Apple iPad Air M4 launched in India: starts at Rs 64,900 with more RAM and Wi-Fi 7

Apple has launched the new iPad Air powered by the M4 chip, bringing a notable performance bump and better connectivity to its mid-range tablet—all without raising the price. The 11-inch model starts at Rs 64,900 and the 13-inch at Rs 84,900, with pre-orders opening on March 4 and availability from March 11.The big upgrade here is the jump from the M3 to the M4 chip, which Apple says makes the new Air up to 30 percent faster than its predecessor. It packs an 8-core CPU, a 9-core GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and a 16-core Neural Engine. Unified memory has also been bumped from 8GB to 12GB—a 50 percent increase that should help with multitasking and on-device AI tasks.

Wi-Fi 7 and Apple's custom modem arrive on the Air for the first time

Apple has also brought its in-house N1 wireless chip and C1X cellular modem to the iPad Air lineup.

This means support for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread for smart home control. On cellular models (starting at Rs 79,900 for the 11-inch), Apple claims up to 50 percent faster data speeds and 30 percent lower modem power consumption compared to the M3 model.Beyond the chip and connectivity, not much has changed. The design, display (still a 60Hz LCD topping out at 500 nits), cameras, and speaker setup are all carried over from last year. Storage options range from 128GB to 1TB, and the tablet runs iPadOS 26 with its revamped windowing system and Liquid Glass design language.Four colour options are available: blue, purple, starlight, and space gray.