iPad Air (M2) would have been a pro in any other year

We’ve talked a lot about the new iPad Pro this year, but after spending two weeks with the iPad Air (M2), I’m struggling to come up with any complaints about the Air. Sure, it’s not as perfect as the Pro, but it’s thin, powerful, has a nice screen, loud speakers and comes in fun colours. What else I can ask for from an iPad?

If the M2 Air came out any other year, it would basically be a Pro, but since Apple moved the goalposts with the M4 Pro, this model is an Air instead. While it may not have the same microLED backlight tech that was in the M2 Pro, side-by-side, it’s really hard to tell the two displays apart and in isolation, you’ll be hard-pressed to complain about either one. In case you’re missing what I’m putting down, the M2 iPad Air is phenomenal, and if you plan to use an iPad as your main machine for work, I think the Air is a great choice.

This year it comes with a 13-inch screen option, support for the Apple Pencil Pro, and while the price has increased $50, the base storage options now start at 128GB instead of a measly 64GB. While Apple might not have updated it as much as the Pro, the Air is still the iPad that most people should want.

How I’ve used it

During my two weeks using the Air it’s been both my main machine for work and play. I’ve used it to write a ton of MobileSryup stories, edit lots of photos, and I even used the files app to organize a lot of my retro games onto an external SSD. Not to mention watching TV before bed and playing games with the Delta emulator.

I should clarify that I’ve been testing out the new larger 13-inch model. This isn’t my first time with a 13-inch iPad. In 2022 I started using a 13-inch M2 iPad Pro and while I appreciate the larger screen when watching movies and working, it does detract from the portability a little bit, especially when you combine it with the first-generation Magic Keyboard. With it attached, you’re basically using a laptop with very little of the portability gains you’d want from a tablet. Obviously, you can take the tablet off the keyboard, and it becomes much more user-friendly, but it’s still a large tablet at the end of the day, so it’s not the best for curling up on the couch with.

If you really feel like you want the larger iPad, there is something to be said about the thinner Pro model since it just feels effortless to tote around in a way the big Air doesn’t quite achieve. While the 38-gram weight difference might not sound like a lot on paper, the new Pro manages to feel smaller even though it’s not.

For movies, the screen is awesome, and the speakers are loud and very clear. The display doesn’t have the unbelievable contrast or minimal ghosting of an OLED, but it’s still super clear and very colour accurate. Watching 4K movies is a great experience on this screen and the backlight control is quite strong with minimal light bleed. It reaches a peak brightness of 600 nits on the 13-inch model and 500 nits on the 11-inch, but in my testing with the larger iPad Air, the brightness was more than enough for everything except direct sunlight. You can still see the screen, it’s not a total washout, but next to a modern iPhone display, it is noticeably dimmer.

That said, I did bring my 10th generation iPad with a 500-nit brightness screen on my camping trip last summer and I used it outdoors for a week while watching TV in the sun. It wasn’t a perfect experience, but it worked and I was able to watch some of The Sopranos outdoors, which proves that you can still use a 500-nit screen outside, it’s just not perfect.

Is this the iPad for you?

I mean, it’s still really thin for a computer.

Taking the 10th Gen iPad camping also opened my eyes to how good all iPads are. We can often get swept up in marketing hype since it’s easy to see new upgrades of the newest products, but it’s important to remember that Apple has been honing down the iPad experience for years, and since 2022, you haven’t been able to buy a mediocre iPad.

This year is no different. There isn’t a bad iPad on Apple’s shelves, and while you can look at the Air next to the Pro and think that it’s not cutting edge, in reality, the Air is a very thin slab of glass running modern iPadOS with an M2 chip. It’s an incredibly awesome tablet or even a computer replacement, and ideally, it will last for years and years to come since it has a desktop-class chip. Plus, in daily use, there is very little separating it from the Pro.

If I was buying an iPad as my main computer today I’d look to the Air. It has more than enough power, a great screen and a much more affordable price tag, especially if you want the large version. If you want an iPad just for media and web browsing, then even the 10th-gen is a great option. If you’re a die hard for top-of-the-line specs, then get the Pro. However, the experience between the Pro and the Air this year is pretty negligible day-to-day unless you really love the contrast ratio of OLED screens.

Either way, as long as you get an Air or Pro you won’t regret either one. The iPad Air comes in two sizes. The smaller 11-inch starts at $799 and the 13-inch at $1,099.