Apple iPad Air M3 Review: Can It Replace My Laptop?

Apple made the already fast iPad Air even more powerful with their M3 chip and improved the keyboard cover. I took that as a reason not just to test the iPad Air M3 normally, but to completely replace my laptop and desktop with it for 14 days. That mostly worked well, but I kept running into one recurring problem.

Later in the review, I’ll also tell you when it’s better to go for the simple iPad 11 instead of the Air, and when it makes sense to invest much more money into an iPad Pro.

Design and Build Quality

The design of the iPad Air hasn’t changed compared to the previous generation. Well, except for the fact that the “iPad Air” lettering on the back is gone. It’s available in Space Gray, Purple, Starlight, and Blue – my review unit is Starlight.

As usual with Apple, the body is made entirely of aluminum and feels very clean and premium. It’s only 6.1mm thin, and while the 11-inch model weighs 460g, the 13-inch Air comes in at 616g. I’m reviewing the 13-inch model – but aside from the displays, there are almost no differences between the two.

As usual, there’s no microSD card slot and no headphone jack. But it does have a USB-C 3 port. On the sides, there are also the volume buttons and a power button, which has the Touch ID fingerprint reader built in. That one works perfectly.

Back to the USB port. Since I used the iPad Air as a laptop and desktop replacement for two weeks, I had it connected to a USB-C hub on my desk.

Through the hub, I connected a 4K monitor, the USB dongle for my mouse, an external SSD, and other things like SD cards or microphones depending on what I needed at the time. That actually worked very well, and together with a Bluetooth keyboard, I put together a nice setup.

A quick word on the cameras. On the back, there’s a 12-megapixel camera that takes very solid pictures. The 12-megapixel ultra-wide front camera is also good and great for video chats.

Hardware and Performance

The biggest new thing in the iPad Air is Apple’s own M3 chipset. It also has 8GB of RAM and between 128GB and 1TB of internal storage. Alongside WiFi 6E, there’s optional 5G support, but only with an eSIM. I tested the 5G version and it works wonderfully. The only downside is that you can’t make phone calls which Android 5G tablets usually can do.

Back to the M3 chip. As you can see in my Geekbench 6 benchmark comparison, performance is better than with the previous M2 chipset, but the difference isn’t huge. An upgrade is definitely not worth it.

However, the M3 is much more powerful than the A16 in the basic iPad. Depending on the app, you’ll notice a difference. I personally use the iPad Pro with the M4, and compared to that, I didn’t notice a difference – even with photo and video editing, because the M3 is just that fast.

In benchmarks, the M4 is stronger – you’ll see that in the 3D Mark comparison. But again, those are just benchmarks. I started playing Resident Evil 3 and it runs smoothly and looks really nice on the Air. The effects are great and the atmosphere is nicely creepy.

You can now install third-party app stores, so Fortnite is back on iPads. However, just like on the iPad 11, I could only set the graphics to “Medium.” For some reason, Epic still doesn’t offer higher settings. Still, the graphics look better than on Android tablets with “Epic” settings.

If you want to play games like Resident Evil, it’s definitely worth going for the iPad Air instead of the basic iPad. Those games and some others don’t run on the basic iPad. Other than that, most less demanding games run just as well on the iPad 11.

And I didn’t notice a performance difference compared to the iPad Pro. That only makes sense for gamers if you want the bright OLED.

For office tasks, it’s super powerful anyway. I had Safari, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Feedly, Lightroom, Gmail and YouTube open all at the same time and the tablet never felt slow.

That also applies if you want to edit videos. I edited a YouTube Short in LumaFusion using 4K footage from my pro camera, and it worked super smoothly. But the previous generation handled that just as well.

Read: Word for iPad: Office & Other iPad Writing Apps Compared

Display and Speakers

Let’s move on to the display, which I don’t only have praise for. As mentioned, the iPad Air is available in 11 inches and 13 inches. I have the 13-inch version here, but we also have the 11-inch model from the previous generation. The displays haven’t changed from one generation to the next.

Both have a pixel density of 264 ppi and therefore look very sharp. They are fully laminated, and that’s a very important difference compared to the iPad 11, which is not laminated. The Air’s display is much better, especially for handwritten notes.

The brightness of the 13-inch display is good at 600 nits and is about the same level as Samsung’s flagships. Unfortunately, the 11-inch Air only offers 500 nits, so it’s a bit darker. The colors are great on both models and better than on Samsung.

Except for the black levels, of course – these are LCDs, and AMOLEDs from Samsung or the Tandem OLED of the iPad Pro have a big advantage there. The latter is also noticeably brighter than the Air. And at this point, I also want to mention the Honor MagicPad 2, which for around 500 dollars has an OLED that’s just as bright as the one in the iPad Pro. If you’re looking for a tablet just for watching movies, you can get a better display for less money. But in other aspects, the Air is better.

It’s also a bit of a shame that the Air only supports 60Hz. Sure, for office work and editing photos and videos that’s not a big problem. But all Android manufacturers offer 120Hz in this price range and it bothers me a bit that scrolling through websites shows visible motion blur.

If you want an iPad with 120Hz and OLED, you’ll have to go for the iPad Pro. That’s how it’s been for a while now and Apple probably won’t change it, because if the Air had a display as good as the Pro, there’d be no reason to buy the Pro.

The four speakers on the sides are really good and sound very pleasant. That makes them better than most other tablets on the market. The only exceptions are the iPad Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. Both are a bit louder.

Read: Ultimate iPad Buying Guide: ALL iPads Tested

Software: iPadOS and External Monitor Experience, Photoshop

The iPad Air runs iPadOS 18, of course, and Apple will support it with updates for a very, very long time. I expect at least 7 years, maybe even longer. Since it has 8GB of RAM, it also supports Apple Intelligence.

What I love about iPads is that there are more apps than for Android that are optimized for large touchscreens. For example, Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo. And even Lightroom runs better on an iPad than on an Android device.

As I said, I used the Air as a laptop and desktop replacement. I think together with the keyboard cover, it’s a really good laptop replacement. That’s because the touchscreen remains easily accessible as a laptop, and the iPad Air display is the only screen you’re using.

But if you build a setup on your desk to use it as a desktop replacement, the iPad display moves further back and up. After all, a desktop should be set up to be ergonomically comfortable. And that makes using the touchscreen a bit awkward.

I worked with the iPad Air for 14 days straight and used it mostly with mouse and keyboard. And in 90% of all cases, it worked really well. Sure, I had to get used to some things. But with Stage Manager – which you can see as a kind of desktop mode – and with my external monitor, it worked wonderfully.

Most of the time, but not always. Occasionally, there were issues with scaling on the external monitor. Google Docs sometimes doesn’t work properly if you keep resizing the window. It immediately works again once you resize it again, but that shouldn’t happen in the first place.

In the Feedly app, I often had the problem that my Logitech mouse wouldn’t scroll. I had to pull the app onto the iPad screen and use the touchscreen. Sometimes the mouse works. But sometimes it just doesn’t.

Also in Lightroom, the scroll wheel on my mouse didn’t work a few times. Here, I could simulate a finger with click-and-drag to scroll. Photoshop is optimized for touchscreens on the iPad and it often causes problems with the mouse and external monitor. Even in LumaFusion, I had to use the touchscreen to edit videos, because doing it with a regular mouse and keyboard is almost impossible.

Read: Xiaomi Pad 7 vs Pad 7 Pro: Which One Should You Get?

Yes, these are touch-first apps, which makes sense on an iPad. And the keyboard cover has a touchpad… So I bought the Magic Trackpad – and actually, that works much better than a regular mouse. With the trackpad, you can zoom in Photoshop and also use LumaFusion, since it behaves more like a touchscreen. It works much better, but even with the trackpad, I sometimes couldn’t scroll in Feedly. That app just doesn’t like mice.

So, can you use the iPad Air as a desktop replacement? Yes, you can – and it works really well 90% of the time. I definitely recommend using a trackpad instead of a traditional mouse for that.

Will I permanently replace my desktop with an iPad? No. But that’s also a generational thing – I grew up with mouse and keyboard, and when I want to work fast and be productive, a desktop operating system is still best for me.

But you can replace a desktop with an iPad, and I think an iPad can be the only computer for many – but only if you’re not a desktop power user. I’ve decided to experiment more in the future and regularly use just an iPad or Android tablet as a desktop. Two weeks with Samsung DeX sounds tough, but I think I have to try it.

Keyboard Cover and Laptop Replacement

Apple released a new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Air with the M3 chip. The old keyboard still works with the new Air, but my old Air didn’t work with the new keyboard.

It’s nice that the price is a bit cheaper than the previous generation – $319 for the 13-inch keyboard. But of course, $319 still sounds insanely expensive for a keyboard.

The Magic Keyboard has a metal core and hinge, but it’s covered in plastic on the outside. The iPad connects magnetically to the keyboard and at the same time gains an extra USB-C port that’s built into the hinge.

On the 13-inch keyboard, I was able to start typing comfortably right away, because it’s almost as big as my desktop keyboard. What’s nice is that there’s now a function row at the top for shortcuts – the previous model didn’t have that. Unfortunately, it’s missing the backlighting that the iPad Pro keyboard has.

Apple Pencil Pro and Notes

The iPad Air works with the Apple Pencil USB-C and with the Pencil Pro. There are no differences compared to the previous generation. But there’s a huge difference compared to the basic iPad 11. That one doesn’t have a laminated display and it doesn’t support the Pencil Pro.

On the iPad Air, handwriting and drawing are way better than on the basic iPad. Along with the iPad Pro, it’s one of the absolute best tablets for use with a stylus. That’s simply because the stylus works so well, the display is fully laminated, and there are tons of great apps in the App Store for it.

But like I said – that’s not new. It was the same with previous iPad Airs. And the stylus works exactly the same on the iPad Pro.

Battery Life

Like all LCD iPads, the Air unfortunately performs very poorly in my battery test and only reaches 5.5 hours. For this test, I always run an HD YouTube video on a loop at maximum brightness.

iPad Air M3 Review: My Conclusion

So, the iPad Air definitely isn’t perfect. The battery life could be better, and it would be nice if the display supported 120Hz. Apple could really improve those two things – but I don’t think they will. Because if you want 120Hz, longer battery life, and OLED, you have to get the iPad Pro.

But all the other features of the Air are great. The M3 chip is one of the most powerful processors on the market and is perfect for gaming and for editing videos. The display may only support 60Hz, but it’s bright enough and has great colors – perfect if you want to edit photos. Thanks to the good speakers, it’s also a solid media tablet.

The Apple Pencil Pro and the Magic Keyboard are both very expensive accessories, but they work flawlessly. And a big highlight remains the software and the huge selection of apps optimized for tablets.

You’ve seen that the iPad Air really can be used as a laptop replacement. And with the Magic Trackpad, it can even serve as a desktop replacement – as long as you’re not a power user. If you’re specifically looking for a desktop PC or laptop, I wouldn’t recommend the iPad. But if you want a tablet that can occasionally replace a laptop or desktop, that’s totally doable.