Hands-on: iPad Air 2024 — the best iPad for most people gets a big screen boost

Two years. More than two years, in fact — 26 months. That’s how long we’ve had to wait for a new iPad Air, finally unveiled at Apple’s May 7 ‘Let Loose’ event. 

The iPad Air usually represents the best iPad that most people should buy from Apple’s tablet range, but it’s been a harder and harder recommendation to make as the months have dragged on and the internals in an otherwise solid device started to age.

Thankfully, recommending the new sixth-gen iPad Air (otherwise known as the iPad Air 6) is going to be a lot easier here in 2024, not just because it’s finally making the jump to an M2 chipset, up from the powerful-but-aging M1 on the outgoing Air models, but also because you’ve now got two distinct Air models to choose from. Double the wait, double the harvest: iPad Air now comes in two sizes, an 11-inch and an all-new mega-sized 13-inch model.

That’s a 30% increase in screen real estate over the iPad Air 6 in its 11-inch format, but it’s not massively heavier in the hand. At 1.36 lbs compared to the 1.02 lbs of the 11-incher, the 13-incher was well-balanced enough for me to hold it single-handedly while scribbling away with the newly revealed Apple Pencil Pro. Both new Air tablets are just 6.1mm thick too, and so the key differentiator becomes peak brightness — 500 nits on the 11-inch model versus 600 nits on the big guy.

Optimised for landscape

Landscape stereo speakers make the Air 6 sound cinematic when watching movies — even more so on the 13-inch model, which boasts better bass response than its smaller sibling. Another shout-out to things ‘going landscape’ is the placement of the front-facing camera. Like the 10th-gen iPad trailblazer, it too is now positioned in that widescreen orientation — a more natural fit for video calls and the Center Stage FaceTime tracking feature. Face ID remains the reserve of the iPad Pro line-up, however, with fingerprint scanning Touch ID (built into the power button) still the secure log-in method.

There are a few new configuration options thrown into the mix, too. Starlight and Space Grey colors return, now joined by purple and blue shades, as well as their accompanying keyboard and case accessories. But storage options change this time — entry level iPad Airs now finally come with 128GB minimum of SSD storage, going up through 256GB to new 512GB and 1TB options. Paired with the power of the M2 — a processor that was only a few months back still top-of-the-entry-level line — and Apple’s iPad Air starts to feel more like an ‘iPad Pro Jr’ than ever before.

The long-awaited Apple Pencil Pro is supported by iPad Air 6, too. Three core new features set it apart from the 2nd-gen stylus. First, it’s now trackable by Apple’s Find My location-aware network, meaning it’ll never be lost down the side of the sofa ... not for long, anyway. 

It also has a new pressure sensor in the barrel, adding a new ‘squeeze’ gesture for bringing up palettes and brush types in applications in an instant. That sensor can be customized on a per-app basis as well, letting developers tune it to the needs of their users. Finally, there’s haptic feedback built in this time, with motors activating to alert a user of, say, the moment their highlighted image layer snaps into alignment with a grid. It’s priced at just $129 — the same price tag as its predecessor.

Floating the Air to its wallet-watching audience

There were many rumors suggesting the ‘Let Loose’ event might include a glimpse of future Apple AI features, perhaps even hitting iPads ahead of any other products in Apple’s line up. And while a few teases were made — mostly Neural Engine features of updated apps like Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad — it seems any iPadOS 18 unveiling at WWDC 2024 next month is where we’ll see the biggest changes introduced. 

The iPad Air 6 looks most attractive when considered alongside new features and options like the added screen size and Apple Pencil Pro support. Apple says as many as half of iPad Pro users buy into the range's larger screen size; now Air users can get 13 inches of touchscreen at a significant discount over the Pro models, provided the temptation of an OLED display doesn’t lure their wallets away first. 

Add in support for Pencil Pro — arguably the star of today’s show thanks to the new creative functionality it unlocks — and starving artists the world over may be wondering if they really need to cough up the readies for the top-tier iPad models. But we're left scratching our heads a bit now over the name: Can it really be called the Air any more when the Pro has become the thinnest tablet in the bunch? Maybe Air now relates to its relatively lightweight price tag …

The 2024 iPad Air remains well pitched for the average tablet user — snappier than the 10.9-inch 10th-gen iPad at the bottom of the pile, but without the excessive horsepower (and price tag) that those simply bingeing the best Apple TV Plus shows would do well to avoid on the new OLED iPad Pro it launches alongside. 

It retains the essential parts of the two tablet lineups it's sandwiched between — the portability and ‘throw-it-in-a-bag-and-forget-about-it’ usability of the regular iPad, with enough juice under the hood to get real work done at a push if needed. But the 2024 iPad Air doesn’t necessarily fix the confusion in the iPad's overall line-up, which retains the same head-scratching spec and feature overlap (and in-store upsell potential) that’s plagued it for years. Oh well.

Dropping the price of the 10th-gen iPad might actually have eaten some of the Air’s lunch in that regard, now an incredibly easy sell at $349. But in the iPad Air 6 there is at least, once again, an iPad that you can point almost anyone at that they’ll be happy with. 

iPad Air 6 is available to buy today and ships next week. Prices start at $599 for the 11-inch model, and $799 for the 13-inch model — and we’re welcome to find that the 11-inch model lands at the same point as its M1 predecessor. We’ll have a full review of the new iPad Air in the coming days, so check back soon for our final verdict.