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First M4 iPad Air Benchmarks Surface

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Ahead of the launch of new iPad Air models equipped with the M4 chip, preliminary Geekbench benchmark results have surfaced for the device, giving us an idea of how its performance compares to the prior-generation M3 iPad Air.

iPad-Air-M4-Chip.jpg

A pair of benchmarks from the 13-inch M4 iPad Air with Wi-Fi + Cellular (iPad16,11) suggest the M4 iPad Air CPU is 17.3 percent faster in single-core performance and 7.9 percent faster in multi-core performance.

The benchmarks show single-core scores of 3438 and 3714 and multi-core scores of 12885 and 12296, translating to an average single-core score of 3576 and an average multi-core score of 12591. The prior-generation 13-inch M3 iPad Air has an average single-core score of 3048 and an average multi-core score of 11667 on Geekbench.

The M4 iPad Air is equipped with an 8-core CPU featuring three performance cores and five efficiency cores, along with a 9-core GPU. Apple previously used the M4 in the iPad Pro, but the version in the iPad Pro had up to a 10-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU, so the M4 iPad Air does not match the M4 iPad Pro in CPU performance.

The 13-inch M4 iPad Pro has a single-core score of 3704 and a multi-core score of 13805, so it offers 3.6 percent faster single-core CPU performance and 9.6 percent faster multi-core CPU performance.

The new M4 iPad Air will be available to pre-order at 6:15 a.m. Pacific Time tomorrow, with a launch to follow on March 11.

Article Link: First M4 iPad Air Benchmarks Surface
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/first-m4-ipad-air-benchmarks-surface/
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These things have so much raw horsepower for what is generally asked of them.

I love the new iPadOS with windowing and external monitor support but after the novelty wore off, I went back to using it as 'just' an iPad because I still bump into annoying use case walls. I might start trusting it more as my ONLY device when I travel but, truth be told, it's not too much of a hardship to schlep around with a laptop and an iPad in my backpack.

So Apple - what is ALL THIS POWER FOR?? 🙂
 
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Apple Introduces the All-New iPad Air: Now With More Air Than Ever Before

Cupertino, California — Apple today unveiled the newest iPad Air, the most Air iPad the company has ever created, packing more air into a single device than any previous iPad Air, Air-adjacent iPad, or iPad that merely aspired to be airy.

“At Apple, we asked ourselves a simple question,” said Tim Cook. “What if we put even more air into iPad Air?”

After years of research, Apple engineers developed a revolutionary internal architecture that allows the new iPad Air to contain an unprecedented amount of premium, Apple-designed air, carefully curated to deliver the airy experience customers expect.

Breakthrough Air Technologies​

The new iPad Air introduces several industry-leading air innovations:

  • Air³ Architecture – a triple-layer system that distributes air more evenly throughout the device.
  • Adaptive AirFlow™ – dynamically adjusts the amount of air depending on how airy you want your iPad to feel.
  • Pro-Grade Air – the same professional-level air previously reserved for devices that cost significantly more.
Together, these technologies make the new iPad Air the most air iPad Apple has ever shipped, and possibly the most air any company has ever shipped in any tablet category.

Designed for Maximum Air​

The design team at Apple focused on creating a device that doesn’t just contain air — it celebrates air. The result is a stunningly thin enclosure that allows air to exist with remarkable clarity and intention.

Available in four finishes — Sky Air, Space Air, Slightly Darker Air, and Blue That Is Definitely Still Air — the new iPad Air looks as airy as it feels.

Even More Air With Apple Silicon​

Powered by Apple silicon, the new iPad Air delivers incredible performance while maintaining industry-leading levels of air per cubic inch. This means users can edit photos, watch movies, or scroll social media with more air surrounding every task.

Pricing and Availability​

The new iPad Air starts at $599, which Apple notes includes a tremendous amount of air at no additional cost.

Pre-orders begin Friday, with availability next week in stores and online.

Apple also confirmed that future updates will bring even more air, because at Apple, there’s always room for more air.
 
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vegetassj4 said:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Apple Introduces the All-New iPad Air: Now With More Air Than Ever Before

Cupertino, California — Apple today unveiled the newest iPad Air, the most Air iPad the company has ever created, packing more air into a single device than any previous iPad Air, Air-adjacent iPad, or iPad that merely aspired to be airy.

“At Apple, we asked ourselves a simple question,” said Tim Cook. “What if we put even more air into iPad Air?”

After years of research, Apple engineers developed a revolutionary internal architecture that allows the new iPad Air to contain an unprecedented amount of premium, Apple-designed air, carefully curated to deliver the airy experience customers expect.

Breakthrough Air Technologies​

The new iPad Air introduces several industry-leading air innovations:

  • Air³ Architecture – a triple-layer system that distributes air more evenly throughout the device.
  • Adaptive AirFlow™ – dynamically adjusts the amount of air depending on how airy you want your iPad to feel.
  • Pro-Grade Air – the same professional-level air previously reserved for devices that cost significantly more.
Together, these technologies make the new iPad Air the most air iPad Apple has ever shipped, and possibly the most air any company has ever shipped in any tablet category.

Designed for Maximum Air​

The design team at Apple focused on creating a device that doesn’t just contain air — it celebrates air. The result is a stunningly thin enclosure that allows air to exist with remarkable clarity and intention.

Available in four finishes — Sky Air, Space Air, Slightly Darker Air, and Blue That Is Definitely Still Air — the new iPad Air looks as airy as it feels.

Even More Air With Apple Silicon​

Powered by Apple silicon, the new iPad Air delivers incredible performance while maintaining industry-leading levels of air per cubic inch. This means users can edit photos, watch movies, or scroll social media with more air surrounding every task.

Pricing and Availability​

The new iPad Air starts at $599, which Apple notes includes a tremendous amount of air at no additional cost.

Pre-orders begin Friday, with availability next week in stores and online.

Apple also confirmed that future updates will bring even more air, because at Apple, there’s always room for more air.
Click to expand...
Now this takes the cake.
 
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For those interested single core is of course the same as the iPad pro M4, but:
multicore is slower than the base M4 pro (9 cores) at around 12800 (best value above) vs around 13370, while the 10 core M4 in the 1/2TB iPad pro is at around 14860
 
Still the vast majority of people will not notice any differences in performance, it’s got the M4 and its underlying architecture thats the most important thing. Should have 256GB and some form of faster refresh rate, but apart from this its a great value desktop grade ipad.
 
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I am curious if there is a real, common usage of an iPad that warrants this sort of performance. How many need this performance and find the iPad more suitable than a Mac. I'm sure there must be some cases but I can't think of any.
 
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Johnny907 said:
I think the only advantage of this over the prior model would be battery life, as M4’s run more efficiently than M3’s, and if you buy the cellular model the C1X chip is more efficient than what the M3 version ran.
Otherwise, this thing is a massive nothing-burger, especially with the same 128GB base storage.
Click to expand...
Yes this is the main thing people would notice. I have an M2 Air 13 and battery life could be better.

I am think of buying an M4 11 as well if the battery life is substantially better.
 
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I wonder how The GPU will fair. The m4 was a pretty big step up for gpu and raytracing performance from the m3
 
CalMin said:
These things have so much raw horsepower for what is generally asked of them.

I love the new iPadOS with windowing and external monitor support but after the novelty wore off, I went back to using it as 'just' an iPad because I still bump into annoying use case walls. I might start trusting it more as my ONLY device when I travel but, truth be told, it's not too much of a hardship to schlep around with a laptop and an iPad in my backpack.

So Apple - what is ALL THIS POWER FOR?? 🙂
Click to expand...
The power is for MR street cred.
 
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Digitalguy said:
For those interested single core is of course the same as the iPad pro M4, but:
multicore is slower than the base M4 pro (9 cores) at around 12800 (best value above) vs around 13370, while the 10 core M4 in the 1/2TB iPad pro is at around 14860
Click to expand...
Glad I bought the iPP during the Costco sale (13" 1TB Nano Cell)
 
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abatabia said:
Like I said yesterday, if you have any m series air you’re fine.
Click to expand...
I bought an iPad Air M3 last week, on substantial discount, knowing that the M4 was likely to come out this week. The 17%ish faster performance might be nice, but I like the discount better (and it was a huge upgrade from my iPad Air 3rd gen, which has struggled since iPadOS 26). I kinda wish I had the extra 4GB of RAM (12 on M4 vs 8 on M3), as context switching was the main problem before, but I think it'll be fine for a long time.
 
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Johnny907 said:
I think the only advantage of this over the prior model would be battery life, as M4’s run more efficiently than M3’s, and if you buy the cellular model the C1X chip is more efficient than what the M3 version ran.
Click to expand...
The other improvement is going from 8 GB to 12 GB of RAM. I see that as a bigger win that the slightly faster CPU, though the battery life would be nice.
 
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I’m considering a 13 inch iPad Air m3 , on a good discount now.

My main use case is sharing screen and using it as a whiteboard with an Apple Pencil. An expensive smart whiteboard I must say
 
I don’t care much for benchmarks on tablets because they don’t tell the whole story. If you load a many layer animation or video editing project on an iPad Pro with M2/3 processor the performance in fps isn’t the same as on the desktop with an M2/3 processor. I’ve also seen this in my own apps. We have to do coding tricks like caching, low res proxies or flattened playback to get it to work the same as desktop performance.
 
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