599.

The bezels that wrap the iPad Air screen are nice to my eyes – they aren't thick or ugly in themselves – but they can't be called thin in 2025 when every other Android tablet offers more aspect ratios of the screen to body.

The same goes for thickness – the iPad Air’s 6.1mm thickness isn’t good at all, but every competitor’s tablet is thinner. In fact, Apple's own iPad Pro is thinner than the ironic iPad Air.

The 11-inch model weighs about 1 pound (or 462 grams) while the larger 13-inch model weighs 1.36 pounds (617G).

There is no face ID on the iPad on the iPad. Instead, you must unlock it with a fingerprint scanner embedded in the power button.

Like I said, this is Apple has now used exactly the same external hardware for generations, so nothing new here at all. Actually, all the older accessories of the M2 iPad Air will work on this new model and vice versa.

Updated from M3 Silicon. Now, this isn't Apple's latest chip – the M4 is out – but the iPad Air is located in Apple's mid-range tablets in Apple's iPad portfolio, so the strategy seems to be for using silicon older than the latest MacBook and iPad Pros. This is absolutely good. The M3 remains the world's fragmented chip, currently outperforming 99% of silicon-powered Android phones or Android tablets.

The M3 is built on a 3NM architecture, so this is a clear jump from the 5nm M2. Lower nanocounts simply mean that the transistors are smaller and more transistors can be placed on the chip. And the more transistors, the more raw power it has.

The M3's 10-core GPU is 25% faster than the M2's GPU, which is a big step forward in year-on-year updates. If you're from an older iPad Air, the jump is even bigger.

But the truth is that for most normal tasks, the iPad is already smooth and fast enough. This extra power doesn't matter if you use your iPad to watch Netflix or send emails. Instead, if you play games, edit videos, or perform graphic-related tasks, you will notice the extra juice.

I'm not a gamer, but I did edit the video and actually, I edited the following iPad Air reviews entirely on the iPad Air. The 11-inch screen feels a bit cramped, but otherwise, the performance is absolutely good. I was able to load multiple 4K video tracks on my iPad, scrub on a timeline without lag, and export at very impressive times.

For gaming, the new M4 iPad offers dynamic cache and real-time ray tracing, so graphics in graphics-intensive games will look better and run at higher frame rates.

If you use your iPad Air for productivity, Apple has released a new keyboard for the tablet (it works with the older M2 iPad Air as well). This is a redesigned magic keyboard with a thinner profile and slightly slightly angled hinges.

I absolutely love this keyboard. Actually, I've been saying that for years I've preferred the trackpad on the iPad Magic keyboard than the trackpad on most Windows laptops. Apple's trackpad feels precise and easy to use. The keys are evenly spaced 1 mm. But, as before, I found that the magic keyboard was too expensive. This thing retails for about $300. To make the keyboard cost more than 50% of the actual tablet, with silicon, monitor, speakers, memory, it seems unbalanced to me.

There is also the Apple Pencil Pro, which is still the best painting experience on mainstream tablets.

The stylus has no visual lag, it supports over 4,000 pressures, and I really like to sketch it on it. It's also handy when I need to do fine editing in Adobe Lightroom or Final Cut Pro.

On the software side, iPados behaves similarly to the usual: it's smooth, fast, and has the best application ecosystem. I found that I can do most of the work on my iPad Fine, as being able to run an app on a split screen or running an app in windowed mode helps me multitask.

There is also Apple Intelligence, which Apple does want to hype. very good. Apple Intelligence on iPad Air provides generated AI photo editing as well as usual summary or rewrite text. Siri is smarter and can understand the follow-up questions. There is an image playground, which allows users to generate AI Art using text prompts or quick sketches.

But the reality is that Apple Intelligence lags behind the products Google offers. Gemini are even smarter and know the context better than Siri. Google's generated AI photo editing produces better results.

However, Apple users are a loyal group of people, many of whom have been (or may never touch Android devices) for years. Therefore, Apple's products that are not as smart as Google do not matter to them. For them, Apple Intelligence is still new and can improve their iPad/iPhone/Mac experience from two years ago.

Also, I believe Apple can ultimately improve Apple's intelligence and thus catch up with Google's intelligence.

The only small weakness in the iPad air is battery life. The 11-inch model I'm using can only last about 8-10 hours of use, depending on my weight. To be honest, this is not bad – I use my iPad to perform productivity tasks like video editing, not just streaming Netflix. The most important thing is that the 13-inch model will certainly last 2-3 hours.

Otherwise, this is another huge tablet. Of course, the iPad Pro is even better. Better screens, even larger features, for more intensive workloads. But the M3 iPad Air is indeed enough to accommodate 99% of consumers. I make YouTube videos to make a living, and this machine can handle that workload. It takes longer than I did this on my MacBook or iPad Pro. But I'd love to sacrifice some time for portability. I'm often on the road. If I'm traveling and I know I have to do work but not much work, the iPad Air is perfect for me.

But for the next generation, I hope Apple is more than just silicon bumps. At least give us a face ID or a 120Hz display.