ok so i've been trying to pull the trigger on one of these for probably two months now and every time i think i've made up my mind i read something that pulls me back the other direction. background: i fly mostly landscape and some travel stuff, nothing commercial, just for fun and the occasional youtube video. i already have a mini 2 which i love but i want to step up to something with better video quality and obstacle avoidance since i had a pretty embarrassing close call with a tree last spring.

from what i can tell the air 3 sensor is bigger and the dual cameras are genuinely useful but then the mini 4 pro is still under 249g which matters to me since i travel internationally a few times a year and the registration stuff in some countries is a pain. the omnidirectional obstacle avoidance on the mini 4 pro also seems like it should be the tiebreaker but i keep reading that the air 3's avoidance is just more reliable in practice? not sure if thats actually true or just people who prefer the air 3 saying that

has anyone actually used both and can give me a real comparison, not just spec sheet stuff

i had the mini 3 pro before and jumped to the air 3 earlier this year and honestly for travel i get why the weight thing feels important but in my experience most countries that actually enforce drone registration dont care much whether its 249g or 350g ? they have their own thresholds and a lot of them are way higher. so i'd personally set that concern aside and just think about what you actually want to shoot with.

the dual camera on the air 3 is something i use way more than i expected. being able to switch between the wide and the medium tele mid-flight without repositioning is genuinely useful for landscape work, not just gimmicky. and the low light is noticeably better than the mini 4 pro from my side by side tests at dusk. that said the mini 4 pro is no slouch and if you really do cross borders a lot the sub-250 thing does simplify certain conversations with airport security even if the actual legal difference is smaller than people think.

both have been solid for obstacle avoidance in my experience but id say the air 3 feels a little more confident in complex environments, might just be the bigger sensors though

im in almost the exact same situation lol, been going back and forth on these two. one thing i havent seen talked about much is the battery life difference ? the air 3 gets noticeably longer flight times and when youre out somewhere remote that actually matters a lot. anyway good luck deciding, ill be curious what you end up going with