Apple iPad Air 10.9" 4 Space Gray 2020

The iPad Air 4 is still a great tablet in 2025, with an A14 Bionic that handles everyday tasks easily and battery life in the 95th percentile. The 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display is bright and colorful, though the 60Hz refresh rate feels dated. Prices on renewed units range from $270 to $439, so shop carefully and buy from a seller with a good return policy. If you can snag one under $350 in good condition, it's a steal.

The A14 Bionic in the iPad Air 4 sits at the 66th percentile for CPU performance among all tablets in our database. That's solid, middle-of-the-pack territory in 2025, but it's important to remember what this chip was doing when it launched. It was Apple's flagship mobile processor, and it still handles iPadOS smoothly for everyday tasks, multitasking with Split View, and even light video editing in apps like LumaFusion. The GPU story is better, landing in the 91st percentile, which means this thing punches above its weight for graphics-heavy work like Procreate, casual gaming, and 3D rendering.

The 6GB of RAM is about average for tablets, sitting at the 53rd percentile. In practice, that means you can keep a handful of apps in memory without constant reloads, but don't expect to have 20 Safari tabs, a video editor, and a game all suspended at once. The 64GB base storage is the real bottleneck here, ranking in the 45th percentile. If you're planning to download movies for flights, store a big photo library, or install a bunch of games, spring for the 256GB model. You'll thank yourself in six months.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 is the most direct Android competitor here, and it's a different beast entirely. Samsung's AMOLED display runs circles around the iPad Air 4's LCD in terms of contrast and refresh rate, and the S Pen is included in the box, which Apple charges extra for. But iPadOS is still the better tablet OS for most people, with a deeper app ecosystem and longer software support. The iPad Air 4 is also lighter at 454g, which matters when you're holding it for hours.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition is the other interesting comparison, but it's really a different category. It runs full Windows, which means real desktop apps, but it's heavier, more expensive, and the tablet experience is nowhere near as polished. If you need a laptop replacement that can also be a tablet, the Surface makes sense. If you want a tablet that can occasionally be a laptop, the iPad Air 4 with a Magic Keyboard is the better call. The Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus and Xiaomi Pad are both solid Android options, but they don't have the app ecosystem or accessory support to match Apple here.

The value story here is complicated, mostly because the price spread is wild. Across 11 US listings, these renewed units range from $270 to $439. That's a $169 gap for what should be roughly the same product, and it means you need to shop carefully. The lower end of that range is a genuinely great deal for a tablet with this level of performance and build quality. At $270, you're getting a device that was $599 when it launched, and it still holds up remarkably well.

At $439, though, you're creeping into territory where you should start asking hard questions. A base iPad 10th gen costs less than that new, and while it has a worse display and no Pencil 2 support, it comes with a warranty and a charging block in the box. The sweet spot for these renewed units seems to be around $300 to $350, where the value proposition is strongest. Just make sure you're buying from a seller with a solid return policy, because the condition lottery is real.

The iPad Air 4 is the tablet that finally brought the Pro's modern design language down to a price normal humans can stomach. You get the flat edges, the edge-to-edge 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, USB-C, and support for the second-gen Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard. It's basically a 2020 iPad Pro in a slightly lighter, slightly more colorful package, and that's a big deal for students, artists, and anyone who wants the premium iPad experience without the premium iPad price tag.

Under the hood sits the A14 Bionic, the same 8-core chip that powered the iPhone 12 lineup. Paired with 6GB of RAM, it's still plenty snappy for iPadOS in 2025. The 64GB base storage is tight, but the 256GB models are what most people actually buy, especially since this thing has no expandable storage. The 28Wh battery is rated well above average in our database, landing in the 95th percentile for battery life among tablets.

This particular listing is for renewed premium units, which means you're buying a used iPad that's been inspected and graded. That's where things get interesting. The hardware itself is excellent, but the renewed condition introduces a lottery element. Most buyers report getting units that look and feel brand new, but a meaningful minority end up with dents, scratches, or missing accessories. We'll dig into that more below.

If you're a serious digital artist or someone who's sensitive to display smoothness, the 60Hz screen on the iPad Air 4 will bug you. The Apple Pencil 2 is great, but the lack of ProMotion means your strokes will feel slightly laggy compared to an iPad Pro. Save up for a used iPad Pro 11-inch instead, which gets you the 120Hz display and a more powerful chip.

If you need a laptop replacement, this probably isn't it either. The Magic Keyboard is expensive, iPadOS still has real limitations for multitasking and file management, and the 64GB base storage fills up fast. A Microsoft Surface Pro or a traditional laptop will serve you better for serious productivity work. And if you're buying for a kid or someone who just needs a basic tablet for streaming and browsing, a base iPad 10th gen is cheaper and comes with a warranty.

For students and casual users, the iPad Air 4 is still a fantastic buy in 2025, especially at the lower end of that $270 to $439 price range. It handles note-taking with the Apple Pencil, media consumption, web browsing, and light productivity without breaking a sweat. The battery life is genuinely excellent, and the design still looks modern. If you can find one in good condition for under $350, it's hard to beat.

For artists and designers, the story is a bit more nuanced. The display is good, with P3 wide color and True Tone, but the 60Hz refresh rate means your strokes in Procreate won't feel as immediate as they do on a ProMotion display. The Apple Pencil 2 is excellent, and the A14's GPU is strong, but if you're doing serious digital art, you might want to save up for a used iPad Pro instead. For everyone else, the Air 4 is the sweet spot of Apple's tablet lineup, even four years after launch.