iPad Air Worth Nearly Double £££ Over 2025 iPad?

[Terminal_Boy]

My trusty 2018 6th Gen iPad is on its last legs with battery barely lasting a full day and end of line iOS.

I am quite a heavy user these days as I do most everything on it apart from gaming, so I was wondering if the 2025 iPad Air was worth a punt as an upgrade over the basic iPad. Then I saw the Air is almost double the £££/€€€ of the regular iPad.

Has anyone used both recently and it the Air worth the money?

 

[JollyJamma]

My trusty 2018 6th Gen iPad is on its last legs with battery barely lasting a full day and end of line iOS.

I am quite a heavy user these days as I do most everything on it apart from gaming, so I was wondering if the 2025 iPad Air was worth a punt as an upgrade over the basic iPad. Then I saw the Air is almost double the £££/€€€ of the regular iPad.

Has anyone used both recently and it the Air worth the money?

So this is a case of 'your mileage may vary' but looking at the CPU alone, I'd say the upgrade from an A16 on the iPad to the M3 would definitely be worth it, given that you use the iPad a lot and the huge increase in performance that the M3 CPU will give you.

You could replace the battery in your current iPad and keep it going a little longer if it works for you as is and you're ok with the OS being EOL. iFix has a new battery kit for your iPad for £44.99.

If I were a heavy user of an iPad, I'd probably just get the M3 iPad. The Apple M5 CPU in the Pro is overkill AND it's almost double the price again.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Thanks!

 

[JollyJamma]

There are reviews on Youtube too, comparing the performance of both.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

I went for the 11” M3 Air and am super happy with the performance.

Had a WTF moment the first time I ran Speedtest to check the house WiFi as I didn’t realise the M3 Air was capable of twice the speed of my iPhone 15 and 3 times that of my old 2018/6th Gen iPad.

 

[JollyJamma]

I went for the 11” M3 Air and am super happy with the performance.

Had a WTF moment the first time I ran Speedtest to check the house WiFi as I didn’t realise the M3 Air was capable of twice the speed of my iPhone 15 and 3 times that of my old 2018/6th Gen iPad.

Well, that’s good to hear that you’re happy with the performance.

The nice thing too is that the M3 is so fast that you’ll not need to upgrade to a good while.

The M3 CPU is a full sized desktop CPU so it’s going to be much faster than the regular phone CPUs and the heat can be dumped into the iPad chassis.

Enjoy!

 

[GMac11]

I’ll admit it’s been a good few years since I used a basic iPad but the thing that would likely bug me most is the non-laminated display.
Although as I say, I’ve not used one in a long time so maybe the “gap” isn’t as big as I recall/imagine.

 

[Hugest_UK]

We recently got a 2025 iPad for a customer at work. I have a 2020 11" Pro thats been faultless for 5 years but have to say I was very very impressed with it for a base model product you may find its perfectly fine for your needs.

 

[kristmace]

If you're not far from an Apple store or a large Tech retailer its probably worth popping in and handling both. The 2025 base iPad is very capable. The Air form factor is slightly different and the processor is ridiculously powerful.