- Apple has announced a new iPad Air
- The iPad Air now has the M4 chip along with the N1 and C1X
- It keeps the starting price as the previous iPad Air with M3
Well, Tim Cook teased a big week ahead of Apple’s invitational event on March 4, 2026, and the Cupertino-based tech giant isn’t wasting any time. Apple has just announced an upgraded iPad Air with the M4 chip inside.
Now, while there isn’t much to speak of in terms of design, Apple is supercharging things under the hood with better equipped, more powerful silicon. And it’s really something we’ve come to expect from Apple’s now annual updates to its mid-range iPads.
The iPad Air still has a modern design, available in two sizes – 11-inch and 13-inch – with Touch ID for easy authentication and support for Apple Pencil Pro, but the real upgrade here is the switch to Apple’s M4 chip from the M3. Apple promises a big boost, even generation over generation, as the M4 iPad Air is up to 30% faster than the M3.
It’s not just the M4 chip either, though; Apple is also upgrading connectivity with its own internal chips – N1 and C1X – for fast Wi-Fi 7 and LTE or 5G connectivity. All of this should make iPadOS 26 run smoothly and, frankly, continue to position the iPad Air as the pro-level iPad for most consumers.
It still comes in four color options – blue, purple, starlight or space gray – and starts at the same price in the US. It’s $599 / £599 / AU$999 for the 11-inch iPad Air and $799 / £799 / AU$1249 for the 13-inch iPad Air, both with 128GB of storage and Wi-Fi connectivity.
The M4 chip should keep things fresh
As I noted above, the most important change with the iPad Air in 2026 is the chip. The M4 chip inside is configured with an 8-core CPU, 9-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine. It also gets a 50% increase in RAM, now up to 12GB, which should make this iPad well equipped for multitasking and more intense processes. With the latter, think 3D rendering in apps and large exports.
In addition to the general-purpose improvements I shared above, Apple also promises that the M4 iPad Air will deliver up to 4x faster 3D pro rendering with ray tracing compared to the original iPad Air with the M1. I suspect this will really shine with video and photo editing along with other creative tasks and gaming on the iPad Air.
Alongside the Apple-made M4 chip, there are two other additions inside that provide more robust connectivity. The N1 chip means the iPad Air supports Thread, Bluetooth 6 and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, the latter being new. Apple’s own C1X modem, which debuted on the iPhone Air, will power cellular connectivity on eligible iPad Air models. As with most previous iPad models, the Air with the M4 is eSIM only.
Between the M4 chip, N1 and C1X silicon, that wraps up the big changes for the iPad Air. It still offers Touch ID in the power button paired with either an 11-inch or 13-inch Liquid Retina display with support for True Tone, Wide Color (P3) and an anti-reflective coating.
A note on screen size: Apple rounds up a bit, but these are the same as last generation — the 11-inch is actually 10.86 inches, and the 13-inch is 12.9 inches, both measured diagonally.
iPad Air with M4 still starts at 128GB of storage, but you can configure it up to 1TB. Pricing starts at $599 / £599 / AU$999 for the 11-inch iPad Air with Wi-Fi or $799 / £799 / AU$1249 for the 13-inch iPad Air with Wi-Fi. As always, cellular models start a bit higher at $749 for the 11-inch and $949 for the 13-inch. It’s still compatible with the Magic Keyboard for iPad Air – both sizes – and works with Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C).
Apple will start pre-orders for the iPad Air with M4 on March 4, 2026, and it will officially launch on March 11, 2026.
We’ll go hands-on with the latest iPad Air as soon as we can. Let us know what you think about the upgrade from M3 to M4 in the comments below.
Look at
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
