Apple on Monday introduced a new iPad Air powered by its M4 chip, upgrading the silicon in its midrange tablet to narrow the performance gap with the iPad Pro. In addition, the device comes with more RAM that’s also faster, plus new wireless networking chips that support Wi-Fi 7.
“iPad Air gives users more ways than ever to be creative and productive, offering powerful performance and incredible versatility to help them turn their ideas into reality,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of worldwide product marketing, in a press release. “With its blazing performance thanks to M4, incredible AI capabilities, and game-changing iPadOS 26 features, there’s never been a better time to choose or upgrade to iPad Air.”
M4 chip takes iPad Air performance to new heights
In Apple’s tablet lineup, the iPad Air sits squarely between the entry-level iPad and the high-end iPad Pro, offering a blend of performance and portability aimed at mainstream users who want more power than the basic model without paying Pro prices.
It shares many core technologies with Apple’s premium tablets, including advanced M-series processors and support for accessories like the Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard, but stops short of the Pro’s most cutting-edge display and camera features.
The version with the M3 processor launched in March 2025, and now Apple has upgraded the tablet with an M4.
Apple says the M4 is up to 30% faster than the M3, though benchmarks show the chip brings closer to a 20% improvement in performance. Still, the M4 enables significantly faster AI processing (over 2x the Neural Engine speed) compared to the M3. Built on enhanced 3nm technology, the M4 features up to 10 CPU cores — four performance plus six efficiency — and greater memory bandwidth.
As for those still using an M1-based iPad Air, the M4-powered iPad delivers substantially faster processing — about 60% faster — stronger graphics performance for creative workflows and gaming, and a far more capable Neural Engine for on-device AI features.
That said, creatives needing a tablet to run advanced graphics applications like Procreate should go with the M5 iPad Pro.
And just so there’s no confusion, the newer chip isn’t necessary to run the Apple Intelligence suite of AI tools – every M-series iPad can do that.
More and faster RAM
Photo: Apple
The M4 iPad Air includes 12GB of unified memory (aka RAM). That’s 50% more than its predecessor. Just as importantly, memory bandwidth increases to 120GB/s.
Both these should improve the performance of the tablet at demanding tasks, including artificial intelligence.
New networking chips, too
The M4 iPad Air also features the Apple-designed N1 wireless networking chip, which enables Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread support. The new chip offers better performance when connected to 5GHz Wi-Fi networks, and Apple says it improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.
Cellular models of the latest iPad Air also feature Apple’s C1X modem, which the company says offers up to 50% faster cellular data performance.
M4 iPad Air: Sticking with what works
Like its predecessor, the M4 iPad Air comes in 11-inch and 13-inch variants, giving shoppers a choice between greater portability or easier viewing. The smaller one has a 2,360-by-1,640 pixel resolution, and the larger one has a 2,732-by-2,048 pixel resolution, but both work out to be 264 ppi.
The overall design of the tablet remains largely unchanged, with thin bezels, flat aluminum sides, a USB-C port and a Touch ID biometric sensor integrated into the top button.
No price increase
No matter the size, the M4 iPad Air price starts at the same level as the previous generation. That makes the 11-inch variant $599 and the 13-inch one $799. They start at 128GB of storage, and adding more pushes up the cost.
The 2026 iPad Air is available to order starting this Wednesday, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
