The new iPad Air 5 improves some key areas, but leaves others untouched

The new iPad Air 5 checks a lot of boxes, but not all of them.

Apple’s latest media event has just whizzed by with the company using the one-hour ‘presentation’ (code for a polished, pre-recorded video) to unveil a whole host of new products to rabid fans. The hit-list of products on the docket for an upgrade this time around included the iPad Air 5, a device that holds down the mid-tier placement in Apple’s tablet lineup.

With its balance of modern features, slick design, and mid-range price point, it’s a popular pick for a lot of prospective iPad purchasers, offering more power than the basement iPad offering without wasting money on all the bells and whistles of the iPad Pro.

The now previous-generation iPad Air 4 was the only iPad model to get no attention in 2021 so it was high time for some love at this event, but the iPad Air 5 spec sheet disappoints me as much as it pleases me.

Hit: M1 chip

Granted, we’re mere hours out from the end of Apple’s ‘Peek performance’ event so there are still a lot of details in the air (plus the small matter of actually getting the latest products in our hands for testing) but the iPad Air 5 gaining the M1 chip is a huge boon for power users, upgraders, and those totally new to iPad.

iPad Air 5 offers iPad Pro-like power without the Pro price tag.

When late-breaking rumors first suggested that the mid-tier tablet would get the same chip that powers the 2021 iPad Pro, it took many Apple watchers by surprise (myself included) since the smart money was on the iPad Air 5 gaining the same A15 Bionic chip that powers the iPad mini 6.

Though moving to M1 in the iPad Air might make the future of the 11-inch iPad Pro a little murkier, it’s a huge win for the average buyer picking up an iPad Air 5 for the same price as the previous-gen model given how much faster it will be. Those wanting a speedy device with greater longevity will get it without spending hundreds of dollars more on all the iPad Pro display, speaker, and camera fanciness.

Hit: Center Stage

In my iPad mini 6 review last year, I noted that Center Stage feels like magic and has me reaching for the smaller tablet over my previous-gen iPad Pro that lacks the feature. It uses some machine learning smarts as well as the new 12MP Ultra Wide front-facing camera hardware to keep you, and anyone else, in shot during video calls. The way it pans, buttery-smooth as it does so, is pure Apple hardware-meeting-software joy.

Though the iPad Air is the last current-gen iPad to gain Center Stage, it’s great to see Apple adding this feature at the first opportunity. While alone I’m not sure it’s enough to convince iPad Air 4 upgraders to make the jump to the new model, it’s just another check in a box for anyone upgrading from an older iPad model.

Hit: 5G

We’ve heard so much about 5G from Apple over the last few years that it seems like it was a given that the iPad Air 5 would get the faster networking capabilities, and it was, really. Though 5G debuted in the iPad Pro in spring 2021, the iPad mini 6 gained support late last year. When that happened, it was only a matter of time until the iPad Air got 5G.

5G is actually useful in 2022.

If you like to take your iPad Air out and about, the proliferation of 5G across many countries means that it is actually a useful addition in 2022 when you’re out of Wi-Fi range.

Only the base-spec 9th-gen iPad lacks 5G in Apple’s current lineup, and I’d say that’s okay. The folks picking up Apple’s cheapest tablets likely aren’t the people who are looking for blazing-fast internet wherever they go.

Miss: No Face ID

Before the event, I wrote about all of the things I wanted to see in the iPad Air 5. On that list, but sadly not on the iPad Air 5 spec sheet, is Face ID.

I know Face ID didn’t ship with the iPad mini 6 last year, but it’s not a feature that is reserved for just Pro-level devices — the regular iPhone 13 has it and the MacBook Pro doesn’t! — so there was an outside chance of it appearing on the new iPad Air. Instead, Apple chose to stick with a Touch ID top button.

Touch ID works great on the 2021 MacBook Pro where you hands are already on the keyboard, and it anchors the one-app-at-a-time experience on the iPhone SE for a lot of folks, but nothing beats swiping up on your iPad’s large display and having it unlock automatically. Maybe the iPad Air will get Face ID next time.

Miss: Same old display

In 2021, we saw rumors of an OLED display panel headed to the iPad with the next iPad Air suggested as its landing spot. That’s despite the iPad Pro having only just gotten mini-LED on the largest model and Apple having not made an OLED display larger than the iPhone before.

Apple is using the iPad Air 4’s display in the iPad Air 5.

These rumors died off as we got closer to a new iPad Air with some suggesting that it is now a 2023 or later upgrade, though I still hoped that there would be some kind of upgrade to the iPad Air’s display in the fifth-gen model.

Alas, Apple is using the exact same Liquid Retina display in the iPad Air 4 and iPad Air 5. It has the same 10.9-inch size, same 2360×1640 resolution at 264 ppi, and the same slew of features like P3 wide color, True Tone, and anti-reflective and fingerprint-resistant coating. It’s a good display, great even, but Apple hasn’t moved that part of the device forward at all here.

Miss: Where’s the color?

If the iPad Pro is supposed to offer serious, workplace-appropriate colors like silver and space gray, then I want Apple to let the colors loose on the consumer-grade iPad Air.

The company has shown it can do it, both decades ago and as recently as 2021 in the M1 iMac, so where’s the vibrancy gone from the iPad? Outside of the new blue hue, the iPad Air comes in the same four colors as the iPad mini 6, all of which look varying different degrees of silver depending on your lighting.

I’d like to see the blue one in person, but even in the product renders at Apple’s site it comes nowhere near to the deeply-saturated blue iMac. Give me bold, bombastic colors!

A solid upgrade, but not for everyone

The iPad Air 5 has advanced the product line in some key areas and will likely replace the iPad Air 4 in the top spot on our best iPad list once we’ve had chance to put it through its paces.

It’s much faster and its feature set has been brought up to the standard we’d expect in 2022 with exciting updates like M1 adoption and Center Stage. That being said, it likely doesn’t do enough to convince iPad Air 4 owners to upgrade, some of the features will go unnoticed by many buyers, and Apple has seemingly left itself some low-hanging fruit for the next iPad Air upgrade.