iPad Mini vs. iPad Air Buyer's Guide: Now Just $50 Apart

Apple refreshed both the iPad mini and iPad Air this year, but the choice is now less straightforward and there is just a $50 price difference between them, so which should you choose? The eighth-generation ‌iPad Air‌ arrived in March with the M4 chip, 12GB of unified memory, Apple's N1 wireless chip, and the C1X modem on cellular models. It remains available in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes. Following Apple's June price increases, the two size options now start at $749 and $949, respectively. In October, Apple announced the eighth-generation ‌iPad mini‌, introducing a larger 8.5-inch display with OLED technology, a thinner and lighter design, the A20 chip, an optional nano-texture finish, a landscape front camera, and more. The changes give Apple's smallest tablet several advantages over the ‌iPad Air‌, even as the Air retains a larger screen and support for Apple's Magic Keyboard. Both devices offer Touch ID in the top button, Apple Pencil Pro and ‌Apple Pencil‌ (USB-C) support, ‌Apple Pencil‌ hover, landscape 12MP Center Stage front cameras with ƒ/2.0 apertures, Apple's N1 wireless chip, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread networking technology, and USB-C ports with transfer speeds of up to 10Gb/s. The new ‌iPad mini‌ also features 12GB of unified memory, matching the Air. Advertised battery life is the same, with up to 10 hours of web browsing over Wi-Fi or watching video, or up to nine hours of web browsing over cellular. Despite the ‌iPad mini‌'s move to ‌OLED‌, neither model offers ProMotion. Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two iPads is best for you. ‌iPad mini‌ (eighth generation, 2026) ‌iPad Air‌ (eighth generation, 2026) 8.5-inch display 11-inch or 13-inch display 2316-by-1512 resolution 11-inch: 2360-by-1640 resolution 13-inch: 2732-by-2048 resolution 326 ppi 264 ppi Super Retina XDR ‌OLED‌ display with 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio Liquid Retina display with LED backlighting and IPS technology 600 nits maximum…