Apple M4 iPad Air announced: Specifications, price, release date

Ahead of Apple’s special March 4 experience, everyone’s favorite fruit company has announced the imminent launch of the new iPad Air. As expected, the iPad Air will be available for sale from March 4.

The new iPad will be powered by M4 silicon and come in 11- and 13-inch versions, with starting prices of $599 and $799, respectively. For education customers, prices will start at $549 and $749. Traditionally, the Air is Apple’s mid-range tablet, with the base version iPad popular with budget buyers and the M5 iPad Pro reserved for professionals and power users.

Here’s everything we know about Apple’s new tablet so far.

Improved performance and specifications

The previous iPad Air launched in May 2024, and Apple says the new model offers users “a huge jump in performance at the same starting price.”

With the introduction of iPadOS 26 and Liquid Glass last year, the iPad has become more like a laptop, with separate windows and multitasking capabilities.

To support those new features, the seventh-generation iPad Air has improved specifications:

• Processor: M4 silicon, 16-core Neural Engine, 8-core CPU

• GPU: 9-core GPU

• Memory: 12GB of integrated memory (120GB/s memory bandwidth)

• Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB configurations.

• Colors: Blue, purple, starlight, and space gray

• Camera: 12MP Center Stage Camera

• Sizes: 11 and 13-inch models

• Wireless and cellular connections: N1 and C1X silicon

• Wireless connection: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, 5G cellular, and Thread

• Resources: Magic Keyboard, Apple Pencil, Apple Pencil Pro

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What’s new, what’s not

Credit: Apple

Users in need of a new laptop will definitely want to consider upgrading to the iPad Air, which is known for being incredibly thin and lightweight without sacrificing performance. However, at first glance, the upgrade here seems pretty good, and it’s not clear why users with an existing M3 iPad Air would rush to upgrade.

The M4 processor and improved wireless/cellular connectivity will undoubtedly bring performance improvements. Apple promises that the new iPad Air will be 30 percent faster than the M3 model, with “50 percent more integrated system memory.”

iPadOS 26 features detailed in the announcement press release are already available on iPad Air and iPad Pro. Similarly, Apple has not announced that the new iPad Air will be thinner or lighter than previous versions, which are already noticeably thinner.

When can you buy the M4 iPad Air?

Credit: Apple

Apple says customers will be able to start pre-ordering the M4 iPad Air on March 4 at an Apple Store (and on Apple.com). Apple expects it to ship to customers on Wednesday, March 11.

We’ll be testing and reviewing the M4 iPad Air as soon as possible, so keep checking back for updates.