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Review: The iPad Air 5 remains the most versatile Apple tablet

With its m1 chip, the ipad air 5 absolutely delivers the power you need to get work done like a pro, without the bells, whistles — and price tag — of an ipad pro..

Equipped with an M1 processor, a much better video-conferencing camera, and 5G as a cellular option, the iPad Air 5  absolutely delivers the power you need to get work done like a pro — without the bells, whistles, and price tag of an iPad Pro.

iPad Pro or iPad Air?

Apple’s decision to pump an M1 processor inside the latest iPad Air means comparisons with iPad Pro are  inevitable, given the company’s pro tablets now host the same chip. What makes that decision a good one is that Apple has a steady supply of these processors, and has managed to ensure they ship, which has been a problem elsewhere in the industry over the last year or so.

The M1 chip is arguably the best silicon available right now. Not only is it highly performant, it also scales all the way from the iPad Air to the Mac Studio, stopping at multiple stations in between. In the future, it will sit inside a high-end desktop equipped with a vast cooling system and we’ll finally discover what the top end of its performance might be, shaming the competition.

What this means is that while the processor may not be accomplishing everything it is capable of when it sits inside an iPad Air, it is still more efficient with more performance per watt and 10-hour battery life. If you migrate from a fourth-generation iPad Air to this new model, Apple promises 60% faster processor and twice the graphics performance.

The USB-C port offers up to doubled transfer speeds.

Is it true you’ll get better performance?

I think it is. My experience with an iPad Air (loaned to me by Apple) bears it out. But what about the data? Early reports suggest the M1 iPad Air delivers the same performance as an M1-powered iPad Pro . That means Geekbench 5 scores of 1,700 single-core and 7,200 multi-core for iPad Air 5, compared to scores of 1,583 single-core, 4,209 multi-core on the iPad Air 4.

Both my experience and the data agree: apps run faster, graphics operations are transacted faster, and if you want to run image-editing apps, create video clips in iMovie, design something fabulous in Procreate, build spreadsheets and presentations, or handle other work-related tasks, you’ll see a discernible improvement.

I’m particularly fond of the fluid, latency-free sensation I got when editing images and working with an Apple Pencil. Some transitions simply pop off the screen as you draw. I think that feels quite amazing. You will experience performance just as good as that you experience on an 11-in. iPad Pro with a system that costs around $200 less.

Similarities between the Air and Pro don’t stop there. Both run the second-generation Apple Pencil and both are compatible with Magic Keyboard.

What about the display?

The iPad Air uses a 10.9-in., 2360×1640-pixel, 264ppi Liquid Retina display with 500 nits of brightness. If this sounds familiar, it’s the same specification we saw in the iPad Air 4 display. That also means it carries a smaller version of the (also Liquid Retina) display in the 11-in. iPad Pro, which offers 600 nits brightness.

The 12.9-in. iPad Pro with its Liquid Retina XDR display provides up to 1,000 nits brightness. What this means in brief is that while the screen is smaller by a few pixels than the Pro, the iPad Air offers an equally good display.

What about weight?

The iPad Air 4 became my favorite iPad. In part, this is because it weighs slightly less than the iPad Pro. My unique position is that I suffer from writing-related RSI, which means even a few grams less weight makes holding these things easier, so I always tend toward the lighter device. The new iPad weighs just over 1 pound. This is slightly heavier than the iPad Air 4, but still lighter than the 11-in, iPad Pro.

What about the new camera?

Apple has given the FaceTime camera a welcome upgrade. It’s now a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide camera. That means you can use Center Stage, which makes for a much better experience when making video calls. Center Stage uses artificial intelligence to keep you in focus when you move around. That front-facing camera also supports 4K video capture.

What hasn’t changed is the primary camera. This remains the single lens 12-megapixel camera that was introduced in the last generation iPad Air. If you use a camera on your iPad for pro work, this may be a deal-breaker compared to the iPad Pro, which offers a more sophisticated pro camera system with 2x optical and 5x digital zoom.

What about 5G?

There are numerous 5G standards around, which is quite confusing. We may be using 5G, but what should we expect from using it? We don’t know. Are we on mmWave? Or is our provider offering any of the numerous n-series bands? Or is it that 5G which isn’t 5G AT&T briefly “supported” in 2020?

This is just a phase in the deployment story , and things are going to improve quite quickly as device deployment creates demand to prompt networks to provide coherent cross-border 5G support and install the required infrastructure.

For now, 5G is a good-to-have feature; it hasn’t yet become essential — though it will likely to become so in the next year or so, which means wit the iPad Air, you already have a base from which to access future 5G networks and services.

That’s going to be a nice, connected future for most of us. But for enterprise and creative professionals using a tablet to get work done in the field, it’s going to become increasingly essential. The 5G in iPad Air is a future-proofing move that means the tablet will become increasingly connected over time.

A note about upgrading

Apple continues to refine the set-up experience. Here’s how it works today:

• Open the box.
• Take the product out of it.
• Hold your iPhone near it to use your smartphone to initiate setup.
• Or login with your Apple ID if you have one.
• Or login with your Managed Apple ID if you work for a company that uses MDM systems.
• You may need to enter your Wi-Fi password. You may find a few network or specific app settings need to be put in place.
• You can begin using your device immediately, while your various apps and documents from iCloud download in the background.
• The process is simple.

If you already use an iPad, moving to a new one is so simple. You’ll soon feel as if you’re still using your old system, until you realize that most everything you do now works better — sometimes very much better — than before.

That speedy setup and the significant improvements in performance also mean you’ll get more done when using an iPad Air 5. Better performance means tasks take less time. Apple’s upgrade/set-up process is second to none, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re using your own device or working with an MDM system that supports Single Sign-on, such as from Jamf.

Where are we going next?

Apple has engaged on a long journey. From its first adventures in processor designs for iPhones to today’s tour-de-force in which it offers chips so performant and scalable the entire industry skews data to cast aspersions at what it has accomplished. In the absence of the M-powered Mac Pro, we still haven’t seen the performance ceiling of Apple’s first-generation M-series chips, and we know the first Macs running its second-generation chips may appear later this year.

We also think Apple is attempting to unify all its devices across the architecture, with lower-end iPads powered by A-series chips and M-series for its pro devices. This may change. It’s easy to anticipate M-series chips inside iPhones at some point, given they already share so much that is the same. We can also easily imagine M-series chips sliding into every iPad model, which is a good illustration of how Apple throws high-end improvements into its upper-echelon products, then brings them to other systems.

That’s great news for consumers who can see how even entry-level systems will improve in coming years. It’s also great news for developers and enterprise purchasers, who can rely on Apple’s Road Map to provide product and application support and consistency in future.

The next iPad Air will be even better than the current one, which is a vast improvement over all those that came before. That may not be a huge surprise, but it continues to be A Very Good Thing, as it means Apple has built platform consistency. That consistency is boosted by the fact you can now run iPad apps on Macs.

It’s also worth noting the continued direction of travel which means Apple’s tablets, as well as being great machines, are also becoming (for slightly different reasons) increasingly essential to anyone with an iPhone or Mac.  Universal Control is a complete gem , while (just about) all your iPhone apps are better on an iPad. Apple’s platform integration means all its products become even more useful when used alongside each other.

The tablet is available in space gray, starlight, pink, purple, and blue. 

Criticism: Storage

My biggest criticism involves storage. The iPad Air comes in 64GB or 256GB capacities, which means there’s a big $150 gap between the $599/$749 64GB and $749/$899 256GB models.

What’s a little upsetting there is that if you do need an iPad Air for serious work, you’ll almost certainly choose the higher-capacity model. The thing is, once you do, the difference between an iPad Pro and an iPad Air erodes a little; you can pick up a 128GB 11-in. iPad Pro for $799/$999 or a 256GB Pro from $899/$1,099.

While I appreciate Apple wants people spending cash, I do think a 128GB iPad Air option would be popular; it’s a shame there isn’t one available. All the same, in comparison with iPad Pro, you still save a couple of hundred bucks for a decent machine.

Who is this for?

The iPad Air is for anyone who needs a tablet that’s capable of professional work (including the capacity to drive an external display), but doesn’t need the bells, whistles or added cost of an iPad Pro.

• If you’re purchasing an iPad for the first time, I’d recommend an iPad Air because it provides a great balance between the needs of pro and consumer users, will still be a fantastic tablet when the next model ships and because its processor is more than capable.
• Equally, if you’re upgrading from another model, this seems a pretty good place to go.
• If you’re looking to deploy numerous Apple tablets for business, education, or any other uses, the iPad Air may well tick all the boxes. It doesn’t have everything you expect in an iPad Pro (if the camera matters to you then go up), but for a balance of features, it makes complete sense.
• If you have a last generation iPad Air, you still own a fantastic tablet that will deliver what you need for a long while yet. I don’t see any big reason to upgrade, unless you really want the latest processor or access to Center Stage for better meetings.

The iPad Air has everything the last generation offered , but supplements this with future-focused 5G support, and a better chip. It’s a genuine improvement to Apple’s most versatile tablet and gives developers a platform to support even more demanding applications in future. Overall, it’s an excellent tablet that reinforces the Air’s position as the reference standard that defines the mid-range expectation of what tablets can do. 

Please follow me on  Twitter , or join me in the  AppleHolic’s bar & grill  and  Apple Discussions  groups on MeWe.

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Hello, and thanks for dropping in. I'm pleased to meet you. I'm Jonny Evans, and I've been writing (mainly about Apple) since 1999. These days I write my daily  AppleHolic blog at Computerworld.com, where I explore Apple's growing identity in the enterprise. You can also keep up with my work at AppleMust , and follow me on Mastodon , LinkedIn and (maybe) Twitter .

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Apple iPad Air (2022) review: Almost future-proof

With the m1 chip and 5g, the ipad air should feel fast for years to come..

Just a few days before Apple announced the 2022 iPad Air , rumors started swirling that it wouldn’t be powered by the expected A15 Bionic processor that’s in the iPad mini and iPhone 13 lineup. No, it would get an M1, the same chip found in a host of Macs and the iPad Pro, devices that cost a lot more than the iPad Air . At the time, I didn’t put much stock into this rumor; the iPad Air and 11-inch iPad Pro were already extremely similar devices. This would make the gap between them even smaller.

I’ll have to eat crow on this one, as Apple went ahead and put the M1 in the new iPad Air. There are a handful of other little changes here, including a much-improved front-facing camera and 5G connectivity, but the M1 is the real upgrade of note. And while the basic experience of using the Air is mostly the same as it was when we last tested one, having the power of an M1 means this is one of the most future-proof iPads you can buy.

Apple iPad Air (5th generation)

With the M1 chip and 5G, the 2022 iPad Air should feel fast for years to come.

• M1 chip makes the iPad Air extremely fast
• Excellent battery life
• Improved front camera
• Design and build quality are still top notch
• Optional 5G is fast when you can get it
• Base storage of 64GB is pretty stingy
• The optional keyboard and Apple Pencil are expensive

Apple iPad Air (2022)

What's the same?

The 2020 Air was a total redesign; not so this time. From the outside, the only way anyone will know you’re using the 2022 model is if you have one of the new color options introduced this year. (Apple loaned me a device in a lovely new shade of blue.) Otherwise, it’s exactly the same size and effectively the same weight; Apple’s specs page says it is two hundredths of a pound heavier than the old model, not something anyone would notice. Touch ID is still built into the top button, and it works just fine although I definitely prefer Face ID.

The display is also the same as the last-gen edition, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s a 10.9-inch “liquid Retina” LCD display with Apple’s True Tone feature for optimizing the screen’s color temperature based on ambient light. It’s just perceptibly smaller than the 11-inch screen on my iPad Pro, and the bezel looks a bit chunky, but it doesn’t change the way I use the tablet. It’s clearly not as nice as the mini-LED display on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but it’s a far better screen than the one on the basic iPad. The main difference between this display and the one on the 11-inch Pro is the latter has the ability to refresh at up to 120Hz, while the iPad Air is stuck at 60Hz. Although I definitely enjoy using Apple’s “ProMotion” screens, I can’t say I noticed much of a difference once I sat down and started using the Air.

Other things that remain unchanged include the price and storage options. $599 gets you 64GB, and you’ll have to pay another $150 to quadruple that storage to 256GB. I wish that the base model came with 128GB, but Apple has to differentiate the iPad Pro somehow. Sixty-four gigs is enough for most people, but if you want to store a lot of videos and games or plan on doing a lot of creative work with it, you’re probably better off just getting 256GB from the jump. As usual, Apple provided us with a top-of-the-line model, with 256GB of storage and built-in 5G.

The back camera, too, is identical to the one from the 2020 Air. It’s a 12-megapixel shooter with a wide-angle lens and no flash. It produces perfectly fine images, but as usual the camera on your phone is probably better in almost any circumstance. Back cameras on tablets have pretty niche use cases, like scanning documents and trying things in AR, and the Air’s camera is just fine for that, but I wouldn’t let it influence your purchase decision.

Finally, the new Air uses the same accessories as the old model. That means the two first-party keyboard cases Apple offered for the 2020 Air work fine here. Unsurprisingly, the second-generation Apple Pencil that magnetically snaps to the top of the iPad is supported here, too. Meanwhile, the $299 Magic Keyboard remains jaw-droppingly expensive, but it provides a high-quality typing experience for such a compact keyboard. I’ve been happily using it to draft this review and have used it to write plenty of other things in the past. In fact, with the comfortable keyboard and trackpad this accessory offers, I was able to do just about all of my job using the Air. If you’re someone who makes a living writing, it’s a must-have accessory.

The $129 Apple Pencil is an excellent stylus, but I think you really need to know what you’re going to do with it for it to be worthwhile. It’s comfortable to use and extremely responsive, but unless you really want to take handwritten notes with your iPad or have serious visual arts chops, it’s inessential. But there are loads of wonderful drawing and note-taking apps available for the iPad, so if you are an artist, it’s an excellent tool.

The M1 comes to the Air

Enough about what’s old, though. Let’s get into what’s new here: Apple had the audacity to throw the M1 into the humble iPad Air, a year after putting it in the iPad Pro. This chip also powers machines like the MacBook Air, iMac, Mac mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro. So on the one hand, Apple probably has the manufacturing process down such that getting the chip into the iPad Air wasn’t a major stretch.

On the other hand, this is the kind of flex Apple likes to make with the iPad from time to time. The iPad has very little real competition, and yet Apple just significantly increased the Air’s processing power to an even more impressive level, particularly for this price range.

To drive it home: I ran Geekbench 5 on my iPad Pro, a model that was released about two years ago. It has an A12Z Bionic chip, one that’s only slightly different from the A12X chip used in the 2018 iPad Pro. The M1 in the new Air is significantly faster at both single- and multi-core tasks. The new iPad Air scored 1,706 on the single-core test and 6,966 on the multi-core test. My iPad Pro, meanwhile, only scored 1,113 and 4,149, respectively. This is a testament to how fast Apple has been improving its own chips, because even the A14 in the 2020 Air was a little faster than the chip in my iPad Pro.

What does this mean in practice? The answer depends on what you plan to do with the device. Personally, I use my iPad for writing, web browsing, email and to-do lists, chatting in apps like Messages and Slack, modest photo editing in Adobe Lightroom, playing music and video, and a bit of gaming. None of this taxed the M1 chip in the least — but while the Air beats my iPad Pro in benchmarks, the actual experience of using it isn’t really that different.

That’s more a reflection of my workflow than the power of the iPad Air. The M1 is an incredibly powerful chip for a $599 tablet, and it means that the Air should remain responsive and run whatever apps you want to throw at it for years to come. Or, if you’re the kind of person who plans to do more advanced tasks like editing and exporting video or making music, the Air should more than stand up to your ambitions.

Even with my moderately intense workflow, using an iPad with the M1 chip was a great experience. The Air made short work of any app I tried, including recent Apple Arcade games like NBA 2K22 and Shadow Blade+. I edited a host of RAW photos in Lightroom, and changes were applied almost instantly. I also noticed speedy improvements in more basic tasks where I didn’t necessarily expect it. The Apple Mail app was much faster at deleting all the junk email I get than it is on my iPad Pro, and Safari was quicker to render sites and switch between tabs. Loading different apps into multitasking views like Split View and Slide Over was similarly speedy.

Battery life on the Air is just as good with the M1 chip as it was before. Apple typically always claims any iPad will last about 10 hours, and in this case I think the company undersold the Air’s longevity. In my normal routine, I got close to 12 hours of use before needing to charge the Air, though your mileage will vary depending on what you’re doing. Games took a bigger toll on the battery, but the Air lasted a long time while watching movies. I looped a downloaded movie in the Apple TV app for four hours and the battery only dropped to 75 percent.

What else is new?

While the M1 chip is the major update here, there are a few other new things to consider. Unsurprisingly, the iPad Air’s front camera has been upgraded to match the one found in the rest of the iPad lineup. It’s a 12-megapixel ultra wide angle camera that isn’t really designed to be used at its full resolution. Instead, it enables Apple’s “Center Stage” feature, which lets the camera zoom in around the subject and continuously move to keep that person (or people) in the middle of the screen. I feel like most people don’t move around a ton when they’re on video calls, but it’s a handy feature nonetheless.

While the camera is definitely better than on the prior iPad Air, it’s still on the left side of the screen when you use the iPad in landscape mode. Having it up top is fine when you’re holding the iPad in portrait orientation, but it’s definitely awkward if you are doing a video call with the tablet attached to the keyboard.

Optional 5G is another unsurprising addition, given that last fall’s iPad mini and the iPad Pro all have it as well. (The entry-level iPad remains stuck with LTE.) This is a logical update that doesn’t change the experience of using the iPad very much. Most people will probably opt to save the $150 and simply get a WiFi-only iPad Air.

Those who get the upgrade, will surely appreciate having 5G as time goes by. Depending on what network you choose and where you live, 5G coverage can still be pretty hit or miss. And I ran a few different speed tests on the iPad Air while running it on Verizon’s network and actually got faster speeds from LTE than 5G. It’s also worth noting that the Air doesn’t support the mmWave 5G networks, like Verizon’s Ultra Wideband network. Those faster networks are only supported on the iPad Pro.

Those caveats aside, there’s no doubt that wireless carriers will increase the availability of 5G networks, so having it on board here is another good piece of future-proofing, much like the M1 chip. That said, it’s not a reason to upgrade your iPad now.

Finally, the iPad Air has USB-C connectivity that Apple says is twice as fast as its predecessor, with data transfer speeds up to 10Gbps supported. The old USB-C connector was already fast, but faster is always better, right? I didn’t do any precision testing, but the iPad Air pulled RAW photos off my SD card extremely quickly.

Should you buy it?

By now, you probably have the gist of this review: The new iPad Air is a modest upgrade over the previous generation. That’s true, but it’s also damning the Air with faint praise. To be clear, it’s an excellent tablet. It’s extremely fast, has a lovely screen, runs a massive ecosystem of quality apps and will be a capable device for years to come. If I sound unenthusiastic, it’s because this was always true.

It was definitely time for Apple to update the iPad Air, but the company got so much right with the 2020 edition that this new device is a logical improvement to a formula that was already working. As such, anyone who bought the 2020 Air or one of the last few iPad Pros won’t find a ton new or different here. But compared to the 2019 Air , or any base-level iPad from the last few years, the new model is a massive upgrade.

Overall, I think the iPad Air is the best iPad for most people: It’s significantly better than the basic $329 iPad and is nearly identical to the 11-inch iPad Pro that costs $200 more than the Air. If you want a bigger or smaller screen, the iPad mini and 12.9-inch iPad Pro are still great options. But for anyone who wants a premium tablet that’s about as future proof as it gets, the iPad Air is the way to go.

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Apple iPad Air (5th Generation) review

What hi-fi awards 2022 winner. an astonishingly powerful air, but how’s the av performance tested at £569 / $599 / au$929.

What Hi-Fi? Verdict

The same picture and sound as before, but with vastly more power under the skin

Still a lovely design

Extraordinarily powerful

The same great picture and sound

Poor placement of front camera

Nearly no change to AV performance

Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.

The iPad Air (5th Generation) – aka the iPad Air 5 and iPad Air 2022 – is a big deal. That’s almost entirely because, in a move predicted by next to no one, Apple has decided to cram into its supremely slim and lightweight chassis the awesomely powerful M1 processor.

The intention is clearly to make the Air a sort of iPad Pro Lite that will satisfy the creative types for whom the full-fat Pro models are expensive overkill.

But what’s in it for those of us whose interests lie primarily in the consumption of the creative endeavours of others? According to the spec sheet, the screen and speakers are the same as those that adorned the iPad Air 4. So are there undocumented changes in these departments or is this simply the same AV experience as before, and would that be such a bad thing?

The new iPad Air 5 (2022) price starts at £569 / $599 / AU$929. Somewhat surprisingly, that means the new model is £10 cheaper in the UK than the iPad Air 4 was at launch, while in Australia it's slightly more expensive. The price in the States has stayed the same.

That price will get you a 64GB wi-fi-only model. The 256GB wi-fi-only model will set you back £719 / $749 / AU$1159.

Adding cellular to whichever storage option you choose will add a cool £150 / $150 / AU$230 to the price.

The iPad Air 5 is available in five colours, just as the iPad Air 4 was, but, Space Grey aside, they're all slightly different to the colours they replace: 'Silver' is now 'Starlight', which appears to be a slightly less stark and cold hue; 'Rose Gold' is now a slightly subtler 'Pink'; 'Sky Blue' is now a richer, more vibrant 'Blue'; and 'Green' has now been replaced by 'Purple'. We thought the green finish of last year's model was rather lovely but perhaps buyers didn't agree. Green can't be that unpopular though, as Apple has just launched it as a new option for the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro phones.

Colours aside, the design of the iPad Air 5 is essentially identical to that of the iPad Air 4, with the only difference on the spec sheet being a 3g (0.02lb) increase in weight. Dimensions remain 248 x 179 x 6.1mm (9.7 x 7 x 0.2 inches), and that makes this a very svelte proposition. As before, there's no home button and only slim bezels, with the screen very much taking centre stage.

As before, there are speakers on the top and bottom edge when the tablet is held in portrait mode, which means they work in a traditional left and right stereo configuration when it’s in the movie-friendly landscape orientation. The single-lens camera is the same as before, too, at least in terms of hardware, and it sticks out from the same top-left corner of the tablet’s rear, just as it did on last year’s iPad Air 4.

The front-facing camera has had an upgrade though, from 7MP to 12MP, but it’s still fairly well hidden in the black bezel along one of the iPad’s shorter edges. That camera placement is actually a missed opportunity, as it means that the camera is quite a long way off to the side when you’re using the tablet for video calls in the preferable landscape mode. This uncharacteristically poor design decision by Apple means it can appear to the person on the other end of the call as if you’re trying to avoid eye contact.

The big news on the features front is that the new iPad Air is powered by Apple’s super-fast M1 processor, which features in the company’s desktop Macs and MacBooks, as well as the iPad Pro (11-inch and 12.9-inch versions). In short, this is now the most affordable M1-powered product you can buy and, according to Apple, that makes it 60 per cent faster than the iPad Air in terms of CPU performance, and twice as powerful from a graphics perspective. 

So why has Apple decided to pack a Pro-level processor into arguably its most lifestyle-oriented iPad? Seemingly to increase its credentials as a productivity and creativity device so that it can bridge the gap between the fairly media consumption-oriented iPad and iPad Mini and the heavyweight Pro models. One suspects that Apple noted a lot of iPad Air 4 users who were making use of its Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil 2nd Generation compatibility and decided to give them the performance to match their ambitions.

The M1 isn’t only powerful, though – it’s also efficient, so battery life remains around 9-10 hours of constant use despite the performance upgrades.

Screen size 10.9in

Resolution 2360 x 1640 (264ppi)

Storage 64GB / 256GB

Finishes x5

Battery life 10 hours

Cameras 12MP rear / 12MP front

Dimensions (hwd) 25 x 18 x 0.6cm

Weight 461g

Of course, our prime concerns are the picture and sound quality and the specs suggest that nothing has changed here. Apple’s own data sheet indicates that the new iPad Air has the same two-speaker sound system as its predecessor, as well as the same display, with no changes to size (10.9 inches), resolution (2360 x 1640), pixel density (264ppi) or peak brightness (a quoted 500 nits).

It's always a shame when specs stay static across device generations, but the iPad Air 4 was a superb video playback device so it’s little surprise that Apple hasn’t sought to make big changes here.

Playing It in 4K Dolby Vision from the Apple TV app, there’s an extraordinary degree of similarity between the performances of the new iPad Air and its predecessor. And we do mean extraordinary: it’s extremely rare to see this level of consistency between two samples of the same device, let alone from one generation to the next.

While it might seem disappointing that there’s been no obvious upgrade here, there’s simply nothing to complain about in the picture quality. The image is supremely authentic and natural, with an unquestionable colour balance, oodles of detail and crisp definition. Motion is handled adeptly without any hint of active processing and blacks, while not OLED -inky, are plenty deep enough and packed with detail. There’s a satisfying HDR punch to the sundrenched exterior scenes, despite the 500 nits limit to the brightness, and plenty of dramatic contrast in the scenes that take place in the terrifying tunnels beneath the cursed town.

Interestingly, it’s when we switch to 1991’s Cape Fear , delivered in HD and standard dynamic range, that the new iPad Air produces a better picture than the outgoing model. There are broad, familial traits, from the cinematically warm but natural colour balance to the clean, controlled handling of the comparatively low resolution source material, but the new model is noticeably brighter, not only in obvious highlights such as the lights of a diner and the sparkle from a piece of jewellery, but across the whole image, which is brighter and punchier without looking exaggerated. This is an image that simply pops from the screen that little bit more, drawing you even more effectively into the action.

These characteristics carry over when you switch to Blockers in standard HDR10, suggesting that the consistency offered across the two devices when playing Dolby Vision is down to the outgoing model’s existing adherence to the format. With SDR and standard HDR , though, Apple has found room for improvement, increasing impact.

In summary, this is the best tablet picture performance made just a little bit better when viewing non-Dolby Vision content.

The changes in the audio department are even more slight, to the extent that you’d be very hard pressed to hear any difference at all. Again, though, that’s something about which it’s hard to complain, because the iPad Air was already an excellent-sounding tablet.

While it takes a bit of effort to teach yourself to hold the iPad in landscape without blocking the speakers, it’s effort worth making, as the side placement enables the Air to produce an impressively open and spacious sound that’s surprisingly involving with music and a really atmospheric boon to movies. We’re obviously not talking about sound that wraps around you, but the degree to which effects stretch beyond all four sides of the tablet is very impressive and very enjoyable.

There’s plenty of punch and detail, too, and enough dynamic range to deliver a surprising amount of drama. Bass doesn’t extend incredibly deep, as you’d expect, but neither is the delivery lightweight, and the bass that is there is tuneful and controlled. It is worth mentioning here that the tablet does vibrate a fair bit when pushed to high volumes, though.

Of course, hearing the iPad Air at its best involves connecting a pair of headphones. To go wired and you’ll need to invest in a USB-C headphones adapter – the official Apple one will set you back £9 / $9 / AU$15. Plug that into a pair of Grado SR325x cans and the sound is fabulously clean, punchy and energetic. We’ve long applauded Apple’s dedication to neutral, balanced sound, and the new iPad Air doesn’t deviate from that approach. This is all about hearing your music (and movies) as intended, without overt exaggeration or colouration, and that’s just how it should be.

While the iPad Air 5th Generation is undeniably an improvement over the iPad Air 4, its key upgrades are to its processor and front-facing camera. Those upgrades are each great in their own right, but for us what really matters are the picture and sound performance, and in these areas it’s pretty much business as usual.

There’s nothing wrong with that, though, as the iPad Air is supremely talented in these areas and more or less untouchable by other tablets in its price range. There’s an argument that the standard iPad is the better performance-per-pound proposition for the pure content consumer, but the new Air is the model to go for if you can afford it.

See all the What Hi-Fi? Award 2022 winners

Also consider the Apple iPad (2021)

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What Hi-Fi?, founded in 1976, is the world's leading independent guide to buying and owning hi-fi and home entertainment products. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies. Everything is tested by our dedicated team of in-house reviewers in our custom-built test rooms in London, Reading and Bath. Our coveted five-star rating and Awards are recognised all over the world as the ultimate seal of approval, so you can buy with absolute confidence.

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• bristollinnet From an audiophile perspective, using an iPad as an Apple Music streamer can be a highly effective solution to getting HiRes gapless audio (via USB) into an appropriate DAC. Once Apple brings out AirPlay 3 to support lossless streaming through that route - then even more so. Reply

What Hi-Fi? said: The Air is now a powerhouse, but have the picture and sound also been upgraded? Apple iPad Air (5th Generation) : Read more

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Apple iPad Air (2022) review: Almost everything you want

“Buy the iPad Air 5 with enough storage and it's a hugely powerful tablet suitable for work and play that'll last for years, but there's still a reason to splurge for the iPad Pro if you've got the budget.”

• High-performance M1 processor
• Slim and light
• Software suitable for work or play
• Large, colorful, and sharp screen
• Wide array of quality accessories
• Center Stage works well
• 64GB storage isn't enough
• Battery life disappoints

Are you looking at the iPad Pro with envious eyes but aren’t willing to pay the price, only to then have them glaze over when you see the more affordable, but rather basic iPad ? The fifth-generation iPad Air pushes them both aside with its Pro-worrying performance and a smart design that makes the iPad shrink into the background. So is it a done deal and is the latest iPad Air the iPad most people should buy? Yes, but that definitely isn’t all there is to it, so let’s go into the details.

Screen and performance

Software and work, battery and charging, storage and accessories, price and availability.

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The Apple iPad Air 5th generation (shortened to the iPad Air 5 for this review) looks identical to the 4th-generation iPad Air , which was released in 2020, apart from it actually saying iPad Air and not just iPad on the rear panel. This means a very thin aluminum body, a single camera lens on the back, and a Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the power button. Also like the 4th generation model, it comes in a selection of different colors: space gray, starlight, pink, purple, and blue, which you can see in our photos.

The thin 6.1mm body is ultraportable, and the 461-gram weight makes it comfortable to hold even when laying down. The rounded corners don’t dig into your palms, the bezel isn’t so thin that there’s nowhere to hold the tablet, and the 10.9-inch screen feels like the sweet spot for balancing convenience and ability. There’s a reason Apple hasn’t changed the design for the 5th-generation model, and that’s because there was nothing wrong with the 4th generation.

It’s business as usual, then. The iPad Air 5 is not revolutionary in its design, and because it’s basically the same as the last model, it won’t stun anyone who has used an iPad Air over the last couple of years. If you have a 3rd-generation iPad Air , it will look very new by comparison though, due to the slight increase in screen size, the reduction in bezel thickness, and the lack of a Home button.

You unlock the iPad Air 5 using a Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the power button, and there’s no option for Face ID. The button is slim and is set almost flush against the body of the tablet, so it takes a little getting used to. I don’t find it as fast as Face ID on the iPhone or the iPad Pro, and I’d be wary about buying some cases as it could become hard to press if the case has a chunky build. But once you get used to its need to have your finger rest on the sensor for a beat longer than expected, it’s very reliable. Plus, I like the on-screen indicator showing where the sensor is located. Very helpful.

There have been reports online about the iPad Air 5 creaking when flexed and concerns over its build quality. The iPad Air 5 I have does not creak, but it certainly flexes in a more concerning manner than I’d really like. Just the slightest twist and you can almost see the tablet changing shape, and this makes me concerned about durability if you’re not careful with it.

The aluminum rear panel also flexes when you press down on it, something that doesn’t happen on my iPad Pro 2020 , and when I carry it around. there’s a disconcerting feeling that something inside the tablet is moving. I don’t know what it is (I’m fairly certain there are no small animals in there), and I don’t feel it all the time, but it’s not really what I expect from an Apple product at this price. However, there’s no evidence any of this affects the performance or that it has made the tablet less durable, and it may not affect all iPad Air 5s either. In short, your mileage may vary.

The iPad Air 5 uses a 10.9-inch LED-backlit screen with a 2360 x 1640 pixel resolution, Apple’s True Tone color management system, and support for the 2nd-generation Apple Pencil. On paper, it’s very close to the 11-inch iPad Pro’s screen, but I do notice the slightly lower brightness, and a darkened room is certainly better for watching video on it. It’s not terrible, and nowhere near as unfortunate as the lack of Apple’s ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate.

When I compare the entire “iPad Air experience” directly with my 2020 iPad Pro, everything from unlocking and opening apps to scrolling through text and browsing the web is noticeably smoother on the Pro’s 120Hz ProMotion screen. It’s not only easier on the eyes, but it’s also more pleasurable, with a distinctly high quality feel to using the tablet. I can’t put this down to anything other than the ProMotion feature, as the iPad Air 5’s M1 processor is newer and faster than the A12Z Bionic in my iPad Pro, and the software is identical on both.

I therefore absolutely think it’s worth spending more to get the higher refresh rate screen if you can afford it, but does that make the iPad Air 5’s screen poor? No, it’s just there is an obvious quality jump between it and the next model up. Watching Hawkeye in UHD streaming from Disney+ shows off how colorful, detailed, and sharp the picture is, but the screen needs to be at full brightness to appreciate its glory. Sound from the stereo speakers is loud and rich with a decent amount of bass, and when you connect it to a pair of AirPods Pro , you get the added appeal of Spatial Audio . The deeper you are in the Apple ecosystem, the more you’ll appreciate the iPad Air 5, a theme that continues later.

On the performance side, the M1 is a monster. It’s almost like there’s too much power, and the tablet gets frustrated waiting for a real challenge when all I’m asking is for it to open pages or play a YouTube video. Playing Asphalt 8: Airborne is a walk in the park for the tablet and using LumaFusion to edit a video did feel snappier than on my 2020 iPad Pro, although not drastically. Ultimately, the iPad Air 5 is more than capable almost regardless of what you want to do.

Can the iPad Air 5 be used for work purposes and as an alternative to a laptop? It has more than enough performance to do so, at least. The octa-core M1 processor in the iPad Air 5 comes with 8GB of RAM, octa-core graphics, and Apple’s Neural Engine, so it isn’t all that different from the cheapest Apple MacBook Air M1 . I regularly use the 2020 iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard as a laptop substitute to write articles, edit videos, and perform similar tasks, so how did the iPad Air 5 do?

For the way I work, the iPad Air 5 is a true laptop alternative, but as I will come back to later on, that doesn’t mean it’ll be cheaper than a laptop.

At this point, I’m typing on the iPad’s screen. As with previous versions, it’s slick and natural. It takes a while to adjust to the lack of “fee,l” and you have to make use of the shortcuts to improve speed. If you want the iPad Air to become more of a working laptop, you’ll want to splurge on the Magic Keyboard accessory. While I do think it’s excellent and I use the old version with my 2020 iPad Pro, I have no wish to pay for another one to use with the iPad Air 5, which is incompatible with the old version.

Instead, I turned to the Keychron K3 Bluetooth keyboard  and took the iPad outside into the sun to see how it performs. At full brightness, the screen is readable and I could work quite happily, and reflections didn’t cause problems either. The Bluetooth connection remained stable, and there were no issues with latency. It’s a great alternative if you don’t plan to use a physical keyboard with your iPad Air that often.

Apple’s iPadOS is fast and powerful, and if you’ve used iOS on an iPhone, you’ll adjust to it immediately. Take time to learn its intricacies though, as its multitasking features are intuitive and real time-savers. Getting the most out of iPadOS is easy if you use Apple’s ecosystem, which I do on a regular basis. Sending files from my iPhone using AirDrop is quick, I’ve stored video in iCloud from my Mac and downloaded it to the iPad without a hitch, and syncing Pages documents across my Mac, iPhone, and iPad is seamless.

Even setting up the iPad was incredibly simple, as it pulled all the data from the iCloud backup of my iPad Pro. It took about an hour to complete, and once done, I didn’t need to do much else to make it work as I wanted. It’s all very easy, and this streamlined onboarding process is a big part of the iPad’s appeal.

Those outside Apple’s ecosystem, or straddling between it and Google or Microsoft, may come up against a few barriers, but nothing that will make life too awkward. I use Chrome, Drive, Outlook, and Teams, and none of them cause headaches either at setup or during use. For the way I work, the iPad Air 5 is a true laptop alternative, but as I will come back to later on, that doesn’t mean it’ll be cheaper than a laptop.

Few people will use the iPad Air 5 as their primary camera, but the good news is the single 12-megapixel camera with autofocus, Smart HDR, and an f/1.8 aperture takes attractive photos in regular lighting. Shots are colorful and well-balanced, with an excellent dynamic range. Indoors, it captures plenty of detail but struggles in harsh lighting. It reminds me of the iPhone SE (2020)’s camera performance — good, but not designed to be a superstar.

The front 12MP camera is excellent. I’ve used it on Teams calls and Zoom calls, and those watching my video have commented about how good it looks. It supports Apple’s Center Stage feature where the camera will adjust its 122-degree field of view to make sure you stay in the center of the frame even when you move around. It’s surprisingly effective and works both side-to-side and up-and-down, and reacts quickly to your movements, but never in a dizzying fashion that would distract anyone on the call.

In the box, Apple provides a 20-watt charging block and a USB Type-C cable. It’ll certainly charge the tablet, but it won’t do it very quickly. It took 30 minutes to reach about 25%, an hour to reach 50%, and 2 hours and 20 minutes to reach 100%.  To speed the process up a little, I used an ElecJet X21 GaN Pro charger . It took 30 minutes to reach 35%, an hour to reach about 70%, and hit the full mark in just under two hours.

Battery life varies a lot depending on what you do with the tablet, but it’s not the iPad Air 5’s strong point. I often watch videos that are stored on an SSD drive, which I connect using a USB hub. An hour of video viewed this way will use up 30% battery life. I spent a few hours editing a video with LumaFusion and uploading it to YouTube, plus a few incidental tasks in-between, which robbed 40% of battery. Heavy use like this throughout the day means the battery may need recharging by the end of it.

Perhaps you think this is all rather power-intensive? Watch 45 minutes of streaming video and it takes around 15% of the battery life, and an hour or so of using Pages with the Bluetooth keyboard connected will see at least 20% of the battery disappear, so even general screen-on time doesn’t really stretch out the battery life. But it hasn’t impressed me so far, though there is a chance it may improve as the software becomes more familiar with my use.

Even if you start off just wanting an iPad to watch videos or order things from Amazon while laying on the couch, there’s a strong chance you’ll want to exploit its ability more down the road. It’s just too good to not use more extensively. However, when you do, be aware you’ll face some additional bills because iPad options and accessories aren’t cheap.

Before you even get started, it’s probably worth paying for more storage. The cheapest iPad Air 5 comes with 64GB storage and this gets eaten up very quickly, especially as iPadOS takes up 8GB alone. If you play games or download movies, it’s simply not enough. Asphalt 8: Airborne takes up 3.3GB and a single 45-minute high-quality download from Disney+ is 1.6GB, so you can immediately see how fast you’d run out of room.

Then you may want to buy some accessories to get even more from the iPad Air 5. The Apple Pencil is $129 and the Magic Keyboard is $299, and although they’re slightly niche, they really are excellent and truly help maximize the iPad’s versatility. The Smart Folio, which protects the tablet and sets it at a handy angle for watching video or typing, is practically an essential, but it’s a crazy $80 from Apple. At least when it comes to the best iPad Air cases , you have alternative options, unlike if you want the Apple Pencil.

Finally, consider whether you need 5G connectivity or can live with the Wi-Fi-only model. If you do select the iPad Air 5 with Cellular option, it will cost you an additional amount with your carrier for it to work. Alternatively, you can use your phone as a hot spot. When the iPad detects it doesn’t have a Wi-Fi connection and your iPhone is nearby, it even gives you a pop-up notification asking if you’d like to activate the feature, so it’s very easy.

It’s probably worth paying for more storage.

What does this all mean? A 256GB Wi-Fi iPad Air 5 with an Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard will cost you $1,177 in total. There’s lots of ability, but that’s also a lot of money. It’s something to consider if you anticipate using your iPad Air 5 for a lot of different things either immediately or in the future, as the entry-level 8GB/256GB MacBook Air M1 costs $999.

The iPad Air 5 is available to buy now. It costs $599, or 569 British pounds, for the basic 64GB version with Wi-Fi. Add 5G connectivity and the price increases to $799 for the entry-level model. We recommend paying for more storage, though, and the only other option is 256GB, which ups the price to $749 (719 pounds) for the Wi-Fi version.

The iPad Air 5 fits neatly into the middle of Apple’s large tablet range, which starts with the cheaper $329 iPad and goes up to the much more expensive $799 iPad Pro. The iPad Pro’s super bright, 120Hz ProMotion Liquid Retina XDR screen and extra features for creators — for example, Thunderbolt 3, the LiDAR camera, and its five microphones — truly make it worth the additional cost, but what about the iPad Air 5 over the cheaper iPad?

I’d choose the iPad Air 5 every time. It’s hugely powerful, it looks like a modern tablet with its thin-bezel design, it supports all the desirable Apple accessories for the future, and really can act as a laptop alternative. It’ll do everything you’ll likely want for years, and the design means it’ll stay fresh during that time as well. I love its fantastic pick-up-and-use ability, which is present right out of the box. It’s a huge strength you don’t really find with any other tablet.

The battery life and feeble amount of base storage are the downsides, but if you choose wisely when you purchase and don’t wander far from a charger, then neither should cause major problems. The iPad Pro may be the iPad most people will desire, but the iPad Air 5 is really all the iPad most will really need.

Is there a better alternative?

An Apple iPad in general is the best tablet you can buy, but the iPad Air 5 isn’t the best iPad. The 11-inch iPad Pro and its 120Hz ProMotion screen is superior, but it’s also more expensive, right? Well, yes, but the basic $799 model comes with 128GB storage space, which is more usable than the Air’s basic 64GB, or $899 gets you 256GB space. If you feel you can stretch to the 256GB iPad Air 5, do carefully consider the base iPad Pro as an alternative before buying.

How long will it last?

Provided you have enough storage space, the iPad Air 5 will last you for years. My iPad Pro (2020) is still going strong and I don’t feel the need to update it yet. Apple’s excellent software support should mean the tablet is kept up to date for at least four years or potentially longer. A protective case of some description is recommended if you are going to take the iPad Air 5 outside, as it’s not water-resistant and the flex in the body may mean it’s easily damaged.

Should you buy it?

Yes. You won’t feel short-changed if you go for the iPad Air 5 instead of an iPad Pro, provided you aren’t coming from a ProMotion-equipped iPad, but you’d almost certainly regret buying the basic, less-capable iPad just to save a little money.

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Apple has introduced new tablets. The iPad Pro (2024) and iPad Air (2024) are now available, and both will surely turn a lot of heads in the coming months. If you're considering the iPad Pro (2024), you might wonder whether it comes with a pen or pencil. Here's the answer. Does the iPad Pro (2024) come with a pen?

Unlike Samsung's tablet lineup, such as the Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus, the iPad Pro (2024) does not include a stylus. If you want a stylus, you'll have to pay extra.

In recent years, Apple has positioned the iPad Air series in the middle of its tablet lineup. With more features than the standard iPad and a few omissions compared to the iPad Pro, the iPad Air can be seen as the ideal choice for many users. To protect your investment, it’s essential to purchase a case, and it’s also advisable to get an iPad Air screen protector. Here are our top recommendations for the iPad Air (2024) fifth-generation model, and some earlier models, too.

The iPad Pro (2024) is now reaching customers, and early adopters have already discovered an Easter egg on the tablet. It involves the Apple Pencil Pro, which also recently made its debut, and it's ridiculously cool.

Tech enthusiast Mikah Sargent was among the first to discover the Easter egg and posted about it on X (formerly Twitter). A subtle shadow appears in the UI when the Apple Pencil Pro is hovered over an iPad Pro. He discovered it during TWIT’s MacBreak Weekly. Snazzy Labs noticed the same Easter egg and called it “INSANE.”

iPad Air 5 Quick Review: Pros and Cons

Introduced on 8 March 2022 during an Apple Event, alongside the introduction of the iPhone SE 2022 , the Apple M1 Ultra, and the Mac Studio, the fifth-generation iPad Air or the iPad Air 5 packs some serious performance improvements. Apple decided to power this device with the Apple M1 system-on-chip to deliver processing capabilities that are almost closer to the fifth-generation iPad Pro which was announced on 20 April 2021.

Pros of the iPad Air 5: Reasons Why You Should Buy

The M1 chip is the most notable advantage of the fifth-generation iPad Air with a price tag that is more affordable than the fifth-generation iPad Pro. Consumers who are planning to upgrade from older generations of the iPad Air or the fourth-generation iPad Pro or earlier might consider the iPad Air 5 as a more reasonable choice.

Below are the advantages, selling points, and reasons why you should buy this new device from Apple:

• Processing Capabilities: The M1 chip is a big leap from the A14 Bionic chip found on the previous iPad Air 4 . The chip has an 8-core CPU and an 8-core GPU that delivers up to 60 percent faster processing capabilities than the previous generation. Note that the A15 Bionic chip used in the iPad Mini 6 only has a 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU.

• Comparable with the iPad Pro: It is also a more affordable alternative to the iPad Pro. Aside from sporting the same M1 chip, it also has native support for the Apple Pencil 2, the Magic Keyboard, the Smart Folio Keyboard, and all other third-party accessories available to the Pro.

• Digital Art Creation: Support for the Apple Pencil 2 means that it can be used for sketching or digital painting, as well as for stylus-based graphic design and photo editing requirements. The M1 chip allows it to run popular sketching and photo editing apps such as Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, and Procreate, among others without hiccups.

• Alternative to Laptops: It is also a possible replacement for a conventional laptop. When used with the Magic Keyboard or the Smart Folio Keyboard, this device can be an effective office productivity tool for word processing, creation of presentations, and business communication.

• Improved FaceTime HD Cam : Another advantage of the iPad Air 5 is that it has the newer 12MP Ultra Wide front camera that supports the Center Stage feature to allow automatic panning to keep the user centered on the frame. The front camera capture more light and details compared to the front camera found in the iPad Air 4 for a better video conferencing experience.

• Built For Power Users: The powerful M1 chip also makes this device suitable for resource-intensive use cases. These include editing of videos, playing high-end and top-tier mobile games available on the App Store and Apple Arcade, streaming cloud-based or on-demand video games, and live video streaming.

• Connectivity Component: Another pro of the iPad Air 5 is that it comes equipped with Wi-Fi 6 that supports the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies and an option for a 5G-enabled variant for connecting to sub-6 GHz 5G networks . It also has Bluetooth 5 connectivity.

Cons of the iPad Air 5: Reasons Why You Should Not Buy

The advantages of the iPad Air 5 and its selling points make it an ideal device for users planning to upgrade from previous generations or older models of the iPad. However, it also has some notable disadvantages or drawbacks that can turn off some consumers.

Below are the drawbacks, issues, and reasons why you should not buy this new iPad device from Apple:

• Limited Base Model Storage: Similar to the iPad Air 4, one notable drawback of the iPad Air 5 is that the base model only comes with 64GB of storage. The next variant comes with 256GB storage but with a price tag of USD 749.00. Note that there is only a USD 50.00 difference between this variant and the 128GB-model of the iPad Pro.

• The Absence of Face ID: This device comes with the Touch ID fingerprint scanner placed on the power button and located on the top-right portion. However, when it comes to convenience, the Apple Face ID is a more preferred biometric solution. For comparison, the iPad Pro comes with Face ID facial recognition biometrics.

• 60GHz Screen Refresh Rate: Another disadvantage of the iPad Air 5, especially when compared to the iPad Pro, is that its Liquid Retina IPS display comes only at a 60GHz refresh rate. Users who are accustomed to using devices with higher refresh rates might find the overall viewing experience less fluid and smoother.

• No Flash in The Rear Camera: The camera module found on the back is also better than the previous generation of Air. However, it lacks flash. There are instances when a flash-equipped rear camera s useful, especially when taking images or scanning documents in a low-light environment.

• Awkward Front Camera: It is also worth pointing out that the newer FaceTime HD camera is still placed on the top-middle portion of the front glass panel. This is an ideal location if the device will be used in portrait mode. However, similar to the problems with other models and generations of the iPad, this is an awkward placement since landscape mode is ideal for longer video calls and videoconferencing sessions.

Apple iPad Air 5th Gen Review: Reasons Why You Should or Should Not Buy the iPad Air 5

The fifth-generation iPad Air or the iPad Air 5 M1 is a notable upgrade to the previous generation of the Air line of iPads. The inclusion of the M1 chip means that it has more processing prowess that rivals the iPad Pro and other high-end Android tablets such as the Galaxy Tab S8 and Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra from Samsung. This device can handle resource-intensive apps and multiple tasks with ease.

However, there are notable disadvantages. The most damning is the 64GB storage of the base model. The price tag is also an issue when compared to the iPad Mini 6, the iPad Pro, and other Android tablets. Other drawbacks include the 60GHz refresh rate and the outdated and awkward placement of the FaceTime HD camera.

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Apple iPad Air (5th generation) review: Spec-tock-ular

Published on October 18, 2022

Apple iPad Air (5th generation)

What we like, what we don't like.

Apple’s strategy of slapping powerful chips into affordable hardware isn’t a new one, but it’s really kicked it up a notch with the iPad Air (5th generation). Adding laptop-tier silicon to the iPad Pro line was one thing, but a beefy M1 processor in Apple’s lightweight, sub-flagship tablet surely makes it a no-brainer, right? Yes, but as is often the case with any piece of fancy tech, it’s not quite that simple. Let’s break it down in this Apple iPad Air (5th generation) review.

Update, October 2022: Details have been added regarding iPadOS 16 features and rollout for the iPad Air (5th gen).

What you need to know about the Apple iPad Air (5th generation)

• iPad Air (Wi-Fi only, 64GB): $599/£569/€679
• iPad Air (Wi-Fi only, 256GB): $749/£719/€849
• iPad Air (Wi-Fi + Cellular, 64GB): $749/£719/€849
• iPad Air (Wi-Fi + Cellular, 256GB): $899/£869/€1,019

The Apple iPad Air (5th gen) — commonly referred to as the iPad Air 5 — replaces the outgoing Air (4th gen), just seventeen months after the latter’s launch in late October 2020. The iPad Air 5 debuted at Apple’s Peek Performance event on March 8, 2022, alongside the iPhone SE (2022) and the Mac Studio.

If the previous iPad Air was a long-overdue “tick,” this is definitively the inevitable “tock” model. Put the two side by side and nobody but the most die-hard Apple fan will be able to tell the difference. It’s a smidgen heavier (1-2g depending on the model) and the color options have changed, but the size, ports/buttons, display, rear camera, and speakers are all identical to the iPad Air (4th generation) — check out our in-depth look at the iPad Air 4 for more on those features, as we’ll be skipping over some of the familiar stuff in this review. It’s also compatible with the Apple Pencil (2nd generation) and the Magic Keyboard case, as well as other existing iPad Air accessories.

The two biggest changes are under the hood: the M1 processor and 5G support . The game-changing M1 chipset should require no introduction at this point, but the trickle-down effect of Apple’s silicon strategy means that the 2022 iPad Air — just like the iPad Pro (5th generation) before it — packs MacBook-caliber power, albeit with some subtle architecture tweaks. Apple has also doubled the RAM on all models to 8GB and upgraded the selfie camera.

These minor upgrades are accompanied by a minor price hike — but only if you’ve got your eyes on the cellular model. The Wi-Fi version matches its predecessor, but the freshly 5G-enabled variant will cost you an extra $20.

The iPad Air (5th generation) went on sale on March 11, with shipping beginning a week later on March 18, 2022. You can buy the iPad Air (5th generation) direct from the Apple Store, as well as major third-party retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. The iPad Air (5th generation) color options are Space Gray, Pink, Purple, Blue, and Starlight.

What’s good?

While it’s not always the case, especially with Apple products, this is one time when a rehashed design is a net positive. All of the good stuff from the iPad Air (4th generation) applies here: the quality construction from glass and recycled aluminum, reasonably-sized bezels that give you just enough room to grip it without obscuring the edges of the display, and Touch ID for biometrics. The fingerprint reader is baked into the power button, and while the two-step unlock (rest finger and push down) is cumbersome, it’s rapid and accurate.

The iPad Air (5th generation) has a USB-C port for external storage access and accessory support. This might sound like a given for a modern tablet, but hey, this is Apple . There’s a minor upgrade hidden away here too. The USB-C 3.1 spec is a “Gen 2” version that increases data transfer speeds to a maximum of 10Gbit/s (was 5Gbit/s). This also enables support for hooking the iPad Air up to Apple’s Studio Display monitor, something you can’t do with other Air models.

Let’s talk about the other semi-notable upgrades before we get to the big one. First, 5G support. It’s predictable and not all that exciting, but it’s nice to have for those that want data on the go. The more interesting change is the front camera with its wider aperture and increased megapixel count. This is the same camera found on the iPad Pro (5th generation). It’s a solid little shooter, delivering pleasing color accuracy and enough detail in decent lighting, though it struggles in dim conditions. What’s perhaps more exciting is the addition of Center Stage — another “Pro” feature trickling down that follows faces around the room, zooming and panning to keep them in shot. It’s a neat trick and is compatible with FaceTime, Zoom, and Google Meet.

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Of course, the headline upgrade to the iPad Air (5th generation) is that brawny M1 chip. It’s the full-fat version too — the one with eight CPU cores and eight GPU cores. That’s a lot of power, perhaps too much for what the iPad Air can actually do (but more on that later). Nevertheless, there’s just no competition here: this is the most powerful tablet you can buy for this price.

The iPad Air handily dealt with intensive games like Genshin Impact, with the frame rate hovering around the 50-55 mark on average at max settings. Benchmarks only cement how much of a beast this thing is, with numbers that trounce the Tab S8 series’ Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 implementation and handily best Windows hybrids too. While multitasking was never an issue on the last model, the doubled RAM count will also help future-proof the tablet for years to come — and that’s a good thing, because Apple typically supports its tablets with software updates for up to five years or more.

The chip’s efficiency is a boon for battery life, though the iPad Air (5th generation) largely sticks to the ~10-hour mark we saw on its predecessor when drained from 100% to zero. It’ll drop faster with heavy use, but this is always an all-day tablet and then some. Apple also snuck faster charging into the latest model, though the included charger only hits 20W of power. If you’ve got a 30W USB PD PPS charger, you can refill from empty to full in just over two hours as opposed to two and a half. Check out our guide here for the best charger options.

iPadOS still awkwardly straddles the line between iOS and macOS, landing much closer to its walled-off, mobile roots than the more open Mac software platform, but for all its quirks (seriously, why aren’t the widgets interactive?) and omissions ( desktop mode and multi-user support, please!), the app ecosystem is unparalleled in both optimization and breadth. You can safely assume that most apps will adapt to the screen dimensions with custom UI tweaks, something you don’t get with even the most basic apps on Android or Windows tablets. Things will only improve with iPadOS 16 , due in late 2022. This adds the Stage Manager dock for a more desktop-like app-switching experience, retooled Weather and Home apps, child account management, and much more.

Props to Apple for continuing to make tablets funky, too. The iPad Air’s pastel shades are a breath of fresh air (ha) in a market swamped by dull black/gray/silver slabs. That said, the more muted Starlight color pictured in this review is there if you’re not feeling spicy. I do miss the green colorway from the previous generation, though.

What’s not so good

We’ve griped about this at length, but it bears repeating: 64GB is not enough storage for a tech product anymore, especially when just over 10GB of it is taken up by system storage. Yes, you could stick within those means if you only use a few apps and are fastidious with your iCloud management (or by regularly plugging in an external drive), but the point is you shouldn’t have to. 128GB is the standard for any other tablet maker operating in this price bracket, and there’s no excuse for Apple not to have solved a problem that was already well overdue a fix with the previous generation iPad Air.

What compounds the issue is the price of the 256GB model. At $749 for the Wi-Fi iPad Air with 256GB storage, you’re just $50 away from the iPad Pro’s $799 asking price. The $100 delta for the cellular model is a little steeper, but even in spite of their growing similarities, the Pro is still Pro for a reason.

And one of those “Pro” features you don’t get on the Air is “ProMotion” — a.k.a. Apple’s fancy name for a high refresh rate display . This is a great tablet display, no question. It’s colorful without being oversaturated, pixel-rich, and, while rated at ~500 nits vs the ~600 nits of the 11-inch Pro, it gets bright enough for use in anything but direct sunlight. That 60Hz cap, though, is a real downer. Again, other tablets in this price tier are shifting to 90Hz or above. It was already silly that Apple restricts its vanilla iPhones to 60Hz, but a device with laptop-grade internals? It might be running at Goku-esque power levels, but the lagging animations mean it doesn’t look or feel as smooth as it should when flitting between apps and navigating the UI.

If you’re a newcomer to Apple’s ecosystem, be ready to balk at those accessory prices. The Magic Keyboard ( $299 ) and Apple Pencil (2nd generation) ( $129 ) really unlock the iPad Air’s potential, but you’re looking at an extra $400+ being taken out of your bank account.

Center Stage is one of the fifth-gen iPad Air’s key upgrades, but it’s not unique (the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 series has an identical feature), and Apple’s insistence on placing the front camera on the portrait bezel still makes it look like you’re staring off into space during video calls. Unlike the rear shooter, the front camera also lacks a 4K capture option.

Apple iPad Air (5th generation) specs

Apple ipad air (5th generation) review: the verdict.

The iPad Air (5th generation) gives you the most bang for your buck of any tablet to date. Apple’s software support is guaranteed to keep it fresh and stable, but it’s the overkill M1 chip and healthy supply of RAM that ensures it’s future-proofed for many, many years to come.

Of course, aside from 5G support, this was fundamentally true of the last-gen iPad Air. Sure, it didn’t have an M1 chip, but the A14 Bionic was already far ahead of the pack in 2020, and remains competitive with the very best mobile silicon today. Meanwhile, the same gripes we had with the 4th generation Air are all present and accounted for, and the grumbles over the 64GB base storage and 60Hz refresh rate have only gotten louder with the passage of time.

The iPad Air is in a weird spot, then. It’s still a fantastic gateway into the iPad ecosystem that offers just enough flexibility to function as an “iPad Pro Lite” for work and play. Likewise, if you only want to stream movies and play a handful of games, the base model is a steal, and its screen, design, and feature set are enough of a bump over the regular iPad to justify the extra spend. But even with all that bleeding edge raw power, the iPad Air (5th gen) feels oddly outdated at times — a tablet that received a massive boost in an area it already excelled in, while neglecting its legacy flaws.

The real question is: should you buy the iPad Air (5th generation) or the 11-inch iPad Pro ( $749 )? If you can live with or work around the paltry storage, the price differences between the base models (either Wi-Fi or cellular) will save you a nice chunk of change. However, if you’re considering the iPad Air with 256GB storage, we’d absolutely recommend you stump up the extra cash.

For $50 more you’re getting Face ID biometrics, a rear ultrawide camera, and quad speakers. The real kicker is that 120Hz display though. Once you’ve tried an iPad with lusciously fluid animations, it’s hard to go back to a stodgy 60Hz. Sure, you’re getting half the storage with the Pro compared to the maxed-out Air, but 128GB is a nice sweet spot.

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Elsewhere in Apple’s ecosystem, you’ve got the iPad Mini ( $499 ) for those that want something a little more portable and the vanilla iPad ( $329 ) for all the basics on a budget. We’d also recommend looking out for a renewed iPad Air (4th generation) as almost everything great about the latest generation was inherited from its predecessor.

As far as direct competition goes, the iPad Air (5th generation) slots in behind the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 ( $699 ) but ahead of the Galaxy Tab S7 FE ( $529 ), unless you’re looking at the underpowered 5G model of the latter (which we don’t recommend ). The Galaxy Tab S8 gets closer than ever to challenging Apple’s tablet dominance with faster charging, but it’s hampered by Android’s poor optimization for larger screens (though this is somewhat resolved with Android 12L), not-so-stellar battery life, and is eons behind on raw performance. The upcoming Google Pixel Tablet is hoping to kick Android tablets up a gear in 2023, but until then Apple’s competition is few and far between at this price point.

The iPad Air (5th generation) is still uncontested as the best sub-flagship tablet you can buy, and possibly the easiest product to recommend from Apple’s entire, behemoth ecosystem. If you’re rocking any pre-2020 iPad and don’t want to go Pro, this is the one to get. Let’s just hope the next Air gets to “tick” off some of those persistent caveats.

Top Apple iPad Air (5th generation) questions and answers

If you bought accessories or a case for the Air (4th generation), those will work just fine, but cases from older models will not fit.

The iPad Air 2 was released in 2014 and has been discontinued. The iPad Air (5th generation) is the latest model iPad Air.

Yes, the iPad Air (5th generation) supports sub-6Ghz 5G bands . It does not support mmWave .

The iPad Air (5th generation) has four speaker grilles but only two stereo speakers (firing from the left). They’re perfectly fine, but sound a little imbalanced when holding the tablet in portrait.

No, the iPad Air (5th generation) does not have Face ID. It has Touch ID biometrics via the power button.

No, the iPad Air (5th gen) does not have a headphone jack. You’ll need to use Bluetooth buds/cans or USB-C audio.

Yes, though it misses out on Wi-Fi 6E , as well as the latest Bluetooth standard (Bluetooth 5.0 only).

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How to set up the Apple iPad Air 5 (2022)

Apple has finally revealed the iPad Air 5 (2022). Here's how to go through the setup process of this new M1-powered tablet.

Apple revealed the iPad Air 5 (2022) during its Peek Performance event. This tablet comes with optional 5G network support and is powered by the mighty M1 chip. The iPad Air 5 features the same exterior design as the previous-gen model. However, it's available in new vivid colors that aren't present on the 4th Gen model. If you decide to buy an iPad Air 5 , it's important to protect it with a case to minimize the damages of potential accidents. It's also essential to know how to set it up when you turn it on for the first time. Here are the detailed steps you need to follow to complete the setup process on the iPad Air 5 (2022).

How to go through the setup process of the iPad Air 5

After you unbox the iPad Air 5 , you have to click and hold on the power button to turn it on. Wait for the operating system (OS) to boot, then follow the steps below:

• Choose the language of the OS. Most third-party apps you install will also reflect this language setting.
• Choose the region or country you live in. This will personalize the services and features accordingly.
• If you have another iOS/iPadOS on-hand, you can bring it closer to your new iPad Air 5 to quickly transfer data. Otherwise, click on Set Up Manually to start from scratch.
• Double-check the language preferences. If you hit Customize Settings , you will be able to make any needed adjustments.
• The Preferred Languages setting allows you to select the priority of the languages to speak. If an app doesn't support English, for example, it'll default to Traditional Chinese in this case.
• Choose which languages you want to add to the iPad's keyboard, then hit Continue .
• Dictation allows you to transform your speech into written text. Choose which languages you see yourself using with Dictation, then hit Continue .
• Connect to your house's Wi-Fi network by clicking on its name and entering the password. An internet connection is required to complete the setup process and to take advantage of the features included in iPadOS.
• Give your iPad up to a few minutes to contact Apple servers and activate. This is to verify that it hasn't been stolen and to start the included warranty countdown.
• Read Apple's Data & Privacy policy thoroughly, and hit Continue .
• Optionally set up Touch ID. This allows you to unlock your iPad Air 5 by placing your registered fingertip(s) on the power button.
• If you decide to set up Touch ID, place and lift your finger on the power button repeatedly to register the fingerprint.
• After you set up Touch ID, you need to choose a password as a backup security measure. You can change from a numerical passcode to an alphanumerical password through the Passcode Options button. Once you settle for a password type, type it twice to confirm it.
• Decide if you want to restore a cloud or local backup from another device. Alternatively, you could start from scratch by clicking Don't Transfer Apps & Data .
• Sign in to your Apple ID to access some of the company's features -- like iMessage, FaceTime, App Store downloads, and more.
• Read the Terms and Conditions thoroughly, then click on Agree if you agree to them. If you disagree, you can't use your new iPad Air 5.
• Click Continue to receive future iPadOS software updates automatically. You can later disable this option in General Settings .
• Optionally enable Location Services to allow apps to provide more accurate information and use navigation services and maps.
• You can optionally enable Siri -- the virtual assistant. Siri can answer your questions, get tasks done, and suggest relevant information in a timely manner.
• Decide which language you will be using with Siri if you enable it.
• Choose the voice you want Siri to use. The included voices have different accents and human characteristics, so you can pick the one that sounds best to you.
• Optionally enable Hey Siri . This allows you to invoke Siri hands-free -- by saying Hey Siri .
• Choose if you want Apple to collect your voice recordings to improve Siri. If you decide to share them, the data will be anonymous and not associated with your identity.
• Screen Time allows you to track the time you spend on your iPad Air 5 and set optional restrictions and parental controls. You can optionally enable this feature by clicking Continue .
• Choose if you want Apple to collect anonymous logs from your iPad to improve its products and services.
• Decide if you want to use your iPad in Light or Dark mode. You can choose the Auto option in Display Settings later on. Dark mode adds gray/black background to the system and supported apps, while Light mode goes for lighter colors, such as white.
• Click on Get Started to start using your iPad.

Voila! You can now adjust more options in the Settings app, in addition to being able to rearrange, install, and delete apps. Once you're done with the final touches after the setup process, you can start using your iPad Air 5 (2022) normally. If you're still looking for more guidance, here are the first 10 things to do with a new iPad .

Apple iPad Air (2022)

The new 5th-generation iPad Air is powered by the Apple M1 processor, it supports 5G for the first time, and it comes in an array of beautiful colors.

iPad User Guide

• iPad models compatible with iPadOS 17
• iPad mini (5th generation)
• iPad mini (6th generation)
• iPad (6th generation)
• iPad (7th generation)
• iPad (8th generation)
• iPad (9th generation)
• iPad (10th generation)
• iPad Air (3rd generation)
• iPad Air (4th generation)

iPad Air (5th generation)

• iPad Air 11-inch (M2)
• iPad Air 13-inch (M2)
• iPad Pro 10.5-inch
• iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (M4)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation)
• iPad Pro 13-inch (M4)
• Setup basics

Make your iPad your own

Keep in touch with friends and family

• Customize your workspace
• Do more with Apple Pencil
• Customize iPad for your child

What’s new in iPadOS 17

Turn on and set up iPad

• Wake, unlock, and lock
• Set up cellular service
• Connect to the internet
• Sign in with Apple ID
• Subscribe to iCloud+
• Find settings
• Set up mail, contacts, and calendar accounts
• Learn the meaning of the status icons
• Charge the battery
• Show the battery percentage
• Check battery usage
• Use Low Power Mode to save battery life
• Read and bookmark the user guide
• Adjust the volume
• Learn basic gestures
• Learn advanced gestures
• Find your apps in App Library
• Switch between apps
• Zoom an app to fill the screen
• Quit and reopen an app
• Drag and drop
• Open two items in Split View
• Switch an app window to Slide Over
• View an app’s windows and workspaces
• Multitask with Picture in Picture
• Move, resize, and organize windows
• Access features from the Lock Screen
• Perform quick actions
• Search on iPad
• Get information about your iPad
• View or change cellular data settings
• Travel with iPad
• Change or turn off sounds
• Create a custom Lock Screen
• Change the wallpaper
• Adjust the screen brightness and color balance
• Customize the text size and zoom setting
• Change the name of your iPad
• Change the date and time
• Change the language and region
• Organize your apps in folders
• Add, edit, and remove widgets
• Move apps and widgets on the Home Screen
• Remove or delete apps
• Use and customize Control Center
• Change or lock the screen orientation
• View and respond to notifications
• Change notification settings
• Set up a focus
• Allow or silence notifications for a Focus
• Turn a Focus on or off
• Customize sharing options
• Type with the onscreen keyboard
• Dictate text
• Move the onscreen keyboard
• Select and edit text
• Use predictive text
• Use text replacements
• Add or change keyboards
• Add emoji and stickers
• Take a screenshot
• Take a screen recording
• Write and draw in documents
• Add text, shapes, signatures, and more
• Fill out forms and sign documents
• Use Live Text to interact with content in a photo or video
• Use Visual Look Up to identify objects in your photos and videos
• Lift a subject from the photo background
• Subscribe to Apple Arcade
• Play with friends in Game Center
• Connect a game controller
• Use App Clips
• Update apps
• View or cancel subscriptions
• Manage purchases, settings, and restrictions
• Install and manage fonts
• Buy books and audiobooks
• Annotate books
• Access books on other Apple devices
• Listen to audiobooks
• Set reading goals
• Organize books
• Create and edit events in Calendar
• Send invitations
• Reply to invitations
• Change how you view events
• Search for events
• Change calendar and event settings
• Schedule or display events in a different time zone
• Keep track of events
• Use multiple calendars
• Use the Holidays calendar
• Share iCloud calendars
• Take photos
• Take Live Photos
• Take a selfie
• Take a Portrait mode selfie
• Take videos
• Change advanced camera settings
• Adjust HDR camera settings
• View, share, and print photos
• Use Live Text
• Scan a QR code
• Scan documents
• See the world clock
• Set an alarm
• Use the stopwatch
• Use multiple timers
• Add and use contact information
• Edit contacts
• Add your contact info
• Send Contacts on iPad
• Use other contact accounts
• Hide duplicate contacts
• Export contacts
• Get started with FaceTime
• Make FaceTime calls
• Receive FaceTime calls
• Create a FaceTime link
• Take a Live Photo
• Turn on Live Captions
• Use other apps during a call
• Make a Group FaceTime call
• View participants in a grid
• Use SharePlay to watch, listen, and play together
• Share your screen in a FaceTime call
• Collaborate on a document in a FaceTime call
• Use video conferencing features
• Hand off a FaceTime call to another Apple device
• Change the FaceTime video settings
• Change the FaceTime audio settings
• Change your appearance
• Leave a call or switch to Messages
• Block unwanted callers
• Report a call as spam
• Connect external devices or servers
• Modify files, folders, and downloads
• Search for files and folders
• Organize files and folders
• Set up iCloud Drive
• Share files and folders in iCloud Drive
• Use an external storage device, a file server, or a cloud storage service
• Share your location
• Add or remove a friend
• Locate a friend
• Get notified when friends change their location
• Notify a friend when your location changes
• Turn off Find My
• Add your iPad
• Get notified if you leave a device behind
• Locate a device
• Mark a device as lost
• Erase a device
• Remove a device
• Add an AirTag
• Share an AirTag or other item in Find My on iPad
• Add a third-party item
• Get notified if you leave an item behind
• Locate an item
• Mark an item as lost
• Remove an item
• Adjust map settings
• Get started with Freeform
• Create a Freeform board
• Draw or handwrite
• Apply consistent styles
• Position items on a board
• Search Freeform boards
• Share and collaborate
• Delete and recover boards
• Get started with Health
• Fill out your Health Details
• Intro to Health data
• View your health data
• Share your health data
• View health data shared by others
• Download health records
• View health records
• Log menstrual cycle information
• View menstrual cycle predictions and history
• Track your medications
• Learn more about your medications
• Log your state of mind
• Take a mental health assessment
• Customize your Sleep Focus
• Turn Sleep Focus on or off
• View your sleep history
• Check your headphone audio levels
• Use audiogram data
• Back up your Health data
• Intro to Home
• Upgrade to the new Home architecture
• Set up accessories
• Control accessories
• Control your home using Siri
• Use Grid Forecast to plan your energy usage
• Set up HomePod
• Control your home remotely
• Create and use scenes
• Use automations
• Set up security cameras
• Use Face Recognition
• Configure a router
• Invite others to control accessories
• Add more homes
• Get music, movies, and TV shows
• Get ringtones
• Manage purchases and settings
• Magnify nearby objects
• Change settings
• Detect people around you
• Detect doors around you
• Receive image descriptions of your surroundings
• Read aloud text and labels around you
• Set up shortcuts for Detection Mode
• Add and remove email accounts
• Set up a custom email domain
• Check your email
• Unsend email with Undo send
• Reply to and forward emails
• Save an email draft
• Add email attachments
• Download email attachments
• Annotate email attachments
• Set email notifications
• Search for email
• Organize your email in mailboxes
• Flag or block emails
• Filter emails
• Use Hide My Email
• Use Mail Privacy Protection
• Change email settings
• Delete and recover emails
• Add a Mail widget to your Home Screen
• Print emails
• Use keyboard shortcuts
• Get travel directions
• Select other route options
• Find stops along your route
• View a route overview or a list of turns
• Change settings for spoken directions
• Get driving directions
• Report traffic incidents
• Get cycling directions
• Get walking directions
• Get transit directions
• Delete recent directions
• Get traffic and weather info
• Predict travel time and ETA
• Download offline maps
• Search for places
• Find nearby attractions, restaurants, and services
• Get information about places
• Mark places
• Share places
• Rate places
• Save favorite places
• Explore new places with Guides
• Organize places in My Guides
• Clear location history
• Look around places
• Take Flyover tours
• Find your Maps settings
• Measure dimensions
• View and save measurements
• Measure a person’s height
• Set up Messages
• About iMessage
• Send and reply to messages
• Unsend and edit messages
• Keep track of messages
• Forward and share messages
• Group conversations
• Watch, listen, or play together using SharePlay
• Collaborate on projects
• Use iMessage apps
• Take and edit photos or videos
• Share photos, links, and more
• Send stickers
• Request, send, and receive payments
• Send and receive audio messages
• Animate messages
• Send and save GIFs
• Turn read receipts on or off
• Change notifications
• Block, filter, and report messages
• Delete messages and attachments
• Recover deleted messages
• View albums, playlists, and more
• Show song credits and lyrics
• Queue up your music
• Listen to broadcast radio
• Subscribe to Apple Music
• Listen to lossless music
• Listen to Dolby Atmos music
• Apple Music Sing
• Find new music
• Add music and listen offline
• Get personalized recommendations
• Listen to radio
• Search for music
• Create playlists
• See what your friends are listening to
• Use Siri to play music
• Change the way music sounds
• Get started with News
• Use News widgets
• See news stories chosen just for you
• Read stories
• Follow your favorite teams with My Sports
• Subscribe to Apple News+
• Browse and read Apple News+ stories and issues
• Use Offline Mode to read downloaded stories
• Manually download Apple News+ issues
• Solve puzzles in Apple News
• Solve crossword and crossword mini puzzles on iPad
• Solve Quartiles puzzles
• Search for news stories
• Save stories in News for later
• Subscribe to individual news channels
• Get started with Notes
• Add or remove accounts
• Create and format notes
• Draw or write
• Add photos, videos, and more
• Scan text and documents
• Work with PDFs
• Create Quick Notes
• Search notes
• Organize in folders
• Organize with tags
• Use Smart Folders
• Export or print notes
• Change Notes settings
• Delete, share, or copy a photo
• View and edit Photo Booth photos in the Photos app
• View photos and videos
• Play videos and slideshows
• Delete or hide photos and videos
• Edit photos and videos
• Trim video length and adjust slow motion
• Edit Live Photos
• Edit Cinematic videos
• Edit portraits
• Use photo albums
• Edit, share, and organize albums
• Filter and sort photos and videos in albums
• Make stickers from your photos
• Duplicate and copy photos and videos
• Merge duplicate photos
• Search for photos
• Identify people and pets
• Browse photos by location
• Share photos and videos
• Share long videos
• View photos and videos shared with you
• Watch memories
• Personalize your memories
• Manage memories and featured photos
• Use iCloud Photos
• Create shared albums
• Add and remove people in a shared album
• Add and delete photos and videos in a shared album
• Set up or join an iCloud Shared Photo Library
• Add content to an iCloud Shared Photo Library
• Use iCloud Shared Photo Library
• Import and export photos and videos
• Print photos
• Find podcasts
• Listen to podcasts
• Follow your favorite podcasts
• Use the Podcasts widget
• Organize your podcast library
• Download, save, and share podcasts
• Subscribe to podcasts
• Listen to subscriber-only content
• Change download settings
• Make a grocery list
• Add items to a list
• Edit and manage a list
• Search and organize lists
• Work with templates
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• Pair and charge Apple Pencil (1st generation)
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• Enter text with Scribble
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• Wirelessly stream videos and photos to Apple TV or a smart TV
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• Hand off tasks between devices
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• Select items, perform actions, and more
• Control several devices with one switch
• Use hearing devices
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• Flash the indicator light for notifications
• Adjust audio settings
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• Show transcriptions for Intercom messages
• Get live captions of spoken audio
• Type to speak
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• Set a passcode
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• Keep your Apple ID secure
• Use passkeys to sign in to apps and websites
• Sign in with Apple
• Share passwords
• Automatically fill in strong passwords
• Change weak or compromised passwords
• View your passwords and related information
• Share passkeys and passwords securely with AirDrop
• Make your passkeys and passwords available on all your devices
• Automatically fill in verification codes
• Sign in with fewer CAPTCHA challenges
• Two-factor authentication
• Use security keys
• Control app tracking permissions
• Control the location information you share
• Control access to information in apps
• Control how Apple delivers advertising to you
• Control access to hardware features
• Create and manage Hide My Email addresses
• Protect your web browsing with iCloud Private Relay
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• Turn iPad on or off
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Learn the location of the cameras, buttons, and other essential hardware features on iPad Air (5th generation).

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iPad Air (5th generation) Benchmarks

Benchmark results for the iPad Air (5th generation) can be found below. The data on this chart is gathered from user-submitted Geekbench 6 results from the Geekbench Browser.

Geekbench 6 scores are calibrated against a baseline score of 2500 (which is the score of an Intel Core i7-12700). Higher scores are better, with double the score indicating double the performance.

CPU Benchmark Scores

Compute benchmark scores, device information, ipad benchmarks.

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Apple 13-inch iPad Air 2024 review: Pro enough

A new larger size, faster m2 chip and support for the apple pencil pro make the 13-inch ipad air a good value.

Tom's Guide Verdict

The iPad Air 2024 delivers a larger 13-inch display, impressive M2 performance and long battery life for considerably less money than an iPad Pro. You also get Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard support and strong audio. But I wouldn’t replace my laptop with this tablet.

Strong M2 performance

Long battery life

Supports Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard

Robust audio quality

No Thunderbolt support

iPadOS still not good enough to replace laptop

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• What I Like
• What I Don’t Like

The iPad Air now has a bigger brother — good timing, as Apple has decided to go even more premium on the iPad Pro 2024 . The new 13-inch iPad Air has everything the 11-inch Air has, including a more powerful M2 chip, support for the new Apple Pencil Pro and a repositioned front camera for video calls. But you get much more display real estate for apps, games and more.

Starting at $799, the 13-inch iPad Air is $500 less than the 13-inch iPad Pro, but it doesn’t feel like an also-ran based on my testing. Yes, you miss out on the glorious OLED display on the Pro, the thinner design and even more powerful M4 chip. But the new Air delivers strong performance and battery life, and it works with the previous Magic Keyboard for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, so this tablet can double as a laptop. 

I personally would not replace my MacBook with this computer for reasons I’ll explain in my iPad Air 2024 review, but for those looking for a supersized slate without the Pro sticker shock, it’s one of the best tablets around and well worth the money.

iPad Air M2: Cheat Sheet

What is it? An iPad with Apple’s M2 chip and a larger 13-inch display

Who is it for? People looking for iPad Pro-like performance and features for less money

What does it cost? $799 for just the tablet, $349 for the Magic Keyboard and $129 for Apple Pencil Pro. $1,277 total. 

What do I like? The snappy M2 performance for machine learning tasks and gaming, over 11 hours of battery life, the landscape front camera for video calls and booming speakers . 

What do I not like? iPadOS + Magic Keyboard is not quite good enough to replace my laptop, no Thunderbolt support and no Face ID

iPad Air M2: Specs

Ipad air m2: what i like, a bigger canvas.

The iPad Air 13-inch is a first for Apple — bringing a large-screen option with 30% more room to the mid-range, and not limiting it just to the iPad Pro. This is the model to get if you want to run two apps side by side or a more immersive video or gaming experience, and it’s certainly the choice if you want your iPad to double as a laptop.

So how is that canvas exactly? The new iPad Air’s display is a LED IPS panel, which means it’s not as bright or colorful as the OLED screen on the Galaxy Tab S9 or new iPad Pro 2024, and it’s also not as vivid as the miniLED equipped iPad Pro 2022 . You also get only a 90Hz refresh rate. Nevertheless, this is a pretty solid display for the price.

When watching the trailer for Deadpool and Wolverine, the yellow in Hugh Jackman’s suit popped, and I could easily make out the veins in his biceps. I could also make out nearly every crevice in Deadpool’s face without the mask. I also appreciated have the extra room on the 13-inch screen when surfing the web and checking emails; I just wish the screen got a bit brighter outdoors, as it can look a bit dim in direct sunlight.

Based on our lab testing, the iPad Air 2024’s screen is brighter than the previous model but it has the same color performance and accuracy. The OLED-equipped Galaxy Tab S9 gets considerably brighter and can deliver much punchier hues. The Tab S9 also benefits from a smoother 120Hz refresh rate while the iPad Air is stuck at 60Hz.

Serious M2 performance

The iPad Air’s M2 chip promises a sizable speed boost with a 15% faster CPU, 25% faster graphics performance and 40% faster Neural Engine. I felt this power while playing Diablo Immortal — even with several evil spiders on screen, the action felt smooth on the iPad Air 2024 as I launched Lightning Nova and Scorch attacks. The graphics looked somewhat blurry at first but turning on image sharpening helped.

I was also impressed with how well the Air made quick work of enhancing images in Photomator. The machine learning–powered Super Resolution option sharpened a zoomed-in photo of a building in less than 10 seconds, as well as a close-up of a peony flower. It’s especially cool that you can see the difference before and after using a slider on screen.

In our lab testing, the iPad Air 2024 blew away the Galaxy Tab S9 on various benchmarks, though to be fair the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip is now a generation behind the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 found in the latest flagship phones. Still, the iPad Air was nearly twice as fast in the dual-core portion of the Geekbench test, and twice as fast when transcoding 4K video to 1080p in Adobe Premiere rush.

To test the AI performance of the M2 chip we used Geekbench ML, which measures the power of NPUs. The iPad Air 2024 is in its own league, though the performance gap could be artificially higher as we ran a newer version of the test on the new iPad Air.

Apple Pencil Pro 2 is a winner

The iPad Air 2024 supports the new Apple Pencil Pro ($129), which offers a couple of key advantages for those who like to use a digital pen for sketching, taking notes, making fine edits to photos and more.

My favorite feature is squeeze, which brings up a quick menu whenever you squeeze the Apple Pencil Pro while floating just above the screen. For example, in the Notes app you’ll see a pop-up toolbar that includes the undo button, eraser, marker, pen and color picker. It’s nice to have these options always at the ready.

Another perk is that you’ll feel haptic feedback when you squeeze the Apple Pencil Pro, which is a nice touch, or when a smart shape snaps into place. Apple has already let third-party developers make their own tool palettes for their apps (such as Procreate), and in many cases you can customize the squeeze menu.

Last but not least, barrel roll is a clever new feature that changes the orientation of your pen stroke or brush tool based on how you’re rotating the barrel of the Apple Pencil Pro. I appreciated being able to preview a broader stroke as I angled the device when trying to paint a blue sky.

Longer battery life, stronger speakers

Despite the added oomph the M2 chip provides, the iPad Air 2024 offers excellent battery life. After a busy day of surfing the web, writing this review in Google Docs, playing games and watching Netflix, it was down to 50% after several hours. And our lab test results back up this strong real-world endurance. 

On the Tom’s Guide battery test, which involves surfing the web over 5G at 150 nits of screen brightness, the new iPad Air 2024 lasted an excellent 11 hours and 30 minutes. That’s an hour and a half longer than the previous iPad Air, which could be due to the larger battery inside this bigger 13-inch model and the more efficient M2 chip. The iPad Air M2 also outlasted the Galaxy Tab S9 by over 2 hours.

If you’re on the fence between the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air, you get more than just a bigger screen. Apple also promises double the bass from the landscape stereo speakers. When playing “Could Have Been Me” from The Struts on Spotify through the new iPad Air, the screeching vocals soared but the snappy percussion still punched through. 

I also enjoyed watching and listening to Palm Royale on Apple TV. Kristen Wiig’s southern accent sounded crystal clear over the groovy late ‘60s soundtrack.

Better camera for video calls

Apple did this already with the iPad 10th gen, so it only makes sense to do the same with the new iPad Air. The front 12MP camera is now on the wider edge, which makes this device easier to use for video calls when docked in the Magic Keyboard.

I did a Google Meet call with my colleague Tony Polanco and he said that I came through clear and the colors were accurate. I also took a selfie with the front camera and I’d say my blue shirt looked vibrant but my face was a bit fuzzy. It’s certainly not one of the best webcams , but it does the job for video calls.

The rear 12MP wide back camera is serviceable. It snapped a fairly crisp photo of my dog indoors, capturing her fur and whiskers well. And it captured a well exposed pic of white, magenta and baby pink peonies in a vase. 

iPad Air M2: What I don’t like

Listen — it’s not hard to use the Touch ID button on the iPad Air. It’s on the left side in landscape mode and up top in portrait mode. But it just feels chintzy not to put Face ID on an iPad when the technology has been around since the iPhone X in 2017.

The good news is that you can register multiple fingers and when logging in press the power button and keep your hand resting on it to log in.

The rest of the iPad Air’s design is good though. It’s a fairly light aluminum slate at 1.36 pounds and just 0.24 inches thin. Plus it comes in fun colors like blue and purple in addition to the more subdued Starlight (our unit) and Space Gray.

Awkward laptop replacement

This is my biggest problem with the iPad Air. It’s not quite versatile enough to replace my laptop even though it costs as much as one with the accessories. If you spring for the Magic Keyboard with the 13-inch iPad Air you’re looking at a minimum of $1,148. And that’s before you throw in the Apple Pencil Pro, which would bring the price to $1,277.

The Magic Keyboard itself offers pretty good tactile feedback, and I like that you can swivel the display away from the base for the optimal viewing angle. But typing with this tablet + keyboard combo on your lap feels unbalanced and shaky compared to a sturdier MacBook Air M3 (from $1,099). You also don’t get a function row on the keyboard, which the new iPad Pro 2024 offers with its Magic Keyboard.

Another issue is iPadOS itself. Apple has tried to make multitasking more intuitive with its Stage Manager feature, which puts your main app front and center and puts other recent apps off to the left side in a peek-a-boo thumbnail view. And you can run two apps side by side in Split View. But frankly, none of this holds a candle to multitasking on macOS.

I found it extremely difficult to get my regular work done on the iPad Air. Selecting from drop-down menus in Google Sheets was a chore, having to jump down to the bottom of the screen instead of within the row itself. And as someone who lives in Chrome I don’t like being forced to use dedicated apps for Gmail , Sheets and Docs instead of jumping from tab to tab in a browser.

Even the cursor in iPadOS is needlessly different. How is a circle better than an arrow? At least the touchpad gestures work well, such as swiping up with two fingers to return to the home screen. But why isn’t iPadOS smart enough to know that when I type something while on the home screen that I’m searching for an app? You need to swipe down first to launch Spotlight.

No Thunderbolt port

I should have looked at the specs first, but I was displeased to see an error message when I tried to plug the iPad Air into my CalDigit docking station at home. I wanted to be able to instantly connect the slate to my 34-inch LG monitor and other peripherals. No dice.

Alas, only the iPad Pro supports Thunderbolt, which seems lame to me. This tablet is certainly powerful enough with its M2 chip to easily connect to Thunderbolt displays and docks, but it’s a Pro-only feature.

Overall, the 13-inch iPad Air is a winner. You get Pro-like M2 performance and long battery life for a reasonable price. The display is roomy enough to get real work done on the go, and I like how smooth and responsive the Apple Pencil Pro feels.

However, I wouldn’t replace my laptop with the iPad Air. macOS is still better than iPadOS for multitasking, and the Magic Keyboard isn’t as sturdy as a MacBook — especially in your lap. I also wish the iPad Air supported Face ID and Thunderbolt.

The bottom line is that the iPad Air 2024 is one of the best tablets around. If it were my money I’d be tempted to spring for the iPad Pro 2024 for its brighter and more colorful OLED display, thinner design and more future-proof M4 chip. But the 13-inch Air is essentially Pro enough.

More from Tom's Guide

• Apple unveils M4 chip for iPad Pro — here’s what it can do
• iPad Air 2024 vs iPad Air 2022: Here’s everything that’s new
• Where to buy the new M2 iPad Air — how to get yours

Mark Spoonauer is the global editor in chief of Tom's Guide and has covered technology for over 20 years. In addition to overseeing the direction of Tom's Guide, Mark specializes in covering all things mobile, having reviewed dozens of smartphones and other gadgets. He has spoken at key industry events and appears regularly on TV to discuss the latest trends, including Cheddar , Fox Business and other outlets. Mark was previously editor in chief of Laptop Mag, and his work has appeared in Wired, Popular Science and Inc. Follow him on Twitter at @mspoonauer.

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Brenda Stolyar

Review: Apple iPad Air (M2, 13-Inch)

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I used to think the iPad wasn’t for me. For the longest time, I couldn’t justify spending hundreds of dollars on a tablet for entertainment. I don't draw or sketch, and I don't use fancy editing software for photos or videos. I prefer traditional pen and paper, and I already use a Kindle to read books. I knew if I bought an iPad, it would inevitably end up in a drawer collecting dust.

That outlook changed when the TV in my room broke. As someone with ADHD, I constantly need background noise to stay focused. This wasn't an issue when I worked in an office, pre-pandemic—the open floor plan made for a noisy environment that stimulated me throughout the day. When I started working from home, alone in my room, I filled the quiet space with podcasts. Once that was no longer stimulating enough, I moved on to playing my comfort shows and movies on the TV. When the big screen broke, I reluctantly pulled out the 5th-gen iPad Air I had in a drawer thinking it'd be a temporary solution.

But over the past year, I've grown attached to it. It's larger than my iPhone and more convenient to carry around than my MacBook . (The smaller footprint also makes it easier to place anywhere.) When it's not at my desk while I'm working, I use it in the kitchen while cooking dinner or washing the dishes, in the bathroom while doing my hair and makeup, and in my bedroom while folding laundry. It's also an excellent travel companion while flying or taking the train.

So when Apple announced new iPads and noted that the iPad Air now comes with a larger, 13-inch display option (alongside the standard 11-inch model ), I was ecstatic. A bigger screen means more expansive movies and a bigger workspace. It's otherwise an incremental update —the only other noteworthy change is the M2 chip for faster performance—but the new screen size on Apple's midrange tablet means you no longer have to pick between a small display within budget or shell out for an expensive iPad Pro .

Updated June 4, 2024: An earlier version of this review stated the M2 powering the iPad Air had a 10-core GPU and that it was three times faster than the A12 Bionic chip. The company has since updated its site, stating it has a 9-core GPU and that it's faster than the A14 Bionic chip. We've updated this article to reflect this.

Bigger and a Bit Brighter

The new iPad Air feels stale in its design—especially following the redesigned iPad Pro , with its razor-thin and lightweight chassis. Ironically, this tablet is a few grams heavier and a full millimeter thicker than the Pro—there's not much meaning to the word “Air” anymore in Apple's lineup. It doesn't help that the color options continue to dwindle. In 2022, Apple removed the green iPad Air, and now we've lost the pink. You're left with purple, blue, starlight, and space gray.

The only aesthetic change on the iPad Air is the front-facing camera placement. As with the 10th-gen base iPad and M4-powered iPad Pro, Apple moved the 12-megapixel sensor to the center in landscape orientation. It's far more natural for video calls, because you don't have to awkwardly stare at the side of the tablet to make eye contact. There's still Center Stage support, which pans and zooms to ensure your face is always in the frame while on video calls.

The major upgrade with this tablet is the bigger display. The 13-inch LCD screen is slightly brighter than its predecessor and 11-inch counterpart, with a 2,732 x 2,048-pixel resolution and the ability to hit 600 nits of peak brightness in Standard Dynamic Range (which is the same amount as the previous iPad Pro with M2).

This display does get bright for the most part. When I wasn't working, I usually kept the brightness at about 20 to 30 percent—especially while watching TV before going to sleep. Since my desk is near the edge of a window, I usually keep it at 50 percent or slightly above that on sunnier days. But it struggles under direct sunlight. I realized this on a recent trip to Seattle. I was sitting on my bed in my hotel room catching up on an episode of Vanderpump Rules and, as the light was shining fully through the window, I had to crank the brightness up to see the content comfortably.

In these moments, I wish Apple would’ve swapped the Liquid Retina panel for a mini-LED panel from the previous iPad Pro generation. The backlighting technology would allow for a brighter screen. And, when coupled with the deeper, and crisper tones, it'd make for a far better viewing experience overall. I'd like to remind you that this is a $800 tablet with an LCD screen and 60-Hz refresh rate —most other high-end tablets feature OLED with 120-Hz screens. An upgraded screen technology would help justify the extra $200 on the 13-inch iPad Air over the smaller size.

Regardless, it's still far more enjoyable to use than the 10.9-inch screen I relied on every day. The 13-inch size is more convenient as a secondary display alongside my MacBook . Between browser windows, tabs, and apps, I didn't feel like I was cramming stuff onto the screen. The same applies to entertainment—if I'm bingeing a show, I carry the iPad all over the house to keep watching. I never got tired of staring at this screen.

Reliable and Versatile

Powering the iPad Air is the M2 chip (the same silicon featured in the MacBook Air from 2022 ), which packs an 8-core CPU and a 9-core GPU (it's worth noting Apple originally announced it had a 10-core GPU but has since updated its site ). The chip is two years old, but Apple claims it's nearly 50 percent faster than the M1 and three times faster than the iPad Air with the A14 Bionic chip. Apple also doubled the base storage option from 64 gigabytes to 128 gigabytes.

Coming from the M1 iPad Air, I didn’t notice much of a difference in performance. If you’re coming from an older A-series chip, it’ll likely be easier to pick up on. Regardless, the M2 felt quick and smooth. On a typical workday, I’d have about 10 to 15 tabs open across several windows (on both Chrome and Safari), not to mention additional apps like Gmail, iMessage, Slack, Telegram, YouTube, and Zoom running simultaneously. The iPad Air never once felt sluggish.

Battery life remains the same, despite the bigger size. Apple claims 10 hours of web browsing or watching video on Wi-Fi. I never hit the claimed amount, but battery life varied depending on how I used it. On a busy workday—using Chrome, Safari, Slack, and Zoom (for two back-to-back video calls)—I hit 5 percent after about six hours. On a random Sunday night after binge-watching Broad City , I was at 82 percent after three and a half hours. Either way, it shouldn't give you trouble.

The iPad Air is also compatible with accessories like the new Apple Pencil Pro ($129) and Apple Pencil USB-C ($79) . It's sadly not backward-compatible with the second-generation Pencil. I didn't use the Pro stylus for much other than note-taking here and there, but I appreciate the new “squeeze” feature, which triggers the tool palette when you squeeze the lower half of the stylus. It's more natural than double tap (which is included with the Pencil Pro too). I don't recommend the USB-C model though. It's hard to justify the lack of features for the price.

And, while the iPad Air works with the new Apple Pencil Pro, it's not compatible with the new Magic Keyboard case—which has a row of function keys and a larger trackpad. It only works with the original Magic Keyboard case ($349) instead. I didn't think I'd notice a difference, but using the original version reminded me how frustratingly small the trackpad is and how convenient it is to be able to adjust the brightness and volume by pushing a button.

Apple's keyboard case isn't worth the high price anyway. You're better off buying third-party accessories (from companies like Logitech or Zagg) which make similar, more affordable options. I do like the Smart Folio ($99) though, which made it easy to prop the tablet up on surfaces so I could watch TV while doing chores around the house.

While adding a keyboard and trackpad to the iPad Air makes it more like a laptop, iPadOS is still unintuitive for my workflow. I wrote most of this review on the iPad Air, but couldn't wait for it to reach low battery so I could switch back to my 15-inch MacBook Air . Apple's Stage Manager makes it slightly more bearable since it allows me to have group apps and adjust windows, rather than use split screen mode. However, it's not conducive to my day-to-day tasks, like working in Condé Nast’s custom content management system. It's perfectly great for basic things like word processing, answering emails, taking video calls, and light photo or video editing.

It's important to weigh your options depending on your budget. The most expensive iPad Air configuration (13-inch, 1 TB of storage, and 5G connectivity) with accessories like the Magic Keyboard Case and Apple Pencil Pro comes out to $1,927. You can get an M2-powered MacBook Air with 1 TB of storage for $1,799. It's only about $130 less, but the latter is a full-blown computer with macOS. Please don't feel the need to upgrade if you have an M1-powered iPad Air.

If you're looking to buy your first iPad or want to upgrade from a much older model, I'd first suggest you hunt for the 5th-gen iPad Air. It's two years old but not much different from the latest version, and you can probably find it on sale . Since the M2-powered 11-inch model starts at $599, I suggest waiting until the base model's price is down to $450 or less.

As someone who watches probably too much TV and is constantly working on the go, I'd buy the 13-inch iPad Air with M2 solely for its larger display. It's a great option for students or content creators who don't need to harness the power of the iPad Pro but want a bigger screen. The only thing that would make this tablet better is if the Air continued to live up to its name as the lightest iPad of them all. Hopefully, Apple is saving that for the next generation.

Apple downgrades new M2 iPad Air, now says it features a 9-core GPU instead of 10-core

Apple has made a quiet update to the tech specs of the M2 iPad Air , which first launched last month. Despite originally touting the iPad Air’s M2 chip as featuring a 10-core GPU, the company now says it features a 9-core GPU.

Apple hasn’t elaborated on this change at all. Instead, it simply updated the tech specs page for the new M2 iPad Air to reflect the missing GPU core. Based on archive data, the change appears to have been made within the last 10 days.

The original press release for the M2 iPad Air launch still says it features a 10-core GPU, as does this yet-to-be-updated support page. Apple has also not yet updated its tech specs pages in countries outside of the United States.

This is a bizarre changes for a number of reasons. It seems to imply that the wires got crossed inside Apple, and some people were led to believe the new M2 iPad Air featured a 10-core GPU when in reality it uses a 9-core GPU. It’s also curious that the change isn’t yet reflected everywhere on Apple’s website.

Notably, this also marks the first time that Apple has sold an M2 chip in any machine with a 9-core GPU. The M2 MacBook Air, for example, is available in 8-core and 10-core GPU variations. This suggests that the M2 chip being used inside the iPad Air is a binned version of the 10-core version.

Top comment by Ian

Sounds like a yield issue. Not enough chips with working 10 core GPUs for the iPad, so they had to include chips with 1 core disabled. I bet the ones that were sold previously as 10 core GPUs are binned for 10 cores, so no issue there.

Realistically, most M2 iPad Air users won’t notice a difference between a 9-core GPU and 10-core GPU. It’d still be nice to get an explanation from Apple on what exactly happened here, though.

Thanks, Michael Burkhardt!

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• 1 The displays have rounded corners. When measured diagonally as a rectangle, the 13-inch iPad Pro is 13 inches, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is 12.9 inches, the 11-inch iPad Pro (M4) is 11.1 inches, the 11-inch iPad Pro (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation) is 11 inches, the 13-inch iPad Air is 12.9 inches, the 11-inch iPad Air, 10.9-inch iPad Air and iPad (10th generation) are 10.86 inches, and the 8.3-inch iPad mini is 8.3 inches. Actual viewable area is less.
• 2 Wi‑Fi 6E available in countries and regions where supported.
• 3 Data plan required. 5G, Gigabit LTE, Gigabit-class LTE, LTE Advanced, LTE and Wi-Fi calling are available in select markets and through select carriers. Speeds are based on theoretical throughput and vary based on site conditions and carrier. For details on 5G and LTE support, contact your carrier and see apple.com/ca/ipad/cellular .
• 4 USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter required to work with iPad (10th generation).
• 5 Available space is less and varies due to many factors. Storage capacity subject to change based on software version, settings and iPad model. 1GB = 1 billion bytes; 1TB = 1 trillion bytes. Actual formatted capacity less.
• 6 Size and weight vary by configuration and manufacturing process.
• 7 Battery life varies by use and configuration. See apple.com/ca/batteries for more information.
• 8 Cellular data plan is sold separately. The model you purchase is configured to work with a particular cellular network technology. Check with your carrier for compatibility and cellular data plan availability.
• 9 Not all carriers support eSIM. See your carrier for more details. For Model A3007, contact China Unicom for more details.
• 10 Not all carriers support eSIM. See your carrier for more details. For Model A3006, contact China Unicom for more details.
• 11 Not all carriers support eSIM. See your carrier for more details. For Model A2900, contact China Unicom for more details.
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• 14 Not all carriers support eSIM. See your carrier for more details. Not available in China mainland. eSIM technology works with iPad Pro 11‑inch (1st generation or later), iPad Pro 12.9‑inch (3rd generation or later), iPad Air (3rd generation or later), iPad (7th generation or later) and iPad mini (5th and 6th generation).

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QHOHQ Screen Protector for iPad Air 11 inch M2 2024 6th Generation, Full Coverage Tempered Glass, [Face ID & Apple Pencil Compatible], with Easy Installation Frame, HD Clear, Anti Scratch [2 Pack]

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• ✅ 【Applicable Models】: The QHOHQ 2-pack tempered glass screen protector are specifically designed for the iPad Air 11 Inch M2 2024 6th Generation and are not applicable with any other models. Please carefully confirm your iPad model before purchase. The product comes with an installation frame for easy installation without leaving any bubbles. Please watch our installation tutorial before installing.
• ✅ 【Tougher Than 9H Hardness Strong Protection】: Selected high-quality glas, through multiple rounds of high-temperature heating and quenching, as well as special polishing and grinding processes, to achieve a tempered hardness of 9H+, significantly improving the toughness and smoothness of the tempered glass film, thus enhancing screen protector scratch resistance and reducing the risk of shattering. 2.5D rounded corner cutting for a smoother edge feel.
• ✅ 【Ultra HD Visual Experience】: Advanced optical materials and unique light transmission technology enable the tempered glass film to achieve 99% light transmittance, higher brightness, more accurate color reproduction, and finer picture quality, providing a more comfortable visual experience whether you are watching videos or playing games.
• ✅ 【Touch Sensitivity and Fingerprint Resistance】: The ultra-thin design of 0.33mm ensures quick App launch, efficient mobile office work, and smooth game touch controls, while being fully compatible with Apple Pencil. The iPad Air 11 screen protector surface is treated with a plasma oil-repellent coating, which can effectively prevent sweat and oil stains from leaving fingerprints, keeping the screen clean.
• ✅ 【Professionalism】: The iPad Air 11 screen protector achieves full-screen coverage from edge to edge, ensuring every inch of the screen is carefully protected. Additionally, it is compatible with most iPad cases on the market. With precise cutting, it perfectly integrates with the facial recognition function, allowing you to enjoy comprehensive protection while also experiencing convenient technological advancements.

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• 2 * Screen Protector, 1 * Easy Installation Frame, 2 * Dry Wipes, 2 * Wet Wipes, 2 * Stickers, 1 * Scraper, 1 * Installation Instructions

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