Apple iPad Air 11 (M4, 128GB, Wi-Fi + Cellular)

Apple iPad Air 11 (M4, 128GB, Wi-Fi + Cellular)

By Apple · Tablets · Phones & Computers

  • Apple M4 chip
  • 11-inch Liquid Retina display, 2360x1640, 264 ppi, 500 nits
  • Up to 10 h web/video over Wi-Fi, 9 h over cellular
  • 1.03 lb (465 g) with Cellular

Lowest price seen
~$899.00 (approx.)
from $899.00 at Amazon

Prices are snapshots. Check the current price with the store.

Summary

Apple’s midrange 11-inch tablet with the M4 chip, 12GB of memory, Wi-Fi 7 and an eSIM-only 5G modem in the same 60Hz LCD body as the M3 Air. Check the price before you buy: Apple raised iPad Air prices by $150 in June 2026, which weakens a tablet that reviewers already call more power than most people need.

Strengths

  • The M4 is laptop-class: Tom’s Guide measured Geekbench 6 at 3745 single-core and 13342 multi-core.
  • 12GB of memory plus Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread keep it current for years.
  • The C1X modem is a strong cellular upgrade; The Verge found it especially good in weak signal.
  • Display color is excellent despite the 60Hz refresh: Delta-E 0.28 and 116.2% sRGB in testing.
  • Apple Pencil Pro adds squeeze, barrel roll, haptics and Find My.
  • USB 3 at 10Gb/s plus DisplayPort makes the port far more useful than the base iPad’s.

Weaknesses

  • The 11-inch screen is a 60Hz LCD, not the 120Hz OLED of the iPad Pro.
  • No Face ID, and no official dust or water resistance rating.
  • 128GB base storage, with no memory-card slot and costly capacity upgrades.
  • Battery life is essentially unchanged from older Airs, and one reviewer needed a midday recharge.
  • First-party accessories are expensive: Magic Keyboard $269 and Apple Pencil Pro $129.
  • Some owners report abnormal battery drain and heat on new units in the first weeks.

Verified specifications

ChipApple M4, 8-core CPU (3 performance + 5 efficiency cores), 9-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, 120GB/s memory bandwidth, 12GB unified memory.
Display11-inch Liquid Retina, LED-backlit IPS, 2360 × 1640 at 264 ppi, P3 wide color, True Tone, fully laminated, antireflective coating, 500 nits, 60Hz.
Cameras12MP Wide rear (f/1.8, up to 4K60 video), 12MP Center Stage front (f/2.0, up to 1080p60).
Batterybuilt-in 28.93-watt-hour lithium-polymer; up to 10 hours web or video on Wi-Fi, up to 9 hours web on cellular.
WirelessApple N1 chip (Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread); Apple C1X modem with 5G sub-6 GHz and Gigabit LTE; eSIM only, no physical SIM tray.
PortUSB-C with USB 3 up to 10Gb/s and DisplayPort; supports one external display up to 6K at 60Hz.
UnlockTouch ID in the top button; no Face ID.
Apple Pencilsupports Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C), with hover.
OSships with iPadOS 26.
Dimensions9.74 × 7.02 × 0.24 in (247.6 × 178.5 × 6.1 mm); 1.03 lb (465 g) for the cellular model.
In the boxiPad Air, 1m USB-C charge cable and a 20W USB-C power adapter.
Warrantyone year standard.
Full research notes and sources

Performance and day-to-day use

The M4 Air is more tablet than most buyers will exhaust. Tom’s Guide measured Geekbench 6 scores of 3745 single-core and 13342 multi-core, Notebookcheck measured 3735 and 13494, and PCMag measured 3713 and 13153. The Guardian found the M4 up to 21% faster than the M3 and up to 60% faster than the M1, and The Verge measured roughly 20–25% higher CPU and 10–15% higher GPU performance than the M3 Air. CNET says its benchmarks match the 2024 M4 iPad Pro. In PC terms that is a thin, fanless laptop, and it shows in multitasking and creative apps.

Battery life and charging

Apple still claims up to 10 hours of web or video on Wi-Fi and up to 9 hours of web on cellular. Independent tests land around that: Consumer Reports measured about 8.1 hours of web browsing and 11.8 hours of movie playback, Tom’s Guide ran 9 hours 44 minutes on its video and web loop, and PCMag’s maximum-brightness streaming run on the 13-inch model lasted 7 hours 44 minutes. PCMag also measured a full recharge in 1 hour 41 minutes, and Tom’s Guide saw 27% in 30 minutes. Battery life is adequate but flat versus the M3 Air, so it is not a reason to upgrade.

Some owners report trouble early on. An October 2026 owner described a new tablet dropping from about 30% to 0% overnight, while another in the same thread saw only about 1% loss. An August 2026 owner described severe drain, and one commenter said their battery stabilized after about two weeks; others said the drain persisted. Nobody has published a failure rate, so treat a first-week drain as something to watch and escalate through Apple support if it continues, not as a model-wide defect.

Display, Face ID and the 60Hz question

The screen is the Air’s clearest compromise. It is a 60Hz IPS LCD at 500 nits, not the 120Hz OLED of the iPad Pro, and reviewers at Tom’s Guide, The Verge, Engadget and Notebookcheck all flag the missing ProMotion refresh as the biggest gap for the money. Color accuracy is good — Tom’s Guide measured Delta-E 0.28, 116.2% sRGB and 82.3% DCI-P3 — so it is the smoothness, not the color, that disappoints. On a tablet that scrolls, draws and writes, 60Hz is conspicuous next to a 120Hz iPad Pro.

There is also no Face ID; authentication is Touch ID in the top button, which is fine in the hand but less convenient when the tablet is docked in a keyboard. And there is no official dust or water resistance rating, so case it around water.

Accessories and running costs

The accessories are where the budget can run away. Apple’s Magic Keyboard for the 11-inch Air is $269 and the Apple Pencil Pro is $129, with the cheaper Apple Pencil (USB-C) at $79, a 4-pack of Pencil tips at $19 and a Smart Folio at $79. A discounted $799 cellular Air with the keyboard and Pencil Pro can pass $1,100 before a case or a data plan.

There is no mandatory subscription. Electricity is negligible — about $1.93 a year at the July 2026 US residential average of 18.31 cents/kWh. Cellular service is the real recurring cost: AT&T lists prepaid tablet data at $20 a month for 20GB bought 12 months in advance ($240) or $35 a month for 15GB, and a phone hotspot can remove the separate line if the plan allows enough tethering. Apple’s standard warranty runs one year; The Guardian reports the battery should exceed 1,000 full charge cycles at 80% capacity, with battery service from £125 and an out-of-warranty repair from around £429 in the UK. Apple added the M4 iPad Air to its Self Service Repair program, covering batteries, displays, cameras and charging ports, though the jobs still need tools most owners will not have.

Is it worth it?

At its March 2026 launch the 128GB cellular model was about $749 with the Wi-Fi version from $599, and that was a strong buy. Apple raised iPad Air prices by $150 on June 25, 2026; the Wi-Fi 128GB moved to $749, and carrier listings put the 128GB cellular near $899.99 at AT&T retail and about $24.99 a month for 36 months at Verizon. Best Buy’s October 2026 promotion listed unlocked cellular models at about $799, which is the price that makes sense. At Apple’s direct price the case is weak, because the same hardware was $150 cheaper at launch and adding a keyboard pushes it into laptop territory.

The cheaper comparisons are real. Best Buy lists the 128GB cellular base iPad (A16) at about $549; it gives up the M4, Pencil Pro, Wi-Fi 7 and fast USB, but saves a few hundred dollars for browsing, streaming and light schoolwork. The iPad Pro 11-inch (M5) launched at $1,199 and adds the tandem-OLED display, ProMotion, Face ID and a far better screen for creative work. If you do not truly need built-in cellular, compare the $150-cheaper Wi-Fi model plus a phone hotspot before buying. Anyone on an M2 or M3 Air should not upgrade; the jump matters most from an M1 Air or an older base iPad.

Which model this is

This page covers the 11-inch iPad Air (M4), Apple’s eighth-generation iPad Air, announced March 2, 2026 and released March 11, 2026, in the 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular configuration. It is sold in Blue, Purple, Starlight and Space Gray in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. Two cellular model numbers are listed, A3460 and A3462, and the cellular model is eSIM-only.

Differences from the 13-inch M4 Air are display size, resolution, brightness and weight; the chip, radios and software are shared. Do not merge this with the iPad Air (M3), the 2024 M4 iPad Pro, or the M2 and M1 Air. The Amazon listing for this configuration is ASIN B0GQVPN5KR.

Sources

Manufacturer:

Independent reviews:

Retailers and reference:

Owner reports:

Buying guides for this category

Related products