Upgrade pick
If you’re willing to pay for laptop power in a tablet, the iPad Air is the tablet for you.
The 6th-generation Apple iPad Air (M2) isn’t quite as advanced as an iPad Pro, but it comes close—for far less than Apple’s most powerful tablet costs. It has a bright LCD screen and runs on Apple’s M2 chip—the same one that powered the previous-gen iPad Pro and MacBook Pro models. Like the 10th-gen iPad, the latest iPad Air moves the FaceTime camera to the landscape position, which makes the camera more natural to use for video calls. The M2 iPad Air also supports almost all the same accessories as the iPad Pro models do. In addition to the 11-inch model we recommend, the new iPad Air comes in a 13-inch size for those who prefer a larger-screen tablet experience.
It now runs on the same powerful processor as in the last-gen iPad Pro. The newest iPad Air runs on Apple’s custom M2 chip, which also powers the current Mac mini and the previous-generation MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Combined with 8 GB of RAM, that chip can handle all your basic tablet needs, including multitasking across apps, browsing the web, gaming, and watching videos. And it can tackle more demanding tasks such as editing photos in Adobe Lightroom, editing videos in Final Cut Pro, and playing more graphics-intensive games like Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile. Apple says the M2 has been redesigned to be faster at AI tasks, and we found that to be true in our testing: Google Assistant and Siri responses were faster than on older iPads, and Apple’s Live Text document-scanning feature also took less time than on previous-gen tablets. The M2 iPad Air got marginally warm to the touch during extended periods of gaming. But otherwise we found the tablet capable of handling most tasks, and the latest iPad Air maintains the 10-hour battery life we’ve come to expect from nearly every iPad model over the years.
It has a solid, bright screen, which now comes in two sizes. The 11-inch M2 iPad Air offers a 2360×1640-resolution LCD screen, which produces bright colors and sharp images for gaming, web browsing, and watching videos. The screen size is 10.8 inches diagonal, more or less identical to its predecessor. For $200 more, you can get a Pro-sized, 13-inch iPad Air with a higher-res, 2732×2048 display that gets slightly brighter than the smaller version. This is an ideal size for watching movies, playing games, or editing videos while you’re traveling.
It offers a solid amount of base storage. The entry-level M2 iPad Air provides 128 GB of storage to start, doubling the 64 GB that the entry-level M1 Air offered. You now have four storage options to choose from: 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB, in addition to 128 GB.
It works with most of the iPad Pro’s accessories. The M2 iPad Air supports the new Apple Pencil Pro stylus, the USB-C version of the Apple Pencil, and the previous-generation Magic Keyboard. The tablet, stylus, and keyboard combination can give anyone who works in illustration or content creation an all-in-one machine for around $1,000.
Its FaceTime camera is much improved. As on the 10th-gen iPad, the M2 iPad Air’s 12-megapixel FaceTime camera has moved from portrait to landscape position, which puts the selfie camera in the top center when you’re using the iPad with a keyboard or on a stand. Previously, if you were using your iPad with a keyboard, you had to remove it from its case or place it in an awkward position for video calls. If you use your iPad regularly for video calls, this change is a welcome one.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The iPad Air is now more expensive. The 11-inch model starts at $600, a $100 price increase over the previous model, the M1-based iPad Air. For that cost, a noticeable upgrade to a mini-LED panel or a faster, 120 Hz refresh rate would have been a welcome addition.
It doesn’t support Apple’s latest Magic Keyboard. The new version for M4 iPad Pro models has an additional function row, and we wish the M2 iPad Air were compatible, because it adds a MacBook Pro–like feel to the tablet experience, allowing you to control brightness, volume, media, and more at the touch of a button.
