The iPad Air (M4) comes incredibly close to being the perfect tablet

I fondly remember using my first iPad ever back in 2011, which was the iPad 2. It had a 9.7-inch display, an A5 processor, 16GB of storage, and launched with iOS 4.3. At the time, it was one of my favorite devices I have ever used, and fast-forward all these years, the iPad still remains one of my favorite pieces of tech ever. And with the new iPad Air (M4), Apple has continued to refine what is, in my eyes, nearly the perfect tablet.

The M4 iPad Air is just an iterative update, and compared to last year’s M3 iPad Air, you won’t notice any differences on the outside. It still has the same slim design, Liquid Retina display, single rear camera, and even the same colors.

For the past few years, the main thing Apple has refined with each iPad Air release has been its power, not its design. This year, as its name suggests, Apple has outfitted the iPad Air with its M4 processor, which is marginally faster than its M3 predecessor. Also, more surprisingly, Apple has decided to increase the iPad Air’s RAM to 12GB, and given the ongoing memory shortage the world is facing, I was impressed that Apple chose to do so while keeping the iPad Air at its starting price of $600.

I don’t think it’s a secret that if you have an M3 iPad Air, then the M4 iPad Air isn’t for you. However, if you own a much older iPad that’s starting to show its age, the M4 iPad Air has a lot to offer. After spending the last couple of weeks with it, I have once again been reminded of my love for the iPad and its versatility.

4/5

Brand

Apple

Storage

128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB

CPU

M4

Operating System

iPadOS 26

Pros & Cons

• Powerful M4 chipset
• 12GB of RAM
• Great build quality
• iPadOS 26 is very intuitive

Price, specs, and availability

Apple revealed the M4 iPad Air in February, and it launched in March 2026. As with previous iterations, the M4 iPad Air is available in two screen sizes: 11-inch and 13-inch, and four colors: blue, starlight, space gray, and purple.

The 11-inch M4 iPad Air starts at $600, whereas the 13-inch model starts at $800. Regardless of screen size, the base model starts with 128GB of storage, with higher storage options (256GB, 512GB,1TB) and Wi-Fi + Cellular costing more.

Under the hood, the iPad Air is equipped with Apple’s M4 processor, featuring an 8-core CPU with 3 performance cores and 5 efficiency cores. It also has a 9-core GPU and 12GB of RAM.

Camera-wise, the iPad Air is equipped with a rear f/1.8 12-megapixel wide camera, and a front f/2.0 landscape 12-megapixel Center Stage camera.

The 11-inch M4 iPad measures 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1 mm and weighs 1.02 pounds. The 13-inch model measures 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.1 mm and weighs 1.36 pounds.

The M4 iPad Air I tested for this review is the 11-inch 1TB model in blue.

What I liked about the iPad Air (M4)

Stunning performance and elegant design

The first thing that stood out to me about the M4 iPad Air is its power. The M4 chip handled everything I threw at it effortlessly: Photoshop, video editing, gaming, email, web browsing, streaming — you name it. Apple claims it’s 30 percent faster than the M3 iPad Air and up to 2.3 times faster than the M1 model, and those improvements are clear. For most users, this performance will probably be more than they need, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

It’s also still wild to me that the iPad Air can play AAA games. Sure, that’s been possible for a couple of years now, but I tried out Resident Evil 4, and thanks to M4, it ran smoothly and looked surprisingly good. If you told me back when I was using an iPad 2 in 2011 that I’d one day be playing console games on an iPad, I wouldn’t have believed you, so it’s a cool thing to experience.

Apple also deserves some credit for bumping up the RAM in the iPad Air this year. The M4 iPad Air comes with 12GB of unified memory, up from 8GB in the M3 model, a 50 percent increase. As someone who tends to juggle way too many apps at once, I definitely appreciate the extra headroom. It should also help future-proof the device, especially with more Apple Intelligence features on the way, including the revamped Siri expected later this year.

As for the display, nothing has changed compared to last year. You’re still getting a Liquid Retina display with a 2360 x 1640 pixel resolution on the 11-inch model, and 2732 x 2048 on the 13-inch model, along with a 264 pixel density on both, Wide Color (P3), True Tone, and 600 nits of brightness. It looks great, and the colors really pop compared to the base iPad, and I enjoyed watching videos and editing photos on it. However, it doesn’t match the OLED panel you’ll find on the iPad Pro.

Software-wise, Apple has made a lot of improvements to iPadOS over the years, and with iPadOS 26, it added a new windowing system that lets you freely move and resize app windows using your finger by dragging an app’s corner, or with mouse controls. I’ve enjoyed using this a lot on the iPad Air, and it makes it a lot easier to replace my MacBook Pro with my iPad when I can.

A few other things I liked were the battery life, which is still incredibly solid, and on average, I got about 9 to 10 hours of use before I had to recharge, when I was just doing basic things like writing or watching videos. In terms of build quality, like the previous iPad Airs, it’s well-constructed, thin, and lightweight, so no complaints there. The accessories for the iPad Pro are great as well. If you’re a note-taker or artist, the Apple Pencil Pro is one of the best styluses I’ve ever used, and its squeeze function is super handy for switching tools and colors while writing or sketching. The Magic Keyboard is also amazing, and I love how easily it turns the iPad Air into a laptop, but the $400 price is really steep.

What I didn’t like about the iPad Air (M4)

Not having Face ID is frustrating

Early on, I said the iPad Air is nearly a perfect tablet, and while there’s a lot to like about it, it does have a couple of flaws that hold it back from being the best it can be.

The first thing that really bothered me was its lack of Face ID. To be fair, this isn’t new. For years now, Apple has stuck with Touch ID on the iPad Air, while keeping Face ID exclusive to the iPad Pro. I don’t mind Touch ID, but it feels a bit silly that the iPad Air doesn’t have Face ID at this point. I use Face ID on my iPhone all day long, so switching to the iPad Air and not having it feels jarring. Apple even includes Face ID on the iPhone 17e, its $600 entry-level iPhone, so it’s hard to argue it’s still a “premium” feature. At this point, the iPad Air should have it too.

Next up, while I really like the iPad Air’s vivid Liquid Retina display, I’m less impressed by the lack of ProMotion, which enables a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. That means the iPad Air is still stuck at 60Hz. After Apple brought ProMotion to the base iPhone 17 last year, I was optimistic we’d see the same upgrade here, but that didn’t happen.

I understand why Apple is holding it back — it’s another way to differentiate the iPad Pro from the Air. But in my view, the only things that should still be exclusive to the Pro are its OLED display and faster M5 chipset. Like with the iPhone 17, adding ProMotion to the iPad Air would’ve made a lot of sense, and I can’t help but feel its absence here is a missed opportunity by Apple.

Should you buy the iPad Air (M4)?

If you haven’t upgraded recently, it might be worth doing

Despite a couple of flaws, there’s still plenty to love about the M4 iPad Air. It’s got an upgraded M4 chip and a bump to 12GB of RAM, resulting in an incredibly fast tablet. If you’re looking for something that can easily double as a laptop or replace your laptop altogether for everyday tasks, it’s more than capable of that.

That said, if you already have an M3 iPad Air, this upgrade isn’t for you. But if you’re coming from something older — like the M1 iPad Air, an older iPad mini, or a base iPad — there’s a lot here to like. It’s superfast, the display is gorgeous, and it keeps that thin, lightweight design that makes it so easy to carry around and slide into your backpack.

With Apple upgrading the internals while keeping the price the same during an ongoing memory shortage, the M4 iPad is undoubtedly a solid deal, starting at $600, and is easy to recommend if you want a powerful, reliable everyday tablet.

This device was provided to Pocket-lint by Apple.