Editor's Note: See our review of the iPad Air (2020).

Apple has begun taking pre-orders for the iPad Air 4. The company's new mid-range tablet is expected to arrive on October 23 (the same day iPhone 12 pre-orders arrive).

The iPad Air 4 is probably the most interesting of the recent iPads, as it makes some of the iPad Pro's signature features available at a lower price. In other words, instead of buying the iPad Pro for $799, you can get the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil 2 support, a beautiful flat-edge design, thinner bezels, and the A14 Bionic chip for $599.

The 6-core A14 Bionic may be the fastest chip in smartphone history (as Apple announced at the iPhone 12 event), but how it will compete with the 8-core A12Z processor in the 2020 iPad Pro remains to be seen. What we do know is that the A12Z was not exactly impressive in benchmarks when compared to the A12X Bionic chip in the 2018 iPad Pro.

Another major difference between the iPad Air 4 and the iPad Pro is biometric security: the iPad Air 4 does not have the ultra-thin bezel of the iPad Pro, which means it does not have the Face ID camera that Apple has on the Pro's bezel. Instead, there is a Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the power button; while Touch ID has seen a bit of a resurgence in public support thanks to the face mask getting in the way of Face ID, we would have preferred to see Face ID on the iPad Air 4.

The iPad Air 4 also has a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 7-megapixel front-facing camera. This setup is better than the regular iPad (8MP/1.2MP), but a few units short of the iPad Pro (12MP & 10MP rear, 7MP front), which also has a LiDAR scanner for AR content.

Personally, I'm excited about the iPad Air 4 because it offers an excellent iPad accessory for those who don't want to spend $800 on a tablet; the $299 Magic Keyboard may be more expensive than the $179 Smart Keyboard but it is by far the superior keyboard.

Similarly, the Apple Pencil 2nd generation for the iPad Air 4 would be willing to spend an extra $30, as magnetic charging is far superior to the awkward charging method used with the 1st generation Apple Pencil.