Apple updates the iPad Air with an M4 chip

Apple is kicking off multiple days of product announcements this morning with a new iPad Air. Unsurprisingly, it’s more or less like the iPad Air Apple announced one year ago, except it now has an M4 chip instead of last year’s M3.

Apple is also including its in-house networking chips, the N1 and C1X, which will cover Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity. This means the iPad Air supports the Wi-Fi 7 standard for the first time. The Air also now has 12GB of RAM standard, up from 8GB in the prior model.

The rest of the iPad Air appears unchanged at this point. It has the same display that the 2023 and 2024 models sported —either an 11- or 13-inch LCD that tops out at 500 nits of brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate. Storage options start at 128GB and go up to 1TB, same as last year. The dual stereo speaker configuration and both front- and rear-facing cameras are unchanged, as well.

For those keeping track, it’s been less than two years since Apple redesigned the iPad Air, adding a 13-inch model that had an M2 chip. I remain surprised the company is committed to releasing chip updates for the Air so frequently — even the M2 model is more than powerful enough for the target audience. But, getting a faster chip for the same money is hard to complain about.

Naturally, the iPad Air M4 is running iPadOS 26, which was released last fall. It was, without a doubt, the biggest iPadOS update we’ve seen, bringing a far more robust multitasking system than the iPad has ever had before. It’s most noticeable and useful on the larger 13-inch screen, but having greater freedom with window management and more robust background tasks is a huge step forward — even if the Liquid Glass visual redesign is a bit divisive.

Pre-orders for the new iPad Air M4 open on Wednesday, March 4, and the tablet will be fully available on March 11. As before, pricing starts at $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for a 13-inch display.