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This isn’t a review of the 2024 13-inch iPad Air, but I do have one winging its way to Leamington Spa for a thorough Mark Ellis Reviews benchmarking session.
That session will consist of me unboxing it, connecting it to a Magic Keyboard and trying to suss out why on earth anyone would spend another £500 on an iPad Pro.
I’ve always said that the iPad Air is one of Apple’s greatest triumphs, and the launch of the sixth generation version at the Let Loose event this week was another masterstroke.
We now have not one but two iPad Airs to choose from: the familiar 11-inch form factor, and a brand-new 13-inch version. It’s the latter I want to talk about today because it deserves the most attention.
Introducing the biggest iPad Air yet
This week, Apple revealed that the iPad Air exists to take features from the iPad Pro and make them available to more people. I’m not quoting Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, verbatim, but that was pretty much what he meant while inexplicably addressing us from a moving train.
The most striking example of this was the introduction of the M1 chip in the fifth-generation iPad Air. At the time, it made zero sense. Then, Apple launched Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for the iPad, and everything immediately made sense. We suddenly had a relatively normal-person-priced iPad that could run two of Apple’s pro apps without trouble.
This time, Apple has brought the scale and laptop-ness of the big iPad Pro and made that same display size available within the iPad Air line. In their words, this means that iPad Air owners will have “more room to learn, work, and play”. They’ve done their research, too – apparently (according to Apple) half of iPad Pro users choose the big one, hence the decision to finally grant the iPad Air the option of additional screen estate.
Put simply, Apple thinks the 13-inch iPad Air is going to sell, big time. I’m inclined to agree.
There’s more to the new iPad Air than the big version, though. It now comes with an M2 chip, which is 50% faster overall than the previous generation. It also supports Apple Pencil hover (and the new Apple Pencil Pro), has double the starting storage at 128GB, faster Wi-Fi, and includes two new colour options (purple and blue).
Oh, and they’ve moved the FaceTime camera to the correct location on the side of the device. Bravo.
Why the 13-inch iPad Air ‘slaps’
The big iPad Air starts at £799. That is a lot of tablet for that kind of money. And, yes, I’m aware that I haven’t held one in my hand yet, let alone turned it on and experienced what it can do.
I don’t need to. This is an iPad. iPads are as predictable as bad weather in the UK – only, far less miserable.
If you fancy a bit more storage, you can step up to 256GB for an additional £100, which will be the sweet spot for most people. That configuration is still £400 cheaper than the 13-inch iPad Pro with the same storage (the iPad Pro starts at 256GB).
Four hundred quid.
We must, therefore, consider what you get for that additional spend. The new iPad Pro is powered by the M4 chip. This makes it, technically, more capable, and ‘newer’ than any Mac you can buy at the time of writing. It also tees up the iPad Pro for some incredibly impressive AI stuff, come WWDC. Possibly. But that’s the problem – the iPad Pro has always been full of promise with not enough of it realised for the asking price.
Then we have the display. There’s a big difference here. The new iPad Pro features an Ultra Retina XDR OLED panel with 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness and ProMotion. The big iPad Air doesn’t have ProMotion, it isn’t OLED, and its brightness extends as far as 600 nits.
While you can max out the iPad Air at 1TB of storage, the iPad Pro goes all the way up to 2TB. FaceID also remains exclusive to the iPad Pro line, and the camera system is marginally better on Apple’s flagship tablet, too (although you have to spec-peep to spot the differences over the iPad Air’s snapper).
This begs one very important question.
Who is the 2024 13-inch iPad Air for?
If you don’t care about any of the differences I’ve mentioned above, and you want a big iPad that can replace your laptop and set you up for the next few years, the new 13-inch iPad Air is for you.
I have a feeling that’s a large group of people. I’m pretty sure Apple does, too. In fact, of course, Apple does. Just like the introduction of the 15-inch MacBook Air last year, they know exactly what they’re doing and who they’re targeting. There are no concerns about cannibalising iPad Pro sales here, because Apple intrinsically knows the market for that device, as well.
The big iPad Air is, basically, an M2 iPad Pro without FaceID or ProMotion for a lot less money. That’s why it was the biggest release of the week for Apple, hands-down.
Final thought
I’m eagerly awaiting a bumper delivery of stuff from Apple next week. Aside from the 13-inch iPad Air, I also have a base model M4 iPad Pro on the way, along with a new Magic Keyboard, and the Apple Pencil Pro.
Reviews, thoughts, and long-term musings on all of this stuff will follow, so make sure you come along for the ride.
