Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025) review: A familiar build with a lot more power

Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): One-Minute Review

Apple hasn’t changed much with the latest generation iPad Air, and for good reason. In 2024, Apple expanded the Air to two sizes, moved the front-facing camera, tossed in support for the Apple Pencil Pro, and upgraded it to the M2 chip.

This year – and not even 12 months have passed since the last upgrade – Apple keeps the same prices and color options but equips the Air with an even better chip – the M3. The result is a faster yet refreshingly familiar experience that checks off the right boxes, whether you want a tablet just for entertainment or one for both work and play. The only caveat is that you’ll need to spend a bit more to get the Magic Keyboard to get the most out of it, particularly if your focus is more on productivity.

In my five days with the iPad Air, I really noticed and enjoyed the speed boost. It stretches the value proposition that bit further, and puts any concerns about power – both now and likely for the foreseeable future for most people – pretty much to bed for me. I was able to edit photos in Photoshop and Pixelmator, draw my wildest dreams in ProCreate, and even edit a movie in Final Cut Pro, and export those media files swiftly, with the Air sometimes outpacing a MacBook Air.

When it was time to get to work, I could dive into Slack, Safari, Gmail, and Google Docs to quickly write, edit, and produce stories to get them live without missing a beat. And I could also fit in time for a FaceTime call, a quick game – be it a AAA title or an Apple Arcade one – and stream any TV show or movie on the services I subscribe to.

Apple Intelligence in its current state is fully supported here, and future upgrades, including the AI-infused Siri and other yet-to-be-revealed ones, should run here without issue. I had no problems creating my emojis, removing objects from photos, and even dabbling with writing tools to clean up copy.

All this is to say that the latest generation iPad Air blurs the line between who this is for and who the iPad Pro is for. Yes, it’s more powerful than the iPad mini or the entry-level iPad, but it lacks some of the flair of the iPad Pro. If you need the best-in-range screen from Apple, and for some reason need even more power than the new Air, or really want the ultra-thin look and feel, the Pro is worth consideration if you can afford it.

Otherwise, the latest iPad Air might be a bit thicker and heavier, but it makes less of a dent in your wallet – and really isn’t that heavy. I normally would have opted for the larger-screen option, but the 11-inch iPad Air stretched its mileage for me. It’s proved to be an excellent working companion when teamed with the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil Pro, allowing me to leave my Mac at home and more than get by with just the super-portable combo.

If you invested in the iPad Air with M2 you won’t need to make the jump just yet, but if you have an M1 or older iPad Air, or own an entry-level iPad and feel the need for more power, now’s an excellent time to upgrade.

Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): Specs

Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): Price and Availability

• How much does it cost: $599 / £599 / AU$999 for the 11-inch or $799 / £799 / AU$1,299 for the 13-inch
• When does it ship: Apple’s iPad Air with M3 in both sizes formally launches on March 12, 2025.

Here’s some good news: Apple’s 11-inch iPad Air with M3 starts at $599 / £599 / AU$999, and the 13-inch at $799 / £799 / AU$1,299, which is the same price as last year’s M2 model. Both start at 128GB but can be configured with 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage if you’re willing to spend the money.

Apple also offers an LTE model with 5G connectivity if you need it. The iPad Air comes in Purple, Blue, Space Gray, or Starlight regardless of connectivity or storage size.

My test unit is an 11-inch iPad Air with M3 with cellular connectivity and 1TB of storage in a lovely shade of purple.

Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): Design

• The 11-inch size is very portable without compromising on features or power
• It’s a nearly identical build to the 2024 model aside from slightly less branding

Considering that Apple updated the design of the iPad Air in 2024 and rolled out a new super-sized 13-inch model, there isn’t a whole lot new about the M3 iPad Air design-wise. After all, the most significant change does lie within the name.

The dimensions year over year for both sizes remain essentially the same. The 11-inch iPad Air I’ve been using is 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1mm and weighs 460 grams – that’s actually two grams lighter than last year’s model, but the difference is indiscernible in everyday use.

For those keeping track, that’s heavier and thicker than the 11-inch iPad Pro, but the iPad Air still feels effortlessly modern. I still dig the pastel-y shade of purple that it comes in and appreciate that, thanks to its matte aluminum finish, the rear gets easily covered in fingerprints. That distinct shade of purple can also change depending on how the light hits it.

The most noticeable design change that Apple has made to the iPad Air is removing the name from the tablet’s rear. On previous models, ‘iPad Air’ was stamped above the Smart Connectors on the rear (when held vertically, it was centered on the bottom), but that’s no longer the case. Now, the whole rear is quite clean, aside from a shiny Apple logo in the center and a 12-megapixel camera aperture in the upper-right corner (when held vertically).

Little has changed in terms of button and port placement, which is to be expected, especially since the power button with the embedded Touch ID sensor was already in a location that works great for either orientation. When the Air is held horizontally or docked in the Magic Keyboard, that button lives at the top on the left-hand side, making it easy to unlock the iPad and authenticate for purchases or password fill-ins, and when you’re holding the tablet held vertically Touch ID is a beat away at the top on the right-hand side.

Touch ID is fast here, and I’d highly recommend setting up a finger from each of your hands, as it makes it a bit easier to get the most out of the button in both orientations; it will also save you from playing Twister when it comes to unlocking. You’ll also find the stereo speakers – which get quite loud – on the shorter sides of the iPad Air, so on the top and bottom when it’s vertical or left and right when horizontal. It makes this tablet excellent for enjoying content, be it in an episode of Bluey with my niece, the latest episode of Severance, or Bruce Springsteen’s Road Diary on Disney Plus.

The speaker volume is controlled by the up and down buttons that are on the top when horizontal or right side when vertical, or via Control Center. For charging or data transfers, the USB-C port is still on the bottom when the tablet is vertical or on the right side when it’s horizontal. You get a USB-C to USB-C cable and wall plug in the box.

Right below the volume controls is the magnetic connector for the Apple Pencil. The iPad Air supports both the Apple Pencil Pro or Apple Pencil with USB-C, but I’d recommend the former if you can afford it, as it will wirelessly charge when attached to the side. As we noted with the 2024 refresh of the iPad Air, reconfiguring the wireless charging spot here required some heavy lifting on Apple’s part.

Apple has made this change not only to facilitate easier Pencil charging, but also so that it could move the front-facing 12-megapixel wide camera that supports CenterStage, which is now in a better position when you’re using the iPad Air horizontally. The microphone now sits directly next to it, and you won’t risk muddying up the lens with fingerprints, which can be an issue given that the bezels on tablets are relatively thick. The bezels are identical in size to those on the 2024 model, and despite their relative thickness and the Liquid Retina display here, which I’ll talk about more in the next section, is almost all screen.

Even if it’s no longer the thinnest or lightest iPad, the 11-inch iPad Air was never a chore to take with me. While I usually use a 13-inch iPad Pro, I really like the flexibility this size of iPad affords – I could easily toss it in a bag or backpack wrapped in either the Smart Folio or the Magic Keyboard. It will easily fit on a tray table on an airplane, but more importantly, it didn’t take up too much space when I was working in a cafe or at a kitchen island. The 11-inch size has its perks.

So, the iPad Air is still the name, but maybe ‘Air’ reflects the price more than the design. Either way, the iPad Air is still a modern-looking tablet that has all the buttons in the right places and is won’t weigh you down, whether you’re using it to watch something in bed, working at your desk or from the kitchen, or touting it around in a bag.

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Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): Display

• The Liquid Retina display is still excellent with punchy colors
• No ProMotion high refresh rate here

I’ll cut to the chase here: the 11-inch Liquid Retina display is excellent. No, it’s not a Dynamic OLED like on the iPad Pro, but it’s more than enough for everything from streaming content to editing photos or videos or drawing in Procreate, playing games like Asphalt 9 or Mini Metro, browsing the web, and responding to emails in between all of the above. The colors are vibrant and punchy, contrast is good, and whether it was typed or handwritten via an Apple Pencil, text is rich and inky.

Apple is also one of the best at creating anti-reflective coatings for its screens, and the oleophobic coating here effectively blocks fingerprints from being visible when you’re using the tablet. That’s something that I think is pretty important – and remember, the 11-inch Air only hits 500 nits at its peak (that’s up by 100 to 600 nits on the 13-inch iPad Air), so the coating is doing its thing here.

As on the 2024 model, this year’s display still has a 2360 x 1640 resolution at 264 pixels per inch, with support for the P3 Wide Color Gamut and Apple’s True Tone tech.

For the lower price, I think the Liquid Retina display here isn’t too much of a concession – it’s a great tablet screen that lets you make the most of iPadOS and your various apps.

The only thing missing is a higher refresh rate courtesy of the ProMotion designation, but as on the iPhone and Mac, Apple reserves that for its higher-tier products.

Still, whether you’re using the 11-inch iPad Air for education, work, or play, you’ll be happy with the screen here. And if you want a super-sized experience, the 13-inch Air gives you a more expansive canvas.

Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): Cameras

• No major upgrades to either the front or rear camera
• Center Stage is still great for video calls

Like every other iPad in Apple’s lineup, the iPad Air features two cameras, and as on every other model but the iPad mini, the front camera is on the landscape/horizontal side. It’s still a 12-megapixel camera that supports Center Stage, Apple’s onboard software that responds swiftly to keep you in the center of the frame for video calls. That, plus the better location for the camera, especially if you use it docked in the Magic Keyboard, makes this an excellent device for video calls or at-home recording.

For instance, one night, while cooking dinner, I rested the iPad Air on the counter in one position. As I moved around to the stove and back to the countertop, including draining a pot while cooking pasta, Center Stage kept me in the frame while on a FaceTime call with friends.

The rear camera on the new iPad Air is still a 12-megapixel wide lens that can zoom in up to five times digitally and supports video recording at up to 4K at 60 frames per second. It performs pretty well, and considering some folks insist on taking photos with an iPad, the Air does a good job here.

Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): Software

• It’s the familiar iPadOS experience
• The iPad Air supports the advanced Stage Manager multitasking mode
• It works really well with the new Magic Keyboard; it’s more laptop-like than before

Just as with the iPad, iPad mini, iPad Pro, or the iPad Air that came before this iPad Air, one of the best parts of the Apple tablet experience is the vast array of things you can do on your device.

In my testing time so far, I’ve been writing – including this review – on the iPad Air with it docked in the Magic Keyboard, streaming movies and TV shows, playing games like Mini Metro, RFS+ (a flight simulator), Asphalt 9, and Disney Dreamlight Valley, editing photos and videos in Pixelmator, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, and Detail, drawing in Procreate, practicing organization in Notability, and even dabbling with some 3D modeling to see what the M3 chip is capable of in the likes of Uniform.

I’ve pushed iPadOS pretty much to the limits, using just one app, multitasking on a split screen with a third app hanging on the side, and even using Stage Manager. iPadOS 18 is still a very familiar experience; it’s another year older, but Apple is still differentiating it from its other OSes – it’s not entirely different from iOS, though it has clear benefits for the tablet form factor, and still uniquely different from macOS. There’s sufficient continuity between iPadOS and Apple’s wider ecosystem, though – I can use my Mac’s trackpad and keyboard on the iPad thanks to Universal Control, and even extend my display to the iPad with Sidecar.

The M3 chip here is very, very powerful, and ensures that nothing so much as stutters, other than a larger 4K export file in Final Cut Pro, which took some time. For the most part, any typical productivity or entertainment task really flies, allowing you to get a lot done with the iPad Air in a little time – and it also blurs the lines as to who might need this model versus the iPad Pro with the M4.

While the iPad Air with M2 was released before Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence and began its staggered release – one that’s still ongoing – it does support the suite of features, as does the iPad Air with M3.

A lot of what you can do with Apple’s take on AI right now is complimentary to the rest of iPadOS – you can remove photo bombers and objects from photos directly in the app under ‘Clean Up’, you can opt to have your notifications summarized, create unique emojis on the fly, and even have Siri route your queries through ChatGPT.

You’ll also find Siri’s new look – a colorful glow that surrounds the whole display as a digital bezel – here on the iPad Air, but the truly AI-infused Siri is still a promised feature. On March 7, Apple announced that the smarter Siri was taking a bit longer that expected, and that it would arrive “in the coming year.” Whenever it does come, the iPad Air with M3 will support ot, as well as future Apple Intelligence features

Another way in which the iPad Air with M3 really shines is when it’s docked into the redesigned Magic Keyboard, which costs $269 / £269 / AU$449 for the 11-inch iPad, and $319 / £299 / AU$499 for the 13-inch model. Regardless of size, the new Magic Keyboard is slightly cheaper, and you’re getting a much more Pro experience that almost takes you into MacBook territory. Apple has kept the same form factor for the Magic Keyboard, but there’s now a 14-key function row, which gives you easy access to shortcuts like multitasking, playback control, volume control, and even focus mode engagement. You also get a full QWERTY keyboard with arrow keys and a larger trackpad. I spent two days using just the 11-inch iPad Air as my main work device, tabbing between Slack, Gmail, Google Docs, and Sheets, as well as Safari, Messages, Photoshop, Notes, FaceTime, and countless other apps.

Even though I usually use a 13-inch or 14-inch MacBook, I didn’t feel all that cramped on the iPad Air, even at the 11-inch size, and this is something I want to test more while traveling. I especially liked that I could literally reach out and touch iPadOS when I needed to, and I felt at home with the more laptop-like experience as well.

Another key and needed upgrade to the Magic Keyboard is an upgrade to the charging speed, and the keyboard’s USB-C port now supports up to 60W charging, the same as the iPad’s own USB-C port. Bravo, Apple! To make room for the extra row of keys and larger trackpad, the oval hinge – the mechanism by which the iPad attaches and the case closes – has been redesigned to accommodate the extra functionality. It’s really well designed, and my only complaint is that the Magic Keyboard only comes in white, which will undoubtedly get dirty.

It adds cost to the iPad Air, but it’s an excellent accessory that will let you stretch the mileage and capabilities of the tablet itself; and paired with the M3 chip inside, the excellent, punchy display, and iPadOS, it will most certainly let you get a bunch of years of use out of your device.

The Apple Pencil Pro is also an add-on at $129 / £129 / AU$219, and one that I found enjoyable to use for note-taking, navigating iPadOS, and for creative acts like drawing. Way back when Apple first launched the original Apple Pencil and super-sized 12.9-inch iPad, I ditched a Retina MacBook Pro for the iPad and used it with the Pencil and eventually a Smart Keyboard as my main device combo – and the note-taking experience is still effortless here, and basically identical to writing on paper, with no visible latency. The addition of Squeeze to the Pencil Pro lets you easily engage options like an eraser, which is quite helpful considering Apple never added one to the top.

Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): Performance

• M3 chip lets the iPad Air fly with nearly any task
• Even more intense video edits or AAA game perform without hiccups
• Not a night and day difference over the M2 iPad Air, but older models will see a big improvement

The biggest change with Apple’s 2025 iPad Air refresh is the newer, faster, and better-equipped M3 chip under the hood. It also blurs the lines between the iPad Air and the M4-powered iPad Pro a bit more, as both are very powerful – and it was already a close race last year between the M2-powered Air and the M4 Pro. Apple’s silicon is just very, very good.

I threw pretty much everything at the M3 iPad Air, and it was almost impossible even to slow it down, never mind make it buckle. It’s not leagues better than the iPad Air with M2, but it’s closing the gap with the Pro, and has me questioning exactly which specific use cases might require you to make that jump – the overall thinner build and OLED screen might be better selling points for the Pro.

Considering that the Air in iPad Air doesn’t mean slower speeds or a super light build, I think it really denotes that this tablet is closer in terms of features and power to the MacBook Air. The new iPad Air is more affordable, but it still delivers a stellar experience in nearly every department, especially performance. I could perform all my daily tasks for work, from email to writing and editing written words, as well as producing GIFs and editing photos, then exporting them at my normal speed, if not faster. I could also have a FaceTime call running during this or even take a break for a quick game – maybe, just don’t tell my boss that. Testing, though, am I right?

In my daily experience, the M3 iPad Air flew, and quantitatively, it also bettered the results we got from the M2 iPad Air in 2024. Apple hasn’t put an underpowered version of the M3 in the iPad Air – it’s still an M3 chip with an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine as well as 8GB of RAM – that’s plenty for an iPad in pretty much any use case.

The chip enables hardware-accelerated ray tracing for AAA titles like Death Stranding and Resident Evil. Using GeekBench 6, which runs the iPad Air through a number of tests, the iPad Air scored very well, achieving 3,023 single-core and 11,716 multi-core scores. That jumps past the iPad Air with M2, which scored 2,591 on single-core and 10,046 on multi-core, and puts it closer to the iPad Pro with M4, which scored 3,700 on single-core and 14,523 on multi-core.

Suffice to say, those are impressive numbers from Apple’s mid-range iPad, at a much more affordable price of $599 / £599 / AU$999 11-inch or the $799 / £799 / AU$1,299 for the 13-inch then compared with the iPad Pro. You’ll also find that really any iPad task runs well here, assuming you have the app to make it happen.

Given that it’s not a huge leap over the M2-powered iPad Air, I don’t see any need for folks who bought that model last year to rush out and upgrade. But if you have an older standard iPad, and find your needs pushing past its capabilities, or even an M1-powered iPad Air or older, the iPad Air with M3 makes a whole lot of sense, offering power and performance that will last you for many years to come.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): Battery and Connectivity

• The iPad Air can still last a full work day on a charge
• It’s the same battery performance as the prior generation
• No Wi-Fi 7 support

Still powering the 11-inch iPad Air is a 28.93Wh battery (the 13-inch Air has a larger 36.59Wh battery), and Apple again promises up to 10 hours of web surfing or watching a video on Wi-Fi. That essentially translates as all-day battery life, and that’s largely what I got out of the iPad Air with M3, even when docked in the Magic Keyboard, which didn’t seem to drain much more of the battery. What battery depletion I did experience was generally the result of a more power-hungry process or app – for example, exporting a bunch of photos or videos, or a AAA game.

I could get through between eight to 10 hours of work with brightness at about 70% using various productivity apps, and some music playback and video calls in between, which is pretty good for a tablet of this size, all things considered. When needed, I could also plug in the iPad Air or utilize the port on the Magic Keyboard with a USB-C cable to charge.

Connectivity is identical to the previous version, meaning that Wi-Fi 7 is still missing here, with Apple opting for Wi-Fi 6E. There’s also Bluetooth 5.3 and, on LTE models, support for 5G Sub-6 GHz and Gigabit LTE.

• Battery and Connectivity score: 4 / 5

Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): Should you buy it?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Apple iPad Air 11-inch (2025): How I tested

I spent five days testing the 11-inch M3 iPad Air, supplemented with a Magic Keyboard, a Smart Folio, and an Apple Pencil Pro. After unboxing the tablet and accessories I set the iPad Air up as new, and then downloaded my usual apps to make it feel like home.

I mostly put my 14-inch MacBook Pro to one side, and put the iPad Air to the test by using it as my primary device productivity and entertainment device. I used it for most of my daily tasks, from responding to emails, writing articles, and communicating on Slack to editing photos and videos. I also played several games on the device, from more basic titles to AAA ones, and streamed hours of content, including music, TV shows, and movies.

First reviewed March 10, 2025