Question Which iPad? 2022 Air vs 2021 Pro

[Throbbing Angel]

Morning,

We're doing the iPad shuffle in our house where the oldest model gets CEX'd or Ebay'd and people get handed a newer model and one lucky person gets a 'new' one - or a refurbished one from Apple, same diff.

Anyway, what appeals to me is buying from Amazon and taking advantage of the 'pay over 5 months interest-free' option.

In the running are last year's iPad Pro 11" 128gb and the new iPad Air 10.9" 64gb.
£699 and £569 respectively.
Both WiFi only.
Both M1 chip.

Specs from Apple/Amazon are in the image below - there are a few things like ProMotion technology, different looking cameras, TrueDepth front cameras and Thunderbolt/USB4 on the Pro.

Is the Pro worth another £130???
The extra storage would be nice, but ain't worth £130 to me when I have 1TB of cloud storage at Microsoft. I won't be taking many photos with the iPad. So the cameras aren't of any real benefit to me/us.

It'll mainly be a writing, drawing, reading and browsing machine.

 

[magneze]

IIRC you can do FaceID with the Pro but the Air uses fingerprint on the power button. Dunno if this makes a difference to you personally but feels like something that might be a real-world difference in terms of day-to-day use.

 

[Chilli.s]

if you want maps and navigation it must be a cellular one (has gps) not wifi only

 

[DaphneM]

if you want maps and navigation it must be a cellular one (has gps) not wifi only

they say they are 5g so presumably are cellular?

 

[Throbbing Angel]

IIRC you can do FaceID with the Pro but the Air uses fingerprint on the power button. Dunno if this makes a difference to you personally but feels like something that might be a real-world difference in terms of day-to-day use.

Nope.
I can see it being useful on my phone, which it is, but I can wait that half a second it takes to tap the power button to read my fingerprint.

if you want maps and navigation it must be a cellular one (has gps) not wifi only

Aye. Don't need it for navigation, and if I really needed to whilst out and about, I'd tether it to my phone for a while.

they say they are 5g so presumably are cellular?

Some are. £100 or so extra though innit. So sod that, especially if I can tether to my phone as I do now when needed.

I'm learning towards the Air I think.

 

[cybershot]

I think reviewers came to the conclusion that the new Air made no sense in the current iPad lineup. The Mini has features it doesn't and the Pro isn't that much more!

 

[MrCurry]

The speakers are better in the pro. Sounds like an irrelevance until you are trying to watch a video with background noise and you need to use the extra volume to hear dialogue.

 

[Throbbing Angel]

I think reviewers came to the conclusion that the new Air made no sense in the current iPad lineup. The Mini has features it doesn't and the Pro isn't that much more!

Have read the opposite in some reviews - haven't been watching videos - too much choice - no idea who is reliable/believable.
What features does the mini have that the Air lacks?

The speakers are better in the pro. Sounds like an irrelevance until you are trying to watch a video with background noise and you need to use the extra volume to hear dialogue.

ffs