The biggest upgrade for the 2026 iPad is its engine. Apple has ditched the M3 chip in favor of its speedier M4 processor. The M4 has eight CPU cores, with three performance and five efficiency cores. That’s different from the M3, which has four performance and four efficiency cores. Both the M4 and M3 have nine GPU cores and 16 NPU (Neural Engine) cores. Importantly, the M4 boosts memory bandwidth from 100Mbps to 120Mbps and unified memory from 8GB to 12GB.
Pricing for the different storage configurations is as follows:
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11-inch: 128GB ($599), 256GB ($699), 512GB ($899), 1TB ($1,099)
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13-inch: 128GB ($799), 256GB ($899), 512GB ($1,099), 1TB ($1,299)
Given that the base iPhone 17e ($599) and 17 ($799) now ship with 256GB of storage, I’m struggling to understand why the base iPads are still limited to 128GB. Put that on the list of must-haves for the next-gen iPad Air.
(Credit: Geekbench/3DMark/PCMag)
To assess performance relative to other devices, I use benchmarking apps. I ran 3DMark, AnTuTu, BaseMark, and Geekbench 6 for scoring. On these tests, the M4 iPad Air scored 3,138,110 (AnTuTu), 6,717 frames at 40.2fps (3DMark), 22,984 (BaseMark), and 3,713/13,153 (Geekbench). These marks are clearly ahead of the M3 iPad, which reached 2,110,706, 6,536 frames at 39.1fps, and 3,001/10,839, respectively.
The M5-equipped iPad Pro, meanwhile, hit 3,416,162 on AnTuTu, 10,929 frames at 65.4fps on 3DMark, and 4,141/15,490 on Geekbench. Those scores are significantly higher, but the iPad Pro starts at $999 and is meant for professional creative workflows.
The iPad Air continues to trounce the Android competition in raw power. For example, the Galaxy Tab S10 FE hit only 1,358 and 3,886 on Geekbench, or less than one-third the Air’s marks.
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If you’re a student using the iPad Air for basic word processing, spreadsheeting, and note-taking applications, the tablet provides way more performance than you need. If you’re also editing a project in iMovie or GarageBand, the Air easily conquers those, as well. It handles apps like Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro without slowing down. All of the available Apple Intelligence tools work just as well as they do on any iPhone I’ve used in the last year. The iPad Air has all the power most people will ever need in a tablet, if not more so.
