Consistency Is a Clear Virtue, at Least for the Time Being

Apple's latest iPad is a lightweight competitor among productivity devices, but can it stack up against laptops?

- Shouvik Das

In 2013, when Apple launched its first ever iPad Air, it felt like a rich kid's fancy new toy. This was, of course, an era when mobile computing was far from at par with what laptops could pull off. Today, the 2025 Apple iPad Air M3 is anything but that—in fact, it offers interesting commentary on the perennial question around whether you can really work with a tablet and not lug your laptop around.

Case in point: Apple's latest iPad Air, the thinnest in its tablet lineup and a middle-ground between the basic iPad and the top-spec iPad Pro, is half as heavy as the company's newest thin laptop, the MacBook Air. Straight up, the weight difference certainly makes a case for customers to wonder if they can indeed make the switch to this lightweight computing device. Add to that, Apple uses the same generation of its custom processors on laptops and tablets now. Sure, while the MacBook Air now uses its fourth-generation custom processors (now called M4), the iPad Air uses an M3 processor. For most users, this won't make a tangible difference. What will, though, is if you can really work unhindered with the iPad Air. While this will depend significantly on what your work entails, safe to say that if you are considering a lightweight iPad for work, you aren't a heavy-duty user who needs multiple displays and an elaborate desktop setup on a daily basis.

AN UNLIKELY WORK ALLY