Pricing and Storage: No Surprises Here
The 2026 iPad Air with the M4 chip keeps the price at $599, in line with the 2025 M3-powered model. But it’s still more expensive than the entry-level iPad, which starts at $349 for the 128GB model and goes up to $449 for 256GB and $649 for 512GB. It’s only available with an 11-inch screen, but comes in blue, pink, yellow, or silver. If you want 5G in addition to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you’ll need to pay an extra $150.
In contrast, the new iPad Air comes in two screen sizes—11 and 13 inches—and also offers a 1TB version. The 11-inch iPad Air costs $599 for 128GB, $699 for 256GB, $899 for 512GB, and $1,099 for 1TB. (Again, add $150 for cellular.) The 13-inch version follows the same structure, but with a $200 premium. Both come in Space Gray, Blue, Purple, or Starlight.
Having extra options with the 2026 iPad Air makes it easier to tailor one to your exact needs, but the base iPad still wins on affordability.
Winner: iPad
Design: The Air Offers More Flexibility
Apple hasn’t altered the core design of the 2026 iPad Air. It largely looks like the base iPad, just with a thinner frame. Both feature thin bezels, rounded corners, and a single rear camera. The measurements of the 2026 iPad Air match the 2025 models, with the 11-inch version at 9.74 by 7.02 by 0.24 inches (HWD) and the 13-inch at 11.04 by 8.46 by 0.24 inches. The 11-inch model is strangely a hair heavier than its predecessor (1.02 pounds compared with 1.01), but the 13-inch model weighs the same 1.36 pounds as before.
The standard iPad is slightly larger in every dimension, measuring 9.79 by 7.07 by 0.28 inches and weighing 1.05 pounds.
Winner: iPad Air
iPad Air (Credit: Apple)
Display: Sharper and Brighter Wins
The 2026 iPad Air keeps the same display as its predecessor and maintains the same advantages: Namely, it has an antireflective coating and better color support (Wide Color P3 on the Air compared with sRGB on the iPad). Otherwise, both models feature Liquid Retina displays with LED backlights, supporting multi-touch interaction and fingerprint unlocking.
The 11-inch Air and the iPad have a 2,360‑by‑1,640-pixel resolution with a pixel density of 264 pixels per inch (ppi). The 13-inch Air maintains the same density, but ups the resolution to 2,732 by 2,048 pixels. The larger Air can also reach a brighter 600 nits, compared with the 500-nit max of both 11-inch models.
On the display front, the base iPad keeps up well, given its more affordable price.
Winner: iPad Air
Processor: You Get What You Pay For
The standard iPad is no slouch. Its A16 chip is 30% faster than the A14 Bionic chip in the 2022 iPad, according to Apple. It’s the same chip in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Even so, the 2026 iPad Air has significantly more computing power. The M4 chip comes over from the company’s MacBook line, specifically the 2024 MacBook Pro and the 2025 MacBook Air. Apple estimates that its 30% faster than the 2025 iPad Air.
The M4 features an eight-core CPU, a nine-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine. The base iPad has the same Neural Engine, but the A16 is only a five-core CPU and a four-core GPU.
The new iPad Air also has accelerated ray tracing and 12GB of RAM, up from 8GB in the 2025 iPad Air. The base iPad has 6GB of RAM. It’s no contest.
Winner: iPad Air
iPad (Credit: Eric Zeman)
Battery Life and Connectivity: Minor Differences
Apple lists the battery life of both models as 10 hours over Wi-Fi for web browsing and video playback.
But the M4 iPad Air provides superior connectivity, with silicone connectivity chips (the N1 for wireless and C1X for cellular) that support Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, compared with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 on the entry-level iPad. The M4 iPad Air comes with the Thread smart home protocol built in, allowing it to act as a hub for smaller sensors and talk with devices compatible with the broad Matter smart home standard.
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All cellular models work with an eSIM and use sub-6GHz and C-band for 5G connectivity.
The 2026 iPad Air also maintains its predecessor’s advantage in data transfer speeds: The iPad’s USB-C 2 port tops out at 480Mbps, whereas the iPad Air’s USB-C 3 port enables 10Gbps speeds.
Both models should perform well for years, but the nod goes to the iPad Air for its faster connectivity.
Winner: iPad Air
Cameras: No Changes, and Nothing to See Here
The 2026 iPad Air has the same rear camera as its predecessor: a 12MP f/1.8 wide lens with 5x digital zoom. As before, it supports auto image stabilization and can record 4K at 24fps, 25fps, 30fps, or 60fps. It’s also the same camera as the one on the base iPad.
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The iPad Air’s front camera has a smaller f/2.0 aperture compared with the f/2.4 aperture on the iPad. The front cameras match otherwise, and both have a Center Stage feature that zooms and keeps you in frame as you move around during a video call.
Both tablets offer capable but not spectacular cameras for photos, videos, selfies, and FaceTime calls.
Winner: iPad Air
Software: Do You Need Apple Intelligence?
The M4 iPad Air launches with Apple’s latest software, iPadOS 26, which is also available on the base iPad now via a software update.
Both iPads have similar features through this software—except for Apple Intelligence. The standard iPad doesn’t have access to the company’s generative AI, and the 2026 iPad Air does.
Winner: iPad Air
iPad Air (Credit: Apple)
Accessories: The Air Is the Pick for Creative Pros
The 2026 iPad Air supports the Apple Pencil Pro and the Magic Keyboard for iPad Air.
The entry-level iPad only supports the original Apple Pencil and the USB-C Apple Pencil. It misses out on some of the latest features, like improved haptic feedback and gesture controls. It also supports an older Magic Keyboard Folio.
Winner: iPad Air
Which iPad Should You Buy?
The latest iPad Air doesn’t come out until March 11, so we’ll need to get it into PC Labs and put it to the test to see how it performs in real-world conditions before we offer definitive buying advice. Until then, we can offer a few buying tips:
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The M4 chip in the iPad Air should be considerably quicker than the A16 in the base model. All of Apple’s latest iPads perform well, but if you crave speed and fast graphics for today’s latest games or advanced content creation, the Air should be your first stop.
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The base iPad is still a very capable tablet for watching movies, playing games, browsing the web, and creating art and music. If you have only basic needs and want to keep costs to a minimum, it remains an attractive option.
We’ll be updating this story as soon as we get a chance to review the new iPad Air, so be sure to check back soon.
