iPad Air M2 (2024) vs iPad 11th gen (2024): expectations

Apple launched new iPads early this year — the iPad Air M2 and iPad Pro M4, each in two different form factors to cover all your needs. They also came with landscape selfie cameras — a feature that debuted on the cheap iPad 10th gen and had Pro users jealous for months until they got it.

About that base level iPad, though — it wasn't refreshed. We've been hearing a lot about an iPad 11th gen — last time around, analysts were saying it'd launch in May. Nope. Now, we are expecting it to come out around October this year, as this is when the iPad 10 will turn 2 years old.

With so much uncertainty, should you wait for it? Or bite the bullet and get an iPad Air M2 now?

Since the iPad 10th gen (2022) was redesigned, it now resembles the iPad Air very closely, which in turn looks very much like an iPad Pro. Unlike before, when we had iPads with home buttons and ones without, Apple has now made them all to look more or less the same.

But since the new lineup all differ by small amounts — design-wise — we now have different keyboard accessories for all. The iPad 10th gen — and we assume the future iPad 11th gen — has the Keyboard Folio. The iPad Air M2 keeps using the Magic Keyboard that also used to fit the old M2 and M1 iPad Pros, and the new iPad Pro M4 gets an all-new Magic Keyboard, which adds a function row, bigger trackpad, and provides charge faster through the pass-through port.

OK, let's reel it in, talking about the tablets again. We expect the iPad 11th gen to be identical to the current 10th gen — in dimensions and relative weight. It'll probably still have a 10.9-inch screen, with a slightly thicker bezel than the one on the iPad Air M2 11-inch.

But, if you want a gargantuan iPad without paying the Pro money, the iPad Air M2 13-inch will still be your only choice.

Also, both types of tablets will have USB-C ports on the bottom. But the iPad Air has 10 Gbps transfer speeds here (USB 3), whereas the base iPad 11th gen will probably remain limited to USB 2 (480 Mbps). 

The iPad Air models have a laminated screen, meaning the display and the touch digitizer are fused in a single sheet of glass, saving space and making the screen "pop" a bit more. The base iPad uses regular tech, so when looking at the screen, you can perceive the gap between the top glass and the display underneath. The image just looks like it's further away, sunken into the iPad.

That's not a huge issue or anything, it's just to point out that the Air will give you a bit more of a "premium" experience. Also, the laminated glass is slightly better at dealing with glare and bright ambient lighting.

Otherwise, both of these screens will be capped at 60 Hz, as ProMotion is being held hostage by the iPad Pro line exclusively.

For colors, Apple's screens have been pretty accurate for years, even on the base tier iPad. So, we expect nothing less with the iPad 11th gen. The base models even get True Tone and Night Shift nowadays — modes that make the screen cast look more natural or warmer, for a less harsh viewing experience.

And, of course, it bears mentioning that, with the iPad Air M2 line, you have access to a 13-inch model, if that's what you are after. With a Magic Keyboard, it can work as a laptop replacer for simple work tasks, one app at a time, or multitasking with an external monitor and Stage Manager.

The iPad Airs drag slightly behind the iPad Pro line and, as expected, they now come with an M2 chip — pretty high class silicon, which can be found in MacBook Pros and Airs across the world. The base storage has also increased to 128 GB, which is long overdue... but nice — especially since the base price of $599 didn't move.

The iPad 11th gen will most probably have an Apple A16 Bionic chip inside it — that's the processor from the iPhone 14 era. Still a pretty good chip — definitely towards the top end of midrange. And yes, you will be able to use those specialized apps for audio, video, and drawing. It will just not be as fast as the M2, and it won't offer the desktop environment with Stage Manager.

And again, USB transfer speeds may matter if you want to work with big files — the USB 3 speeds of the iPad Air will be much handier here, instead of the slow USB 2 of the base iPad.

The base iPad will probably stick to a starting storage of 64 GB for the time being, too.

The iPads' cameras are serviceable as is. Currently, all models have a 12 MP front camera with an ultra-wide lens, so that they can utilize the Center Stage feature for video calls — the iPad can "follow" your face as you move around, thus making a video call more natural even if you need to get up from your desk.

In fact, speaking of "more natural", the iPad 10th gen was the first iPad ever to have the selfie camera on the right-hand frame of the tablet. That way, when placed on the desk horizontally, the selfie camera was actually on the top frame — like you would see on laptops. This makes video calls slightly more natural, as on any other iPad, you kind of look like you are looking off to the side, whereas a top-mounted camera gives us a mugshot that we are more used to.

The iPad Air M2 models now also have this selfie camera positioning, and so do the new Pros. Obviously, we fully expect the iPad 11th gen — whenever it launches — to also have the landscape webcam.

On the back, most iPads have this 12 MP camera, which is nothing phenomenal, but does the job when you need to take a quick snap and works OK for documents. We don't expect Apple to be rushing any upgrades here, but we'll see we guess.

The iPad Air and latest iPad 10th gen have these "landscape stereo" speakers — two drivers that are placed on the top and bottom of the tablet. So, when placed horizontally on a stand, they wind up on the left and right — hence, landscape stereo.

The previous generation sounds OK. A bit thin, maybe, when compared to the iPad Pro's quad speaker setup, but both the iPad (2022) and iPad Air (2022) sound good enough. We don't expect any changes in 2024.

iPads will typically give us around 10 hours of screen on time. We've been using all models — from the huge 12.9-inch iPad Pro to the tiny iPad mini and we are kind of used to seeing the battery percentages drop by 10% with every hour of screen on time.

Of course, for YouTube binging, that'll be about 15% per hour, for gaming and video editing it can easily grow to 20+ percent per hour. Our point is, the iPads have a dependable endurance, but don't expect miracles.

Now that the iPad Airs are official, we could calculate their capacities to this:

We presume the iPad 11th gen will have a battery of very similar size to the one of the iPad 10th gen — 7,600 mAh.

Mostly, we expect the iPad Air 6 specs to echo the iPad Pro from 2022, and the iPad 11th gen to be kind of lagging behind in tech, as usual.

These are mostly based on speculation, past iPad model knowledge, and scarce rumors. But we do believe we are in the ballpark. Full iPad 11 vs iPad Air M2 specs comparison will be posted as data becomes available.

Sooner or later, the iPad 11th gen will come. Question is — will it be worth it, or should you just save up a bit more for an Air? At this time, we do think the Air offers more — the faster hardware, Stage Manager (multitasking on monitor), support for the Apple Pencil Pro, and the power of M2.

The base iPad also has the Pencil and Keyboard, but it kind of lives in a bubble of its own. Anything you buy for the iPad 11 has to go with the base iPad 11. 

That said, if you don't care about using the 1st party keyboard, or transforming the iPad into a desktop work machine, the base model might just work for you as a basic tablet. With core essentials like a good selfie FaceTime camera and stereo speakers, as well as support for Apple Pencil gen 1 in place, we can see how some users might go straight for it.