iPad Air M2 (2024) vs iPad Pro M4 (2024): is the $600 tablet just as good?

Back in 2024, Apple decided to give the iPad Air a proper glow-up — offering it in both 11" and 13" sizes, just like its Pro sibling. Fast forward to 2025, and we’ve now got the Air rocking the M3 chip. Good news if you're after one of these: it also means M2 models are about to hit the discount racks, and probably hard.

This here is our original iPad Air M2 vs iPad Pro M4 review — a comparison that still holds up if you're eyeing a good deal and wondering, “Do I really need to go Pro?”

One thing that helps the Air’s case? It now plays nice with the Apple Pencil Pro. That’s the fancy new stylus with hover gestures, squeeze controls, and barrel roll features — and now you can use all that on a cheaper tablet. So... does that make the Air the smarter buy?

Well, not so fast. The Pro still flexes with a 120 Hz ProMotion display, superior brightness, and a few extras like Face ID. But at its core, this refreshed Air is no slouch — it’s got power, polish, and now, perks.

Let’s break it all down and see which iPad actually earns its place in your backpack.

iPad Pro 11-inch M4: Save up to $710 with a trade-in

$289

$999

$710 off (71%)

The iPad Pro M4 is here! You can now get the 11-inch model with a brand-new OLED screen and a powerful M4 chipset straight from the source and save up to $710 with select trade-ins.

Buy at Apple

iPad Pro 13-inch (2024), Wi-Fi: Save $200 at Amazon

$200 off (15%)

Need a larger screen? In such a case, we suggest the larger iPad Pro M4 at Amazon. With its impressive M4 chipset, this tablet gives you the ultimate iPad experience. You can now order the Wi-Fi model with 256GB storage for $200 off its original price.

Buy at Amazon

Get the 11-inch iPad Air M2 at Amazon for $200 off

$200 off (22%)

The 11-inch iPad Air M2 is on sale at Amazon. The tablet offers great performance and is on sale in its 512GB variant. It's available for $200 off.

Buy at Amazon

13-inch iPad Air M2: $160 OFF

$160 off (17%)

The 13-inch iPad Air M2 is perfect for users who want insane horsepower and more screen real estate. You can currently buy the model with 128GB of storage and cellular connectivity for $160 off in select colors.

Buy at Amazon

The modern iPad Air line is there to give you an iPad Pro for less money. The corners that were cut — it has a 60 Hz screen instead of 120 Hz ProMotion, it lacks a Face ID array and uses Touch ID fingerprint reading instead, and doesn't have the new OLED display of the Pros, but more on that later.

However, the Air does have an 11-inch and 13-inch model, and does support the new Apple Pencil Pro (or an older gen Apple Pencil, if you so wish). It's also a lovely deisgn, 0.24 in (6.1 mm) thick for both models, weighing 1.02 lbs (462 g) and 1.36 lbs (617 g) for the 11-inch and 13-inch variants respectively.

The iPad Pro looks familiar, but has in fact been redesigned. The new Pro slates are now ultra-thin, at 0.21 in (5.3 mm) and 0.2 in (5.1 mm) for the 11" and 13" model respectively. They are also quite light at 0.98 pounds (444 grams) and 1.28 pounds (579 grams).



OK, so the iPad Air gets to look a bit more "old style" — that's not a big deal. The good news is that it is compatible with the old Magic Keyboard accessories, which were originally released for the 2020, 2021, 2022 iPad Pros. Then again, the new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro M4 sure looks nice — bigger touchpad with haptic feedback, aluminum arm rest, function key row — pretty desirable upgrades.

At least, both the Air and Pro fit and pair with the new Apple Pencil Pro — an upgraded stylus that now has a squeeze control, haptic feedback, and a gyroscope for barrel rolls and angle brushing.

The iPads have had USB C ports for a while now, so no change expected there. But, as before, we have Thunderbolt file transfer speeds (40 Gbps) exclusive to the iPad Pro M4 line, and the iPad Air M2 has USB 3 (10 Gbps).

The display sizes of the Airs and the Pros are the same, but that's where the similarities end. The new iPad Pro M4 (2024) comes with a brand-new Tandem OLED screen — dual layers of OLED with better color balance and increased brightness (1,000 nits SDR, 1,600 nits peak HDR). Plus, they are still 120 Hz ProMotion panels, keeping the high refresh rate exclusive to the Pro models. The whole package has been dubbed Ultra Retina XDR.

The iPad Air M2 (2024) sticks to good old 60 Hz LCD (ahem, Liquid Retina) and has a 500 nit max brightness (600 nits for the 13-inch model).

Aside from those very core specs, the displays do share premium features — like a laminated construction, where the glass and the touch panel are fused for an overall thinner build. And they have a special anti-glare coating that has been on the premium iPads for years now — pretty effective. The specs page also lists oleophobic coating — we do wish this one is upgraded in some way as well. Ever since the Apple Pencil has been introduced, the oleophobic coating on iPads was changed to something… far less effective. And that goes for all units that support some version of the Pencil.

In our benchmark tests, the outcome is pretty clear. The iPad Pro reaches significantly higher peak brightness of nearly a 1,000 nits, while the iPad Air is reaches just above 600 nits. Both have equally accurate displays, so the only major difference is the brightness that each one of these achieves. 

Display Measurements:

The 1 TB and 2 TB iPad Pro M4 models can also be upgraded to nano-textuded glass for glare reduction. That's a $100 extra, but if you're already buying a 1 TB or 2 TB model… we imagine it won't bother you too much.

Speaking of the Apple Pencil, the iPad Air M2 (2024) now gets the Pencil Hover feature — just going over the screen with the tip of the stylus will act as a cursor. This was introduced with the iPad Pro (2022) and was exclusive to that model until now.

The upper-range iPads have been getting the Apple M processors for a couple of years now. The M1 from the MacBooks made it to the iPad Pros of 2021, then the M2 was put in the iPad Pro (2022), while the iPad Air (2022) got the M1. See the trend? We thought we did, but lo and behold — the iPad Pro (2024) is the first device to get the newest M4 chip! Before it makes it to a Mac or anything else.



And it's not just a rebranded M3 — the new M4 is legit more powerful than the chips you get with the latest MacBooks. Now, whether you will make use of that power is another question. But here's how the benchmarks went:

Does this mean that the iPad Air M2, or — indeed — the iPad Pro (2022) are now… bad? Nah, not nearly. M-class processors have insane headroom, especially when it comes to mobile applications. Sure, the new M4 is fancy and capable, but in real life — both of these tablets fly. 

Performance Benchmarks:

Well, obviously, the Pro feels smoother thanks to that 120 Hz screen, but rest assured that the Air can render video and audio, apply photo edits, and game just as well!

Where the Air line differs is its base storage tier. It has now been upgraded to 128 GB at tier 1 — and that's for the same $599 price as before. Not incredible, but you can live with 128 GB in 2024 if you do some housekeeping. The iPad Pro's minimum storage is now 256 GB, but the starting price for the M4 model has now jumped to $999.

As mentioned above, there are differences in USB transfer speeds, too. The iPad Air M2 has a USB C with 10 Gbps (which is pretty fast, actually), the Pro line has Thunderbolt ports for insanely fast 40Gbps transfers.

Currently, both tablets run iPadOS 18. However, iPadOS 18.1 with lots of Apple intelligence features is coming soon to both tablets. You can check out more about the AI features coming soon near a tablet near you here. 

Typically, you want two cameras on a tablet — the selfie camera for video calls, and then some kind of rear-facing camera to scan documents or for some sort of emergency "Hey, look at that" picture-taking.

The iPad Air and iPad Pro lines typically have a 12 MP selfie camera with the ultra-wide lens that enables Center Stage (the camera follows your face automatically), and a 12 MP main camera in the back, which is pretty usable.

The same story repeats here, though, the iPad Pro now has a new adaptive True Tone flash on the back, which is supposedly better for balancing out colors when you are taking photos of documents specifically.

The iPad Pro M4 also has the LiDAR sensor on the back for better accuracy in AR applications — something that hasn't really gone mainstream, but Apple hasn't decided to axe it yet. The same can not be said about the ultra-wide camera — iPad Pros used to have ultra-wide snappers, the 2024 models do not.

The iPad Air line has two speakers, located on the top and bottom of the tablet — otherwise known as "landscape stereo", as they end up as left and right speakers when watching movies or YouTube videos. The iPad Pros have quad speakers, full stereo in both landscape and portrait (arguably, when held in portrait mode, the left and right side are so close to each other that it's not real "stereo" sound).

The Air's dual speakers are only slightly worse than the Pro. They sound a bit boxier, with a slight mid hump, and compress a bit more at higher volumes, where the quad speakers of the iPad Pros find it easier to push air and sound a bit more spatious. The difference is there but is not huge, so the speaker setup will not be a make or break here.

iPads, any model iPad, generally give us around 10 hours of screen-on time. We've used the large 12.9-inch iPad Pros, the 11-inchers, the Airs, and the base iPads, and it's usually the same story. They are dependable for a full day, unless you want to play those shiny console-level games or render 4K video on them, of course. 

The iPad Air M2 11" comes with a 7,607mAh battery, while the larger iPad Air has a 9,705mAh battery. Meanwhile, the iPad Pro M4 11-inch has an 8,160mAh battery on deck, while the larger model has a 10,290mAh battery.

How much do these last? 

In our custom web browsing test, which aims to emulate a regular browsing experience, the iPad Air wheezes past the iPad Pro, achieving more than three hours extra than the iPad Pro.  The latter, however, fares better in our custom video streaming and 3D gaming tests, where it beats the iPad Air. The iPad Air charges quicker, though. 

PhoneArena Battery and Charging Test Results:

The iPad Air typically trucks a step behind the iPad Pro. So, it wasn't a surprise that the new Airs get the M2 chip. The surprise was the M4 chip in the Pros!

So, the iPad Air M2 (2024) is coming in as an iPad Pro (2022) replacement, more or less. You will still miss the 120 Hz display and, if you ask us, once it launches — it will be better to hunt down an iPad Pro 11 (2022) at clearance prices rather than going for a new iPad Air.

Look, the iPad Air M2 is a fantastic tablet. But it’s not the one to dethrone the iPad Pro M4. The Pro still comes with some very Pro perks — Face ID, a sleeker new design, that gorgeous double OLED panel, and the ever-smooth 120 Hz ProMotion. But here’s the million-dollar (well, $400) question: Are those extras worth the markup over the Air? That depends on how much you value the details.

Here’s the twist—if you move quick, there’s a third option that might just hit the sweet spot. The iPad Pro (2022) is still out there, in incresingly limited quantities. That means big discounts on a tablet that still outperforms the M2 Air and isn’t far off from the M4 Pro in everyday use.

So right now, you’ve got two solid plays: scoop up a discounted 2022 Pro while it’s still hanging around, or go all-in on the shiny new M4 and enjoy that OLED eye candy. Wait a bit longer, and those older Pros will vanish—and when they do, the iPad Air becomes the new king of the middle ground.