iPad 11 vs. iPad Air Buyer's Guide: 30+ Differences Compared

The iPad Air costs astatine slightest $250 much than the entry-level iPad, truthful is choosing the pricier exemplary worthy it? Or should you prevention the wealth and bargain the 11th-generation ‌iPad‌? This usher helps you to recognize the differences betwixt the 2 models and determine which is champion for you.


The 11th-generation ‌iPad‌ is positioned arsenic an entry-level exemplary with indispensable features for basal use, portion the ‌iPad Air‌ is for users who request much from their tablet, specified arsenic students, creatives, oregon anyone who wants a future-proof instrumentality with newer, much precocious features. All of the differences betwixt the entry-level ‌iPad‌ and the ‌iPad Air‌ are listed below:



‌iPad‌ (11th generation)
‌iPad Air‌ (seventh generation)

11-inch display	11- oregon 13-inch display
500 nits max SDR brightness	11-inch: 500 nits max SDR brightness 13-inch: 600 nits max SDR brightness
sRGB	Wide colour (P3)
	Fully laminated display
	Anti‑reflective coating
	Apple Intelligence support
	Stage Manager support
A16 spot (introduced with iPhone 14 Pro successful 2022, made with TSMC's 4nm N4P process)	M3 spot (introduced with iMac successful 2023, made with TSMC's N3B process)
16 cardinal transistors	25 cardinal transistors
5-core CPU with 2 show cores and 3 ratio cores	8-core CPU with 4 show cores and 4 ratio cores
4-core GPU	9-core GPU
	Hardware-accelerated ray tracing
	Hardware-accelerated 8K HEVC, 4K H.264, ProRes and ProRes RAW
	Video decode engine
	Video encode engine
	ProRes encode and decode engine
	AV1 decode
16-core Neural Engine (17 TOPs)	16-core Neural Engine (18 TOPs)
6GB memory	8GB memory
51.2GB/s representation bandwidth	100GB/s representation bandwidth
Wi-Fi 6 connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E connectivity
Landscape 12MP Center Stage camera with ƒ/2.4 aperture	Landscape 12MP Center Stage camera with ƒ/2.0 aperture
Weighs 477 grams (1.05 pounds)	11-inch: 460 grams (1.01 pounds) 13-inch: 616 grams (1.36 pounds)
7 mm (0.28 inches) depth	6.1 mm (0.24 inches) depth
Smart Connector (side)	‌Smart Connector‌ (back)
Supports Magic Keyboard Folio	Supports Magic Keyboard for ‌iPad Air‌
Supports Apple Pencil (USB‑C) and ‌Apple Pencil‌ (first generation)	Supports ‌Apple Pencil‌ (USB‑C) and ‌Apple Pencil‌ Pro
	‌Apple Pencil‌ hover
128GB, 256GB, oregon 512GB storage	128GB, 256GB, 512GB, oregon 1TB storage
Available successful Blue, Pink, Silver, and Yellow	Available successful Blue, Purple, Starlight, and Space Gray
Starts astatine $349	11-inch: Starts astatine $599 13-inch: Starts astatine $799

The entry-level ‌iPad‌ is champion for radical who chiefly usage their ‌iPad‌ for light, mundane tasks. If your emblematic time includes browsing Safari, watching YouTube oregon Netflix, speechmaking articles, messaging friends, and possibly doing immoderate basal schoolwork oregon airy gaming, the 11th-gen ‌iPad‌ has much than capable powerfulness and suitable features.

The A16 spot is inactive precise capable, and the instrumentality inactive has ‌Apple Pencil‌ enactment for casual note-taking oregon drawing. However, the show is not laminated, which means there's a flimsy aerial spread betwixt the solid and the surface content—something astir users won't announcement unless they're drafting oregon penning precisely. The entry-level ‌iPad‌ besides lacks the anti-reflective coating, truthful it tin beryllium much reflective successful agleam lighting, arsenic good arsenic wide colour support.

It's a large prime for students oregon casual users who don't request precocious multitasking features oregon nonrecreational apps. The starting terms of $349 makes it particularly appealing for families, kids, oregon those upgrading from an older ‌iPad‌. For galore users, the other $250 to bargain the ‌iPad Air‌ is not justified.

On the different hand, the ‌iPad Air‌ is for users who privation noticeably much show and versatility. Its M3 spot is noticeably faster and supports things the A16 doesn't, specified arsenic hardware-accelerated ray tracing and ProRes video encoding/decoding. That makes it acold much suitable for video editing, high-end gaming, moving with ample documents, moving originative apps similar Affinity Photo oregon Logic Pro, oregon adjacent penning code. It besides supports ‌Apple Intelligence‌, truthful if you privation the latest AI features specified arsenic penning tools oregon Genmoji, arsenic good arsenic thing Apple brings to ‌Apple Intelligence‌ successful the future, the Air is the amended choice.

The show is afloat laminated, which eliminates the spread betwixt your ‌Apple Pencil‌ and the screen, making penning and drafting consciousness much natural—especially important if you're utilizing ‌Apple Pencil‌ Pro, which besides brings other features similar tube rotation and haptic feedback. The 13-inch exemplary offers importantly much surface existent property for multitasking, side-by-side apps, oregon contented creation. It besides supports ‌Stage Manager‌, allowing existent multi-window multitasking with resizable windows and outer show support.

If you're readying to usage the ‌iPad‌ for productivity tasks oregon privation thing that feels much similar a laptop alternative, the ‌iPad Air‌ is apt the amended choice. Its starting terms is $599 (or $799 for the 13-inch), truthful it is simply a much important investment—but 1 that makes consciousness for users who volition instrumentality vantage of its much precocious capabilities.
This article, "iPad 11 vs. iPad Air Buyer's Guide: 30+ Differences Compared" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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