24 hours with the 2022 ipad Air

1 Bezel in disguise

At 461g (462g with cellular) the new Air is only fractionally lighter than the 11in Pro, and it feels solid. Apple’s been confident enough to omit a logo so it’s all screen, with a black bezel. This design was sleek and modern in 2020 and it hasn’t dated yet.

2 Good clockin’ tonight

The ipad Air is now based around the same chip that’s found in the ipad Pro and also a bunch of Macs. With 8GB of RAM it provides serious clout, deftly dealing with everything we threw at it – be that office drudgery, gaming or creative stuff.

3 Crying in the Apple

While the ipad app ecosystem is deeply impressive, holes remain in ipados. File management is slow compared to a desktop OS and multitasking feels like a work in progress. Connecting the Air to an external display is also a sub-optimal experience.

4 It’s now or clever

If your onboard storage needs are quite low, the 64GB Air represents good value. Spec it up to 256GB, though, and you’re only £30 away from the 11in Pro – which has Promotion, Thunderbolt, Lidar and four-speaker audio, albeit with half the storage. Hmm…

5 The wonder of USB

Adding 5G costs an extra £150, but all models get latest-gen Wi-fi and a USB-C port. That speeds up data transfer, which is handy if you have the 64GB Air and regularly offload large files to an external drive, but is no match for the Pro’s Thunderbolt port.