iPad Air M4 Review: 12GB RAM and Pro-Level Power at $949

Apple's 13-inch iPad Air M4 starts at $949 / £949 — a $150 jump over the M3 generation — yet Digital Camera World's review concludes it now threatens the flagship iPad Pro's core justification simply by handling professional RAW workflows without breaking a sweat.

The tested configuration, a Space Grey Wi-Fi + Cellular model with 1TB storage, carried 12GB of unified memory — a 50% increase over the 8GB in the M2 and M3 Airs before you even count the chip jump. The reviewer pushed 61-megapixel Sony A7R V RAW files through Lightroom on it, treating the tablet as a desk-bound machine rather than babying it.

The verdict: zooming into 61MP files, recovering highlights and shadows, adjusting color, cropping and moving between images all stayed responsive. "I wasn't sitting there waiting for the machine." Once hardware gets fast enough, you stop thinking about the computer and start thinking about the photograph — and the Air M4 crossed that line quickly.

What does the benchmark data show?

Geekbench 6 results from the review:

• Single-core: 3,712 (roughly 42% above the M2 Air)
• Multi-core: 13,168 (roughly 44% above the M2 Air)
• Metal GPU: 53,071 — up from 30,563 on the M2 Air and nearly identical to the iPad Pro M4's tested 53,252

That GPU parity with the last-generation Pro is the number working photographers should note. The remaining gap between Air and Pro is display hardware, not processing power.

Where the Air still falls short

The Air's 13-inch Liquid Retina display runs 2732 x 2048 at up to roughly 600 nits, with glossy glass. It lacks the Pro's OLED panel, its substantially higher HDR brightness, and the nano-texture option — microscopic etching that scatters ambient light to reduce reflections. The reviewer, a nano-texture user, notes that going back to glossy glass is noticeable. If your work involves critical HDR grading or regular outdoor editing in bright sunlight, the Pro display remains a genuine reason to spend more.

Price and configuration realities

Pricing across the range:

• 11-inch Wi-Fi, 128GB: $749 / £749; 13-inch: $949 / £949
• Cellular adds $150 to each ($899 / £899 and $1,099 / £1,099)
• Maxed at 1TB: $1,349 / £1,349 and $1,549 / £1,549 Wi-Fi, or $1,499 / £1,499 and $1,699 / £1,699 cellular

The M3 Air started at $599 / £599 and $799 / £799, so this is a notable increase — part of Apple raising prices across the board amid industry-wide cost increases. Base storage stays restrictive at 128GB, and A7R V-class RAW files eat storage fast. The reviewer wouldn't buy the cheapest model for photography-heavy use, but points out that USB-C makes external storage and card-reader workflows practical — files don't need to live permanently on the tablet.

Focus stacking, video, and thermal behavior

Affinity Photo handled focus-stacked image sets on the Air; JPG stacks imported and processed in seconds, RAW stacks took longer but comparable to a Mac running HeliconFocus or Photoshop. Results matched Photoshop output, with occasional bloom errors fixable in minutes with clone or heal tools.

Video testing in LumaFusion — 2K plus some 4K, with transitions, audio and color — ran with no stability problems. The machine handles ProRes, and Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve are available on iPad. The unit warms under load, noticeably more in video work than photo editing, though never concerningly. Apple claims up to 10 hours of battery, with the usual workload-dependent caveats.

The spec sheet: M4 8-core CPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 9-core graphics, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, 6.1mm thick, 616g (Wi-Fi) or 617g (cellular). The rear camera is a 12MP f/1.8 unit with Smart HDR 4 — a utility for scanning and calls, not a reason to buy.

Upgrade math for working photographers

Coming from a pre-M-series iPad, the difference is enormous. Owners of an M1 or M2 iPad Pro may find this Air the natural replacement. M2 or M3 Air owners should keep their wallets closed — those machines remain very capable in 2026 and look virtually identical. The reviewer's advice for Air-versus-Pro buyers: configure both side by side and ask what the Pro gives you that you'll actually use. The honest answer for most photographers is shrinking fast, and that's becoming Apple's biggest problem.