New iPad Air arrives with one major change – and thankfully, it's NOT the price

But if you use iPad Air to edit multiple 4K Ultra HD videoes into a single project, create expansive digital artwork, play console-quality video games like Resident Evil Village or Death Stranding: Director's Cut, or as a laptop replacement for your school coursework or 9-to-5, then you're sure to benefit from the boost.

If you're unfamiliar with the Apple M4, it's the same chipset — complete with 8-core CPU and a 9-core GPU — that fuels the latest generation of MacBook Air. Some of the biggest improvements in this silicon can be found in the 16-core Neural Engine, which is dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI) tasks, and boasts 3x faster performance than M1.

Whether you're using natural language to scour thousands of photos for a particular person, landmark, or event, summarising reams of text into a handful of bullet points, or rewriting an email with the Writing Tools baked into iPadOS, AI tasks should be speedier with the M4 doing the heavy lifting. Apple Intelligence is designed to process on-device as much as possible, meaning you can use these AI features without an internet connection.

As well as unlocking AI functionality in more places, there are security benefits to this approach too. While Apple does leverages the cloud — dubbed Private Cloud Compute (PCC) — for some tasks, more powerful silicon promises to make a difference in your day-to-day experience with these features. Aside from the improvements to the Neural Engine, Apple has also paired the M4 with 12GB of RAM — a 50% increase compared to earlier iPad Air models.

If you add an iPad Air to your basket, you'll be treated to three months of access to Apple Creator Studio apps — professional-grade apps worth £299 when bought separately — to really put the boosted brawn of the new tablet to the test. Apple Creator Studio apps arrive with a slew of new AI features to take advantage of the Neural Engine, such as removing the background of video footage with a few taps using Scene Removal Mask in Final Cut Pro.

The new iPad Air also ships with Apple's custom-designed N1 and C1X chips, which offer speedier 5G and Wi-Fi 7 connections. The C1X also makes an appearance in iPhone 17e, an affordable new addition to the iPhone 17 lineup.

Apple Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, Bob Borchers, said: "iPad Air gives users more ways than ever to be creative and productive, offering powerful performance and incredible versatility to help them turn their ideas into reality. With its blazing performance thanks to M4, incredible AI capabilities, and game-changing iPadOS 26 features, there’s never been a better time to choose or upgrade to iPad Air."

Beyond the supercharged speeds unlocked with the new silicon, iPad Air remains pretty much identical to last year. Apple has stuck with the same choice of colourways — Space Grey, Starlight, Purple, Blue — and the starting price remains similarly untouched, with the smaller 11-inch model starting from £599, rising to £799 for the 13-inch.

You'll find the same 12-megapixel camera, which automatically keeps you centred even as you move around during FaceTime and Zoom calls, and stereo speakers. The same Apple Pencil Pro (£129) and Apple Pencil (USB-C) (£79) remain compatible with the new iPad Air. Likewise, the updated Magic Keyboard (£269) launched to coincide with M3-powered iPad Air last year still works with this refreshed model.

If your existing iPad is starting to look a little long in the tooth, or you want to take the plunge with a tablet for the first time, the new iPad Air is available to preorder now. The first M4-equipped tablets will start to ship to customers on March 11. That's also when you'll be able to test the new iPad Air for yourself in your nearest Apple Store.