Apple has released the new M3 iPad Air as an update to the M2 iPad Air from last year. As far as anyone can tell, the M3 chip is the only real update to the Air with the exception of the new Magic Keyboard accessory that is slightly cheaper than the one for the iPad Pros. Overall this is a very minor update even for Apple, which has left us with the question: Who is this update for?
That is the very same question I have been asking since they released the first iPad Air with M1. The iPad Air has always sat awkwardly in Apple’s iPad line up between the base iPad and the iPad Pro. On the one side you have the base iPad that can do everything 99% of people would possibly want to do with a tablet. On the other side, you have the iPad Pro with lots of premium features and performance for those who want to do a little more. That really doesn’t leave a gap for the iPad Air to fill.
iPad – The best choice for most
iPad (Credit: Apple.com)
The base iPad (just called iPad by Apple) can do everything most people would want to do with an iPad. It has a large high resolution 11” screen, a powerful A16 chip to handle tablet tasks and games, has good speakers, and is built with a study all aluminum chassis. This iPad just gets the basics right and supports nearly all of the same software that the other iPads support.
You might notice that I said “nearly all”. This is because the new iPad does not have support for Apple Intelligence, whereas the other two iPads do. That said, there are not any useful features of Apple Intelligence in my opinion so I do not see this as a loss. It will still play all of the same games as the other two but in a few (and I mean very very few) games you may have to drop the settings a little.
iPad Pro – The best iPad
iPad Pro M4 (Credit: Apple.com)
The iPad Pro is the best iPad in the lineup. It has a few features that make it worth upgrading two over all the others including Face ID, a very nice 120hz Tandem OLED screen, is super thin and light, supports the best Magic Keyboard, and has the very powerful M4 chip. This iPad is a worthy upgrade over the base iPad for those who have money to spend on the best iPad you can buy, or for a profession like a digital artist that wants the best drawing experience possible (Pencil Pro + 120hz screen). For those who are trying to outright replace their laptop (do not do this) and want to run the very limited software that can actually take advantage of the M4 such as video editing, this is the iPad for them as well.
Where does that leave the iPad Air?
iPad Air (Credit: Sanjeev Mohindra on Unsplash)
Back to the beginning – where does this leave the iPad Air? Honestly I don’t know. The iPad Air does have some improvements over the base iPad but not in any areas that really matter. It has a laminated screen which is a plus but it is still a 60hz LCD display. It has support for the new Magic Keyboard but only the one without a nice haptic touchpad and this keyboard is very expensive at $269 USD. It has support for both the USB-C Apple Pencil and the new Pencil Pro, but again those who are seriously doing digital Art should probably get the Pro for the superior screen response time and refresh rate. It has the M3 chip but, again, this doesn’t really matter for iPadOS and almost no one will notice the difference between this and the A16 in the base iPad.
Last generation, it made more sense to buy an iPad Air over the base partially due to the very small storage of the base iPad (64GB). The only other option for the base iPad storage was to pay $100 more to go to 256GB which is more than most people will use on a tablet and that put at $429, which is already expensive and $170 shy of the iPad Air which had a laminated screen and started at 128GB which is enough for most people. Now, they both have 128GB storage and the price difference is now $270, or nearly double for the same storage configuration. You can almost buy two iPads for the price of one iPad Air. Is it worth that much more? No, probably not.
An update of disappointment
What could Apple have done to make this update better and enticed people to buy it over the base iPad? For starters, they could have bumped the base storage to 256GB, which is where it should have been for a long time. They should have given it a 120hz screen and still kept it LCD. 120hz would have given people a real reason to go with it over the base iPad while still allowing the upgrade to the Pro for the extremely nice Tandem OLED. They should have made it compatible with the great Magic Keyboard that the Pro supports OR they should have made its Magic Keyboard $199, which would have been a more reasonable price. In short there are many things Apple could have done to make this iPad more appealing but as it stands now, most people should just buy the base iPad or the iPad Pro.
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