Home > Tablet comparison > Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) vs Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020) – which one to choose?

iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) vs iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020)

84 out of 100
Apple iPad Air 11
VS
64 out of 100
Apple iPad Air 10.9
iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025)
iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020)

Here we compared two flagship tablets: the 11-inch Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) (with Apple M3 (iPad)) that was released on March 4, 2025, against the Apple iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020), which is powered by Apple A14 Bionic and came out 4 years and 7 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory
  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each tablet
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025)
  • 2x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2777K versus 1361K)
  • Has 2x more RAM: 8GB versus 4GB
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 6400 MHz
  • More energy-efficient CPU – Apple M3 (iPad)
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • 49% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3113 and 2095 points
  • Ready for eSIM technology
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020)
  • Supports higher wattage charging (30W versus 20W)

Review

Evaluation of Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) and Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020) crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
πŸ“± Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
8 / 128 GB
VS
4 / 64 GB
88.9
(Very good)
Value Index
52.4
(Average)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Tablet:
iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025)
vs
iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020)

Display

Type IPS LCD IPS LCD
Size 11 inches 10.9 inches
Resolution 1640 x 2360 pixels 1640 x 2360 pixels
Aspect ratio 3:2 3:2
PPI 264 ppi 264 ppi
Refresh rate 60 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 500 nits 500 nits
HDR support No No
Screen protection Tempered glass Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 81.5% 80.1%
Display features - DCI-P3 - DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 99.6% 99.3%
PWM Not detected Not detected
Response time 34 ms 36 ms
Contrast 1016:1 1305:1
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 247.6 mm (9.75 inches) 247.6 mm (9.75 inches)
Width 178.5 mm (7.03 inches) 178.5 mm (7.03 inches)
Thickness 6.1 mm (0.24 inches) 6.1 mm (0.24 inches)
Weight 460 g (16.23 oz) 458 g (16.16 oz)
Waterproof No No
Rear material Metal Metal
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Gold, Gray, Blue, Purple Silver, Gray, Blue, Green, Rose gold
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-button Yes, in-button
Area 442 cm2 (68.5 inches2) 442 cm2 (68.5 inches2)
Repairability Average (2.59/5) -
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (25th and 88th place)
iPad Ranking (7th and 22nd place)

Performance

Chipset specifications of Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) and Apple iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020)
SoC
Chipset Apple M3 (iPad) Apple A14 Bionic
Max clock 4050 MHz 3000 MHz
CPU cores 8 (4 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2.75 GHz:
- 4 cores at 4.05 GHz: 		- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Icestorm
- 2 cores at 3.1 GHz: Firestorm
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 3 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Apple Neural Engine Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Apple GPU 9-core Apple GPU 4-core
GPU shading units 1152 256
GPU clock 1380 MHz 1278 MHz
FLOPS ~3179.5 GFLOPS ~654.3 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) and Apple iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 46172 17192
Single-core score 3113 2095
Multi-core score 11795 5297
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 782907 448073
GPU 1029236 335707
Memory 305749 133324
UX 659395 444710
Total score 2777287 1361814
Samples [7 tests] [3 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 74% -
Graphics test 19 FPS -
Graphics score 2552 -
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability - 97%
Graphics test 37 FPS 11 FPS
Section 1 50 FPS 14 FPS
Section 2 34 FPS 11 FPS
Section 3 27 FPS 9 FPS
Graphics score 9672 2961
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability - 90%
Graphics test - 14 FPS
Graphics score - 2483
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
Submit your benchmark results

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-17 (Jacob)AnTuTu 112015536
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-12 (Kaimen)AnTuTu 112811760
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-08 (Bearry)AnTuTu 112838721
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-22 (Noora)AnTuTu 112779459
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-21 (Noora)AnTuTu 112708158
Add View all (8)
Apple iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-18 -> nickandrewpedrosa201178AnTuTu 111347415
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-16 (hi)AnTuTu 111375134
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-03 (Dr. Maddy)AnTuTu 111361814
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-01 (AIR 4 hype)Geekbench 6 GPU17192
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-01 (AIR 4 hype)Geekbench 6 CPU2095 / 5297
Add View all (5)

Memory

Configuration
RAM
RAM size 8 GB 4 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory clock 6400 MHz 2133 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 64 GB
Storage type NVMe NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system iPadOS 18.3 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 27) iPadOS 14.1 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5)
OS size 13 GB -
OS updates 0 years -

Battery

Capacity 7606 mAh 7606 mAh
Max charge power 20 W 30 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging No No
Fast charging Yes (50% in 60 min) Yes (50% in 60 min)
Full charging time 2:16 hr 2:10 hr
Battery cycles 1000 cycles -
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 07:54 hr
Watching video - 10:27 hr
Gaming - 06:15 hr
Standby - 182 hr
General battery life
Add your battery life

Main camera

Matrix 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4032 x 3024 4032 x 3024
Zoom Digital Digital
Flash No No
Stabilization Digital Digital
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Lenses 1) Standard: 12 MP
1) Standard: 12 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode - Bokeh mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Sensor size - 1/3.0" (β‰ˆ 0.33 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron -
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 7 megapixels
Image resolution 4032 x 3024 3472 x 2063
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.0
Focal length - 31 mm
Sensor CMOS -
Autofocus No No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display		 - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.3 5
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.1 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG		 - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes No
GPS GPS, GLONASS GPS, GLONASS
NFC* No No
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* - 1
Type of SIM card eSIM Nano
eSIM support* Yes No
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* - 18
5G support Yes No

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced March 2025 September 2020
Release date March 2025 October 2020
Launch price (MSRP) $599 $599
Successor - - Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025)
Sensors - Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Fingerprint		 - Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Keyboard weight - 293 g
Bundled charger Yes, 20 W Yes, 20 W
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which tablet would you choose?
3 (75%)
1 (25%)
Total votes: 4

Related comparisons

1. Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) vs Apple iPad Pro 11" (5th Gen, 2024)
2. Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) vs Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)
3. Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) vs OnePlus Pad 2
4. Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) vs Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
5. Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025) vs Apple IPad Air 13" (2024)
6. Apple iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020) vs Apple IPad Air 13" (2024)
7. Apple iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020) vs Apple iPad 10.9" (10th Gen, 2022)
8. Apple iPad Air 10.9" (4th Gen, 2020) vs Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
Compare other tablets (80+)

User opinions

You can share your opinion or ask a question in the comments below
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
EnglishРусский