13-inch iPad Air vs iPad Professional 13-inch — in contrast

13-inch M4 iPad Professional [left], 13-inch iPad Air [right]

Apple’s first main replace to its iPad lineup in over a 12 months introduced with it some massive modifications. For a begin, the iPad Professional benefited from new shows, an up to date styling, and M4 efficiency.

In the meantime, the iPad Air had its personal incremental spec bump replace, with a twist. Not solely did it shift from M1 to M2, however Apple additionally introduced out the 13-inch iPad Air alongside the prevailing 11-inch mannequin.

Now, customers who wish to use a big pill have two value and specification lists to select from.

Whereas the 13-inch iPad Professional and 13-inch iPad Air have the identical display property, there’s extra to think about than simply measurement alone.

The iPad Air borrows loads from the design aesthetic of the earlier iPad Professional era. A slab of aluminum and glass with flat edges and an edge-to-edge show, it definitely seems to be like a typical iPad Professional to observers.

The 2024 iPad Professional, in the meantime, has been given a little bit of a redesign. Whereas the identical core design aesthetics are in place, Apple’s labored to make it a bit thinner and lighter than earlier than.

By way of measurement, the 13-inch iPad Air is 11.04 by 8.46 inches and is 0.24 inches thick. The iPad Professional has a barely bigger footprint at 11.09 by 8.48 inches, however it’s thinner at 0.20 inches.

The iPad Professional’s slimming has additionally contributed to its weight reduction, too. At 1.28 kilos, it is lighter than the 1.5-pound iPad Air.

The 13-inch iPad Air makes use of a Liquid Retina show, identical to the earlier era. It is an LED-backlit display with True Tone and Broad Shade (P3) assist.

OLED made its debut on Apple tablets within the 13-inch iPad Professional. The Extremely Retina XDR within the new 13-inch iPad Professional show makes use of Tandem OLED, which makes use of two OLED layers as an alternative of 1 for prime ranges of brightness and an unlimited dynamic vary.

For brightness, Apple reviews the 13-inch iPad Air as able to 600 nits. The iPad Professional’s newer tech means it will probably go as much as 100 nits for full-screen brightness, and 1,600 nits at peak for HDR content material.

The Extremely Retina XDR show on the iPad Professional makes use of Tandem OLED

The higher iPad Professional show additionally has significantly increased distinction ranges at 2,000,000:1. Whereas Apple hasn’t mentioned what the iPad Air is able to, the show expertise is unlikely to match what the iPad Professional is utilizing.

Together with True Tone and Broad Shade (P3) assist, the iPad Professional’s display additionally advantages from ProMotion. Apple’s adaptive variable refresh price expertise can go from 10hz to 120Hz.

This could give iPad Professional customers a smoother scrolling and drawing expertise in comparison with the iPad Air.

The iPad Air graduated to M2 on this new era. A reasonably recognized amount, it was the chip the iPad Professional used to have.

It makes use of eight CPU cores, mixing 4 efficiency cores with 4 effectivity cores, with a ten-core GPU. It additionally has a 16-core Neural Engine, in addition to the Media Engine for hardware-accelerated video encoding and decoding.

Reminiscence-wise, it has 8GB, with 100GB/s of reminiscence bandwidth.

The iPad Professional, in the meantime, has skipped a era and moved on to the M4. Of which, Apple has two variants it affords within the iPad Professional.

The primary model has a nine-core CPU, with three efficiency cores and 6 effectivity cores, which is bought with the 256GB and 512GB capacities. The 1TB and 2TB fashions get a ten-core CPU, with 4 efficiency and 6 effectivity cores.

Each chip variants have a 10-core GPU, full with hardware-accelerated ray tracing. There’s additionally the Media Engine with AV1 decoding assist, and an upgraded Neural Engine.

Reminiscence consists of 8GB on the gigabyte-class fashions, 16GB for terabyte variations. Reminiscence bandwidth is up over the M2, hitting 120GB/s.

In keeping with Apple’s promotional materials, the M4 is allegedly capable of render 4 occasions sooner than the M2, with 1.5 occasions the CPU efficiency. The Neural Engine’s increase goes from 15.8 trillion operations per second within the M2 to 38 trillion within the M4.

For a direct comparability, we will put the M2 within the iPad Professional towards the alleged benchmarks for a 10-core M4 iPad that surfaced shortly after the announcement as a suggestion.

Single-core Geekbench outcomes for an M2 iPad Professional versus alleged M4 figures

In keeping with Geekbench, the M2 within the 12.9-inch iPad Professional which we’re utilizing as a stand-in for the brand new iPad Air right here scores 2,540 for single-core outcomes, and 9,630 for multi-core. The preliminary benchmark for 10-core M4 iPad Professional claims it to hit 3,767 for single-core, 14,677 for multi-core.

Multi-core Geekbench figures for an alleged M4 iPad Professional towards an M2 iPad Professional

This equates to a 48% CPU enchancment for single-core processing, and 52% for multi-core. That is extraordinarily near Apple’s claimed 1.5-times enchancment.

We anticipated that the M4 can be higher performing simply from the two-generation chip soar. If Apple’s claims are to be believed and might be additional verified, the chip change might be large for energy customers, and for Apple’s future AI options.

On the again, each the iPad Professional and iPad Air have just about similar digital camera setups. Each use a 12-megapixel Broad digital camera, full with an f/1.8 aperture and a 5x digital zoom.

The iPad Air simply has a raised digital camera, whereas the iPad Professional has a full bump. That is as a result of there’s different stuff connected to the again.

The iPad Professional digital camera bump [left] towards the iPad Air [right]

The additional objects the iPad Professional has embrace the LIDAR sensor for depth-sensing, which helps with focusing in pictures and different purposes. Apple additionally consists of an Adaptive True Tone flash, which is not included within the Air.

Each are able to recording 4K video at as much as 60fps, in addition to 1080p 240fps slo-mo, and utilizing a 3x digital zoom for video, 5x for stills.

The iPad Professional goes one stage additional by including ProRes video as much as 4K 30fps, 1080p 30fps for the 256GB mannequin. This raises to 4K 60fps when recording to an exterior drive.

The entrance digital camera is a Panorama Extremely Broad model for each, able to 10MP photos. Having an f/2.4 aperture with a 2x zoom out, Heart Stage, and Retina Flash with True Tone, they’re pretty comparable.

Nevertheless, the iPad Professional’s model is a TrueDepth digital camera, so it has facial recognition and depth mapping, permitting it to work with Face ID. The iPad Air lacks Face ID, as an alternative counting on a button-mounted Contact ID sensor.

For audio, the iPad Professional has its four-speaker audio system, whereas the iPad Air has panorama stereo audio system. A minimum of the 13-inch has twice the bass of the 11-inch model.

Microphone counts lean in the direction of the iPad Professional equally, with 4 studio-quality mics versus two.

On the bodily connectivity aspect, each iPad Professional and iPad Air have a rear Good Connector, which can be utilized with equipment just like the Magic Keyboard.

On the base is a USB-C port on the iPad Air, however the iPad Professional sports activities a Thunderbolt / USB 4 connection as an alternative. This does imply there’s much more potential information throughput by means of the iPad Professional’s connection at 40Gb/s vs 10Gb/s, which may also help in some purposes.

The Good Connector on each the iPad Air and iPad Professional can work with the Magic Keyboard

For wi-fi connectivity, there may be Wi-Fi 6E assist on each fashions, in addition to Bluetooth 5.3. Mobile connectivity extends to sub-6GHz 5G sign, with neither working with mmWave.

There’s a mobile change that impacts each fashions versus the earlier generations. The sooner variations supported each bodily Nano-SIM playing cards and eSIMs, however these now solely cope with eSIM.

Supplied in Silver or House Black, the 13-inch iPad Professional begins from $1,299 for the 256GB capability. The 512GB mannequin prices $1,499, the 1TB is $1,899, and the 2TB is $2,299.

Including the Nano-texture glass to the 1TB or 2TB fashions is an additional $100 on prime, with mobile one other $200. The most costly configuration prices $2,599.

The iPad Air might be purchased in 4 colorways: House Grey, Blue, Purple, or Starlight. It begins from $799 for the 128GB mannequin, rising to $899 for 256GB, $1,099 for 512GB, and $1,299 for 1TB.

Whereas there isn’t a Nano-texture glass possibility, you possibly can nonetheless pay $150 for mobile, $50 cheaper than the iPad Professional’s add-on.

Clearly, there are two discrete tiers of iPad fashions being in contrast right here. There are numerous variations, and the overwhelming majority of them profit the iPad Professional greater than the iPad Air.

The iPad Professional goes to have higher show expertise, higher audio, and higher efficiency. However on the identical time, you are going to should pay for it.

The iPad Air could also be cheaper, however it has extra colour choices.

That value distinction varies whenever you evaluate comparable capacities. For the 256GB and 512GB variants, you are paying $400 extra for the iPad Professional than the iPad Air.

At 1TB, the hole in value widens to $600. And that is earlier than you contemplate the additional $50 value disparity of the mobile fashions, or the additional $100 of Nano-texture glass for a number of the iPad Professional fashions.

Basically, each iPad fashions are nice iterations of the shape on paper. Both will have the ability to deal with the needs and desires of the typical consumer for fairly a couple of years.

You would say that spending $400 to $750 extra for the iPad Professional is the higher selection than the comparative iPad Air. Nevertheless, you continue to have to justify it by needing that degree of efficiency or a significantly higher show.

However on the identical time, that value disparity can get you extra storage or mobile on an iPad Air versus a Wi-Fi iPad Professional. Or possibly an adjunct or two just like the Apple Pencil Professional (discounted with promo code APINSIDER at Adorama).

The iPad Professional stays the very best of the very best available on the market, definitely. The iPad Air exists for individuals who can accept a reasonably good pill, whereas additionally having fun with saving a bit of money.

One of the best costs on Apple’s 2024 iPads might be present in our iPad Worth Information, with unique offers on the newest fashions.

At press time, the iPad Air 6 and M4 iPad Professional are eligible for unique coupon financial savings with promo code APINSIDER at Adorama. The tablets are as much as $100 off, with bonus financial savings on AppleCare, bringing the whole reductions to as much as $130 off. Equipment are discounted too with the promo code, together with the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil Professional.

You can even discover the highest offers of the day in our iPad Offers Roundup, which covers the very best affords throughout the whole iPad vary.