Apple iPad Air M3 review: the premium tablet to beat
Apple's iPad Air continues to be the premium tablet to beat, with the latest version featuring a chip upgrade to keep it ahead of the pack.
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The new iPad Air M3 costs from £599 (€699/$599/A$999) – the same as its predecessor – and comes in two sizes with either an 11in or 13in screen. It sits between the base-model £329 iPad A16 and the £999 iPad Pro M4, splitting the difference in price and features.
Nothing has changed on the outside of the tablet. The M3 model is a straight replacement for the M2 model, featuring the same crisp screen, sleek aluminium design and Touch ID fingerprint scanner in the power button.
The Centre Stage webcam at the top of the screen makes video calls a breeze by automatically panning and scanning to keep you and your family in frame. Stereo speakers make watching TV and films great, while support for the £129 Apple Pencil Pro makes doodling or taking notes a joy.
Screen: 11in or 13in Liquid Retina display (264ppi)
Processor: Apple M3 (9-core GPU)
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 128, 256, 512GB or 1TB
Operating system: iPadOS 18.4
Camera: 12MP rear, 12MP centre stage
Connectivity: Wifi 6E (5G optional eSim-only), Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, Touch ID, Smart Connecter
Dimensions: 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1mm or 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.1mm
Weight: 460g or 616g
The big change for the new Air is an upgrade to the Apple M3 chip, which was first seen in late 2023 in the MacBook Pro and was successfully used in the MacBook Air until March when it was replaced with the M4 chip.
While the M3 isn't Apple's latest chip, it is still far more powerful than most will ever need in a tablet and much faster than the competition. It is about 10-20% quicker than the outgoing M2 model in tests and will make short work of games and even pro-level apps such as Affinity Photo, Procreate or Adobe Lightroom.
Combined with a reliable battery life of nine to 10 hours, it can easily be used as a laptop replacement when equipped with accessories such as the new version of Apple's excellent Magic Keyboard case, although that comes at great cost at £269. Cheaper third-party options from Logitech and others are available, however.
The iPad Air runs iPadOS 18.4, which includes a collection of multitasking tools, and can be plugged into an external monitor such as a laptop via the USB-C port. But the M3 chip also enables various Apple Intelligence features, which are not available on the standard iPad A16. These include several AI image editing and generation tools, writing and proofreading tools, ChatGPT integration into Siri and other bits.
Apple says the battery should last in excess of 1,000 full charge cycles with at least 80% of its original capacity, and can be replaced from £115. The tablet is generally repairable, with a damaged out-of-warranty repair costing from £429.
The tablet contains at least 30% recycled content, including aluminium, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, lithium, plastic, rare earth elements and tin. Apple breaks down the tablet's environmental impact in its report and offers trade-in and free recycling schemes, including for non-Apple products.
The 11in iPad Air M3 costs from £599 (€699/$599/A$999) and the 13in iPad Air M3 costs from £799 (€949/$799/A$1,349).
For comparison, the iPad A16 costs from £329, the iPad Pro M4 costs from £999 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE costs from £499. The MacBook Air M4 starts at £999.
The iPad Air M3 is a great premium tablet that makes for an excellent upgrade over the base model Apple tablet.
It is a highly capable machine with laptop-level power, long battery life, a quality screen and plenty of accessories to turn it into a drawing tablet, computer replacement or many other tools. The choice of sizes balances nicely between portability at the 11in and the big-screen utility of the 13in version.
But the M3 model isn't an upgrade worth making over recent iPad Air versions, and if all you do is watch TV or films on it, the standard iPad A16 does the job for much less. Meanwhile, the top-end iPad Pro M4 beats the Air on all counts but costs an awful lot more.
So for those looking for a premium do-it-all tablet, the iPad Air M3 is hard to beat.
Pros: choice of sizes, laptop-level M3 performance, solid battery life, quality screen, USB-C, long software support life, large range of apps and accessories, good speakers, landscape Centre Stage camera, recycled aluminium.
Cons: expensive, no multiuser support, iPadOS still needs work as a laptop replacement, no kickstand without case, no Face ID, 60Hz screen.
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