Apple iPad Air 4 Specs, Price, Availability, And All You Need To Know
Apple’s middle child in its tablet range has been the iPad Air. It gives you the best of both worlds but has stuck to an older design so far. This year’s iPad Air refresh is making the leap to the new design sourced from the Pro range, making it hard to distinguish between them. Not just the exterior, but Apple has also made a ton of upgrades on the inside to give it all the power it needs for your day-to-day tasks and even gaming.
Here’s all you need to know about the new 11-inch Apple iPad Air 4, including its specifications, pricing, availability details, all its accessories, and everything else.
Read: Our Apple iPad Air 4 Review
Highlights
- 10.9-inch Liquid Retina LCD
- Six-core A14 Bionic 5nm processor
- Quad speakers
- Optional 4G LTE
- iPadOS 14
- Up to 256GB of storage
- Optional Apple Pencil (2nd gen)
- Optional Magic Keyboard with trackpad
Apple iPad Air 4: The Basics
Apple is finally doing away with all those thick bezels that made older models look dated and adopting the iPad Pro’s design for the slightly cheaper iPad Air. This year’s iPad Air has got flat sides and a display that extends almost edge to edge. That design change also means that the front-facing fingerprint reader is now gone. However, that doesn’t mean Apple is switching to Face ID; the Air still uses a Touch ID sensor which is now placed on the tablet’s side, under the power key. The company has also upgraded the speaker arrangement to a quad-speaker setup, matching what has so far been exclusive to the iPad Pro.
On the inside, the new mid-tier tablet comes with Apple’s brand-new A14 Bionic chip, which is expected to power the new iPhones, too. The processor is a generational upgrade both in CPU and GPU performance over the last year’s A13. As it’s the case with Apple, we don’t know the device’s RAM capacity just yet, but it should be equal to or more than what the previous model offered, which was plenty enough for most things. The Air comes preloaded with iPadOS, which recently got updated with a ton of features. From the back, the iPad Air 4 looks a lot like the first-gen iPad Pro 11. You get the same 12MP camera capable of taking 4K videos, while there is a 7MP camera on the front.
That design also makes the 2020 iPad Air compatible with the new Magic Keyboard that levitates the tablet, allowing you to hold it at any angle. You get the same keyboard and trackpad experience as you do on the Pro. Apart from its design, the Air has also borrowed the USB-C port from its pricier sibling, as many have been asking for. That port alone opens up the iPad to a host of external devices and possibilities. This model supports the new Apple Pencil (2nd gen), which attaches magnetically to the device’s side and charges wirelessly. Apple claims that the slate can last for up to 10 hours on a single charge.
Read: The Best iPads In 2020: Which Apple Tablet Should You Get?
Full Specifications
Tablet | Apple iPad Air 4 (2020) |
---|---|
Operating system | iPadOS 14 |
Display | 10.9-inch (2360 x 1640) Liquid Retina, 60Hz, 500 nits |
Processor | Six-core Apple A14 Bionic |
Storage | 64/256GB |
Expandable | No |
RAM | NA |
Main camera | 12MP f/1.8 wide, up to4K 60fps |
Front camera | 7MP f/2.0 |
Connectivity | Optional 4G LTE, Wi-Fi ax, Bluetooth 5.0 |
Ports | USB Type-C |
Battery | 28.6Wh, up to 10 hours |
Security | Touch ID |
Dimensions | 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1mm |
Weight | 460 grams |
Pricing & Availability
You’ll be able to order the all-new iPad Air next month, but we don’t have an exact release date for that. However, we do know that it’ll be priced starting $599 for the base 64GB storage option, which you can upgrade to 256GB. Going for the LTE model of the 64GB option will cost you $729. You’ll have to shell another $299 for the Magic Keyboard, the same one that the iPad Pro uses, while the Apple Pencil (2nd gen) costs the usual $129.
Apple iPad Air 4 Alternatives
The 2020 iPad Air is a high-end machine, and you should look for its alternative in the premium tier. Apple’s first-gen iPad Pro 11-inch (review) is perhaps the best option, especially if you care about Face ID and its higher-refresh-rate screen. Grab one of these if you can still find one retailing at a lower price or even a refurbished one. If you’re okay spending a little more, then the 2020 iPad Pro (review) could also be a great device, though it doesn’t offer all that much over the previous Pro.
Samsung recently came out with its Galaxy Tab S7 series, which now also has a 12-inch model. It’s perhaps the best Android tablet you can get right now, and it’s still priced around the new iPad Air. On the Windows side, you can look at the higher-end variant of the Microsoft Surface Go 2 (review), which should give you a more desktop-like experience with its full-fledged Windows OS and all its accessories. In case you want something on a tighter budget, then Apple’s all-new iPad 8 should be a great bet. It packs a much-improved processor, though its design has started to look a bit dated.
Read: Comparison: Apple iPad 10.2 vs. iPad 9.7 vs. iPad Air 2019
- Fantastic built quality
- Great 10.9-inch screen
- Super-fast Apple A14 SoC
- Fingerprint scanner
- Apple Pencil 2 support
- Two keyboard choices
- Huge app ecosystem
- No 120Hz screen
- Pricey with accessories
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