The big news for the new iPad Air is that it comes in two sizes now: 11” and a new 13” model. The Air has also upgraded from the M1 to the M2 chip and moved the front-facing camera to the landscape side of the tablet, and it has higher storage configurations, works with the new Apple Pencil Pro, and comes in new colors.
Before today’s announcement, the iPad Air was close enough in specs to an 11” iPad Pro that the two felt like fraternal twins. With today’s update, though, the iPad Air is more versatile and better differentiated from the iPad Pro models despite the fact that both models now come in identical sizes.
There’s now a more substantial difference between the chips used in Air and Pro models. The M2 in the Air is a healthy step forward that Apple says makes it 50% faster than the M1 model. Like the iPad Pros, anyone who has used an iPad for video conferences will appreciate that the Air’s front-facing camera is on the landscape edge of the device. The Air also works with the Apple Pencil Pro.
However, the new iPad Air is not compatible with the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. Instead, it works with the existing Magic Keyboard. The iPad Air’s storage configurations aren’t as expansive as the iPad Pro, either, topping out at 1TB, although that configuration and the 512GB version are new to the Air. Meanwhile, the base configuration has been doubled to 128 GB. Apple also introduced new blue and purple Airs that join the starlight and space gray models.
I like what Apple has done with the Air a lot. The updates address the most glaring shortcomings of the tablet while clarifying how it differs from the iPad Pro, which should reduce customer confusion. Personally, I’m more interested in the iPad Pro, but the Air has grown into an impressive laptop alternative of its own, filling a MacBook Air-like role in comparison to the iPad Pro, which has MacBook Pro vibes now.
The 11” iPad Air starts at $599, with the 13” version starting at $799. Both models can be ordered today with deliveries starting May 15th.
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