Apple’s iPad Air remains a premium tablet with the latest version, featuring chip upgrades to stay ahead of the pack.
The new iPad Air M3 costs £599 (€699/$599/$999) – the same as its predecessor, it comes in two sizes with an 11-inch or 13-inch screen. It is between the base model £329 iPad A16 and the £999 iPad Pro M4, splitting the difference in price and functionality.
Nothing has changed outside the tablet. The M3 model is a straight replacement for the M2 model, featuring the same crisp screen, refined aluminum design, and touch ID fingerprint scanner on the power button.
The center stage webcam at the top of the screen makes video calls easier by automatically panning and scanning to keep you and your family in frame. Stereo speakers watch TV and movies, but the support for the £129 Apple Pencil Pro is lazy and note-taking.
The thin aluminum frame includes stereo speakers, touch ID sensors, and volume buttons. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
specification
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screen: 11-inch or 13-inch liquid retinal display (264ppi)
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Processor: Apple M3 (9-core GPU)
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Ram: 8GB
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Storage: 128, 256, 512GB or 1TB
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operating system: iPados 18.4
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camera: 12MP rear, 12MP center stage
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Connectivity: WiFi 6E (5G option ESIM only), Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, Touch ID, Smart Connecter
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size: 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1mm or 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.1mm
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Weight: 460g or 616g
M3 upgrade and solid battery life
The iPad takes about 2 hours to charge using a power adapter of 30W or higher, but this is not included. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
A major change in the new Air is an upgrade of the Apple M3 chip that was first seen on the MacBook Pro in late 2023 and successfully used on the MacBook Air until it was replaced with the M4 chip on the MacBook Air.
The M3 is not Apple’s latest chip, but on tablets, it’s much stronger than most people need, and much faster than the competition. It’s about 10-20% faster than the outgoing M2 model under test, and does short work on gaming and pro-level apps. Affinity Photos, Reproduction Or Adobe Lightroom.
Combined with a reliable battery life of 9-10 hours, it can be easily used as a laptop replacement when equipped with accessories such as a new version of Apple’s excellent magic keyboard case, but costs £269. However, inexpensive third-party options such as Logitech are available.
The iPad Air runs iPads 18.4, which includes a collection of multitasking tools, and can be plugged into an external monitor such as a laptop via a USB-C port. However, the M3 chip also enables a variety of Apple Intelligence features that cannot be used with the standard iPad A16. These include several AI image editing and generation tools, writing and proofing tools, ChatGPT integration into SIRI, and more.
Sustainability
The recycled aluminum body also looks great. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
Apple says the battery should last more than 1,000 full charge cycles at least 80% of its original capacity and can be replaced from £115. Tablets are generally repairable Damaged Warrant Repair Costs Starting from £429.
The tablet contains at least 30% recycled content, including aluminum, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, lithium, plastic, rare earth elements, tin, and more. Apple breaks down the environmental impact of tablets in reports and offers trade-in and free recycling schemes that include non-Apple products.
price
The 11-inch iPad Air M3 costs £599 (699 Euros/$599/$999) and the 13-inch iPad Air M3 costs £799 (949 Euros/$799/$1,349).
For comparison, the iPad A16 costs £329, the iPad Pro M4 costs £999, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE costs £499. The MacBook Air M4 starts at £999.
verdict
The iPad Air M3 is an excellent premium tablet that makes your base model Apple tablet a great upgrade.
This is a very capable machine with laptop-level power, long battery life, high-quality screens, enough accessories to turn it into a drawing tablet, computer replacement, or many other tools. Size choice balances well between portability at 11″ and the 13″ version of the large screen utility.
However, the M3 model is not a worthwhile upgrade to make with the latest iPad Air versions. Even just watching TV or movies, the standard iPad A16 does much less work. Meanwhile, the top-end iPad Pro M4 beats the air on every count, but costs a lot of money.
So, for those looking for a premium do-it tablet, beating the iPad Air M3 is difficult.
Strong Points: Select size, laptop-level M3 performance, solid battery life, high-quality screen, USB-C, long software support life, various apps and accessories, excellent speakers, landscape center stage camera, recycled aluminum.
Cons: Expensive, no multi-user support, iPados still need to act as a laptop replacement, no kickstand, face ID, 60Hz screen without a case.
Browsing the web and reading stories is the joy of an 11-inch iPad Air. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
Source: www.theguardian.com
