Apple iPad Air M3: what 7 Hacker News owners think

Doesn’t like it

Yeah, I’m not a dedicated iPhone user and my personal phones are androids so my iOS experience has been iPod Touch 2G -> employer owned iPhone 8 -> employer owned iPhone XR -> iPad Air M3. Each of those big gaps have seen the UI shift and the keyboard decline.

Likes it

same here. Drawing on my 13in M3 Air is a delight with the pencil. I sometimes try to do productivity stuff on it like sitting in zoom calls while multitasking on an external monitor, but it's not a very good experience on iOS 18.6 Haven't tried 26 yet, maybe it will be better

Likes it

I have an M3 iPad Air. I only upgraded after my M1 iPad Air 4th generation (IIRC) stopped turning off and it was way too expensive to get a replacement board. I am desperately clinging on to these because they still use TouchID. Words cannot describe how much I hate FaceID as a person with poor vision. When I'm forced to use it on my iPhone (which is all the time), I have to move it away from my face or I get the "Try again". Super-annoying. But it gets worse: after a certain number of unsuccessful tries, you're forced to use your passcode anyway and FaceID has false negatives ALL THE TIME. It's even worse on n iPad form factor where the iPad often isn't facing you directly. It might be attached to a keyboard, on a stand, on your lap or on your chest (when lying down). Many of these angles just don't naturally work with FaceID. If only Apple would give me a FaceID OPTION on an iPhone. I haven't bought a keyboard or anything. If I wanted a device to work on in any way, I'd still use a Macbook Air. But I do love my iPad Air.

Likes it

I have the M3 iPad Air… I won’t have to replace it for at least 4 years because it’s stupidly powerful but both of its hands are tied because of iPad OS. Apple needs to get serious and make a version of MacOS for the iPad otherwise these upgrades are meaningless for most users.

Likes it

8th Gen iPad is about the same on iPadOS 26 as 18 for me, which is slow. The 32GB really handicapped it for even being usable as to even upgrade it, I have to factory reset it first. I'm replacing it with a Mini. The iPad Air 13 with a M3 is a really nice experience. Very fast device.

Neutral

I had the same thought and bought it with the Magic Keyboard. I was surprised to find that the iPad Air with the keyboard weighs about the same as a MacBook Air. Now, I mainly use it as an extra display when traveling and for note-taking. The usage as a separate device is minimal since a lot of uses has intersections with a mobile phone.

Neutral

I bought ab 11" ipad air and keyboard... it's kinda fun but struggling to see where it fits between my phone for portable/casual and my mbp for getting stuff done.

Likes itHasn’t owned it

They introduced major changes in the usefulness of the iPad, the phone app got much better on the iPhone, iPad and the Mac. I don’t use my personal MacBook Air M2 or iPad Air 3 (last gen before the Mx transition) enough to care. But my wife just got a brand new iPad Air M3 and she has an old Intel MacBook Air. She can definitely use just her iPad Air with a regular old Bluetooth keyboard and mouse especially with the improved mic support. The better built in translation is a game changer for me and my wife since we will be spending winters in Costa Rica starting next year and my Spanish still isn’t great. But from a developers standpoint, since unlike Android, every iPhone will be able to run on device models and now developers have access to it. This is much better than last year.

Doesn’t like itHasn’t owned it

Thanks for this. I would like to run Linux on it but it seems there are quite a few workarounds needed. It is frankly disgraceful that Apple have hobbled their beautiful iPad hardware in this way. I have a 13inch 2020 M1 Air but it's just slightly too big for travel.

Apple iPad Air M3

What owners wrote