Apple snuck the M4 chip into its mid-range pill this week with out including a cent to the invoice — $599 for the 11-inch, $799 for the 13-inch. Need one? Pre-orders go up March 4, it ships March 11. College students get a barely higher deal — $549 and $749 respectively via Apple’s schooling pricing.
Similar worth, greater chip
9 GPU cores as a substitute of eight, RAM up from 8GB to 12GB, bandwidth at 120GB/s. Apple places the efficiency acquire at 30% over the M3, which tracks — extra reminiscence tends to try this. For M1 customers the leap is more durable to disregard: 2.3x quicker throughout the board, 4 instances faster on ray-traced 3D graphics, and a Neural Engine that’s thrice quicker.
That final bit issues greater than it used to, since iPadOS is leaning closely on on-device AI via Apple Intelligence — transcribing notes, rewriting emails, digging via photographs. The M4 handles all of it with out pinging a server.
The Air additionally will get Apple’s N1 wi-fi chip this time round, which brings Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. Mobile fashions choose up the C1X modem — 50% quicker than what the M3 Air had, and 30% lighter on battery drain.
The 12MP Middle Stage digital camera sits alongside the panorama edge, which makes an actual distinction if the iPad lives in a stand or paired with the brand new Magic Keyboard.
New keyboard, similar pencil
That keyboard now comes with a 14-key perform row, dealing with brightness, quantity and the remaining with out diving into software program. Apple Pencil Professional works with it too. 4 colours — blue, purple, starlight, area grey — and storage from 128GB to 1TB.
Then there’s iPadOS 26, which is doing a number of the heavy lifting right here. The interface has been rebuilt round one thing Apple calls Liquid Glass — a translucent materials that shifts primarily based on what’s behind it.
Extra virtually, there’s a correct windowing system now, letting customers stack and swap between apps in a approach that lastly feels nearer to a desktop. A brand new menu bar, an overhauled Information app, and a local Preview app spherical issues out. For longtime iPad customers, it’s the largest software program leap in years.
How Apple held the worth
Protecting the worth flat whereas bumping RAM by 50% is more durable than it seems proper now. Reminiscence prices have been in all places, and most gadget makers have quietly handed these prices on.
Apple hasn’t, and that comes down to a couple issues — the sheer quantity it buys provides it leverage most suppliers received’t push again on, and its offers are typically locked in nicely forward of when costs spike.
The 3nm course of M4 runs on can be cheaper per transistor than what got here earlier than, which frees up margin elsewhere. Put collectively, it’s sufficient to eat the reminiscence price with out touching the sticker worth.
