Home > Tablet comparison > Honor MagicPad 2 12.3 vs Apple iPad Air 13" (3th Gen, 2026) – which one to choose?

Honor MagicPad 2 12.3 vs iPad Air 13" (3th Gen, 2026)

69 out of 100
Honor MagicPad 2 12.3
VS
89 out of 100
Apple iPad Air 13
MagicPad 2 12.3
iPad Air 13" (3th Gen, 2026)

Here we compared two flagship tablets: the 12.3-inch Honor MagicPad 2 12.3 (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3) that was released on July 12, 2024, against the Apple iPad Air 13" (3th Gen, 2026), which is powered by Apple M4 (iPad) and came out 1 year and 8 months 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 Honor MagicPad 2 12.3
  • Higher display refresh rate – 144 Hz
  • Supports higher wattage charging (66W versus 20W)
  • Delivers 12% higher peak brightness (688 against 614 nits)
  • OLED display (versus competitor's IPS LCD)
  • Much smaller footprint: 18% more compact case (76.7 vs 93.5 square inches)
  • 10% higher pixel density (290 vs 264 PPI)
  • Reverse charging feature
  • Weighs 61 grams less
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad Air 13" (3th Gen, 2026)
  • 2x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (3617K versus 1795K)
  • Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5
  • Compatible with the latest Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • 87% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3738 and 2004 points
  • Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology

Review

Evaluation of Honor MagicPad 2 12.3 and Apple iPad Air 13" (3th 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
8 / 256 GB
VS
12 / 128 GB
40.3
(Average)
Value Index
47.2
(Average)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Tablet:
MagicPad 2 12.3
vs
iPad Air 13" (3th Gen, 2026)

Display

Type OLED IPS LCD
Size 12.3 inches 13 inches
Resolution 1920 x 3000 pixels 2048 x 2732 pixels
Aspect ratio 3:2 4:3
PPI 290 ppi 264 ppi
Refresh rate 144 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (60-144 Hz) No
Max rated brightness 650 nits 600 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1600 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10 No
Screen protection Tempered glass Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 90.9% 86.8%
Display features - DCI-P3 - DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 98.4% 99.8%
PWM 90 Hz Not detected
Response time 5 ms 19 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity 1563:1
Screen space comparison
iPad Air 13" (3th Gen, 2026)
13″ (4:3 ratio) = 81.1 in2
MagicPad 2 12.3
12.3″ (3:2 ratio) = 69.8 in2
~16% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 274.5 mm (10.81 inches) 280.6 mm (11.05 inches)
Width 180.5 mm (7.11 inches) 214.9 mm (8.46 inches)
Thickness 5.8 mm (0.23 inches) 6.1 mm (0.24 inches)
Weight 555 g (19.58 oz) 616 g (21.73 oz)
Waterproof No No
Rear material Metal Metal
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Blue Gold, Gray, Blue, Purple
Fingerprint scanner No Yes, in-button
Area 495 cm2 (76.9 inches2) 603 cm2 (93.5 inches2)
Repairability - Average (2.84/5)
Drop resistance - Bad (E) · 16 drops
Visual size comparison
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (65th and 11th place)
iPad Ranking (#4th place)

Performance

Chipset specifications of Honor MagicPad 2 12.3 and Apple iPad Air 13" (3th Gen, 2026)
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Apple M4 (iPad)
Max clock 3000 MHz 4410 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 4 + 3) 10 (4 + 6)
Architecture - 3 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A520
- 4 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 1 core at 3 GHz: Cortex-X4		 - 6 cores at 2.85 GHz:
- 4 cores at 4.41 GHz:
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 735 9 core Apple GPU
GPU shading units 768 -
GPU clock 1100 MHz 1470 MHz
FLOPS ~1689.6 GFLOPS ~3763.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Honor MagicPad 2 12.3 and Apple iPad Air 13" (3th Gen, 2026)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Single-core score 2004 3738
Multi-core score 5461 13702
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 565484 1732068
GPU 488270 945613
Memory 318468 349993
UX 423155 590286
Total score 1795377 3617960
Samples [201 tests] Less than 3
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 91% -
Graphics test 8 FPS 22 FPS
Graphics score 1089 3027
3DMark Solar Bay
Graphics test 20 FPS 49 FPS
Section 1 23 FPS 59 FPS
Section 2 20 FPS 49 FPS
Section 3 17 FPS 38 FPS
Graphics score 5148 12850
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 17800 -
Video editing 8040 -
Photo editing 29384 -
Data manipulation 13941 -
Writing score 19204 -
Submit your benchmark results

Memory

Configuration
RAM
RAM size 8 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR4X LPDDR5
Memory clock 2133 MHz -
Channels 2 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 14 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) iPadOS 26.3 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5)
ROM MagicOS 10 -
OS size 29 GB 26 GB
OS updates - 0 years

Battery

Capacity 10050 mAh 10340 mAh
Max charge power 66 W 20 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging Yes No
Fast charging Yes (35% in 30 min) Yes (51% in 70 min)
Full charging time 1:46 hr 2:28 hr
Battery cycles - 1000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 05:53 hr -
Watching video 09:22 hr -
Gaming 05:56 hr -
Standby 124 hr -
General battery life
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
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 1080p (Full HD) at 30 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 7 (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 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 Yes
GPS - GPS, GLONASS
NFC* No No
Infrared port No No
Network
Type of SIM card No eSIM
eSIM support* - Yes
Hybrid slot - No
5G support No Yes

Sound

Speakers 8.0 Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos No Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced July 2024 March 2026
Release date October 2024 March 2026
Launch price (MSRP) $599 $799
Successor - Honor MagicPad 3 -
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- 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

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPad Air 13" (3th Gen, 2026) is definitely a better buy.

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