Does anybody else feel the iPad Air is the real odd one out in the iPad lineup, if not the whole Apple lineup?

hey folks, i’ve had this opinion for a while now (ever since the iPad Air got the M4) and thought i’d share it with an iPad centric community to see if anyone else shares the same opinion, or if they can enlighten me.

as the title says, i think the iPad Air is the real ugly duckling in the whole iPad lineup, even extended to include MacBooks. for £599 it comes with a pitiful 128gb of storage, when the MacBook Neo, iPhone 17e and the (albeit, recently discontinued) Mac Mini comes with 256gb for the exact same price. Even the base iPad comes with 128gb storage at £329, that’s almost half the price.

the base iPad contributes to a lot of my feelings towards the iPad Air - for £270 more you get a laminated screen, a more powerful chip, external display support, better Apple Pencil support and… that’s about it, minus a few small things (sRGB vs P3, WiFi 7 vs. WiFi 6). i think those are pretty useless features, minus the more powerful chip - but even then, a lot of the things you’d want to use the more powerful chip for (like Premiere Pro and Photoshop) would probably benefit from you saving up for an iPad Pro, or even going for a refurbished miniLED iPad Pro.

on the display - i think it’s ridiculous that the Air is still 60hz. the iPad Pro in 2017 had 120hz for £679. the iPad Pro from 2018 has a better screen (including smaller bezels) despite the fact it’s 8 years older. what’s going on?

the 13” justifies its existence slightly more considering there’s no 13” base iPad. i fear Apple kneecap the iPad Air when it comes to the magic keyboard too - because you pay big bucks for a keyboard on par with the Macbook Neo, and lacking when compared to MacBook Air or iPad Pro’s magic keyboard.

this isn’t to say i hate the iPad Air; i have the iPad Air M2 (albeit… i do kick myself for not getting a refurb Pro M1 which was the exact same price, as i came from a 2017 Pro) just think it sits poorly from a value perspective. either a price drop to £499 or giving it a 120hz screen & 256gb storage would fix it.

what do you guys think?