Apple drops M4 iPad Air with 12GB memory bump for AI

Apple just gave the iPad Air a serious under-the-hood overhaul. Instead of treating memory like gold dust, the company finally gave mid-tier tablet users what they have actually needed for on-device AI: breathing room.

The new iPad Air comes with Apple’s M4 chip and starts at the familiar $599 price point. Available in both 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, preorders open on Wednesday, March 4, with devices hitting shelves on March 11.

M4 power meets a 12GB unified memory bump

While the M4 processor is plenty fast, the real story here is the memory configuration.

Apple bumped the unified memory by 50 percent up to 12GB, backed by 120GB/s of memory bandwidth. For anyone keeping track, that extra headroom makes running localized AI models and multitasking heavy media apps noticeably less painful.

The M4 silicon itself features an 8-core CPU and a 9-core GPU. Apple claims the new Air is up to 30 percent faster than the M3 model and 2.3x faster than the M1 version. Thanks to second-generation hardware-accelerated ray tracing, 3D rendering speeds jump more than 4x compared to M1.

Meanwhile, the 16-core Neural Engine runs 3x faster than what was inside the M1 generation. That extra speed translates directly into snappier background removals in Final Cut Pro and faster on-device search in apps like Goodnotes.

Homegrown connectivity chips and iPadOS 26

Under the hood, Apple also swapped out third-party communication components for its own silicon.

The wireless subsystem now runs on Apple’s N1 chip, bringing support for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread, while bolstering features like AirDrop and Personal Hotspot. Cellular models get the new Apple-designed C1X modem, which delivers up to 50 percent faster cellular data speeds while slashing modem power consumption by up to 30 percent compared to the M3 generation.

On the software side, the tablet runs iPadOS 26 out of the box. The operating system introduces the translucent Liquid Glass visual design, a completely revamped windowing layout, a top pull-down menu bar, and a dedicated Preview app for annotating PDFs.

Why it matters

For students, mobile creators, and everyday tablet owners, this update makes the Air the most sensible tablet in Apple's lineup.

Getting M4 muscle and 12GB of unified memory without a price increase effectively lowers the barrier for genuine on-device AI workflows. If you are sitting on an M1 Air or older, the leap in graphics rendering, camera layout, and battery efficiency makes upgrading a no-brainer.

Strategically, this is Apple setting the baseline for Apple Intelligence. Local AI workloads are notorious memory hogs, and an 8GB ceiling was rapidly turning into an engineering bottleneck across consumer devices.

There is still one classic catch: the base storage remains at 128GB, and you still do not get ProMotion display technology. Even so, keeping the entry price at $599 while boosting memory to 12GB makes this one of the smartest and most competitive hardware refreshes Apple has delivered in years.