Mid-range model

Review: iPad Air (2026) - Good and not so good

The compromises in the iPad Air make it a niche tablet for those who need performance but do not want to pay for an iPad Pro.

Elias Nordling Elias Nordling

Published 24 September 2026 - 11:39

When the first iPad Air was launched in 2013, it stood out for being unusually thin and light for a tablet. These days, Apple has turned the iPad into a product family with six models, not counting older ones, where new models most often have to make do with higher performance while other features are retained. The iPad Air is the mid-range model, which easily risks being neither one thing nor the other. It is neither thinner nor lighter than the 2025 iPad Pro, so the name has become somewhat misleading, but compared with the regular 2026 iPad, it is slightly thinner and lighter.

All iPads have also become very similar in design, with straight edges and rather sharp corners that gradually dig into your fingers when you hold it, especially if you use one of the larger models as I do. The similarities have advantages too: I can use the cover from an older iPad Pro with the iPad Air I am testing without any problems. The dimensions differ slightly, but not enough to prevent the magnetic case from fitting.

The cheaper large model

If you want a larger tablet, the options are the iPad Air 13, referring to its screen size in inches, which we are testing here, and the iPad Pro 13. There is also an 11-inch version of the tablet, from SEK 7,795 upwards.

The iPad Air 13-inch (2026) costs from 10,495 kronor with 128 GB of storage up to 17,495 kronor with 1 TB of storage. Not cheap, but considerably less expensive than the iPad Pro 13, which costs from 16,995 kronor with 256 GB of storage.

Compared with last year's model, the iPad Air (2026) mainly offers more performance. It has Apple's M4 chipset instead of the M3, 12 GB of memory instead of 8 GB, and if you choose the version with eSIM for mobile network connectivity, it also has a new modem that provides faster mobile network connectivity.

Apple itself gives examples of where the performance can be useful. These include the graphics application Pixelmator Pro for creative professionals, more demanding video editing and 3D games. If your needs are more modest and you mainly want the large screen for watching films or browsing, you are unlikely to notice the improved performance compared with its predecessor. Or, for that matter, an older model. I have an iPad Pro from 2022, and the iPad Air 2026 is only modestly faster in the performance tests and demanding apps I try.

Worse display

The display is the most obvious difference between the iPad Air and iPad Pro. Instead of an OLED display, you get an LCD display; instead of a high refresh rate that provides smooth motion, you get 60 Hz and noticeable lag as soon as you scroll. The display also has lower brightness and struggles in sunlight. This is partly compensated for by its anti-reflective coating, but I do not think it makes any dramatic difference when I compare it with a tablet without anti-reflective coating.

If you are going to watch films on the tablet, it is nice that it has four speakers that provide proper width and volume. Compared with the best tablet speakers I have heard, I miss some of the lower frequencies here, but as far as I can tell, the sound is as good as on the iPad Pro.

The iPad Air (2026) comes with iPadOS 26, and although Apple makes no promises about how long it will receive updates, Apple usually keeps its devices updated with new system versions for six years or more. I used to think it was silly of Apple to call iPadOS a separate operating system when in practice it was the same iOS as on the iPhone, but the differences, particularly in the user interface, are growing. Virtually all apps can now run in windows as on a computer, and you drag a corner to resize them. This provides a more computer-like experience and makes it easier to move text and images between different apps.

Costs extra

To get the most out of the iPad Air (2026), it is not enough to pay for the tablet itself. If you want a stylus, protective cover or keyboard, they cost extra. The keyboard in particular pushes up the price, at SEK 3,895.

Apple says that with the iPad Air, it brings the processing power of its top-end iPad Pro models to a lower price point. That is true, but you miss out on the excellent display, and to really benefit from this processing power, you almost need to be a digital creator using the iPad as a work tool. For other users, the advantages over the standard iPad are not quite great enough to justify the price.

Questions and answers

Does the iPad Air (2026) have Face ID? No, you will have to make do with a fingerprint reader here.

How is the battery life? Less than six hours of screen time at full brightness must be considered mediocre.

How is the difference in the display on the iPad Air (2026) noticeable compared with the iPad Pro 82025)? Mainly in that the display on the iPad Pro is brighter, and when you swipe across the screen, the image becomes blurred while moving on the iPad Air; on the iPad Pro, it is sharper.

An alternative

If you buy a refurbished iPad Pro, for example the 2022 model, you can save several thousand kronor and get an almost equally fast tablet with a better display.