iPad Air (M4): Specs, Features, Price

Apple has kicked This week with the announcement of a new iPad Air, now powered by the M4 chip. It’s a fairly minor update, taking the device from the previous M3 to the M4, but otherwise keeping the same hardware and design. The company also announced a new price-friendly smartphone, the iPhone 17e.

It still comes in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, and otherwise looks identical to the previous generation. The only other significant change is the switch to Apple’s N1 networking chip, which was last introduced in the iPhone 17 and iPad Pro. This is Apple’s home-brewed Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, supporting the latest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 standards, not to mention Thread support for smart home control. It also has Apple’s custom C1X modem on the cellular model, which means sub-6 5G support that’s more energy efficient than the previous iPad Air’s modem.

The only other major upgrade is the increase from 8GB of integrated memory to 12GB. This is a welcome change, as Apple hasn’t increased the price of the base configuration. This comes at a time when there is a memory shortage crisis, but despite this, the M4 iPad Air still starts at $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch. Storage options start at 128 GB and max out at 1 TB.

Courtesy of Apple

In Apple’s press release, the company highlighted changes for buyers coming from older models like the M1 iPad Air, which comes out in 2022, such as a 12-megapixel center stage camera. It’s located on the landscape edge rather than the top, which is a more natural location for the webcam for video calls. It also has better landscape stereo speakers for the same purpose. However, that was all that was on last year’s model.

The M4 chip isn’t the latest Apple silicon, as it’s still a generation behind the chip available in the M5 iPad Pro and 14-inch MacBook Pro. However, with the M4, the iPad Air is 30 percent faster than the iPad Air with the M3. Apple highlights the 2.3x increase in performance compared to the M1 and says it has “4x faster 3D Pro rendering” along with features like ray tracing.

You can check out pricing and configurations right now, but pre-orders for the new iPad Air begin on March 4 at 6:15 a.m. PT (9:15 a.m. ET) and will ship on March 11.

We were expecting an update to the base iPad as well, but only the iPad Air is being refreshed right now. However, that could change throughout the week, as Apple is expected to make more product announcements this week ahead of its “Special Apple Experience” on March 4 in New York City — including MacBooks.

This is a developing story.