It’s been around two months since we first got our hands on the iPad Air 4..
And in our initial review, we were pretty happy with it because of the excellent performance
for things like gaming, as well as the new design that looks great
and supports the incredible Magic Keyboard case, making it a perfect premium laptop replacement.
However.. A lot has changed in the last two months, specifically the release of
Apple’s M1 MacBook Air, which has been blowing everyone’s mind because the base model for $999
has barely any drawbacks compared to the more expensive $1300 MacBook Pro.
So in this review, I’m gonna look at the iPad Air 4 from a different perspective, now considering
the M1 MacBook Air because it could actually be a MUCH better buy for A LOT of people..
But before I get into that, I want to talk about our experience with the iPad Air after two months.
The new modern and sleek design has been giving us an
excellent experience compared to Apple’s previous budget 10.2” iPad and iPad Air.
The new rounded corner display just feels so much more immersive compared to those iPads,
and this feature alone along with the premium flat design makes it worth the extra cash
over those other iPads. Seriously, the design makes all of the difference in day to day use.
However, I’m starting to absolutely hate the new Touch ID sensor because I’m used
to using the iPad Pro with Face ID which honestly works so much better than Touch ID.
But in terms of performance, the A14 Bionic chip in the iPad Air is really impressive because
I haven’t noticed it being any slower than the Pro for everything including gaming performance.
The only downside compared to the iPad Pro is that it doesn’t get the 120hz display,
but surprisingly, even without that, the Apple Pencil note taking performance was really great.
So overall, I’ve been extremely happy with the iPad Air 4 over the past two months,
at least in terms of tablet use, with it being very reliable for both apps and games.
Perhaps my favorite part about this new iPad Air is that it supports the Magic Keyboard case,
which I absolutely love because Apple totally nailed the keyboard,
making it feel like an actual MacBook keyboard.
And as for the trackpad, it also feels like a MacBook trackpad
because you get an even clicking feel no matter where you tap, unlike Windows laptops
which use a traditional diving board design that doesn’t feel great at all.
And to my surprise, it supports all of the same gestures,
like pinch to zoom and using three fingers to swipe between apps.
These gestures come directly from MacBooks, and they work so well on the iPad Air with
the Magic Keyboard case, and that’s why I called it an excellent laptop replacement.
The main downside is that it costs $300, and if you buy an Apple Pencil on Sale on amazon for $100
to take advantage of the best note taking experience you can get on any tablet,
the price of this iPad Air laptop setup goes up to exactly $1000,
making it the perfect base MacBook Air contender.
Now yes, not everyone wants to buy a keyboard case for their iPad, and even
those who do want one can find other keyboard case options like the Logitech Folio Touch for $160,
but the Magic Keyboard case is the only one that is so good that it can actually
compete with the keyboard and trackpad on a MacBook Air, and that’s why I chose it.
So now.. I’m gonna get into the advantages and disadvantages of buying the iPad Air 4
compared to the M1 MacBook Air, including things like day to day experience,
professional use, app support, performance, gaming and more!
Getting started, the iPad Air has the massive advantage of being able to be used as a tablet,
because of it’s touch screen display which enables Apple Pencil support,
which is the biggest advantage it has.
The MacBook Air obviously doesn’t have a touchscreen display,
and you can’t really use it while walking around the house like you can
with the iPad, you have to either use it on a tabletop or on your lap.
But the iPad Air 4 can also be used like a laptop with the Magic Keyboard case
for things like web browsing and document typing.
However, I’d still say that MacBook Air does it better, because you actually
get a full-size keyboard compared to a scrunched down version with the iPad.
The MacBook Air also gets function keys which are incredibly useful, and the placement of the
Touch ID sensor on the power button is much more convenient compared to the iPad Air 4’s sensor.
On top of that, the MacBook Air’s trackpad is much
larger, giving you more freedom for swiping and using drag and drop,
and it actually performs and feels better because it uses Apple’s force touch technology
which built in motors that simulate clicks compared to a simple design on the Magic Keyboard.
However, this case does add an extra USB-C port in the hinge for charging,
leaving the iPad’s main port free for data transfers,
but on the MacBook Air, either of the two ports can be used for transferring data,
including high-speed Thunderbolt 3 support, which you can’t get on an iPad.
Now by far, the most annoying thing about using the iPad Air as a laptop replacement
with that Magic Keyboard case is that if you’re in a zoom call, the webcam ends up on the side
of the iPad, so it looks really weird when you look at the display like you normally would.
Yes, it does use a higher-quality camera compared to the 720P webcam on the MacBook Air,
but there’s surprisingly not that big of a difference, just check it out for yourself.
So yeh.. It’s definitely a bit annoying that the webcam is on the side..
And the worst part is that when you’re in a zoom call, your webcam
shuts off when you start multitasking, and that’s what I want to get into next.
The MacBook Air just does a much better job for multitasking, you can move your apps around the
screen very easily, in any position you’d like. On the iPad Air, it just doesn’t feel the same
because you can only have two apps open at once, and that’s because of the software differences.
iPadOS is extremely limited compared to the more traditional macOS software,
which allows you to easily run multiple apps at the same time, and if you really need to,
you can get up to 16GB of RAM compared to only 4GB on the iPad Air, which is a huge difference.
And making it worse, the iPad Air only comes with 64 gigs of storage,
and if you want it to match the base 256 gigs on the MacBook Air,
you have to spend another $150 to upgrade it, but that’s it. No further SSD options beyond that,
which is extremely limiting compared to the MacBook Air which supports up to 2 terabytes.
But getting back to software support, the M1 MacBook Air supports so much more apps,
including x86 apps which run extremely well using Rosetta. So if you’re ever in
need of professional full-sized apps, the MacBook Air is so much better.
For example, you get the full versions of apps like Final Cut, Lightroom Classic, Xcode, Logic,
Premier Pro and much more.. That you simply cannot get on the iPad.
Now in the past, iPads have always had a huge advantage
by having access to the massive iOS app library, but now, everything has changed with the M1 Macs.
The new M1 MacBook Air can essentially download and use every single app that’s
available on the iPad if you take advantage of sideloading and if the app you want
doesn’t show up in the app store, you can sideload it using something like iMazing.
For example, I was able to play Call of duty mobile
with controller support right on the MacBook Air, in fullscreen mode, with excellent performance.
Taking it even further, I was able to play four iPad games at the same time,
while being able to control them and view them all at once, which you can’t do on the iPad,
and as for performance, all 4 apps ran perfectly without stressing the M1 chip at all.
The only issue I had was with touch-based games like Brawl Stars, which require
a touchscreen to work properly.
For games like that, the iPad is definitely the right choice,
especially since you can use it like a tablet while playing on the couch
or walking around, which is the only real gaming advantage for the iPad Air.
On the other hand, the M1 MacBook Air can also play Mac games using Rosetta, like League of
Legends and CS:GO, it can also play Windows games using either Crossover or Parallels 16,
and it can easily run emulators like Dolphin for Nintendo games with no issues at all.
And because of the massive difference in performance
as you can see in these Geekbench results for both the CPU and the graphics,
the M1 MacBook Air is not only a MUCH MUCH better choice for gamers,
but it’s also a better choice for professionals doing things like video or photo editing.
And to take it even further, the M1 MacBook Air is rated for 15 hours of web browsing battery life
compared to 10 hours on the iPad Air 4.
The iPad does get the advantage of tablet use for media consumption like watching YouTube videos,
but the MacBook Air still has two major advantages in this area,
the larger 13.3” display uses a 16:10 aspect ratio which makes widescreen videos fill up more
of the screen, and the speakers sound much better as well, just hear it for yourself.
So based on all of that, you can tell that I’m extremely excited about the new M1 MacBook Air,
and I think it’s totally worth the extra cash over the iPad Air 4 for everyone
except those who prefer to have a touch-based tablet experience with Apple Pencil support.
So here’s the final rundown to finish off this review..
The iPad Air 4 is great.. But the M1 MacBook Air is much.. Much better.
If you disagree with me, go ahead and comment your thoughts down below.. And be sure to check out
our latest M1 Mac videos right over there. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one!