Was seriously considering a Mini until the Air 5 specs were released. Just doesn’t make sense to buy one when for a $100 more you get double the RAM and M1.
Yeah it’s a tough choice… because $100 is nothing for the extra screen real estate, I wouldn’t factor in the extra RAM and M1 into the decision though, as that literally makes no difference between the two, 8GB of RAM and M1 is wayyyyyyy overpowered for any iPad at this point, and at the end of the day all iPads from the basic iPad up to the 12.9” iPad Pro all run the exact same OS, and that same OS has to be optimised for all models for at least the next 5-6 years, so don’t expect M1 or the extra RAM to bring anything special to the table.
It’s all a case of how are you going to use the device… will the bigger screen and the ability to attach a keyboard benefit you personally? and do you mind loosing the extreme portability and no flash on the rear camera?
But then if you do settle on the Air, what storage are you going for? because if your going to take any advantage of the extra RAM and M1 I would say you would likely need the 256GB storage option but at that point you have to think if its worth spending another $50 and getting better speakers, promotion, a slightly larger display, better cameras and Face ID with the 11” Pro with 128GB…
My point is with any iPad think about your use case and make the decision from that, it’s not worth comparing prices of getting bigger/better models etc… as it’s always going to seem worth getting the next one up as it’s not much more $$$, that’s the exact reason why Apple prices things the way they do.
But essentially all of the iPad line up will do the exact same thing and will continue to do so for the next 5-6 years, it’s all about quality of life improvements with each step up and whether or not they will benefit you or not.
If any iPadOS update in the near future requires M1 or larger amounts RAM Apple wouldn’t still be releasing iPads with A series chips, and never make a purchase decision based on what Apple could be bringing to iPadOS in the near future, as many people fell foul to that when last years iPad Pro’s got launched opting for the 1TB version as it had 16GB of RAM, and all they ended up getting was slightly better multi tasking and widgets for the extra $$$ they spent on the top spec iPads