In a series of product releases, Apple recently announced the M4 iPad Air models, and as expected, the first benchmarks for the chip have already surfaced online. Early Geekbench listings give us a clearer picture of how much faster the tablet really is compared with the previous generation. While the upgrade does not dramatically change the iPad Air formula, the numbers confirm that Apple’s latest mid-range tablet is still getting a meaningful boost under the hood.
Early Geekbench Results Show M4 iPad Air Outpacing Its Predecessor With An M3 Chip
The Geekbench 6 results for the 13-inch M4 iPad Air reveal a single-core score ranging between 3438 and 3714, while multi-core results land around 12,296 to 12,885. Averaged out, the tablet reaches roughly 3576 in single-core and 12,591 in multi-core performance.
When compared to the previous M3 iPad Air, which typically scored about 3048 in single-core and 11,667 multi-core, the improvement becomes clear. In practical terms, that translates to roughly 17 percent faster single-core performance and about 8 percent higher multi-core scores.
These early results also show the iPad Air running a slightly trimmed version of Apple’s M4 chip. The tablet uses an 8-core CPU with three performance cores and five efficiency cores, alongside a 9-core GPU, which means it does not quite match the fully unlocked M4 used in the iPad Pro lineup. Apple is also looking to announce the A18 Pro MacBook later today, which will have the same performance as the M4 chip.
Apple Uses A Trimmed M4 Chip In iPad Air To Maintain Clear Performance Separation From The M4 iPad Pro
Apple’s decision to ship the iPad Air with a slightly trimmed version of the M4 chip appears to be intentional rather than a limitation. The company has increasingly used this approach to maintain clear product segmentation across its tablet lineup.
The fully enabled and unlocked M4 chip in the iPad Pro features additional GPU resources and a higher performance ceiling for demanding tasks such as video editing, 3D rendering, and heavy creative workloads. By comparison, the iPad Air’s configuration delivers strong performance but stops short of matching the Pro models. Additionally, the performance will be even weaker than the M5 chip found in the newly announced M5 MacBook Air lineup.
However, for most users, the difference may not be noticeable in everyday use. Tasks like multitasking, browsing, editing photos, and running productivity apps should feel extremely fast on the M4 iPad Air. The benchmarks mainly reinforce Apple’s strategy of bringing newer silicon to mid-range devices while still preserving the Pro lineup as the company’s most powerful tablets.
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