iPad Air M3 review: powerful M3 chip, improved keyboard, better screen, performance, and multitasking than the base iPad, but no Face ID and can get expensive
The new iPad Air remains a great tablet, albeit one that's extremely similar to the last few models.
Context & Ripple Effects
The M3 refresh follows an iPad Air line that had already moved to Apple silicon with the M1-based 2022 model, while retaining Touch ID rather than Face ID. Apple positioned this generation with an updated M3 Air and a separately introduced Magic Keyboard with function keys and a larger trackpad.
The review suggests the practical value of the Air is increasingly its gap over the base iPad—performance and multitasking—rather than a wholesale redesign. Later M4 iPad Air coverage preserves the same broad trade-offs: stronger silicon and multitasking, alongside screen, biometric, and price reservations.
First-order effects
- Buyers seeking more headroom than the base iPad gain a faster iPad Air option with stronger multitasking and a revised keyboard experience, but still must accept Touch ID instead of Face ID.
- The configuration decision becomes more consequential: the Air's advantages can be diluted by a higher total price once buyers select more expensive configurations and accessories.
Second-order effects
- The sharper performance distinction gives Apple a clearer basis for segmenting the base iPad and iPad Air, while forcing buyers to compare total device-and-keyboard cost rather than entry price alone.
- Accessories become more central to the Air's value proposition: the updated Magic Keyboard can make the tablet more laptop-like, but also raises the effective cost of that use case.
Third-order effects
- If successive chip-led Air updates continue without resolving recurring complaints such as the lack of Face ID, Apple can preserve product-tier separation through performance and accessory differentiation rather than major hardware redesigns.
- The later M4 review's similar balance of gains and compromises indicates that iPad Air upgrades may increasingly depend on software multitasking and silicon advances to justify refreshes; whether that sustains upgrade demand remains uncertain.
The trend: The iPad Air is becoming a performance- and accessory-defined middle tier, with iterative Apple-silicon upgrades doing more of the differentiation work than redesigned hardware.