iPad Air (M3, 2025) review: 5 reasons to pick up Apple’s refreshed tablet
A quick refresh for Apple's mid-range tablet provides a spec bump for those in the market for a new tablet.
You wait years for a new iPad Air to come along, then two turn up at once. Well, not quite at once, but this week’s release of an M3-powered iPad Air tablet from Apple is as close as the company gets, with the new slate hitting stores less than a year after the M2 iPad Air first released.
Apple’s mid-range tablet, the M3 iPad Air comes in two sizes (11-inch and 13-inch), and works with all Apple’s latest features and software innovations. That includes Apple Intelligence AI features, the fancy Apple Pencil Pro, and an all-new and improved Magic Keyboard case.
The rub? The now-discontinued iPad Air M2 can do all that, too. So the big draw here really is that chip upgrade. Year on year, the differences may be slight — but with it replacing the outgoing M2 iPad Air, and getting a performance boost in the process, it’s hard to argue against picking up the iPad Air M3. Just don’t show it to anyone who emptied their pockets for one this time last year…
Prices start at £599 for the 11-inch iPad Air with M3 chip with 128GB of storage, and rise to £799 for the baseline 13-inch model. It’s the 13-inch model we’re looking at here.
Want to know more? Here’s five reasons to pick up the iPad Air M3...
1. A powerful chipset
If you’re looking for the core difference between the 2025 iPad Air vs the 2024 iPad Air, it’s all down to the chipset. This year’s model comes with the newer (but not latest) M3 generation of Apple’s homegrown silicon, which debuted in October 2023. Last year’s iPad Air had the M2 chip, which launched in June 2024.
A newer chip usually indicates longer ongoing software support for this year’s M3 iPad Air compared to last year’s one. But it also means more power, too. Compared to the M1 iPad Air — a model more people are likely to be upgrading from — Apple claims a 35 percent faster CPU and 40 percent faster GPU. 3D rendering jumps by 4x, and the Neural Engine — used for on-device AI features, is 60 percent more powerful than the M1 chip.
And though Apple isn’t quoting M2 vs M3 comparisons in regards to the new iPad Air’s comparative improvements, but looking at how the two compare in Apple’s other devices, you can expect a 15% performance bump on average. Despite the performance improvements, it’s an efficient chipset too, meaning you still get “all day” battery life — an average of ten hours depending on usage.
What’s this all mean in real terms? You’ve got an iPad that will laugh at pretty much any task you throw at it, whether that’s simple web browsing, or demanding 3D rendering applications. There’s enough grunt here for this to be considered a pro-grade device, were Apple not holding the iPad Air back from some of its most premium screen technologies. For the average user, this thing is a beast.
2. Big tablet screen, not (quite) so big price
In terms of external design, the 2025 iPad Air is identical to its predecessor. For the 11-inch model, you’re looking at a device measuring 247.6mm long by 178.5mm wide, and a mere 6.1mm thick, weighing 460g whether you get the Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi + 5G cellular model or not. The 13-inch model we’re looking at measures 280.6mm long by 214.9mm wide, and is again just 6.1mm thick. There’s a gram difference between the Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + cellular models here, at 616g and and 617g respectively. Though the 13-inch model is pushing it, they’re both lightweight enough to hold in one hand, comfortable to hold for long reading sessions.
The big screen of the iPad Air 13-inch is the main draw to this tier of Apple’s iPad line-up. It’s a giant slab, great for watching movies on or scribbling sketches into and with a 600nit top brightness, it's a fair whack brighter than the 500nit 11-inch model. An anti-reflective coating makes it comfortable to view in direct sunlight, too. The 60Hz refresh rate is the downside here — it’s not bad per se, but will feel sluggish if you’re used to the 120Hz of the ProMotion display on high end iPhones and iPads.
The only other way to get a tablet with a 13-inch screen from Apple is to cough up for the 13-inch iPad Pro — and that starts at a pricey £1,299. Sure, you get an Ultra Retina XDR display — Apple’s luxurious ProMotion OLED screen — and an even more powerful M4 chipset for that extra moolah. But if it’s just more screen real estate you’re after, the M3 iPad Air will get you that bang-for-buck.
A few other key specs to consider: you’ve got USB-C charging and data transfer connectivity, a landscape orientation front-facing camera (better for video calling, though still not used for Face ID facial recognition security, which is instead handled by the fingerprint-scanning Touch ID power button on the top edge), a 12MP rear camera with 4K @ 60fps recording capabilities, and speedy Wi-Fi 6e wireless connectivity. 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage sizes are available.
3. A refined and improved Magic Keyboard
Last year Apple improved keyboards for its entry-level and top-tier iPad and iPad Pro models, and this year it’s the turn of the iPad Air.
The new Magic Keyboard is a corker — there’s a massive trackpad, a comfortable keyboard (with a full set of function keys, no less) and a sturdy MagSafe magnetic connection holding the tablet securely in place. A ‘Smart Connector’ on the rear of the iPad handles all the pairing, so no fiddling with Bluetooth shenanigans, and USB-C passthrough charging is supported, and no slower than just plugging into the iPad directly. It’s just a step behind the iPad Pro model, which is fully made of aluminium, and has haptic feedback.
It’s worth noting that the new Magic Keyboard is backwards compatible with the M2 iPad Air 2. With the chip performance bump just a modest one, pairing the new keys with the old tablet might be a sensible choice for the cash-strapped out there.
Sold separately, the new Magic Keyboard costs £269 for 11-inch iPads, rising to £399 for 13-inch models.
4. Apple Pencil Pro support
Just like last year’s model, the 2025 iPad Air supports the Apple Pencil Pro. This stylus pairs and charges with the iPad via a magnetic connection on the tablet’s edge, and is a joy to use. Unlike other Apple Pencil models, it has haptic feedback, indicating different functionality at your fingertips, can use barrel roll motions for fluid asymmetrical brush work, and can recognise squeeze and double tap gestures for menu and brush shortcuts.
It’s great for note taking and basically essential if you’re a digital artist. Find My functionality also means that, if left behind at home or in a coffee shop, you’ll be able to pinpoint the Pencil’s last known location.
Sold separately, the Apple Pencil Pro costs £129. The more basic, and cheaper, Apple Pencil USB-C can also be used here, but drops the afore-mentioned special features. It’s £79.
5. Apple Intelligence onboard
It’s the age of AI, and we’re just living in it. Apple has very much joined the artificial intelligence race this year, with its full roll out of its Apple Intelligence feature set, and the iPad Air M3 is invited to the party.
… as was the M2 iPad Air, but let’s not worry about that for now. Apple Intelligence is a useful suite of AI-powered features that can do everything from summarising notifications to generating Shakespeare-worthy text from simple inputs. Image generation is possible too — whether that’s by inputting prompts into the Image Playground app, or using the Image Wand in notes to circle your toddler-grade scribbles into AI-amplified works of art.
The majority of these tasks are done on-device too, keeping them accessible when away from Wi-Fi, and keeping your personal data safe from harvesters. Even ChatGPT integration, which can be called upon within Apple Intelligence, is ring-fenced from your personal data, and you’ll be notified every time you invoke the OpenAI agent.
Apple Intelligence’s current feature set is solid, but limited. Apple is being cautious with its roll out, meaning some deeper integrations — such as Siri’s touted next-gen abilities to delve into your apps and offer contextual advice or support (say, reorganising your calendar commitments on your behalf) — have been delayed. Apple Intelligence is a future promise as much as a here-and-now toolset then — but the M3 chip onboard here should see it capable of keeping up with whatever Apple’s AI ambitions grow to be in the near future.
iPad Air (M3, 2025): Verdict
Is this year’s iPad Air for you? There’s a few easy ways to answer that question, but you’ll have to answer a few more first to find out.
Did you pick up last year’s iPad Air with M3 chip? Then no — there’s simply not enough difference between it and its predecessor to make the upgrade. But who’s buying a new iPad annually anyway? If you’re on an older iPad — especially one that launched prior to Apple putting M-series chipsets in its tablets — then this is a great device, with all the internal grunt you’ll need to do some serious work. It’s not a massive leap from the iPad Air to the M4-packing iPad Pro in terms of horsepower — even if some premium industrial design features remain locked to the Pro line-up.
The other question relates to screen size and quality. Do you want more than 11-inches of screen? The larger iPad Air might be for you, and you’ll get a good chipset in the process too. If not, and you’re not planning on doing much more than web browsing and watching the odd video, you might get by with the regular old iPad instead. If you want a superlative screen experience though, the iPad Pro M4, with its OLED display and 120Hz super-smooth Pro Motion refresh rate is the way to go — but at a considerably higher price.
The iPad Air M3 model sits in a curious place then. It is, as ever with iPads, a wonderful tablet — close to the apex of what this form factor can offer. It’s probably the iPad that most people should buy — except that most people that waited for one probably bought last year’s version already anyway. If you didn’t pull the trigger last spring though, you won’t be disappointed.
