Apple’s iPad Air has been a great middle-of-the-road tablet in recent years, slotting between the top-tier iPad Pro and the basic iPad.
While it’s tempting to grab this year’s model with the desktop Apple M4 processor, last year’s iPad Air with the M3 chipset is currently on sale on Amazon Australia for AU$797, or 20% off the new version’s RRP.
The current model may have the more powerful processor and more RAM (12GB versus 8GB in the M3 model), but our testing showed that you really won’t feel the speed difference between the two iPad Airs when you’re browsing, streaming, taking notes, or drawing. The power upgrade only really makes a difference if you do a lot of heavy 3D or AI work with the tablet. For the average user, the M3 silicon is plenty powerful and then some.
In our review of the iPad Air M3, the tester found that the chipset helped the tablet fly with almost any task thrown at it, handling video editing and graphically demanding AAA games effortlessly. They even said that the tablet performed almost identically to the iPad Pro M4 at the time, leading them to wonder exactly what specific use cases might require someone to make that jump to the top-tier offering.
While the iPad Air is still limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, the Liquid Retina display is excellent and features punchy colors, good contrast, and a peak brightness of 500 nits.
The M3 model is also perfect if you’re upgrading from an older iPad Air, entry-level iPad, or other tablet, giving you enough processing power to last a few more years before feeling sluggish.
If you want to take full advantage of the iPad Air’s features, you can use your savings to invest in the Apple Pencil Pro for taking notes, or get a keyboard case to turn it into a laptop replacement.
