The iPad and iPad Air 2025 get small, predictable upgrades

While practically everyone was expecting Apple to announce the new MacBook Air models first, the company went the other way by revealing the new iPad models instead – not that it matters, of course, since all of these devices just feature specific hardware upgrades, being otherwise almost identical to the models currently available. The refreshed iPad Air and iPad tablets sport faster processors (which is welcome) and they cost the same as their predecessors (which is nice), but they differ in a few key ways worth taking a closer look at.

First things first: the iPad Air 2025 gets the M3 processor, not the M4 as previously rumored (it makes sense as the iPad Pro will probably remain on the M4 for a while). The M3 is actually not all that impressive compared to the M2 of the previous iPad Air model, system memory remains at 8GB (Apple Intelligence does not require 16GB on iPadOS) and everything else – screen, storage capacities, cameras, speakers, wireless connectivity – is exactly the same, so Apple’s new tablet should feel the same as its predecessor in most use cases. But, hey: Apple is now offering an improved Magic Keyboard for the iPad Air 2025, so… yay?

The vanilla iPad is also getting a processor upgrade: it now sports the A16 – up from the A14 on the previous model – which is fast enough for any app anyone would conceivably want to run on the most affordable Apple tablet nowadays. The company even doubled the storage capacity of the cheapest configuration to 128GB, which was long overdue, but every other aspect of the new base iPad remains unchanged compared to its predecessor. Furthermore, the A16 does not support Apple Intelligence, which is somewhat strange to see – but probably for the best, since Apple’s current AI functionality offering is unimpressive at best.

It’s fair to say that nobody expected the 2025 iPad Air or iPad models to bring anything more to the table than modest hardware upgrades – but, then again, that’s just it, isn’t it? Apple has walked the predictable, boring, unexciting path of evolutionary, even marginal updates to existing models for so many years, that it now gets a free pass every single time it does this with any of its product lines. Consumers do get improved devices for the same amount of money, yes, but the market leader of any given category just going through the motions year after year in terms of product development is not good for everyone involved, especially long-term.

One can’t help but feel that things would be different if Apple was forced to face meaningful competition in the mainstream tablet space – but that is, sadly, as unlikely to happen anytime soon as it has ever been. Android has failed miserably in evolving into a true contender, iPadOS – while far from perfect – is still the most capable tablet operating system with the largest selection of apps, while the iPad ecosystem as a whole is vastly superior to anything else on the market. As long as the iPad is not just the best product line of its type overall but pretty much the only high-quality option widely available, not much is likely to change. Bets, anyone?