The Apple iPad Air 11 2024 is like a superhero among ordinary people. The novelty, although inferior to the flagship Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 (recently reviewed), but still offers unattainable performance for any Android competitors, as well as the best software. We tested the new product in popular benchmarks and real AAA console games.
Content
| Technical characteristics | |
| Screen | 11″ 2360×1640 pixels |
| IPS 60 Hz | |
| HDR 10 Dobly Vision | |
| Processor | Apple Silicon M2 8 Cores |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Drive | 256 GB |
| Camera | 12 MP f/1.8 + 12 MP f/2.4 |
| Video | 2160p60, 1080p60, 720p240 |
| Wireless interfaces | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Wi-Fi 6E | |
| Wired interfaces | USB Type C |
| Battery | 29 W*h |
| Acoustics | 4 speakers |
| Additionally | Fingerprint scanner |
| Barometer | |
| Apple Pencil Pro | |
| Case materials | Metal |
| Dimensions | 247.6×178.5×6.1 mm |
| Weight | 0.462 kg |
| Operating system | iPadOS |
The Apple iPad Air 11 2024 is slightly thicker (6.1 mm) than its older brother, the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 (5.3 mm), and weighs 462 grams. The hero of the review weighs 0.462 kg and has an all-metal body. The front panel gets easily dirty with fingerprints, and the back has an aluminum structure.
The device fits well in the hands, it doesn’t slip, but some people won’t like the protruding camera, although with a case this problem will no longer bother them. There are six colors available for the Apple iPad Air 11 2024: gray, purple, graphite, beige, white, and blue. The back panel has special contacts for the branded keyboard.
On the left is the lock key with a built-in fingerprint scanner. Unfortunately, the Apple iPad Air 11 2024 does not have Face ID support, so you will have to use the «old grandfathered» method. Above are the sound control keys and a place for the Apple Pencil Pro.
On the right side is a USB Type C connector. The Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 module is used for wireless connection. The Apple iPad Air 11 2024 finds wireless devices quickly, connects instantly, and the connection is good. For example, you can walk around the house with headphones, leaving the tablet behind two walls.
The tablet is equipped with a high-quality IPS screen with a resolution of 2360×1640 pixels. This is more than enough for an 11-inch diagonal, as well as a brightness of 500 nits. The screen has a light sensor, supports HDR10, and boasts excellent viewing angles.
The picture is soft and doesn’t tire the eyes, and fans of nighttime TV shows will be pleased to see a wide range of brightness – the minimum level is surprisingly low. The image using the TrueTone profile is realistic, the colors are accurate. The manufacturer claims full coverage of the DCI-P3 color space.
Among IPS screens, it is exemplary, and for some people it will be better than OLED. There are many people who cannot physically withstand working with organic matrices for long periods of time, so classic IPS panels will not disappear from the market for a long time. The only problem is that this is one of the most expensive tablets with a 60 Hz screen.
Both cameras of the hero of the review take excellent photos for a tablet. The Apple iPad Air 11 2024 is far from being an iPhone, but the camera is much better than the ones found in laptops. For taking photos of documents, connecting with video, and online conferences, it’s the way to go.
The camera captures high-quality 4K video with luxurious stabilization, almost on par with the basic Apple iPhone models. But the situation changes dramatically in low light, when the camera image becomes grainy. Another serious drawback is the lack of Face ID. This is a big disappointment after the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024.
The sound from the four speakers is high quality, loud, three-dimensional, with well-perceived low frequencies. The main thing is to purchase a subscription to a high-bitrate music service (for example, Apple Music), because the sound quality on YouTube leaves much to be desired.
In all usage scenarios, the Apple iPad Air 11 2024 is lightning fast, and in some programs it is faster than premium desktop computers, not to mention regular Android tablets from competitors.
In the Safari browser, pages open instantly, and the heaviest programs, directories, scripts do not cause the FPS to drop during scrolling, as is the case with other tablets with Snapdragon processors. Subjective feelings are fully confirmed by the results of Speedometer 3.0 tests.
The comprehensive Geekbench test shows a similar trend, where the Apple iPad Air 11 2024 tablet competes only with the same brand’s equipment. It’s quite far from the M4, the gap is significant, but Snapdragon competitors are also noticeably behind.
In the multicore test, the situation is even better for the Apple iPad Air 11 2024, which managed to outperform the Apple iPad Pro 13 2022. The gap with the best Android tablets and smartphones of today is almost twofold..
The Apple iPad Air 11 2024 leaves its closest competitor far behind, showing 100+% (more than twice) better results. Moreover, it outperforms three times more expensive laptops with Intel Core Ultra 9.
Of course, it’s no longer the leader in the Multi Core test, but it’s still a very good result, especially considering its power consumption.
The power per 1 W is very high, even compared to other ARM processors. For example, to export an identical video, a computer will take 30 times more power (depending on the hardware) than a tablet.
Exporting 10 GB of video to DaVinci Resolve on a powerful computer with AMD Ryzen 9 7900 + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX takes eight minutes. Note that the program makes good use of hardware acceleration, so the PC is literally at its limit and consumes more than 300 watts.
The Apple iPad Air 11 2024 tablet handled this file in 12 minutes and 28 seconds, and the older Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 in 7 minutes and 22 seconds, which is faster than a desktop computer. Obviously, an iPad with an M2 processor will easily bring most expensive x86 laptops to their knees when it comes to video rendering.
Like the iPad Pro M2 2022, the hero of the review has too powerful hardware for most video games from the App Store, so we tested only the most demanding projects that do not work adequately on every Apple iPhone smartphone, and many of these games simply do not exist for Android.
Asphalt 9, CarX Street and Real Racing 3 work perfectly, but run into artificial frame rate limitations created by developers. The situation will be similar with all games that have average system requirements. Everything works smoothly, stably, but 60 Hz is 60 Hz, not 120 Hz, so fans of high frequencies will be slightly disappointed.
Alien Isolation does not have fine graphical settings, but it works stably. The graphics are great, and with headphones, immersion in the gameplay becomes even better. A quality AAA console game that is well adapted to touch controls – it looks like mobile gaming is slowly climbing out of the «casual» swamp.
Call of Duty Warzone plays great, but the smoothness is far from the same as on the iPad Pro (120 Hz). It’s easy and enjoyable to play, and the win rate goes up immediately. Again, everything rests on the screen refresh rate.
Resident Evil: Village has luxurious graphics, like on game consoles, because it is a direct port. It’s so «direct» that the developers didn’t adapt the touch controls, but simply added a virtual gamepad. This is a lazy approach, of course, although the game itself looks incredible on a tablet screen.
You can play with ultra graphics, but in this case there will be no stable 60 FPS. This is one of the few scenarios where the full capabilities of the iPad’s graphics accelerator are used. It’s nice to see that more and more AAA video games are appearing for iOS/iPad OS, especially against the background of low-quality casual games.
Genshin Impact supports 120 FPS with maximum graphics, although there is no point in this mode since the screen is only 60 Hz. The insane reserve of the M2 makes it rely not on its computing power, but on other components of the Apple iPad Air 11 2024.
Resident Evil 4 runs smoother, although the graphics are slightly worse. There are no graphics profile settings, so you have to play under the conditions offered by the developer. It is interesting not only for new players, but also for die-hard fans of the series to play through the masterpiece again on a new device.
The tablet will also easily run all other casual games, for example, «Tisa». I also liked playing AR games using the built-in camera. On the big screen Angry Birds Isle of Pigs feels different, not like a smartphone.
For gamers, the Apple iPad Air 11 2024 is an adequate option, because it is one of the most powerful tablets on the market, although the display will not allow you to realize all the capabilities of the processor. Many games will easily run at 120 FPS, but the user will only see 60 Hz.
The tablet works for more than 25 hours in light office mode. Of course, this is with a minimum level of backlighting. The screen is bright, so you can expect 12-15 hours with 100% backlighting. Watching YouTube 4K is possible for at least 5 hours and 16 minutes if you use the maximum brightness.
In games, the Apple iPad Air 11 2024 sits down quickly – Genshin Impact with ultra graphics takes about 30% in an hour. In economy mode with an average level of screen backlighting and FPS limitation, you can play for 5-6 hours.
In most usage scenarios, the tablet does not heat up too much – the pyrometer on the back panel records 30-35 °C, but under high load (repeated stress tests) you can see 40-45 °C. During games, the Apple iPad Air 11 2024 can keep your hands warm. Note that the tests were conducted in the summer heat (27-28 °C in the room).
When you turn on the tablet for the first time, it updates to the latest version of the iPad OS. The interface is as simple, concise, clear, and easy to use as possible after other systems, such as Android. The proprietary keyboard is especially convenient, and you can get used to it in five minutes.
The Apple iPad Air 11 2024 supports working with windows, and by connecting a proprietary keyboard with a touchpad, it turns into a laptop (well, almost). RAM management is worth praising separately, because the tablet does not unload programs in the background, and running games do not drain the battery when minimized.
There are separate versions of programs with an adapted interface for iPad tablets. Most often, these are software for working with multimedia, such as photo/video editors, drawing programs, music creation, etc. In terms of software, the Apple iPad Air 11 2024 can do much more than competitors on a different operating system.
After the Apple iPad Pro 11 2024, the review hero was disappointed only by the lack of a face scanner, because in all other respects it gave an almost identical experience. For a large audience, the IPS screen can be an advantage over OLED, although this is very individual.
Smooth, autonomous, stable, high-quality, luxurious and well-balanced tablet for all occasions. The main problem of the owner of the Apple iPad Air 11 2024 is the method of utilizing its incredible power, although this applies to the entire lineup with M-series processors.
Apart from AAA games and multimedia programs (video editing, for example), there is not much to do on the Apple iPad Air 11 2024, but is it necessary to load it 100%? It gives a pleasant user experience in everything that such an expensive device should give.
The Apple iPad Air 11 2024 is suitable for an artist, photographer, gamer, or just a housewife who watches TV shows, listens to music, and plays games «three in a row». The important thing is that after the hero of the review, you don’t want to switch to tablets from other manufacturers, of course, if your budget allows you to make such expensive purchases.
Apple iPad Air 11 2024 has no competitors among Android tablets due to their relatively low processor performance. For a model with 256 GB of RAM, large retailers ask for 37,000 hryvnias. Unofficially, it can be bought for 31,300 hryvnias.
Nearest «competitor» Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 128 GB also costs 37,000 hryvnias (official price), but with less memory and a much weaker processor. Models from other manufacturers can’t compete with M2 tablets.
Nevertheless, the main threat to the successful sales of the Apple iPad Air 11 2024 is the two-year-old Apple iPad Pro 11 2022, which also has an M2 processor but is equipped with a 120 Hz OLED screen.
Price Apple iPad Pro 11 2022 128 GB is UAH 40,500, and unofficially it can be purchased for UAH 30,000. «White» version Apple iPad Pro 11 2022 256 GB is not available, and «gray» costs 37,000 UAH.
The best tablet of our time, that is Apple iPad Pro 11 2024 slightly more expensive – for the version with 256 GB of memory, the price starts at 45,000 UAH. There are no official deliveries in Ukraine yet.
Predecessor Apple iPad Air 11 2022 256 GB has an official price of 37,000 UAH. If you search, you can find it for 27,000 hryvnias in small stores. It makes no sense to buy it officially, because the updated 2024 model has an identical price tag.
