Apple iPad Air 13-inch (M2) Review: This Is the Best Big Tablet for Most People (2024)

In a world where almost all tablets try to be your next computer, the 13-inch iPad Air with M2 stands out as a go-to option. With its new larger size and enhanced performance, this latest iteration of Apple's mid-range tablet aims to bridge the gap between casual use and the professional-grade performance of the Pro line.

Frankly, this is the best big tablet for students and creatives looking to leverage an all-encompassing productivity and entertainment experience—as long as you’re willing to understand the limitations of the iPad’s software.

Apple iPad Air (2024)

The Best Big iPad

9/ 10

$754 $799 Save $45

The 13-inch iPad Air with M2 chip bridges the gap between casual tablet use and professional-grade performance, which makes it an excellent choice for students and creatives. Its larger display, powerful performance, and new features like the Apple Pencil Pro support enhance the overall user experience. However, the limitations of iPadOS, particularly in desktop-like tasks and file management, remain a drawback. Despite this, the iPad Air offers great value, blending portability, and versatility without the higher price tag of the Pro models.

Pros

• Excellent battery life
• Exceptionally fast performance
• Decent speakers

Cons

• iPadOS is still limiting in some regards
• Touch ID is more cumbersome to reach on a larger device

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Price and Availability

The iPad Air lineup still starts at $599 for the 11-inch model, with the new 13-inch model available starting at $799. The base models sport an increased storage capacity of 128GB. The tablets are available for purchase on Apple's website, as well as major retailers and online stores. There are more storage options this year, with up to 1TB available and, of course, the addition of cellular connectivity should you want it. However, note that the cellular model no longer supports physical SIM cards.

A Familiar Package in a Larger Body

The iPad Air's design remains unchanged, maintaining the sleek and industrial aesthetic we've gotten to know since the 2018 iPad Pros. The new larger 13-inch iPad Air is thinner and lighter than its M2 iPad Pro counterpart, making it more portable and comfortable for extended periods, especially with the Magic Keyboard.

This generation also features the horizontally oriented front camera we’ve seen on the base 10th-gen iPad, and it’s a much-welcome addition, especially for video conferencing and FaceTime calls.

It’s certainly surprising that the new “Air” iPad is both marginally heavier and thicker than the latest generation Pro iPads, coming in at 6.1mm across both sizes and weighing 462 and 617 grams for the 11- and 13-inch, respectively. Still very light, thin, and portable, but it’s clear that the “Air” moniker on the iPad line reflects trickled-down pro features from the more premium iPad Pros the same way we get the upgrades from iPhone generations.

This new 13-inch variant takes getting used to if you’re coming from a smaller iPad or tablet. The most recent tablet I reviewed before the iPad Air was the Samsung Galaxy S9+, and that device had a 12.4-inch display. Surprisingly, because of its 16:10 aspect ratio, it felt much more unwieldy than this larger iPad Air.

The 13-inch Air has a 4:3 aspect ratio, mimicking a piece of paper, making it more compact and easier to hold than the Tab S9+. It is also better for things like web browsing, note-taking, or word processing because you see more of the page when it’s in landscape. You sacrifice a bit of the viewing experience with this aspect ratio for entertainment, since you get more prominent black bars, but the screen is large enough so that it isn’t that big of an issue.

The size of the 13-inch iPad Air only becomes noticeable when you’re using the fingerprint scanner because you don’t get Face ID. In every other non-Pro iPad in the lineup thus far, the fingerprint scanner in the power button has been in devices that are 11 inches or smaller, so it wasn’t really out of reach as much as it is with this larger 13-inch variant.

Enhanced Performance With Mobile Flexibility

Equipped with the M2 chip, the iPad Air performs exceptionally well. Apple claims it’s 50% faster than the previous generation, and this performance boost is pretty noticeable in everyday tasks and navigating the OS. Despite not having the latest chipset or a ProMotion display, the iPad Air is incredibly responsive and snappy with iPadOS; whether I was photo-editing in Photoshop and Lightroom, gaming, or note-taking in Goodnotes, the iPad Air proves to be a versatile and powerful tool.

Battery life on this large iPad has also been nothing short of excellent. I would say that with typical usage, with media consumption, light gaming, social media, and FaceTime calls, you can easily make a full battery in the last two days without question. The standby time is as great as you’d expect from Apple, and on days with heavier use like photo-editing on Lightroom and Photoshop, the 13-inch still lasts the full day, including powering the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil Pro.

At this point of the review, you’d probably expect me to talk about the iPad Air’s woes with software limitations with iPadOS. I think the echo chambers we’ve gotten used to over the years have remained the same because people feel that iPadOS isn’t doing enough to utilize the exceptional hardware package of the new iPads fully. Still, I think this point of view has been overly dramatized, and I want to give a clearer picture of actually using iPadOS on an M-series chip for the first time.

What I noticed using the iPad Air with iPadOS 17.5 over the past couple of weeks is that it excels at iPad things. The true pitfalls of iPadOS aren’t so much that it lacks better functionality (it does to a certain extent) but that we tend to compare it to the desktop experience of macOS, where the iPad doesn’t necessarily fit in.

I would not want this iPad to run macOS; macOS would be a horrible touch interface as it currently is, the same way I wouldn’t want to use iOS with a keyboard and mouse. iPadOS serves as a good middle ground that blends these two worlds as Apple sees it, but it’s not perfect.

With touch and stylus-enabled tasks, iPadOS is excellent. For note-taking and illustration, it's the best I’ve experienced in a while, with some great apps like Goodnotes and Serif’s Affinity line of apps to match. Photo editing on Lightroom? It's significantly better with the iPad and Apple Pencil compared to using my mouse and keyboard on a MacBook or solely relying on touch with my iPhone. In these instances, there isn’t another device that can match the iPad's fluidity and ease of use.

The problem then arises when you encounter workflows that blur the lines between “iPad tasks” and “desktop tasks.” File management is noticeably more painful through the Files app than if the iPad just had Finder like the Mac.

Certain apps, like Lightroom, don’t support basic key commands like CMD + Z when paired with the Magic Keyboard, which can be infuriating. You’d expect the same apps on your laptop to act the same when paired with a keyboard and mouse on the iPad, but they don’t. Webcams or cameras don’t natively connect to Final Cut Pro or any other program, and the list goes on and on.

My point is that the iPad exists on a plane where it’s both limitless and limited at the same time, and it all comes down to what your workflow requires out of a device to justify choosing an iPad over something else.

Accessories, New and Old

The Apple Pencil has become a fundamental cornerstone of the iPad experience. This new Apple Pencil Pro now supports Apple’s Find My, barrel roll, and a new squeeze gesture, making it more intuitive and versatile. The squeeze gesture allows you to switch between different tools directly at the point of contact, which is particularly useful in creative apps like Affinity Photo and Goodnotes.

To use it, you simply squeeze the top of the barrel of the Apple Pencil, which registers haptic feedback that feels very realistic. From then on, you’re able to choose between different tools based on the app to quickly switch settings right at the point of contact.

It’s one of those features that, once you use it, it becomes a core part of the experience, and I think that it rounds out the Apple Pencil as being the best multi-functional navigation tool of iPadOS. Even on the 60Hz display of the iPad Air, the Pencil Pro is very responsive, serving as both a navigation and creation tool.

On the flip side, the new iPad Air weirdly only supports the previous generation Magic Keyboard. This is the same Magic Keyboard you’re used to, so there isn't a function row, nor does it have the new aluminum deck and haptic trackpad. But it does provide a decent typing experience, with very decent key travel and keys that don’t feel cramped.

I do wish the design of the Magic Keyboard didn’t make the iPad feel so top-heavy or be a pain to open when it’s not set down on a table. At $350, it’s certainly very expensive to have these pitfalls for what is otherwise a decent keyboard and mouse experience on an iPad.

Should You Buy the iPad Air 13-inch (M2)?

The 13-inch iPad Air with M2 is an impressive device that offers a blend of power, portability, and versatility. Its larger display, enhanced performance, and new features make it a compelling choice for both casual users and professionals.

However, the iPadOS experience is still limited, especially when transitioning between iPad and desktop-like tasks. If you can live with these software constraints, the iPad Air is an excellent investment.

For students, I recommend getting the last-generation M1 iPad Air if you’re going the 11-inch route. Frankly, I think you’re getting a great deal with that device, especially if you upgrade the storage to 256GB, which brings it up to the cost of a base M2 11-inch. However, if you’re considering a larger iPad, there genuinely isn’t a better deal than the 13-inch iPad Air.

Of course, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with M2 is still a great option, but it’ll likely always be more expensive than the base 13-inch Air, and unless you want a ProMotion display, it’s hard to justify picking up the 12.9-inch Pro over this new Air, which also has a horizontally oriented camera and Apple Pencil Pro support, which arguably makes it a much better value proposition for students.

Apple iPad Air (2024)

9/ 10

$754 $799 Save $45

The 13-inch iPad Air with M2 chip bridges the gap between casual tablet use and professional-grade performance, which makes it an excellent choice for students and creatives. Its larger display, powerful performance, and new features like the Apple Pencil Pro support enhance the overall user experience. However, the limitations of iPadOS, particularly in desktop-like tasks and file management, remain a drawback. Despite this, the iPad Air offers great value, blending portability, and versatility without the higher price tag of the Pro models.

See at Apple$754 at Amazon