Apple’s “big week ahead” is live now, and the Cupertino giant has started unveiling new devices. So far, it has launched the iPhone 17e and the refreshed iPad Air, now powered by the M4 chip and with more memory.
We have already seen the M5 chip on last year’s iPad Pro, but iPad Air, being in the middle of the price ladder, has been upgraded from the M3 to the M4 chip. It has an 8-core CPU with three performance cores and five efficiency cores, a 9-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine. 12GB Unified Memory, and 120GB/s memory bandwidth.
Apple said that the iPad Air M4 is up to 30% faster than its predecessor and up to 2.3x faster than the iPad Air M1. iPad Air is available in 11-inch and 13-inch screen sizes, with the same starting price of $599 for the 11-inch model, while the larger sibling starts at $799.
The devices, which are 6.1mm thick, feature Apple’s home-baked N1 wireless chip to support Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, as well as the C1X cellular modem. Both models are fitted with the Liquid Retina display, USB-C (up to 10Gb/s), DisplayPort, Touch ID, landscape stereo speakers, dual microphones, and eSIM support, among other features.
All iPad Air M4 models offer up to 10 hours of web surfing over Wi-Fi or video playback. The device ships with iPadOS 26 out of the box, including Apple Intelligence, Liquid Glass, and other useful features added in the latest update.
The camera department is handled by a 12MP Wide camera (ƒ/1.8 aperture) at the back with up to 5x digital zoom, Smart HDR 4, 4K60 recording, and other features. Meanwhile, there is a 12MP Landscape Center Stage camera for selfies and 1080p60 video recording. The front camera could be a substantial upgrade for those coming from the M1 iPad Air.
Apple said that the iPad Air M4 will be available for pre-order on Apple.com and in the Apple Store app starting March 4 in over 35 countries and regions. The devices will reach physical Apple Stores and authorized retailers on March 11, available in blue, purple, starlight, and space gray, with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB configurations.