M3 iPad Air general concensus: It’s fine.
The first reviews for the new iPad Air are out, and to no one’s surprise, it’s still a capable device, if a little boring.
Reviews of Apple’s newest iPad Air are rolling in, and the consensus across most of the reviews we’ve seen is surprisingly similar, even if the scores seem to vary quite a bit.
Pretty much everyone agrees that the M3 iPad Air offers a slight jump in specs over the M2 iPad Air — and only a moderate increase over the M1 iPad Air.
Wired
Wired’s Brenda Stoyler gave the M3 iPad Air a respectable 7 out of 10. There are plenty of features that she found worthwhile, and relatively few drawbacks.
Stoyler points out that, compared to its predecessor, the M3 iPad Air gets a handful of new capabilities, — specifically ray tracing, mesh shading, and dynamic caching. She also highlights that it’s a decent upgrade for those who may still have the iPad Air M1, as they’ll see 35 percent faster CPU performance and 40 percent faster graphics.
She goes on to point out that it’s an easy upgrade for those coming from an A-series chip.
Because it feels snappy and works with the Magic Keyboard Case, she says it’s fine for work, provided you’re okay working on iPadOS and not loyal to macOS.
Stoylar’s primary complaints about the M3 iPad Air are relatively straightforward. She points out that it’s been a while since the chassis has been updated, making it thicker and heavier than the iPad Pro.
Because the 2025 iPad Air still uses an LCD screen, she is reticent to offer it as a suggestion for creatives or gamers. She notes that this is because these two markets would benefit from better color accuracy and improved refresh rate or a mini-LED.
While she liked it, she does point out that the device is due for an upgrade. Because of this, those who have an M2, or even an M1 iPad Air, may want to hold off on the upgrade.
Engadget
When Engadget’s Nathan Ingram got his hands on the new iPad Air, he gave it an 89 out of 100. His review echoes that of plenty of others — there’s not a lot of “new” being brought to the table, but it continues to be the best iPad for the average person.
Ingram is quick to point out just how much better the iPad Air is than the base-level iPad. It’s much easier to work on, and he found that he got eight hours of battery life when using it for work while paired with the matching Magic Keyboard.
When it comes to recommending a specific model, he notes that the 11-inch iPad Air starts at $599, $250 more than the base iPad. However, the quality of life upgrades, like having an M-series chip and Apple Intelligence, and moderate future-proofing make it a worthwhile purchase.
However, like others, he wishes that Apple would improve the screen. He suggests that Apple should swap the LCD for the mini-LED, which would offer improved brightness levels and refresh levels.
His other main complaint is that the device lacks Face ID, which hardly feels like a “Pro” level feature anymore. This is doubly true now that Apple has moved the iPad’s camera to the horizontal configuration.
Overall, he points out that this update is a spec bump, and it’s probably going to be most worthwhile to those who haven’t upgraded their devices in a while. Otherwise, those on the M1 or M2 iPad Air may want to wait to upgrade.
The Verge
The Verge’s David Pierce’s review echos the two prior. He gave the M3 iPad Air an 8 out of 10, which falls between that of Wired and Engadget’s.
Pierce’s review is largely just a review of the M2 iPad Air, noting that anyone who has the previous generation won’t notice much, if any of a difference. Again, this means that it’s not a high-priority upgrade for anyone on the M-series chip, but might be a smart snag for those coming from the A-series.
He, too, had a problem with the lack of Face ID, citing that it can be a pain to repeatedly need to reach up to sign into apps. The lack of a 120Hz refresh is also somewhat of a sticking point.
He was the first to mention how the price gap between the base 11-inch M3 iPad Air and the base iPad was somewhat of a tough sell. Especially because he doesn’t see a reason for anyone to upgrade explicitly for Apple Intelligence at this point.
Overall, Ingram thinks it’s a solid device, but not exciting. He’s the first to suggest that the base-level iPad might actually be the smarter buy, too.
Video reviews
A handful of video reviews have also come out. The consensus is about the same as the written ones.
Apple’s new iPad Air ships to consumers on Wednesday, March 12.
