iPad Air Upgrade iPad Air 4 to Air 5?

[WishyWashyUK]

Genuinely wondering if it’s worth upgrading my Air 4 for an Air 5. Is anyone else considering the same? My interest is revolving mostly around the M1 chip - is there likely to be a noticeable difference from A14?
Can iPad Pro users shed some light on their experience of M1 on iPad?
Are there other reasons to upgrade which I may be missing?
Grateful for any insights!

 

[1CaesaR1]

Probably depends on what you use your Air 4 for. I have iPad Pro 11 with M1. I just purchased a used Air 4 (got a good deal) and will sell the M1 Pro as I only use it for web browsing, videos and email, etc. Pro is an overkill for that and I always worry about dropping/breaking it and being out all that money.

 

[snipr125]

Genuinely wondering if it’s worth upgrading my Air 4 for an Air 5. Is anyone else considering the same? My interest is revolving mostly around the M1 chip - is there likely to be a noticeable difference from A14?
Can iPad Pro users shed some light on their experience of M1 on iPad?
Are there other reasons to upgrade which I may be missing?
Grateful for any insights!

I’m the same as you. I will probably either sell my iPad Air 4 to cex (UK electric pawn shop) as they are quoting about £270 at the moment, where as Apple give you £200 for trade in. I will then get an M1 IPad Air, more for the 8GB RAM but the power of the M1 is a welcome bonus. Already got my MK so all set.

 

[GJR65]

At first, I was looking to trade in my IPad Air 4 for Air 5. As I read the reviews and revisited my own experience with Air 4, I will pass and see what happens with the next Gen IPad Pro 11". For my use, the Air 4 has plenty of power and RAM. I am looking to see what upgraded display which will be offered with the next Gen IPad Pro 11". I use the WIFI version, so 5G is not an option I need.

 

[rui no onna]

I alternate between a 1TB M1 Pro 11 (mostly home use) and a 256GB Air 4 (EDC so need TouchID due to face mask requirements). I'm considering the upgrade primarily for 8GB RAM.

Besides, my mom needs to upgrade her iPad Pro 9.7. For me, 4GB is just annoying as far as reloads but her iPad has gotten quite unstable. She's one of those who just leaves tons of apps in the background. Sadly, while iOS memory management should theoretically handle that fine, it doesn't really work all that well in practice. I've had to hard reset her iPad several times to get it working properly again.

I can get the Air 5 and give my old Air 4 to mom. Win-win.

 

[WishyWashyUK]

Probably depends on what you use your Air 4 for. I have iPad Pro 11 with M1. I just purchased a used Air 4 (got a good deal) and will sell the M1 Pro as I only use it for web browsing, videos and email, etc. Pro is an overkill for that and I always worry about dropping/breaking it and being out all that money.

Yeah I wondered if M1 on an iPad might be a bit over kill unless you’re rendering video etc. Have you noticed a significant step down in RAM or overall speed going to the Air 4 in general use? I’m thinking with reloads, multitasking etc…?

 

[ufgatorvet]

Genuinely wondering if it’s worth upgrading my Air 4 for an Air 5. Is anyone else considering the same? My interest is revolving mostly around the M1 chip - is there likely to be a noticeable difference from A14?
Can iPad Pro users shed some light on their experience of M1 on iPad?
Are there other reasons to upgrade which I may be missing?
Grateful for any insights!

I upgraded from 4 --> 5 (ordered today). I love this thing and use it a lot everyday. I am what people in the forum refer to as an "average consumer" (have never looked at a spec sheet). For my 80% consumption and 20% creation, this form factor and performance is the sweet spot (YMMV).

Although the update is potentially "a joke" (as another thread was titled) to the "non-average consumer", for me, after a $350 trade-in, the cost is not a huge deal and I can have access to the incremental upgrades as they come.

 

[rui no onna]

Yeah I wondered if M1 on an iPad might be a bit over kill unless you’re rendering video etc. Have you noticed a significant step down in RAM or overall speed going to the Air 4 in general use? I’m thinking with reloads, multitasking etc…?

I use both and the Air 4 definitely reloads more. Granted, I've got 76 tabs open in Safari as I'm typing this (after closing maybe 15-20 tabs).

 

[WishyWashyUK]

I upgraded from 4 --> 5 (ordered today). I love this thing and use it a lot everyday. I am what people in the forum refer to as an "average consumer" (have never looked at a spec sheet). For my 80% consumption and 20% creation, this form factor and performance is the sweet spot (YMMV).

Although the update is potentially "a joke" (as another thread was titled) to the "non-average consumer", for me, after a $350 trade-in, the cost is not a huge deal and I can have access to the incremental upgrades as they come.

Yeah that’s a fair point on Trade In value for the Air 4, which is only heading south from here. Disagree that it’s a “joke” upgrade - processor/ RAM update could be worth the upgrade alone - this is what I wanted to explore. Would love to hear your experiences when you get yours… Congrats on your new device

 

[rui no onna]

Yeah that’s a fair point on Trade In value for the Air 4, which is only heading south from here. Disagree that it’s a “joke” upgrade - processor/ RAM update could be worth the upgrade alone - this is what I wanted to explore. Would love to hear your experiences when you get yours… Congrats on your new device

Both A14 and M1 use the same building blocks.

A14: 6 CPU cores (2 high perf + 4 low power) + 4 GPU cores

M1: 8 CPU cores (4 high perf + 4 low power) + 8 GPU cores

Unless you're gaming, video editing, etc., I doubt you'll notice much speed difference between the M1 and A14. I certainly don't. What I do appreciate is the extra RAM since 4GB has been too low for comfort for me ever since iPadOS 13.

On iOS 12, I barely got any reloads with 4GB. That situation changed quite drastically with 13. Of course, I'm happy to have gotten mouse support as well as a more capable Safari.

 

[nburwell]

I primarily use my Air 4 to stream video (Netflix, Hulu, etc.) while working and serves as a secondary screen when our toddler is watching TV.

That said, I don't think upgrading to the Air 5 is really going to be beneficial, especially since I just purchased the iPad five month or so ago. I'll probably hang onto it since it serves my use case perfectly well.

 

[QCassidy352]

No, not worth it (unless the money just really doesn’t matter to you, in which case sure, why not). A14 is still a beast and easily enough for an iPad. 5G is fine but honestly I’ve not really noticed a huge difference from fast LTE. I guess center stage is nice if you do a lot of video calls from your iPad. But overall, it’s almost the same device.

 

[w5jck]

Yeah I wondered if M1 on an iPad might be a bit over kill unless you’re rendering video etc. Have you noticed a significant step down in RAM or overall speed going to the Air 4 in general use? I’m thinking with reloads, multitasking etc…?

IMO the M1 is a huge overkill. iPadOS cannot use that power, doesn’t have a truly usable file system, so I see no need to put more horsepower into a device that clearly is merely a web browser, media viewer, social media platform, and perhaps some gaming. iPads will never be laptop killers, and Apple has made that really clear with their hamstringing of iPadOS. My iPad Air 4 has more horsepower than it actually needs.

 

[Isamilis]

Genuinely wondering if it’s worth upgrading my Air 4 for an Air 5. Is anyone else considering the same? My interest is revolving mostly around the M1 chip - is there likely to be a noticeable difference from A14?
Can iPad Pro users shed some light on their experience of M1 on iPad?
Are there other reasons to upgrade which I may be missing?
Grateful for any insights!

If you already happy with Air 4 then it’s worthed for the increased RAM (to 8gb) and center stage. However if your needs is 128gb (and now having 256gb) you may want to consider M1 Pro 128gb for extra $50.

 

[rui no onna]

IMO the M1 is a huge overkill. iPadOS cannot use that power, doesn’t have a truly usable file system, so I see no need to put more horsepower into a device that clearly is merely a web browser, media viewer, social media platform, and perhaps some gaming. iPads will never be laptop killers, and Apple has made that really clear with their hamstringing of iPadOS. My iPad Air 4 has more horsepower than it actually needs.

Web browsing is actually where I find the most benefit from M1+16GB. I was doing some cleaning on my Gmail account (batch deletions, tagging, etc) using Safari but it was laggy on my old Air 3. Switched to the 2021 Pro and that handled the Gmail website much better.

Actual iOS apps tend to be better behaved compared to a bunch of websites.

Mind, the 2021 iPad Pro is often faster than my ThinkPad X1 Nano (i5-1130G7) and E15 Gen 2 (Ryzen 5 4500U) for web browsing.

 

[WishyWashyUK]

Thanks for all the responses so far - I’ve learned a lot! ?

Anyone got their Air 5 and have any initial observations on real-world experience? I’ve held off buying so far but still interested to hear thoughts especially anyone going from Air 4 to 5?

 

[boltjames]

Can you share what a typical week on the iPad looks like for you? Be specific- what you use it for, apps you use, what % of a typical week is spent on which usecase, etc.

 

[WishyWashyUK]

Can you share what a typical week on the iPad looks like for you? Be specific- what you use it for, apps you use, what % of a typical week is spent on which usecase, etc.

Of course: so maybe 60% email, browsing Safari and media consumption, 40% basic productivity; word processing with Pages, note-taking or annotating docs with Notability/Documents by Readdle. Sometimes my note-taking app is with split screen with another app (eg Numbers or Documents by Readdle).

To be fair I haven’t encountered any major issues with my Air 4 with any of these tasks other than the odd app freeze/crash in split screen so I’m erring on the side of sticking with it, unless the M1/8GB RAM would make the experience noticeably better? I’m definitely a ‘consumer’ rather than a ‘prosumer’ but always keen to maximise performance if there’s not too much additional cost involved ?

 

[rui no onna]

To be fair I haven’t encountered any major issues with my Air 4 with any of these tasks other than the odd app freeze/crash in split screen so I’m erring on the side of sticking with it, unless the M1/8GB RAM would make the experience noticeably better?

App freeze/crash on my 2017 iPad Pro (A10X/4GB) is one of the reasons I upgraded to the M1 iPad Pro. Granted, I got the 16GB/1TB configuration but I’m sure 8GB will make for smoother operation as well.

 

[saudor]

Upgraded from Air 2's 2GB RAM to the 11" M1 ipad pro. Both on iOS14. For basic tasks, the air 2 handled everything just fine - albeit slower especially with multi tasking.

My main use: Browsing, Notability with a ton of dragging/dropping images, PDF expert, Office and of course media consumption.

The M1 is serious overkill but I keep my iPad for a very long time so I went big (instead of going home) Was seriously debating between Air 4 and IPP and in hindsight, the Air 4 would have been best for my use even with the plans of keeping it a long time. Plus my Pro still lags and crashes every now and then so it's likely a bug with the OS vs hardware limits.

Depending on what you do, I'd keep the Air 4 and upgrade when your 4 causes a ton of issues. It's plenty fast and iPadOS is just far too behind to make use of that power.

 

[boltjames]

Of course: so maybe 60% email, browsing Safari and media consumption, 40% basic productivity; word processing with Pages, note-taking or annotating docs with Notability/Documents by Readdle. Sometimes my note-taking app is with split screen with another app (eg Numbers or Documents by Readdle).

To be fair I haven’t encountered any major issues with my Air 4 with any of these tasks other than the odd app freeze/crash in split screen so I’m erring on the side of sticking with it, unless the M1/8GB RAM would make the experience noticeably better? I’m definitely a ‘consumer’ rather than a ‘prosumer’ but always keen to maximise performance if there’s not too much additional cost involved ?

Yeah, I would stick with the Air 4, doesn't sound like you put too much strain on it.

For me, I'll wait for the Air 6 or Air 7 with Face ID.

 

[Vivian125]

It depends dear. Ever since After A11 or newer almost every iOS update doesn't make older device slower anymore unlike A10 and older which becomes slower after every single OS update. It is because of newer NM, and the extra core is registered and being one with the device itself. Except for the battery, of course newer iOS version will still put a load on each software update but for the performance, its not that much different.

Except for Gaming, Coding, and serious Video Editing, M1 is only 10-15% Faster than A14, and opening apps such as YouTube, Twitter, and App Store will be likely the same for both iPad Air 4 and iPad Air 5 since Single Core is 80% needed for most of the time...

If you have an older iPad such as Air 1, 2 or 3, it is not wrong to update to update to iPad Air 4 only if your budget is a bit tight (iPad Air 4 still has the modern looks of iPad Air 5 or M1 iPad Pro), then later after several months you can easily sell your iPad Air 4 to a newer and better iPad Air 5 or Pro if you have the money.

 

[1BadManVan]

Can't imagine you'll notice a huge difference going from an air 4 to a 5 unless you're doing something to really push it. Heck my kids still love their Air 3's, game on them daily while doing group calls in the background, have a ton of safari tabs open etc. Im surprised how well these iPads age to be honest. I have an m1 pro and its definitely overkill for me but I love the quad speakers and the promotion display on it.

 

[minimo3]

I use both and the Air 4 definitely reloads more. Granted, I've got 76 tabs open in Safari as I'm typing this (after closing maybe 15-20 tabs).

iPadOS App management is such a joke. I have an Air 4 and if I pause YouTube and switch back to the Home Screen, then turn off the iPad and do something else, about 1 in 5 times when I turn on the iPad and tap on YouTube it reloads the Home Screen losing my spot. Same with prime video or netflix. iPadOS can’t even handle keeping 1 app in memory.