Apple iPad Air (M2) review: Sandwiched in the middle

Note: This review was first published on 30 May 2024 and was updated on 4 June 2024 to update the fact that its M2 chip has 9 GPU cores and not 10. This doesn't impact our ratings because the iPad Air remains to be a very fast and powerful tablet.

In my review of the last-generation iPad Air, I called it “the best iPad for most people”. But that was over two years ago. Since then, Apple released the 10th-generation iPad and it recently unveiled a new iPad Pro. How does the newest iPad Air fare against these iPads, and is it still the iPad most people should buy? 

The TL;DR version:



It's a great tablet, but I'd recommend it only if you need a 13-inch iPad on the cheap or if you use an Apple Pencil often. Most people will probably be better off with the basic iPad.



You can find the iPad Air on Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and the Apple Online Store.

Now available in 13 inches

The iPad Air name is a bit of a misnomer because it isn’t the lightest iPad and neither is it the fastest. When I asked Apple about this, they said the iPad Air offers features that were previously only available on the iPad Pro, but at a more palatable price. You can say that the iPad Air is the iPad that t is positioned between the basic iPad and the flagship iPad Pro. 

The headline news for the iPad Air this year is that it comes in two sizes. For the first time, there will be a larger 13-inch version. This is significant because if you ever wanted a large iPad in the past, you had to get the pricier iPad Pro. But don’t for a moment think that means a cut-price 13-inch iPad. Prices of the 13-inch iPad Air still start at S$1,199. Ouch.

The 13-inch display of the new iPad Air is nearly identical in size to that of the 13-inch iPad Pro. The two have nearly identical resolutions too. For readers who need more screen real estate, the 13-inch version is the obvious choice. However, it must be said that it comes at the cost of some portability. The 13-inch iPad Air is still wonderfully slim and compact, but it weighs over 30% more than the 11-inch version, and you will feel the extra weight when carrying it around. 

And although it’s a “regular” LCD display, I doubt anyone is going to look at the display of the new iPad Air and think it’s bad. Ultimately, it isn’t as good as the mini-LED display of the old iPad Pro and it certainly can’t hold a candle to the new iPad Pro’s high-tech OLED Ultra Retina XDR display, but it's still a very good LCD display. Unless you compare it with the iPad Pro’s display side by side, you won’t feel like you’re missing out on anything.

What else is new?

Apart from the option of a larger display, the other notable update is the processor. Inside these new iPad Airs is the M2 chip. It has 8 CPU cores and 9 GPU cores – one less GPU core than the M2 chip in the last generation iPad Pro. This also explains why its graphics performance was slightly lesser than the last generation iPad Pro. Even so, I doubt anyone who uses the new iPad Air is going to say it's slow. It’ll run anything you can throw at it, and is easily one of the most powerful tablets money can buy (see benchmarking results on the next page). It gets more storage as standard as well. The base model now has 128GB of storage – up from 64GB in the last-generation iPad Air.

The only notable physical difference is the position of the front-facing camera. Like the new iPad Pro, Apple has moved the front-facing camera of the iPad Air to the long side so that it sits above the display when it’s in a landscape orientation. Otherwise, the new iPad Airs are almost physically identical to the last-generation iPad Pros – in both size and weight.

Although repositioning the camera gives a more natural angle when using the new iPad Air for video calls, it does also mean Apple has to re-engineer the charging mechanism for the Apple Pencil and this means this new iPad Air only works with the new Apple Pencil Pro. I’ve written about this new pencil in greater detail in my iPad Pro review, but suffice it to say, it’s the best pencil that Apple makes for its iPads now.

While the iPad Air works with the newest Apple Pencil, it doesn’t, however, work with the latest Magic Keyboard – the one with the aluminium base and function row. That’s confusing and is worth taking note of if you are going to accessorise your iPad Air. Happily, the older Magic Keyboard is still a pleasant keyboard to type on, even if it misses the the row of function keys. 

Buying advice: iPad Air or iPad, or how about iPad Pro?

When I reviewed the last iPad Air, I called it the best iPad for most people. That was an easy statement to make because back then the basic iPad (in 9th generation guise) was a woefully archaic thing with large bezels, speakers on one side, and a Lightning port. Apple, it seems, was aware of that and gave the basic iPad a thorough refresh in later that same year. So is the new iPad Air still the best iPad for most people?

I hate to say it, but it depends. Obviously, if you want a big-screen iPad at the lowest possible price, the new 13-inch iPad Air is the one to have. But if your main intention is to use the iPad as a media consumption device, and as a device to browse the web, check your emails, take notes, and so on, the basic iPad is perfectly capable of fulfilling those roles. And it’s an even more attractive proposition now that its starting price has dropped from S$679 down to S$529. The biggest problem with the basic iPad is its clumsy integration with the Apple Pencil. So if you use the Apple Pencil often, I recommend stepping up to the iPad Air. It also has the benefit of having the much more powerful M2 chip, which should offer a good degree of future-proofing.

As for the iPad Pro, the only things I miss from it are Face ID and, because I’m a stickler for having nice displays, the gorgeous Ultra Retina XDR display. Having Face ID is so convenient because it seems like you never have to log in at all, and that Ultra Retina XDR display is really a thing of beauty. But these are nice things to have and don’t make or break the overall iPad experience. Also, the M4 chip’s on-paper performance advantage doesn’t really translate to any significant real-world difference. Both iPads feel snappy, and I think the iPad Air only feels slower because its display has a lower refresh rate.

It's not bad, but... 

The iPad Air is not a bad iPad. It has a nice display and excellent performance, and it works with the latest Apple Pencil Pro. However, it does seem somewhat confused, sandwiched between the basic iPad and the flagship iPad Pro. It does some things better than the basic iPad, but one could argue that it’s not enough to justify its higher price. And on the flip side, the iPad Pro is a much nicer iPad. As things stand, I’d mostly only recommend the iPad Air to people who really need a 13-inch display on the cheap, or need to use the Apple Pencil often and don’t want to step up all the way to the iPad Pro. 

Finally, like any iPad that has a powerful M-series chip, the iPad Air is also hamstrung by iPadOS’ various quirks and limitations. Luckily, WWDC 2024 is just around the corner, and hopefully Apple will make announcements that will change that.

Note: You can find the iPad Air on Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, and the Apple Online Store.

Benchmarking results

Here are the results from the iPad Air. To recap, the unit I tested was the 13-inch model with 512GB of storage. This means it has a 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 8GB of memory. This was how it performed:

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