Apple M4 iPad Air announced: Specs, price, release date

Ahead of Apple’s March 4th special, everyone’s favorite fruit company announced the imminent launch of the latest iPad Air. As expected, the iPad Air will be available for sale starting March 4.

The new iPad will be powered by M4 silicon and will come in 11- and 13-inch versions, with starting prices of $599 and $799, respectively. For education customers, prices will start at $549 and $749. Traditionally, the Air is Apple’s mid-range tablet, with the base version iPad popular among budget buyers and the M5 iPad Pro reserved for professionals and super users.

Here’s everything we know so far about the new Apple tablet.

Advanced performance and specifications

The previous-generation iPad Air launches in May 2024, and Apple says the new model gives users “a big jump in performance at the same starting price.”

With the launch of iPadOS 26 and Liquid Glass last year, the iPad has become more like a laptop, with separate windows and multitasking capabilities.

mashable light speed

To support those new features, the seventh-generation iPad Air has upgraded specifications:

• Processor: M4 Silicon, 16-Core Neural Engine, 8-Core CPU

• GPU: 9-core GPU

• Memory: 12GB integrated memory (120GB/s memory bandwidth)

• storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB configurations.

• Colour: Blue, purple, starlight, and space gray

• Camera: 12MP center stage camera

• size: 11- and 13-inch models

• Wireless and Cellular Connectivity: N1 and C1X silicon

• wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, 5G Cellular and Thread

• stuff: Magic Keyboard, Apple Pencil, Apple Pencil Pro

Do you want to know more about getting the best from your technology? Sign up for Mashable Top Stories & Deals Newsletter Today.

What’s new, what’s not

Users in need of a new laptop will definitely want to consider upgrading to the iPad Air, which is known for being incredibly thin and light without compromising performance. However, at first glance, the improvements here seem quite iterative, and it’s not clear why users with an existing M3 iPad Air would rush to upgrade.

The M4 processor and advanced wireless/cellular connectivity will undoubtedly provide performance upgrades. Apple promises that the new iPad Air will be 30 percent faster than the M3 models, with “50 percent more integrated system memory.”

The iPadOS 26 features detailed in the announcement press release are already available with iPad Air and iPad Pro. Similarly, Apple did not announce that the new iPad Air will be thinner or lighter than previous versions, which are already remarkably thin.

When can you buy the M4 iPad Air?

Apple says customers will be able to start ordering the M4 iPad Air at Apple Stores (and Apple.com) starting March 4. Apple expects it to be shipped to customers on Wednesday, March 11.

We’ll be testing and reviewing the M4 iPad Air as soon as we can, so keep checking back for updates.