Apple updates its iPad and iPad Air and keeps prices the same

Apple has taken its basic iPad and iPad Air range and given both tablets a much needed update, after Tim Cook took to social media earlier this week to tease that “something is in the Air”.

The new tablets join the MacBook Air, which was upgraded in the same announcement from the Apple M3 chipset to the M4.

READ NEXT: The MacBook Air M4 is here

Apple iPad 11th gen (2025): Specifications

• 10.2 in Liquid Retina IPS display with 500 nits brightness
• Apple A16 processor (5-core CPU, 4-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine)
• 128GB, 256GB or 512GB of storage
• 12MP f/1.8 main rear camera; 12MP f/2.4 Centre Stage front camera
• Supports Apple Pencil USB-C and 1st generation
• Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3
• Colours: Silver, blue, pink or yellow
• Dimensions: 180 x 7 x 180mm (WDH)
• Weight: 477g (Wi-Fi); 481g (cellular)
• Price: From £329
• Availability: Pre-order now, on sale from 12 March 2025

Apple iPad Air (M3, 2025): Specifications

• 11in (2,360 x 1,640) or 13in (2,732 x 2,048) Liquid Retina IPS displays with 500 nits brightness, 164ppi pixel pitch
• Apple M3 processor (8-core CPU, 9-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine)
• 8GB of RAM
• 128GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage
• 12MP f/1.8 main rear camera; 12MP f/2 Centre Stage front camera
• Supports Apple Pencil Pro and USB-C
• Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3
• Colours: Space grey, Starlight, blue or purple
• Dimensions: 179 x 6.1 x 248mm (11in); 215 x 6.1 x 281mm (13in)
• Weight: 460g (Wi-Fi, 11in); 616g (Wi-Fi, 13in)
• Price: From £599 (11in); £799 (13in)
• Availability: Pre-order now, on sale from 12 March 2025

Apple iPad 11th gen and iPad Air (M3, 2025): New features

So what’s new for Apple’s cheapest and mid-range tablets? Well, as with the MacBook, the changes are fairly minor. The standard iPad gets an upgrade from the A14 chip to the A16 chip, which should deliver nippier performance but, at the time of writing, won’t support Apple Intelligence.

In perhaps a more significant change, though, the basic iPad now comes with 128GB of storage as standard with the 64GB version finally consigned to history. I still think 128GB is a bit mean, but at least you won’t be paying any more for it. The starting price for the 128GB 11th Gen iPad is £329, with the 256GB costing £429 and the 512GB version costing £629.

The iPad will be available in silver, blue, pink and yellow, and you can pre-order it right now with the on-sale date slated for 12 March.

The iPad Air, meanwhile, also gets a processor upgrade – not to the M4 chip, as you might have hoped, but to the lesser Apple M3 silicon.

Like the standard iPad, Apple has kept prices at the same level as before: the 11in base model will set you back £599, while the 13in model costs £799, both with a rather measly 128GB of storage. Unlike the standard iPad, however, the M4 chip does get you Apple Intelligence support.

Everything else about the iPad Air remains the same, aside from the optional Magic Keyboard, which gains a function key row and a small price cut to £269. It remains the best value productivity tool in Apple’s range – the M4 iPad Pro with its OLED display is lovely but far too expensive in my opinion.

The new iPad Air is available in a choice of four different colours – space grey, blue, purple and Starlight – and as with the standard iPad, you can pre-order one from today, or wait for the on-sale date of 12 March.

We hope to bring you full reviews of both models as soon as we can get our hands on samples, but it doesn’t look as if there will be many surprises in store.