Home > Tablet comparison > Honor MagicPad 4 vs Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026) – which one to choose?

Honor MagicPad 4 vs iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)

87 out of 100
Honor MagicPad 4
VS
85 out of 100
Apple iPad Air 11
MagicPad 4
iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)

Here we compared two flagship tablets: the 12.3-inch Honor MagicPad 4 (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5) that was released on February 25, 2026, against the Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026), which is powered by Apple M4 (iPad). 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 Honor MagicPad 4
  • Higher display refresh rate – 165 Hz
  • Has a 1.3 inches larger screen size
  • Comes with 2494 mAh larger battery capacity: 10100 vs 7606 mAh
  • Delivers 63% higher peak brightness (825 against 506 nits)
  • Thinner bezels – 10.6% more screen real estate
  • Supports higher wattage charging (66W versus 20W)
  • OLED display (versus competitor's IPS LCD)
  • 10% higher pixel density (290 vs 264 PPI)
  • Reverse charging feature
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Smaller footprint: 10% more compact case (68.5 vs 75.8 square inches)
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • 28% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3717 and 2903 points
  • Ready for eSIM technology

Review

Evaluation of Honor MagicPad 4 and Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026) 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)

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
12 / 256 GB
VS
12 / 128 GB
65.9
(Good)
Value Index
62.8
(Average)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Tablet:
MagicPad 4
vs
iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)

Display

Type OLED IPS LCD
Size 12.3 inches 11 inches
Resolution 1920 x 3000 pixels 1640 x 2360 pixels
Aspect ratio 3:2 3:2
PPI 290 ppi 264 ppi
Refresh rate 165 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes No
Max rated brightness - 500 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 2400 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10 No
Screen protection Tempered glass Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 92.1% 81.5%
Display features - DCI-P3 - DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 99.9% 99.6%
PWM 60 Hz Not detected
Response time 8 ms 22 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity 1140:1
Screen space comparison
MagicPad 4
12.3″ (3:2 ratio) = 69.8 in2
iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
11″ (3:2 ratio) = 55.8 in2
~25% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
MagicPad 4 +63%
825 nits
iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
506 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 273.4 mm (10.76 inches) 247.6 mm (9.75 inches)
Width 178.8 mm (7.04 inches) 178.5 mm (7.03 inches)
Thickness 4.8 mm (0.19 inches) 6.1 mm (0.24 inches)
Weight 450 g (15.87 oz) 464 g (16.37 oz)
Waterproof No No
Rear material Metal Metal
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Gray Gold, Gray, Blue, Purple
Fingerprint scanner No Yes, in-button
Area 489 cm2 (75.8 inches2) 442 cm2 (68.5 inches2)
Repairability Good (3.31/5) Average (2.85/5)
Drop resistance Bad (E) · 5 drops Bad (E) · 42 drops
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (14th and 22nd place)
iPad Ranking (#6th place)

Performance

Chipset specifications of Honor MagicPad 4 and Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Apple M4 (iPad)
Max clock 3800 MHz 4410 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 6) 10 (4 + 6)
Architecture - 6 cores at 3.32 GHz: Oryon Performance
- 2 cores at 3.8 GHz: Oryon Prime		 - 6 cores at 2.85 GHz:
- 4 cores at 4.41 GHz:
L3 cache 6 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 3 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 829 9 core Apple GPU
GPU shading units 1024 -
GPU clock 1225 MHz 1470 MHz
FLOPS ~2508.8 GFLOPS ~3763.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Honor MagicPad 4 and Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 21253 52952
Single-core score 2903 3717
Multi-core score 9602 13294
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 973072 915032
GPU 1061022 1135331
Memory 370365 349968
UX 677929 715682
Total score 3082388 3116013
Samples [31 tests] [2 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Graphics test - 23 FPS
Graphics score - 3099
3DMark Solar Bay
Graphics test - 46 FPS
Section 1 - 59 FPS
Section 2 - 45 FPS
Section 3 - 34 FPS
Graphics score - 12127
Sources: 3DMark [5]
Submit your benchmark results

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Honor MagicPad 4
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-08 -> Nano_Limanlin957GeekBench GPU21413
📘 2026-09-08 -> Nano_Limanlin957GeekBench CPU2819 / 9300
Add View all (2)
Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-03 (Astreeek)AnTuTu2940000
📘 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User)GeekBench GPU52952
📘 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User)GeekBench CPU3717 / 13294
📘 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User)AnTuTu3116013
Add View all (4)

Memory

Configuration
RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 16 iPadOS 26.3 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5)
ROM MagicOS 10 -
OS size 45 GB 38 GB
OS updates 0 years 0 years

Battery

Capacity 10100 mAh 7606 mAh
Max charge power 66 W 20 W
Battery type Silicon-Carbon (Si/C) Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging Yes No
Fast charging Yes Yes (50% in 60 min)
Full charging time - 2:16 hr
Battery cycles 1600 cycles 1000 cycles
Add your battery life

Main camera

Matrix 13 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4160 x 3120 4032 x 3024
Zoom Digital Digital
Flash LED No
Stabilization Digital Digital
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion - 240 FPS (1080p)
Lenses 1) Standard: 13 MP
1) Standard: 12 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode - Bokeh mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 13 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/1.8
Pixel size - 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital

Selfie camera

Megapixels 9 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution - 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.4
Sensor - CMOS
Autofocus No No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
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 6.0 6.0
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.1
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG		 - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 Yes
GPS - GPS, GLONASS
NFC* No No
Infrared port No No
Network
Type of SIM card No eSIM
eSIM support* No Yes
Hybrid slot - No
5G support No Yes

Sound

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

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2026 March 2026
Release date March 2026 March 2026
Launch price (MSRP) $599 $599
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer		 - Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Yes, 66 W Yes, 20 W
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the display, battery life, and design are more important to you, then choose the Honor MagicPad 4. But if the camera, performance, gaming, software, and sound are more of a priority – go for the Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026).

Cast your vote

So, which tablet would you choose?
6 (100%)
0 (0%)
Total votes: 6

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