Apple's M4 iPad Air refresh delivers a modest but meaningful upgrade that keeps the tablet in its perfect middle-ground position. The new model swaps the M3 chip for the M4, adding 12GB of RAM and faster memory bandwidth while maintaining the same familiar design. This performance bump makes the iPad Air an even better value proposition between the basic iPad and premium iPad Pro.

While the external design remains unchanged, the internal improvements are notable. The M4 chip features a reconfigured eight-core CPU with three performance cores and five efficiency cores, plus a nine-core GPU. Benchmark tests show significant gains, with single-core Geekbench scores jumping from 3,049 to 3,747 and multi-core performance improving from 11,687 to 12,978. Graphics performance also gets a 19% boost in Geekbench Metal tests.

Battery life remains excellent at up to ten hours of Wi-Fi web browsing, and the 12MP cameras on both front and back continue to deliver solid results. The iPad Air still supports Apple Pencil and features landscape stereo speakers that are good but not quite Pro-tier. With these incremental but worthwhile upgrades, Apple has refined its already-recommended iPad for most users, keeping it exactly where it belongs - offering most of an iPad Pro's capabilities without the premium price tag.