Apple iPad Air With M3 Review: The Odd Man Out for iPads

iPad Air 2025 with M3 is a refresh to Apple 's solid mid-range tablet, but it lacks the versatility, power, or price of its other iPads .

It's better than last year’s model, but good enough may not be enough to justify the upgrade for lingering M1 iPad Air users.

It may fit within your budget, but if you want a tablet that excites the imagination, this certainly isn’t it.

The M3 iPad Air can’t match anywhere close to the performance of the iPad Pro with the M4 .

A M4 iPad Pro 13 can hit 600 more points in Geekbench 6 single-core and does 2,700 points better in multi-core.

The iPad Air is thinner and heavier than the latest iPad Pro , which costs $ 400 at the same size.

Perhaps that sounds more like if Apple strapped helicopter propellers to its tablet, but at least it would be more interesting than the iPad Air M3 . I know some folk want an iPad Air because it seems slightly more powerful than a regular iPad , and they’re right. But if you can find an iPad Air M2 slightly cheaper, you’ll have the same experience with the M3 ..