$559<\/p>\n The GoodFast chips everywhereBattery life still solidStill the same ol\u2019 iPadThe BadLow base storage60Hz screenStill the same ol\u2019 iPad<\/p>\n Back to the chip bumps: In my tests, the M4 Air benchmarks about 20-25 percent faster than the M3 Air<\/a> in CPU tasks, and 10-15 percent faster in GPU tasks. (It also benchmarks a hair above the M4 iPad Pro for CPU, and a hair below for GPU, despite having ostensibly the same chip. Weird.) That\u2019s a decent performance bump over a 12-month old device, but as is often the case, you\u2019ll almost never notice the difference. Even side by side, the two Airs launch apps the same, look the same playing high-end games \u2014 the only spot I\u2019ve noticed the M4 Air to be consistently faster is in generating search results in Spotlight search.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not the comparison that matters, though. Let\u2019s say, conservatively, that you should be able to buy an iPad expecting it to work well for five years. (Realistically, I think the number is a year or two higher, but let\u2019s just stick with five.) If you\u2019re in the market for this year\u2019s iPad Air, that means you may have bought the fourth-generation iPad Air from 2020 or the 10th-generation iPad from 2022. Both of those devices have an A14 Bionic chip. The M4 measures between about 80 percent and 250 percent faster than the A14 Bionic on CPU tasks, and more than three times better on GPU tasks.<\/p>\n Believe me: you will notice that upgrade. Every single thing about your new iPad, from tiny animations to high-end games, will feel smoother and better and faster than your previous device. Even if you don\u2019t do any new stuff on this iPad, you\u2019ll like this one better.<\/p>\n Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales \/ The Verge<\/p>\n If you have last year\u2019s M3 iPad Air, or the M2 model from 2024, you absolutely, positively do not need to upgrade. This is good news! Apple has not dreamed up some big new idea about iPads since you bought your device; it just keeps shipping slightly better iPads. But at this rate, by the time you do need a new device, all these bumps will have added up to something impressive.<\/p>\n As for the other chips, Apple\u2019s C1X in particular seems to be something of a revelation. I have long been a passionate believer in cell-enabled iPads, because there\u2019s something about that constant connectedness that makes the iPad instantly more useful as an on-the-go way todo email, reading, or web browsing, things the iPad is meant for. They also make great hotspots, thanks to their enormous batteries. In my testing so far, the M4 Air is consistently the fastest cell-enabled device in my possession, and in bad service areas sometimes delivers speeds multiple times faster than recent iPhones, Pixels, and even other iPads.<\/p>\n The other chip, the N1, I don\u2019t notice as much. Like most people, I don\u2019t have a Wi-Fi 7 setup in my house, and so the Air is about as fast on Wi-Fi as any other recent device. Bluetooth remains fine and finicky in equal measure, no matter the version number. And Thread\u2026 I don\u2019t even really know what it\u2019s there for. I\u2019m not sure Apple does<\/a>, either.<\/p>\n There are a lot of iPads these days, which Apple seems to launch at more or less random intervals. But the story is actually fairly straightforward: The Pro is the best iPad, and it\u2019s not particularly close. (Not to throw a wrench into the proceedings here, but if you can find a good deal on an M4 iPad Pro now that the M5 model is out<\/a>, you should jump on it.) The base iPad is the cheap one, but every day that goes by without a meaningful upgrade that device becomes a worse deal. The iPad Mini is for iPad Mini people \u2014 you know who you are.<\/p>\n And for everyone else, there\u2019s the iPad Air. It\u2019s not perfect, but it\u2019s great, and the price is about right. My advice with iPads is always the same: Buy the best one you can afford, keep it as long as humanly possible, and then enjoy the spoils of all those chip bumps.<\/p>\n Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.David PierceClose David Pierce<\/p>\n Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All by David Pierce<\/a><\/p>\n AppleClose<\/p>\n Apple<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Apple<\/a><\/p>\n iPadClose<\/p>\n iPad<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All iPad<\/a><\/p>\n ReviewsClose<\/p>\n Reviews<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n Tablet ReviewsClose<\/p>\n Tablet Reviews<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/268386_iPad_Air_M4_AKrales_0112.jpg\"\/)
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