Home > Tablet comparison > Apple iPad Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021) vs Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024) – which one to choose?

iPad Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021) vs iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)

76 out of 100
Apple iPad Pro 11
VS
80 out of 100
Apple iPad Air 11
iPad Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021)
iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)

Here we compared two flagship tablets: the 11-inch Apple iPad Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021) (with Apple M1 (iPad)) that was released on April 20, 2021, against the Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024), which is powered by Apple M2 (iPad) and came out 3 years and 1 month after. 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 Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021)
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Delivers 26% higher peak brightness (597 against 472 nits)
  • Supports higher wattage charging (30W versus 20W)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
  • Comes with 1362 mAh larger battery capacity: 8900 vs 7538 mAh
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • 25% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2536K versus 2027K)
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 6400 MHz
  • 8% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2619 and 2420 points

Review

Evaluation of Apple iPad Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021) and Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024) 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
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Value for money (Beta)

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Currency
8 / 128 GB
VS
8 / 128 GB
67.7
(Good)
Value Index
75.1
(Good)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Tablet:
iPad Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021)
vs
iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)

Display

Type IPS LCD IPS LCD
Size 11 inches 11 inches
Resolution 1668 x 2388 pixels 1640 x 2360 pixels
Aspect ratio 3:2 3:2
PPI 265 ppi 264 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (24-120 Hz) No
Max rated brightness 600 nits 500 nits
HDR support Yes, Dolby Vision No
Screen protection Tempered glass Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 81.5% 81.5%
Display features - DCI-P3 - DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 99.9% 99.4%
PWM Not detected Not detected
Response time 30 ms 52 ms
Contrast 1425:1 1265:1
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 5.9 mm (0.23 inches) 6.1 mm (0.24 inches)
Weight 466 g (16.44 oz) 461 g (16.26 oz)
Waterproof No No
Rear material Metal Metal
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Silver, Gray Gold, Gray, Blue, Purple
Fingerprint scanner No Yes, in-button
Area 442 cm2 (68.5 inches2) 442 cm2 (68.5 inches2)
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (45th and 38th place)
iPad Ranking (14th and 11th place)

Performance

Chipset specifications of Apple iPad Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021) and Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
SoC
Chipset Apple M1 (iPad) Apple M2 (iPad)
Max clock 3200 MHz 3490 MHz
CPU cores 8 (4 + 4) 8 (4 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2.1 GHz: Icestorm
- 4 cores at 3.2 GHz: Firestorm		 - 4 cores at 2.42 GHz: Blizzard
- 4 cores at 3.49 GHz: Avalanche
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 5 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Apple Neural Engine Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Apple GPU 8-core Apple GPU 10-core
GPU shading units - 1024
GPU clock 1278 MHz 1398 MHz
FLOPS ~2617 GFLOPS ~2863.1 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Apple iPad Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021) and Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) - 43394
Single-core score 2420 2619
Multi-core score 8793 10084
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 629472 841074
GPU 687856 801119
Memory 214672 371059
UX 495700 523068
Total score 2027700 2536320
Samples Less than 3 Less than 3
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 77% 74%
Graphics test 15 FPS 16 FPS
Graphics score 1965 2160
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 83% -
Graphics test 24 FPS 28 FPS
Section 1 30 FPS 38 FPS
Section 2 24 FPS 28 FPS
Section 3 19 FPS 17 FPS
Graphics score 6406 7322
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 76% -
Graphics test 30 FPS -
Graphics score 5045 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
Submit your benchmark results

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple iPad Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021)
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-24 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2420 / 8793
📘 2026-04-18 (Avacada)Geekbench 6 CPU2385 / 8775
📘 2026-01-09 (Rift)AnTuTu 112027700
Add View all (3)
Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
No benchmark results yet
Add

Memory

Configuration
RAM
RAM size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR4X LPDDR5
Memory clock 4266 MHz 6400 MHz
Channels 2 4
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 128 GB
Storage type NVMe NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system iPadOS 14.5.1 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5) iPadOS 17.5 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5)
OS size 13.7 GB -

Battery

Capacity 7538 mAh 8900 mAh
Max charge power 30 W 20 W
Battery type Li-Po 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 2:00 hr 2:17 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 08:24 hr -
Watching video 11:59 hr -
Gaming 05:57 hr -
Standby 171 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 Quad LED 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)
Angle of widest lens 125° -
Lenses 1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Ultrawide: 10 MP
3) Depth
1) Standard: 12 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode		 - Bokeh mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Sensor size 1/3.0" (≈ 0.33 inch) -
Pixel size - 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 10 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Stabilization Digital -

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4032 x 3024 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.4
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 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6E (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 5.3
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 4.0 3.1
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG		 - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS GPS, GLONASS
NFC* No No
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 -
Type of SIM card Nano eSIM
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 18 -
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers 4.0 Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced April 2021 May 2024
Release date May 2021 May 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $799 $599
Successor - Apple iPad Pro 11" (5th Gen, 2024) - Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025)
Sensors - Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor		 - Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Fingerprint
Keyboard weight 600 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

If the camera, performance, gaming, battery life, and design are more important to you, then choose the Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024). But if the display and sound are more of a priority – go for the Apple iPad Pro 11" (3rd Gen, 2021).

Cast your vote

So, which tablet would you choose?
37 (69.8%)
16 (30.2%)
Total votes: 53

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