M4 iPad Air: What's New and When It's Coming

[W2u7Yw4HaD]

The iPad is the worst product ever. Just useless. Sadly my company forces me to use an app from the appstore.

Except it commands more then 50% of the tablet marketshare globally.. iPhone can't make that claim, or likely never will.. Its a solid product for specific use cases, but I would not throw away my MacBook Air either for an iPad.. Especially considering some outweigh the MacBook Air at this point also..

 

[gusping]

The “Air” name makes zero sense 👎
60 hz 👎
LCD 👎
No Face ID 👎
Magic Keyboard trackpad is the size of a stick of gum 👎
Too expensive 👎

Good device but not for that price.

I just bought an M4 iPP 13in 512gb + cellular for £900 (list was £1600). No regrets

 

[uacd]

That just doesn't seem right. Thick air? Maybe they should rename it the iPad Smog.

iPad Big Smoke

 

[uacd]

The “Air” name makes zero sense 👎
60 hz 👎
LCD 👎
No Face ID 👎
Magic Keyboard trackpad is the size of a stick of gum 👎
Too expensive 👎

Good device but not for that price.

Can't disagree more.

All these HZ are nothing more than marketing, it originally comes from the world of Android where refresh rate matters speed, which isn't like that on iOS.

I can't really see much difference when I enable battery saving mode and when it works at 120 Hz on my 17 Pro. Nothing like "ohh it looks horrible". Animations work about same. Smh I had used iPhones ever since 5 and never had issues with 60Hz display🤷‍♂️

Face ID? Well good only for fans of having IR blasted at your face 1000 times a day. Haven't enabled it at all on my 17 Pro too, less eye strain and loving "slide-up-to-unlock" without having to unlock anything. In fact, I hate Face ID and much preferred Touch ID when it was a feature, was perfect for payments and security and worked no matter what without ruining my sleep patterns and giving me horrendous eye strain.

Magic Keyboard?😃 Why not just buy a Macbook then? It has state-of-the-art keyboard, no more "butterfly" bs too! I've never wanted to use my iPad, a touch device, with a physical keyboard. It is a tablet to watch movies on without having to switch TV on, read MacRumors and write comments, or make beats in GarageBand and play virtual keyboards conveniently.

Btw, this response written on ancient iPad Air 2.

All I want from Apple this year that will make me upgrade is 256GB base storage tier and maybe 12GB RAM so it will be comparable to my iPhone in terms of long term use (I love using my devices for 12 years and more)

 

[HouseLannister]

It will look the same, but faster. Battery life might have some small gains on 5G, but will otherwise be same or worse. Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connectivity might be worse. Seems like a good time to pick up a current one on sale.

 

[satchmo]

Naming aside, the iPad Air is really just that mid-tier in the product line.

The base iPad is getting pretty good that you can skip the 11" iPad Air.

But without a larger option, the iPad Air provides a way to get 13" display for much much less than the Pro.

For those who sketch or create presentations, and don't need the OLED of a Pro, the Air is a good alternative.

 

[slippery-pete]

Shocked that people are complaining

 

[abowlby]

Apple withholding faster refresh rates to give the Pro options a reason to live is absurd. Especially at the price.

 

[I7guy]

It uses LCD technology that came out in the 60s. It's 2026, we should be using OLEDs for everything.

Oled came out in the 80s. So what’s your point again? And internal combustion engine is over a hundred years old and yet….

 

[I7guy]

Apple withholding faster refresh rates to give the Pro options a reason to live is absurd. Especially at the price.

That’s why I bought the IPP M5. Apple got me.

 

[oldwatery]

I recently bought an iPad Air M4 and it is hands-down the worst iPad I have ever owned
I am kicking myself so hard for not buying the pro
To call it an air is such a deceiving thing
The battery life is absolutely useless
I hate it

 

[SactoGuy18]

It's essentially the current iPad Air but with the M4 SoC and N1 I/O chip.

 

[joshwithachance]

"Air" but it's both thicker AND heavier than the Pro... Make it make sense.

 

[BeerDrinkerDan]

I had the previous gen iPad mini and moved to M3 Air (11 inch). It turned out to be little bit of a mistake.

My use case is pure media consumption and turned out that for me the mini is way better size. And I am not very happy about the battery life of the M3 Air.

I went opposite: M1 Air -> Mini A17Pro. I am so happy I did. I hadn't realized how heavy/unwieldy *for me* the Air was.

-bdd

 

[bodonnell202]

With the iPad Pros having all moved to OLED it would be nice if they would at least bring ProMotion to the iPad Air along with some refreshed colors since they've used the current colors for 2 generations already. Upping the RAM to 12 GB would be nice too but I'm guessing that is pretty unlikely with current RAM prices.

 

[Abydos]

we certainly are techy this morning, simple enough if it doesn't meet your needs don't buy it. kvetching is good, but don't let perfection get in the way of good enough (or fit for purpose for that matter ), or is this a form of solipsism inherent to this group

 

[joeblow7777]

Face ID? Well good only for fans of having IR blasted at your face 1000 times a day. Haven't enabled it at all on my 17 Pro too, less eye strain and loving "slide-up-to-unlock" without having to unlock anything. In fact, I hate Face ID and much preferred Touch ID when it was a feature, was perfect for payments and security and worked no matter what without ruining my sleep patterns and giving me horrendous eye strain.

This is something that I actually looked into when FaceID was first introduced, because I had some concerns about exactly this myself. Turns out, if you've ever been exposed to sunlight you've been hit in the face and eyes with more IR radiation than probably a lifetime of FaceID "blasts". Anything you look at that generates heat, including people's body heat, is emitting IR radiation at you. You're exposed to more IR just from the environment than from FaceID.

That being said, for what it's worth, I've always favoured TouchID over FaceID myself. I wish it would come back to iPhones, and the iPad Air lacking FaceID doesn't make it any less appealing to me.

 

[snipr125]

With the iPad Pros having all moved to OLED it would be nice if they would at least bring ProMotion to the iPad Air along with some refreshed colors since they've used the current colors for 2 generations already. Upping the RAM to 12 GB would be nice too but I'm guessing that is pretty unlikely with current RAM prices.

It could still get a Promotion display and 12 GB RAM if we are lucky, don't write them off just yet. It would be strange for the iPhone Air/Pro to get 12 GB RAM in an A chip, yet the new ipad air M4 to get 8 GB RAM right?

 

[Matt713]

Such an unusual product to me, I can't understand why it is so thick and unwieldy. Why doesn't it get the iPhone Air treatment? It is exactly the device that you want to be thin and lightweight as it is mainly used for reading/consuming content as portably as possible.

Totally agree! I wound love to transition to an all "air" lineup at some point. I guess my iPP is a true iPad Air form in disguise 😂 Love what apple is doing with iPhone Air/MBA form factors...