Apple recently announced a refresh of the iPad Air with a new M4 chip. The company made some pretty bold claims, saying that the tablet is up to 30% faster than its predecessor, the iPad Air powered by the M3 chip. But are Apple’s claims accurate? Thanks to recently discovered benchmarks, we have an idea of how the M4 iPad Air really performs.
iPad Air M4 benchmarks show improvements
On Geekbench benchmarks, the M4 iPad Air reached single-core scores of 3,438 and 3,714 and multi-core scores of 12,885 and 12,296. This means that on average, the tablet’s single-core score is 3576, while multi-core sits at 12591. But the bigger question is, does this really live up to Apple’s claims of being 30% faster than the M3?
Not quite.
According to the M3 iPad Air’s Geekbench benchmarks, the tablet scored 3,048 and 11,667 on single- and multi-core, respectively. This means that in terms of actual gains, we’re looking at around 22%. It’s close, but no cigar. However, we suppose the discrepancy can be attributed to how Apple conducted its tests. Also, it will depend on how Apple defines “performance.”
So, should you upgrade?
A performance gain of 22% isn’t exactly screaming “upgrade now!” However, if you’re coming from an earlier generation, like the M1, then yes, you should upgrade. But if you bought the M3 iPad Air, then maybe it’s not worth upgrading based on performance alone.
Still, the M4 model does come with more RAM, 12GB versus 8GB on the M3 version. The memory bandwidth has also increased to 120GB/s. This could help AI models run faster, which might be useful for developers.
Furthermore, the M4 comes with the N1 chip. The chip debuted on the iPhone 17 last year and offers WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support. This means you should be able to expect faster theoretical speeds and a more stable connection. Other than that, the display and design remain largely the same.
Once again, if you’re coming from a much older device, this upgrade makes sense. Otherwise, it could be better to just hold onto your current iPad until the jump in performance gains and features is more compelling.
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