iPad Air vs. iPad Pro Buyer's Guide: 30 Differences Compared

[Darth Tulhu]

It is not Apple that needs to think of a way to lower the cost of their overpriced keyboards. It is a need/opportunity for third parties to fill.

AGREED.

I actually considered this for a while. The iPad is so flexible, that I had to rethink HOW I use it before I settled on my setup (my iPad is the M1 Pro 12.9"):

• Magic Keyboard as a primary dock/charge station/quick grab-and-go laptop replacement
• An aluminum iPad stand I got off of Amazon on various locations around the house (kitchen, couch's end table, etc.) for naked (iPad) use
• An aluminum stand and the Apple Magic Keyboard and Apple trackpad 2 (the ones that come with the iMac) on a secondary desk
• A tri-fold for light travel and for MBA second-screen use
• An iPad skin, so it's not THAT naked when using around the house/ultralight travel

And to be fair, I think the MK IS expensive, but not necessarily overpriced. The price is comparable to the iMac KB and TP combined.

This is an iPad, after all. External keyboards are OPTIONAL.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

The real difference is that when people see you using an iPad Pro instead of the Air, they'll know that you're a person with exquisite tastes.

Wear an Apple Watch SE? You probably have the Apple Watch Hermès, complete with a leather watch band from some company no one else has heard of.

$0.99 iCloud plan? You've got the most expensive $37.95 Apple One plan, the kind you can share with family. Maybe you don't even have a family, you just like operating at this level.

McDonald's McChicken sandwiches? You only eat chicken sandwiches at Chick-fil-A, because your palette is that discerning.

.....or so I assume that's the real reason to get an iPad Pro over the Air. Despite the $400 difference in price, there's not really much of a difference in the user experience. 🤷‍♂️

Just because you fail to perceive the differences does not actually mean "there's not really much of a difference in the user experience." For anyone with trained eyes/brain the display differences are significant; just the brightness difference of 1000 nits versus 600 nits alone can be huge to many folks. I have not yet personally A-B compared the displays side-by-side, but my expectation is that even without having trained eyes/brain most folks will see the differences.

Similarly things like speakers, Lidar, etc. are important real differences for some users.

Whether or not the real, solid differences are worth the $$ is a personal financial decision for each user. But it is not simply about how a different tablet affects how one is perceived at Starbucks.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

I am not a pro, a prosumer at maximum. Yet I am struggling on which iPad to get to update my Air 4... money is no problem but ofc that doesn't mean not thinking and reflecting about the purchase

Go to a store and do the (almost) real-world A-B comparison like I will be doing. Then decide.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

What does 'Air" even mean?

Air references the model above standard and below pro. Like trim levels when buying a vehicle: e.g. Honda calls my white truck the Black Edition; WTF?

 

[ric22]

This is why I went with the Pro. The better display and speaker setup was worth it to me.

I'll be curious how much the shrink in size has reduced the quality of the speakers in the new Pro...

 

[Allen_Wentz]

or the 13" pro could just run macOS as it has 16GB RAM anyway

That might be cool even though MS has already done similar with Win and Surface Pro (IMO poorly). Switching from Mac OS to iPad OS would be... interesting.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

What does 'Air" even mean?

Not sure if you're being facetious, so I'll explain.

The Air moniker came about as Steve Jobs introduced the first MacBook Air, Apple's (and one of, if not THE) first ultraportable, as a reference to it's weight and thinness (it was shocking at the time to see him pull a laptop out of a holy joe envelope).

Since then, and due to both the success and ubiquity of the MBA, the Air designation changed over the years to represent the "consumer" or middle tier of Apple products.

I'm of the mind that it should be retired so that we have Pro, base, SE and mini (where applicable) tiers, but that's just me armchair CEO-ing.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

I'll be curious how much the shrink in size has reduced the quality of the speakers in the new Pro...

Apple does audio very, very well. No reason to assume sound will degrade in a newer model.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

It's 2024, why doesn't the Air have Face ID? It took me some time to get used to no face-ID on a mini that I use for work, which I also can't believe doesn't have Face ID. Maybe I'm crazy for having a hiccup over this feature, I sold my 11" 2018 iPad Pro a few months back in anticipation of replacing it. Replacing it with an Air seems logical, but also seems like a step backwards for not having Face-ID.

I'm also confused because I've looked at cases for the 11" pro and most say they fit both the Pro and the Air, but this says they are different "depths" additionally the Pro is a few grams less in weight. So are they same exterior dimensions or not?

Even hard tablet cases often fit a range of tablet sizes.

 

[maerz001]

What is so hard to understand? The term Air has been an iPad product level for many generations now.

Exactly. It was used for the lightest product.

the MB 12“, ipad mini and now the pro don’t follow the rules

 

[luxetlibertas]

First, if you want 256GB, the Pro already has that so the price difference becomes $300
Second, the Pro 2024 has at least one more year of useful life than the iPad Air 2024.

That means that the value for money difference is a lot less than it seems.

Say that you plan to use your iPad Air for 5 years and the iPad Pro for 6 years before handing it down.

Having a much better device all that time should be worth it, if you can spare the money.

 

[robertpetry]

It's the lack of FaceID on the Air that has killed it for me over the past few generations and still does. I don't want to go back and the thought of looking for the power button every time I pick the iPad up is a no go. I really thought this 2024 Air would get FaceID

 

[Jetson]

I'd love to experience the iPad Pro Tandem OLED screen. I'm also shopping for my first 4K television and I'd prefer OLED over mini LED technology.

The main caveat for me is the longevity of the product. These advanced OLED panels seem to still be in the '"experimental" phase. I'm concerned about unexpected issues that might crop up as well known problems. From an otherwise very positive MSN.com article, for instance...

"One thing, however, we must warn you about when it comes to OLED displays is that they are known for causing burn-in, a permanent issue in which a faint image from the screen is "burned" into the panel — even though the image isn't being displayed anymore."

iPad Pro 2024 now has 'Tandem OLED': 5 reasons this is a big deal

I encountered a similar problem with an iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (2nd generation) where there was light bleed through on the left edge of the panel. This was quite annoying and I had no recourse because the problem showed up after the Apple 1 year warranty coverage had expired.

 

[ric22]

It's the lack of FaceID on the Air that has killed it for me over the past few generations and still does. I don't want to go back and the thought of looking for the power button every time I pick the iPad up is a no go. I really thought this 2024 Air would get FaceID

It still lacks FaceID? 😅 I missed that. Ridiculous!

 

[ric22]

Apple does audio very, very well. No reason to assume sound will degrade in a newer model.

No reason? The space for the speakers just diminished. Can speakers that tiny perform as well as speakers not so tiny? I'm curious to see, but there is a reason to wonder.

See a comparison between the 14" and 16" MacBook Pros. The smaller the speaker enclosure, the greater the engineering challenge.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

I'm not a Pro user - I don't edit videos or do graphic design, for example. But I highly value a great display, and would love to watch videos and movies on the new OLED display. Struggling to decide if it's worth the additional cost.

The M2 Pro is another option to consider. The mini-LED display is still very nice compared to regular LCDs for movies and videos and just as bright as the new OLED panels.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

I'd love to see a comparison of the new M2 iPad Air to the old M2 iPad Pro. I suspect that buying used or discounted, you might be able to get more storage and other features for a similar price. I'm just not sure how all the specs compare.

The old Pro is a much better device if you can find it at a comparable price. It has a much brighter display with miniLED and promotion, Thunderbolt, FaceID, LiDAR, flash, 4 vs 2 speakers, and a better microphone array. The only advantages the Air have are the camera position and lighter weight (and touchID if that's your preference).

 

[jebrennan]

how come the AIR is thicker than the Pro???

Leapfrogging. It is odd, but I imagine the next gen iPad Airs to slim down.

 

[jebrennan]

What does 'Air" even mean?

A middle price point? Can afford more than the baseline iPad, but don’t need all the features of a Pro. —Or— It’s light on feature compared to the Pro.

 

[Greggers135]

So is it a miss reporting on Apple's site or is the M2 in the iPad Air a cut down chip because the M2 Processor found in M2 iPad Pro and MacBooks had Pro-Res Media Engines and Hardware acceleration for ProRes and ProRes Raw...

Still a little bummed no 7th Gen iPad Mini announcement though.

 

[ric22]

So is it a miss reporting on Apple's site or is the M2 in the iPad Air a cut down chip because the M2 Processor found in M2 iPad Pro and MacBooks had Pro-Res Media Engines and Hardware acceleration for ProRes and ProRes Raw...

Still a little bummed no 7th Gen iPad Mini announcement though.

That's interesting.

I agree about the lack of a new iPad mini, by the way.

 

[avantus]

The iPad Air is now available in two size options, just like the iPad Pro. Yet after a significant update to the iPad Pro that introduces a thinner design and OLED displays, how different are the two product lines and which should you buy?

The introduction of the fourth-generation iPad Air in September 2020 brought the device much closer to the iPad Pro in terms of design, and with the most recent model, the iPad Air gained the same M2 chip and Apple Pencil hover support as the previous iPad Pro, bringing them even closer together. The latest iPad Pro models introduced a large number of significant new changes, such as the M4 chip, OLED displays, and a higher price point, and it means that the high-end iPad models are now further differentiated from the iPad Air than before.

Should you consider purchasing the iPad Air to save money, or do you need the high-end features of the iPad Pro? Our guide answers the question of how to decide which of these two iPads is best for you.

iPad Air (M2, 2024)	iPad Pro (M4, 2024)
Liquid Retina display LED backlit Multi-Touch display with IPS technology	Ultra Retina XDR display Tandem OLED
	ProMotion technology for refresh rates up to 120Hz
SDR brightness: 600 nits max	SDR brightness: 1,000 nits max XDR brightness: 1,000 nits max full screen, 1,600 nits peak (HDR content only)		Nano-texture display glass option on 1TB and 2TB models
‌M2‌ chip (5nm, N5P)	M4 chip (3nm enhanced, N3E)
8-core CPU	Up to 10-core CPU
	Hardware-accelerated ray tracing
Hardware-accelerated H.264 and HEVC	Hardware-accelerated 8K H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW
	ProRes encode and decode engine AV1 decode
100GB/s memory bandwidth	120GB/s memory bandwidth
8GB of memory	8GB or 16GB of memory
	Improved thermal design with graphite sheets and copper
Touch ID in top button	TrueDepth camera system for Face ID
	Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
	Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High-Key Mono)
	Animoji and Memoji
	LiDAR scanner
	Adaptive True Tone flash
	Rear ambient light sensor
	ProRes video recording up to 4K at 30 fps (1080p at 30 fps for 256GB capacity)
	ProRes video recording up to 4K at 60 fps with external recording
Two microphones	Four studio-quality microphones
	Audio zoom
	Stereo recording
Landscape stereo speakers	Four speaker audio
Weight: 462 grams or 617 grams	Weight 444 grams or 579 grams
Depth: 6.1 mm	Depth: 5.3 mm or 5.1 mm
USB‑C connector	USB‑C connector with support for Thunderbolt / USB 4
Supports Magic Keyboard	Supports Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro (M4)
128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB storage	256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB storage
Available in Space Gray, Starlight, Purple, and Blue	Available in Space Black and Silver
Price starting at $599	Price starting at $999

Overall, the iPad Air is the better option for the majority of users, simply on the basis of value for money. For most people, the additional $400+ needed to buy the iPad Pro is not justified to get the likes of Face ID, four-speaker audio, and a ProMotion OLED display with refresh rates up to 120Hz.

Some iPad Pro features, such as LiDAR, up to 16GB of memory, and Thunderbolt connectivity are only practically useful to a small niche of users and most will never use some of these high-end capabilities. Many features such as Audio zoom and stereo audio recording may not be meaningfully utilized by many users.

Professionals who have a clear use case for needing larger amounts of RAM and storage, a matte display, Thunderbolt connectivity, and OLED for HDR content will clearly benefit from buying the iPad Pro. That being said, "prosumer"-style customers who simply want the best iPad will enjoy features such as 120Hz ProMotion for smoother scrolling and gaming, deeper blacks and more vivid colors with the OLED display, and the Adaptive True Tone flash for document scanning, even if they are not necessary.

Beyond these individual circumstances, the iPad Air is the best value for money and will be more than ample for most users' needs. With the iPad Air, users can get a modern all-screen design, the M2 chip, practical features like USB-C and 5G connectivity, and compatibility with the core Apple accessories for a price well below that of the iPad Pro.

Article Link: iPad Air vs. iPad Pro Buyer's Guide: 30+ Differences Compared

Was holding off buying an MBP until the launch of these and today went ahead and bought a MBP.

Just not seeing the value or functionality as a true replacement. Might just grab a iPad Pro M3 if prices come down in a few months, otherwise will just continue using a 2016 iPad Pro as a play thing for doing basic stuff without caring for it much.

 

[eifelbube]

I'm not a Pro user - I don't edit videos or do graphic design, for example. But I highly value a great display, and would love to watch videos and movies on the new OLED display. Struggling to decide if it's worth the additional cost.

I entered that struggle too but decided to take my M2 12.9 iPad Pro to the Apple Stoe next week to do a side-by-side comparison first.

 

[spicynujac]

I upgraded from an ipad Air to an ipad Pro only because the Pro was on sale at Target for $650.
I actually had to cancel a pending order for an Air at the time.
After a year of use, I have to say the Pro is not that noticeably different to me to justify much of a price increase. The only thing I *really* notice that is superior is the darker blacks on the Pro screen, and the superior speakers.

Would I pay an extra $100 for the Pro? Yeah, but that's about it. Honestly the regular Ipad is the best bang for buck product that Apple makes. 95% of the functionality and routinely on sale for about $330.

The biggest disappointment in my Ipad Pro is the battery life. Now, significantly increase the battery size and I'll pony up. But that's not happening with this new ultra thin pro.

 

[mac4good84]

I had an iPad Air 4th gen which I gave to my 6 year old to replace her old Air 1 she was using, so I am now iPadless. However, I won't be buying another one for a while as we just got a new MacBook Pro (which is amazing). When I do buy my next iPad I love the fact that it has an OLED display now. I'm an OLED guy having 2 OLED TVs in the house so this is welcome news for me in terms of the new Pros.

I must say though, this XDR mini led display on the MBP 14 inch I just got is really a lovely display, gorgeous to look at and no slouch especially being an OLED guy I'm pretty impressed with what Apple was able to do with these mini LED displays. It will probably be a couple of years before I get another iPad so it will be interesting to see what will be out by that time. I will say though, I can understand people's frustrations with iPadOS, despite the amazing hardware and power these things hold you are really limited with what you can do with them as, for me personally, the tablets are more consumption devices than anything else. Using a MacBook there's no question overall you can do so much more than you can with an iPad, but for me the frustration is really tempered because I understand that the iPads are meant to be between an iPhone and a full fledged computer. Opinions will always vary on this of course and I do understand both points of view, but in my opinion, at the end of the day, I don't see Apple ever giving the iPads a full fledged MacOS like the MacBooks have. Time will tell but that is just my guess.