Apple iPad Air 13 (2025) tablet review – Almost as good as an iPad Pro but a lot cheaper

The iPad Air 13 has only been given a minor update in 2025: The Apple M3 provides even more power inside the already very powerful iPad Air and extends its runtimes slightly. Its accessories have also been slightly revised. Otherwise, much remains the same as with the iPad Air 2024: its design, four color variants, case size, IPS screen and features all haven't changed.

This also means that the iPad's strengths and weaknesses are largely the same—for example, its PWM-free display, long update period, range of sustainability efforts and high-quality case, which looks good in any environment. Apple has also maintained the tablet's low heat dissipation with the new SoC, and has managed to get an even better grip on its throttling under load.

Charging can still take a while because it only takes place at 20 watts, and you'll have to make do with very few Bluetooth codecs. Plus, in typical Apple fashion, there are almost ridiculously high surcharges for larger storage variants.

The iPad Air 13 2025 is a very reliable, high-quality and flexible tablet. Thanks to the Apple Pen and Magic Keyboard, you can use it in place of a laptop, and working on it feels almost as professional as with an iPad Pro.

The differences to Apple's top-of-the-range tablet include its not quite as bright IPS-based display, its lack of FaceID and USB 4.0, and its slightly weaker speaker system.

However, if you want to save a few hundred dollars, then these are limitations that you can more than accept.

The base model with 128 GB storage and WiFi costs $799, and the new iPad Air models can be purchased directly from Apple.

At first glance, it might be difficult to distinguish the iPad Air 13 (2025) from the 2024 model: Its dimensions are identical and the difference in weight is just 1 gram. Its design is also unchanged: the tablet's sleek unibody metal case with the shiny Apple logo and rounded corners still looks good in every way.

Nothing has changed about the available color variants, either: delicate shades of Space Gray, Blue, Violet or Polar Star, a light beige color. At 6.1 millimeters, the 7th generation iPad Air 13 is once again a slim tablet.

Its extremely narrow display bezels, which are the same width on all sides, give the tablet a modern look and still allow it to be used ergonomically.

Once again, its case doesn't feature an IP certification, so it's better to keep the device away from dirt and moisture.

When it comes to sustainability, Apple is much more forthcoming and committed than other manufacturers: The iPad's case uses entirely recycled aluminum, and lots of other materials in the device are now also recycled.

Thankfully, Apple has also published a comprehensive environmental report on its product. It states that the packaging is completely plastic-free, which we can confirm. Apple states that its CO₂ consumption during production and use is 89 kilograms. Old products can be exchanged at Apple and are then recycled.

In addition, Apple has its own website for self-repair and you can order spare parts there. Unfortunately, this is not yet possible for iPads.

Like its predecessor, the iPad Air 13 (2024), the 2025 model also supports WiFi 6E, meaning it can take advantage of the lesser-used 6 GHz band to establish wireless connections. This resulted in speeds of up to 1,550 MBit/s during our Wi-Fi test using our Asus ROG Rapture AXE11000 reference router—although there were some slight drops in its data rates from time to time.

The iPad Air we are testing isn't the cellular model, but versions with a 5G module are also available. This can then be used in conjunction with an eSIM; you can't insert a physical SIM into the iPad. Only the cellular version additionally supports satellite location services, so our WLAN-only model is not suitable for navigation. However, it can determine its approximate location via known WLAN networks.

The biggest innovation in the 7th generation iPad Air is its Apple M3 SoC. It has 8 cores in its processor section, which can clock at up to 4.1 GHz. Introduced in 2023, it was also used inside MacBooks and even two years later, it still delivers impressive performance values that current Android tablets can't usually keep up with. The differences in performance compared to the iPad Pro with the Apple M4 should often not be noticeable in practice, however.

There are no stutters during everyday use and even the most demanding tasks are performed quickly and reliably by the tablet.

Apple has enabled 9 cores for the iPad Air's GPU, while the MacBooks have one more core. The predecessor model, the iPad Air 13 (2024), also had 10 GPU cores—this was partially visible in the benchmark results: the current iPad Air wasn't always ahead of its predecessor.

The fast Qualcomm and MediaTek chips in some Android tablets could also deliver a few more frames in some cases.

The iPad Air 13 2025 is very fast when browsing the web, and it achieved top scores in the browser benchmarks. Provided you have a good internet connection, even very large websites are loaded immediately and you never have to wait for images when scrolling.

Apple has again installed a combined memory module, which merges the NVMe mass storage and the RAM. This should increase efficiency.

Unfortunately, there are no benchmarks for Apple's mobile operating systems that can determine its speeds. In our test, however, loading times were short and data transfers were very fast.

We started our stress tests and measured the temperature on the case before the test and after one hour of use. We noted localized warming at the back, which was still quite moderate at 37.2 °C.

Apple has improved the iPad's temperature management and, as a result, its throttling: In this case, the Apple M3 performed significantly better than its predecessor and could still provide at least 88.4% of the performance even after numerous runs of a benchmark.

Although there are four speaker openings on the device, only two speakers are installed. They don't get extremely loud, but it's enough to fill a medium-sized room with sound. The sound is warm and fairly balanced, but there is no real bass to be heard. The low mids are clearly audible and can also be felt as vibrations with the tablet lying on a table.

Users who prefer to connect external audio devices can do so via USB-C or Bluetooth 5.3. Both work without any problems, but as you're limited to Apple's AAC and the low-quality SBC, there are only a few codecs available for wireless audio transmission. This limits the number of compatible Bluetooth headphones and speakers, especially for high-quality audio transmissions.

The Apple iPad Air 13 2024 consumes an average level of power overall; especially under very low load does it hardly need any energy. Under load, the SoC's power quickly makes itself known and at peak times, it consumes up to 16.9 watts.

When it comes to charging, Apple has remained stubborn by not wanting to increase its maximum possible charging power of 20 watts—even though Android tablets sometimes offer five times as much. Nevertheless, the time for a full charging cycle of 2:30 hours is still okay.

Compared to its predecessor, this model's battery has the same capacity, namely 36.59 Wh. This gives the iPad Air 13 (2025) a few minutes more battery life than its predecessor, but the difference will hardly be noticeable in practice.

13:14 hours in our Wi-Fi test is okay for a large tablet, but the Huawei MatePad 12 X and the OnePlus Pad 2 significantly exceeded this value.

The iPad Air 13 (2025) will survive a rainy day on your couch with continuous use, but probably only just.