iPad Air M2 (2024) Review: New size, more storage, faster chipset, and more

Apple's sixth generation of the iPad Air will probably leave a mark in the history of iPads, not because it is anything too different from the previous generation, but because it is the first Air series to include a larger 13-inch model.

Apple has done some housekeeping here, providing a general spec bump with the 2024 iPad Air in the form of a new chipset as well as a higher base and maximum storage options. There is also some small changes to the design, like finally moving the front-facing camera where it is supposed to be on a tablet.

11-inch iPad Air M2: Up to $565 off with trade-in at Apple

The powerful 11-inch M2 iPad Air sells at its standard price at Apple, but Education Savings are available. Until September 30, you save $50 on the tablet and receive a $100 Apple Gift Card with your new slate. Trade-ins are also open and save you up to $565.

$565 off (94%) Trade-in

$34

$599

This offer is not available in your area.

Get the 11-inch iPad Air M2 at Amazon for 8% off

The new iPad Air M2 with an 11-inch screen is available at Amazon.com for 8% off. The newly released tablet boasts a powerful M2 processor, giving you incredible performance. The discount applies to the model in Space Gray with 128GB of storage.

$50 off (8%)

This offer is not available in your area.

Get 13-inch iPad Air M2 at Apple at up to $565 with trade-in

The 13-inch iPad Air with an M2 chip is also available at the official Apple store with Education Savings. With Education Savings, you can $50 on the tablet and receive a $100 Apple Gift Card with your new slate. Trade-ins are also open and save you up to $565.

$565 off (71%) Trade-in

$234

$799

This offer is not available in your area.

Get the 13-inch iPad Air M2 (Blue, 128GB) and save $70

For the first time, Apple has also released a 13-inch iPad Air M2 model. This one gives you more screen real estate to play with. The tablet can be yours straight from Amazon for $70 off. Not all colors arrive at the same price.

$70 off (9%)

This offer is not available in your area.

If you are familiar with the 2022 iPad Air, you might see an uncanny level of resemblance here. Truth be told, there isn't much to look at in terms of hardware upgrades besides the M2 chip that replaces the M1 from the previous generation.

Apple hasn’t done anything groundbreaking with the iPad Air's design. Usually, the company sticks to the same design language for at least three generations, so the lack of any alterations here is normal. Maybe we will see a new design for the iPad Air whenever the next generation comes along.

One crucial change, however, is the placement of the front-facing camera. Until now, Apple always placed it on the vertical side of the screen, but now it has moved to the right horizontal side, making it much more convenient for facetime calls with multiple people. After all, this is the way most users tend to hold their tablets anyway.

Size-wise, the 13-inch iPad Air measures 280.6 mm x 214.9 mm x 6.0 mm, so almost exactly the same as the 2022 13-inch iPad Pro, which measures 280.6 mm x 214.9 mm x 6.4 mm.

The new blue and purple appear more pastel and pale compared to the ones from last generation. Here at the office we have the blue model, and we noticed that it can look a bit more pale in certain lighting conditions, almost appearing off-white instead of blue.

Our display lab tests showed us that while the color accuracy of the M2 iPad Air is pretty good, the same cannot be said about the greyscale accuracy. This is something that often differs between units, though, so yours might not have this issue.

Apple released iPadOS 17 back in September, when the new iPhone 15 series was announced, and that is what the iPad Air M2 (2024) comes with straight out of the box.

iPadOS 17 includes a lot of features that iPhones get, such as lock screen customization, interactive widgets on the home screen, and you can now check your health and fitness information on your iPad as the Health app is available there too.

Thanks to the M2 chipset, however, the new iPad Air also offers AI features such as Visual Look Up, Subject Lift, and Live Text capture. All three features work exactly as they do on iPhones.

One of the biggest changes to these new iPad Air models is that they support the new Apple Pencil Pro, which comes with haptic feedback, squeezing functionality, and a new Barrel Roll feature that allows you to change the angle of your brush.

As far as software updates go, iPads are usually supported between 5 and 7 years, just like iPhones. Most of the time it is 6 years, so don't worry about future-proofing, you are covered.

You might want to go above Apple's recommended 20W charger, as we noticed that the M2 iPad Air chargers much quicker with a more powerful adapter. Ours, for example, was a 65W one. Note, however, that frequently using a charger that is not recommended by Apple might negatively affect the battery health down the road.

That being said, Apple mentioned the bigger 13" iPad Air comes with better sound, and we are happy to say that is indeed the case. We don't think it is "double the bass" as the company claims, but there is definitely a difference in the overall sound quality coming from the dual speakers. That's physics for you!