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Built like a tank, light as you could possible want and with enough power to perform pretty much anything you'd ever want to on a tablet, the M4 iPad Air is undoubtedly the best Apple has ever made.
The Good
- Loads of power from the M4 chip
- Light and thin
- Great battery life
- Versatile
The Not So Good
- No ProMotion display
Need-to-know
- Easily the best value for money iPad
- Handles Logic, Final Cut and image editing with ease
- Excellent companion for the Apple Pencil Pro
- So light and portable
Today isn’t going to be your bog-standard M4 iPad Air review, because it’s getting trickier to review iPads in a way that could be vaguely described as ‘unique’ these days.
This isn’t because the iPad is boring, or because we reviewers have run out of ideas. It’s because it has consistently been the best tablet on the market for as long as I can remember. And there’s only so much you can say about that.
There are some great alternatives out there in Android land. They’re just not the iPad. Whether you’re ensconced within the Apple ecosystem or not, Apple’s tablet is a product for the masses, and it has been overpowered to the point of insanity for a long time.
That means iPads last a long time – good news for you, less so for Apple. It also means that whenever another version of the same iPad arrives, and it is essentially just a spec bump, I start to think deeply about how far the iPad has come and who this new one is for.
That’s what I’ll attempt to do in this M4 iPad Air review.
I also need to answer a very important – and difficult – question today.
Shop the M4 iPad Air below!
How I reviewed the M4 iPad Air
Much of my normal iPad use is as a second device, there to take notes when I need, hop on the occasional call and fill-in for writing when I’m on-the-go. For this review, I also shifted some of my main production work to the iPad Air, meaning I used Final Cut Pro, and also played around with Logic Pro. I also paired it with an Apple Pencil Pro.
At a glance
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Year | 2026 |
| Chip | Apple M4 (8-core CPU: 3P + 5E, 9-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 120GB/s bandwidth) |
| Memory | 12GB unified |
| Storage | 128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB |
| Display | 11″ Liquid Retina (IPS, laminated), 2360×1640, 264ppi, 500 nits, P3, True Tone, anti-reflective |
| Stylus | Apple Pencil Pro, Apple Pencil (USB-C), hover support |
| Rear Camera | 12MP (ƒ/1.8), 5× digital zoom, Smart HDR 4, 4K up to 60fps |
| Front Camera | 12MP ultra-wide (Center Stage), 1080p up to 60fps |
| Video Features | 4K, slo-mo 1080p (120/240fps), time-lapse, cinematic stabilisation |
| Audio | Landscape stereo speakers, dual microphones |
| Security | Touch ID (top button) |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread |
| Cellular (optional) | 5G (sub-6GHz), Gigabit LTE, eSIM only |
| Ports | USB-C (10Gb/s, DisplayPort) |
| Display Output | Up to 6K external display (60Hz) |
| Battery | 28.93Wh, up to 10h (Wi-Fi) / 9h (cellular) |
| Dimensions | 247.6 × 178.5 × 6.1 mm |
| Weight | 464g (Wi-Fi) / 465g (Cellular) |
| Colours | Blue, Purple, Starlight, Space Grey |
| Sensors | Touch ID, gyro, accelerometer, barometer, ambient light |
| In the Box | iPad Air, USB-C cable (1m) |
The iPad mini conundrum
I’ve long said that the iPad mini 7 is the best iPad Apple has ever made. Its size, capabilities, and the fact that it sits in a class of its own (name me a worthwhile competitor to the iPad mini, please) make it rather unique in Apple’s lineup, and, indeed, within the sector itself.
The iPad mini has a loyal fanbase, too. I’ve encountered it numerous times on these digital pages and in the comments sections of my YouTube videos, and the love people show for the iPad mini reveals how important it is to Apple.
The problem is that it’s relatively expensive (only £100/$100 cheaper than the iPad Air) and could do with a Pro-level feature set, such as ProMotion and Face ID. And a mini Magic Keyboard. But I’ve bored everyone with my desire for that particular iPad mini accessory enough already.
The issue I’ve created for myself is that while I’ve long called the iPad mini Apple’s best-ever iPad, I’ve also simultaneously suggested that the iPad Air is Apple’s ‘greatest triumph’.
Related: MacBook Neo vs M4 iPad Air
That doesn’t match up, does it? I’m not making sense.
With the M4 version of the iPad Air now firmly in my grasp, I need to commit to one of these iPads being the best.
I promise I will by the end of this review. And you might be surprised by my decision.
M3 vs. M4: What’s changed?
First things first. Even though precisely no one will be taking this upgrade path, it’s worth considering what’s changed during the switch from the M3 to the M4 iPad Air.
The chip itself is now an 8-core chip featuring three performance cores and five efficiency cores. As a result, it’s 30% faster than the M3 and a whopping 2.3-times faster than the M1 version.
We also have 12GB of RAM instead of 8GB (an increase of 50%), and 120GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is another notch up on the Ludicrous Scale for tablets. These numbers in particular mean the M4 iPad Air is particularly well-suited for AI stuff. Because of course it is.
Looking beyond AI and at the stuff most people will be doing with the iPad Air (regular tablet media consumption, office-y type work, and maybe the odd bit of home media production), those numbers aren’t to be sniffed at. Certainly, if you’re thinking about upgrading from an older A-series iPad Air, or even the M1 iPad Air (far more likely upgrade routes than the M3), you’re going to notice the difference.
But it’s what you can do beyond the regular iPad Air stuff that makes this thing totally unfathomable.
The pro app factor
I want to talk about two professional-grade apps: Final Cut Pro (video editing) and Logic Pro (music production). I have significant experience using both on the Mac. Many, many years’ worth. In fact, I’m old enough to remember using Logic Pro when it was available on Windows. No, really.
This means that whenever I fire up Logic Pro on an iPad, I’m blown away by what it’s capable of. What used to require an expensive desktop computer and similarly expensive software, plug-ins, and external hardware can now be accessed on a thin sliver of metal and glass.
The iPadOS version of Logic Pro is rather different to its macOS cousin in terms of the way you work around the interface and make music, but the guts of it are just as complete and deep. There’s a demo song you can download, which features around 76 tracks of audio and midi, with each one containing a bunch of effects, including compressors, EQs, reverbs, delays, and more. Hit the play button, and it starts instantly.
Leave it playing, and start tweaking those various effects, instruments, and audio files, and it responds instantly. No lag. No jittering. No crashing back to your list of apps. Just immediacy. Which is kinda handy when you’re in the creative flow.
The fact that it does this on the M5 iPad Pro still blows my mind. The fact that it appears to be just as responsive on the M4 iPad Air is hard to comprehend.
It’s a similar story with Final Cut Pro. While not quite as deep a port from the macOS version as Logic Pro, it is still worthy of pro-grade tablet video editing status. And it just works. It’ll chew through 4K video edits with ease and make on-the-go editing an absolute joy for those who need that kind of flexibility.
Again, on the iPad Air. Not the iPad Pro.
More: MacBook Neo review
What a world we live in.
It also means that you really do need a good reason to go for the iPad Pro. For most who swing that way, it’ll be the result of the better screen technology.
Final word: Is it the best iPad out there?
Time to put my cards on the table.
Is the iPad Air the best iPad money can buy?
Yes. And that means it finally takes the crown from the iPad mini.
I still love Apple’s tiny tablet dearly, and use it every day in the studio. But the M4 iPad Air feels like peak every-person iPad. The mini is still there if you want the smaller form factor, and the entry-level iPad remains an absolute bargain for students and anyone who just needs an iPad, but the iPad Air sits perfectly in the middle. And that’s a really hard gap to fill.
If you need the iPad Pro, you know you need the iPad Pro. It remains the best in the range, technically. The M4 iPad Air, though, is in a league of its own.
If the time has come for you to upgrade, there’s never been a better time to do so.
1 Comment
Nice review! It really highlights how the M4 iPad Air is more of a performance-focused upgrade rather than a redesign — especially with that extra RAM and smoother multitasking. I like how devices like this are becoming powerful enough to handle both work and casual gaming — I’ve even been playing simple games like Golf Hit on a tablet, and the experience feels surprisingly smooth.