Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- Macworld reports that Apple’s new iPad Air (2026) features internal upgrades like the M4 chip, C1X modem, and 12GB RAM while maintaining identical design, colors, display, and pricing.
- The refresh matters less for recent iPad Air owners since older M1 models from 2022 will run iPadOS 26 perfectly fine with similar performance.
- Preorders begin Wednesday, March 4, but this represents a minor update rather than essential upgrade for existing users.
Kicking off a week of product announcements, the new iPad Air has arrived, but if you go see it at the Apple Store, you’d be hard-pressed to know if Apple actually switched out the old models. They have the same dimensions, same colors, and same displays, have the same prices, and the same tagline on Apple’s website.
What’s actually new is the CPU (M4 vs M3), modem (C1X), networking chip (N1), and RAM (12GB vs 8GB). Those are all fine upgrades, especially for the same prices, but if you own last year’s model or even 2024’s version, there’s probably no need to upgrade.
Apple’s press release highlights “blazing performance” and “game-changing iPadOS 26 features,” but it’s not like the iPad Air didn’t have that before. Quite frankly, an M1 iPad Air from 2022 will run iPadOS 26 perfectly fine.
Not that any of this is a bad thing. Apple has absolutely won the tablet war, and its hardware has no competitor. And now that iPadOS 26 has finally upgraded the interface to be more like the Mac, there’s not much to criticize. But some new colors would have been nice.
You can preorder the new iPad Air beginning Wednesday, March 4, at 9:15 a.m. ET.
Apple iPad Air 11-inch (M4, 2026)
Price When Reviewed:
$599
iPad Air 13-inch (M4, 2026)
Price When Reviewed:
$799 (138GB)
