iPad Air 2022 Model Review

Last Updated on March 10, 2023 by Ernests Embutnieks

Apple, a name the trust, brand loyalty, and quality, has launched one of its IOS-based tablets, which belongs to the iPad Air series. Like many other manufacturers, Apple has also followed the practice of launching multiple device product lines. The iPad product line consists of four series :

• Original iPad series
• iPad Mini
• iPad Air
• iPad Pro

This approach is used to cater to the ever-changing needs of their loyal customers. The specialty which makes Apple different from its other competitors is that it sets the standard, and others have to follow its footprints.

Today, we will talk about the iPad Air, the middle series of the iPad product line launched to reduce the gap between iPad Mini and iPad Pro. It has a perfect accumulation of iPad Mini and iPad Pro. In contrast, it has taken many features related to performance and power from iPad Pro.  

Apple has invigorated the overall architecture and design of the iPad Air in 2020 and thankfully continued it in all the upcoming versions. The new iPad Air is similar to its predecessor in look and feel. It’s thin, slim, and lightweight because of the material used in the manufacturing process. The aluminum body with the distinct color combination is a significant property that differs from the current version of its predecessor. The new iPad Air 2022 comes in various colors, such as Space Gray, Starlight, Purple, Pink, and Blue.  

Now let’s deep dive and explore the tablet in terms of various aspects covering design, features, value, performance, and even cost.

iPad Air (2022) – The Beauty with Grace

The new Apple iPad Air (2022) comes with a 10.9-inch Liquid retina display which enables us to get 2360 x 1640 resolution with proper tone technology and P3 wide color support. These features make its display sharper and crispier, which gives us natural and bright colors which show a soothing effect on our eyes even in case of longer screen time.

The 10.9-inch display is quite sufficient for all the needs of any user; neither is it too small like the iPad Mini, nor is it too large similar to the iPad Pro’s 12.9-inch display. The display supports 60Hz frequency, which is an acceptable refresh rate in comparison to other competitions. The brighter side of the iPad Air is that even after offering a 10.9-inch display size still, it is lightweight, slim, and sleek in design.

iPad Air (2022) comes with an M1 chip with a Neural Engine, which is the device’s primary performance & power source. This chip with a built-in capability of 16 core neural processing units enables the device to perform 15x faster operations by completing the 11 trillion operations per second, which is a huge number. 

It is the second device that packs the latest chip, and it is the primary cause that makes the iPad Air (2022) distinct from its predecessor.  

While it offers many features to support the performance, storage is an area of concern that disappoints the Apple iPad Air users. It only provides 64 GB of data storage in its regular offering against a $599. If we want to have bigger storage, we have to spend a little more, as 256 GB of storage comes with an additional cost of $150.

Apple iPad Air (2022) does not come with an extended microSD slot, so we have two options left either go with the 256GB storage for $749 or go with the regular one of 64GB storage and rely on the iCloud storage capacity, which it offers in 50GB for $0.99/month or 200GB for $2.99/month plan. 

Apple iPad Air (2022) Ratings 

Specifications

OS	iPadOS 15.4
Display	10.9” Liquid Retina IPS LCD, 500 nits, 1640 x 2360 pixels
RAM	8 GB
CPU	Octa-Core
GPU	Octa-Core
Battery	Li-Ion (28.6 Wh), non-removable
Storage	64GB, 256GB
MicroSD Expansion	N/A
Camera	12MP (rear) wide, 12MP (front) ultra-wide
Price	$599, $749
Colors	Space Gray, Starlight, Purple, Pink, and Blue
Dimensions	247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1 mm (9.75 x 7.03 x 0.24 in)
Weight	462 g

What’s Inside the Box

The following items are inside the Apple iPad Air (2022) box:

• iPad Air
• USB-C Charge Cable (1 meter)
• 20W USB-C Power Adapter

Pros & Cons

Features of Apple iPad Air (2022)

• Display: Apple iPad Air comes with a 10.9″ IPS LCD with a 2360 x 1640 resolution at a 60Hz refresh rate. It provides a sharp, crispy, brighter display up to 571 nits. This size is near perfect and fits for any kind of usage, such as working, sketching, video editing, watching movies, and playing video games.
• Price: The new Apple iPad Air’s (2022) pricing starts from $599, similar to Apple iPad Air(2020). This new machine has two variants one is with a lesser internal memory of 64GB, which starts from $599, and the other one, which has a bigger storage capacity of 256GB, costs up to $749. It is fair enough as everything has a cost, so if Apple offers greater internal memory with an additional $150, it’s not a big deal. 
• Speakers: Speakers are not a huge plus point of this tablet. Although Apple iPad Air offers stereo speakers, its sound quality sometimes becomes thin and lacks bass. It is good enough for a medium-sized room and with applications like YouTube and Netflix, but the sound quality degrades when we go with a 100% volume. 
• Camera: The new Apple iPad Air comes with 12MP rear and 12MP front cameras that provide sharp pictures and support 4k video resolution during the video call and video recording. It offers a distinct feature of the center stage, which is only available in Apple’s iPad mini, iPad 2021, and iPad Pro. This center stage features crops and zooms the person’s image while moving around during the video call, which most people do while chatting. It intelligently focuses on the speaker if there are two persons in the video call and pan and zooms out the video. This feature is a real deal, but we can not expect too much from these cameras. 
• Battery-Life: As far as we’re concerned with the battery, the new Apple iPad Air is far better than its closest competitors. This tablet provides a Li-ion 26.8Wh battery which provides a backup time of 10 hours on a single full charge. This battery time is available while we use the tablet to watch videos on YouTube, play games, and surf the web even with the 150nits of screen brightness. But all these benchmarks are not as good as its previous versions of iPad Air 4, which provide a slightly better battery timing than this one.
• Storage: Apple iPad Air (2022) offers us two variants with respect to internal memory one is 64GB, and the other one is 256GB. But as I have said earlier, there is no free lunch in this world, so we have to pay extra if we want to have a 256GB variant. Another disappointment with this gadget is that it does not provide storage capacity extension in the form of a microSD card, so the only available option is to use an iCloud subscription if we want to use extended memory. The iCloud provides ample storage capacity of 50GB for $0.99/month or 200GB for a $2.99/month plan.
• Design: If we talk about the design of this device, it’s sleek, slim, and ultra-thin but elegant. So carrying this device does not embarrass you at all. Apple has launched iPad Air with  9.75 x 7.03 x 0.24 in dimensions and with 462g weight. This device is surprisingly thin even after offering a 10.9-inch display. It comes in four colors (Space Gray, Starlight, Purple, Pink, and Blue). The only shortcoming of the device is the lack of a headphone jack; apart from this, Apple has done the job quite intelligently.
• Portability: Apple iPad Air (2022) offers a 10.9″ display with an ultra-thin body that makes it easier to carry in a bag or even barehanded. Its slim and sleek design makes it a highly portable device that we can carry anywhere. 

What’s New Compared to Apple iPad Air (2020)

The Apple iPad Air 2022 is similar to its predecessor in various ways such as size, display, touch id, battery, pencil, and last but not least smart connector. Overall, Apple has retained the look and feel of the 4^th generation device in the 5^th generation successor; the new device’s changes are purely internal. Following are some of the features we have noticed in the fresh iPad Air (2022) are:

1. Improved Processor: Apple iPad Air (2022), or the 5^th generation iPad, comes with an improved processor, which is 60 percent faster than the 4^th generation device. The iPad air 4^th generation comes with an A14 Bionic processor with 6 cores. On the other hand, the new device comes with an M1 processor, which features 8 core CPU and 8 core GPU, and a 16 core Neural Engine, enabling the machine to perform 15x faster operations by performing 11 trillion operations per second. 
2. Better Camera: Both the iPad Air (2020) and iPad Air (2022) has similar 12MP rear camera, but the change occurs at the front end camera. The predecessor has only a 7MP face time HD camera upgraded in the new 5^th generation iPad Air. Apple iPad Air (2022) has a 12MP ultra-wide selfie camera with 2x zoom and center stage features. Because of the center stage feature, people can move around during the video call. The camera automatically crops and zooms the person’s image; if another person is added to the scene, it will dynamically focus on the speaker.   
3. Enhanced Connectivity: The new Apple iPad Air 2022 has an improved connectivity option as it supports WIFI 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 and the 5^th generation has an extended 5G network coverage.

Above are some features in which Apple iPad (2022) supersedes Apple iPad Air (2020).

Apple iPad Air (2022) vs. Apple iPad Air (2020)

This section will compare the Apple iPad Air (2022) with its predecessor, the Apple iPad Air (2020) 4^th generation. Although both the tablets have many similarities, they are equally apart in processing power, camera and connectivity. 

As far as the similarities are concerned, Apple has retained the same look and feel of the 4^th generation device in the 5^th generation. Bot h the devices have similar 10.9″ screen size with 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1 mm dimensions. The newer dimension is slightly heavier than its predecessor, but it is hard to find.

The 4^th and 5^th generation machines share the same liquid retina display, which provides sharp colors and a resolution of 2360 x 1640 with 264 PPI pixel density. As far as the brightness is concerned, the newest version has a brighter display of 571nits.

Another similarity that both the devices have is the Apple Pencil support. The 4^th and 5^th generation devices both support the Apple second-generation stylus. So we can say both devices are equally fit for writing, taking notes, sketching, and drawing purposes.

As far as the battery timing is concerned, the Apple iPad Air (20222) and (2020) both provide us with a similar battery capacity of 28Wh which can provide 10 hours of timing on a single charge while web surfing wifi or watching videos on YouTube. Both the models support touch id authentication and a smart connector, which helps us connect a magic keyboard and smart keyboard folio.

M1 chip is the significant difference between both models. The new iPad comes with an M1 chip that provides an upper hand in terms of processing power, as this chip enables the new slate to perform 15 times faster than its predecessor. With all the above-stated similarities, both the models are still a part in terms of performance. 

Apple has also introduced the 5G connectivity in the new slate and upgraded the front camera to 12MP with ultra-wide-angle functionality, which gives more realistic and detailed images while video chatting. Last but not least, the new Apple iPad Air (2022) comes with 8GB RAM, while its predecessor provides only 4GB RAM. So, all in all, we can say that in a similar price range, Apple has done a great job by upgrading certain features of the iPad Air and making it more user-centric.

Let’s have a complete comparison of the Apple iPad Air (2022) with the Apple iPad Air (2020):

Who is the Apple iPad Air (2022) for? 

The fifth-generation iPad machine is the best fit for drawing, sketching, writing, and notes taking. The plus point is that we can have features of nearly iPad Pro at a much lesser price. The power pack machine offers some distinct features which are best for the following:

• Students
• Web surfers
• Sketch artist
• Movie Buffs
• Online collaborations
• Professionals 

Alternatives/Competitors of Apple iPad Air (2022)

For just $599, we can have an Apple tablet that offers us nearly all the features an iPad Pro can have. It is one of the best tablets in this price range which could be an excellent fit for student and home users as they do not need to spend a lot on the machine. However, the best advice is that while purchasing a tablet, one should look around to get the best deals and specifications.

Although Apple devices speak for themselves, other manufacturers offer more or less similar specifications, so let’s explore some of them. 

Microsoft Surface Go 3

If you are looking for an alternative to Apple iPad Air 5^th generation, Microsoft Surface go 3 could be a great choice. It provides some decent features at an affordable price of $399, making it a worthy competitor of the Apple iPad Air. 

The surface GO 3 comes with a 10.5″ screen size, almost like Apple iPad Air’s 10.9″ display, and offers 5MP front and 8 MP rear cameras, justified by its price range. It comes with the latest Windows 11 home with Microsoft 365 and Xbox game pass one month trial. 

Following are some distinct offerings we can expect from this machine.

• 1 USB-C port
• 1 Surface Connect port
• 3.5mm Headphone jack
• Enterprise-grade protection Windows Hello face sign-in
• Long battery time with quick charging 28.0Wh
• Slim Pen and Keyboard support

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8

If we want to find an alternative to Apple iPad Air (2022), it is impossible that we forget its closest competition Samsung Galaxy Tab S8. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 is one of the power pack offerings from Samsung. Its price starts from $699, and this device offers some decent features such as an 11″ display, a better processor, a 13MP camera, and many more.

To compete with Apple iPad, it has the following offerings:

• IPS 11” Display 
• Support Latest Android 12
• 256GB internal storage 
• 8 core CPU
• 8000mAh battery which lasts 13 hours on a single charge
• Wifi 6E support
• S Pen prediction algorithm
• Price $699

Specifications

Device	Microsoft Surface Go 3	Galaxy Tab S8	iPad Air (2022)
OS	Windows 11 home	Android 12, One UI 4.1	iPad OS 15.4
CPU	Dual-core Intel® Pentium Gold 6500Y processor Dual-core 10th Gen Intel Core™ i3-10100Y processor	Octa-core (Cortex-X2, Cortex-A710, Cortex-A510)	Octa-core
GPU	N/a	Adreno 730	Octa-core
RAM	4GB, 8GB	8GB,12GB	8GB
Storage	128GB SSD	128GB, 256GB	64GB, 256GB
Battery		Li-Po 8000 mAh	Li-Ion (28.6 Wh)
Display	10.5” Pixel Sense	11” TFT, 120Hz	10.9” Li-Ion (28.6 Wh)
Dimensions	28.0Wh	9.99 x 6.51 x 0.25 in	9.75 x 7.03 x 0.24 in
Weight	1.22 lb	1.11 lb	1.02 lb

FAQ

Final Thoughts

Apple iPad Air (2022) provides a combination of portability and power. It is the best fit for creating content and is suitable for web surfing and video watching.

iPad Air not only provides the features near to premium series at affordable rates. It is an excellent tablet for home users and students.

But if you are not comfortable with Apple’s product or find it fragile, then the second available option is Samsung Galaxy Tab S8. It is suitable for all kinds of conditions, as it offers a good camera, long battery, better processing power, and stylus support. The choice is yours.

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