iPhone 17e and iPad Air M4 Officially Launched with Next-Gen Performance and AI Enhancements

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Apple has introduced the iPhone 17e and the new iPad Air powered by the M4 chip, expanding its hardware portfolio with notable performance, efficiency, and AI-driven enhancements. The devices aim to strengthen Apple’s position in the mid-range smartphone and premium tablet markets.

New iPad Air Launch

Apple today announced the new iPad Air featuring M4 and more memory. With a faster CPU and GPU, iPad Air boosts tasks like editing and gaming. It becomes a powerful device for AI with a faster Neural Engine. With M4, iPad Air is up to 30 percent faster than iPad Air with M3 and up to 2.3x faster than iPad Air with M1. 

The new iPad Air also features the latest in Apple silicon connectivity chips, N1 and C1X, which deliver fast wireless and cellular connections. It is available in two sizes and four different colors.

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Apple Ecosystem becomes more Smarter

With game-changing iPadOS 26 capabilities, advanced cameras, all-day battery life, a powerful app ecosystem, and support for accessories like Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard, iPad Air delivers a remarkable and versatile experience for anyone who wants to do more on iPad, from students and creators to business users and gamers.

M4 features an 8-core CPU and a 9-core GPU, iPad Air is up to 30 percent faster than iPad Air with M3 and up to 2.3x faster than iPad Air with M1.5. Users will notice the blazing speed of M4 in Apple Creator Studio, compositing photos in Pixelmator Pro, or editing video in Final Cut Pro is quicker than ever. M4 delivers over 4x faster 3D pro rendering with ray tracing performance compared to iPad Air with M1, offering more accurate lighting, reflections, and shadows for extremely realistic gaming experiences

M4 is also powerful for AI, with faster memory bandwidth and an incredibly fast Neural Engine. It will benefit everyone from college students transcribing lecture notes to creators storyboarding a new project to business users polishing emails.

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Price & Availability

With the same starting price of just $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch model, the new iPad Air is an incredible value. And for education, the 11-inch iPad Air starts at $549, and the 13-inch model starts at $749. Customers can pre-order iPad Air starting Wednesday, March 4, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

Closing Note

“iPad Air gives users more ways than ever to be creative and productive, offering powerful performance and incredible versatility to help them turn their ideas into reality,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With its blazing performance thanks to M4, incredible AI capabilities, and game-changing iPadOS 26 features, there’s never been a better time to choose or upgrade to iPad Air.”