I paid just under £1050. 1.4 quad core i5. 8gb ram and 256mb ram.
I think I'm just looking due to being a tech freak and wanting the latest. My Pro is amazing and should just wait for the gen 2 M1 chips if I am to ever upgrade.
I recently sold my mid 2019 MacBook Air (which was configured with top spec at the time) in favour of the M1 Air. The difference is immense.
I was fairly disappointed with the Intel Air as soon as I received it as it just felt so slow even compared against the 2013 rMBP that it was replacing. Opening things like 1Password took too long after the machine started up and its "Ohh I've been asleep for a couple of hours, I'll just shut down now" feature was infuriating. I didn't otherwise use the machine for anything heavy, just some browsing, Slack and the occasional document.
With the M1 the speed is great, I'm not left waiting for almost anything. The M1's awake from sleep feature is now also better than what I had on my 2013 retina MacBook.
For reference, I sold my 2019 Air for just about half price (through the well known auction site) compared to what I paid for it just 12 months prior.