The best October Prime Day deals on iPads, according to Mashables team of tech experts

the ipad air and ipad mini

The best October Prime Day iPad deals at a glance:

Best budget iPad deal

Best iPad mini deal


Best iPad Pro deal

Fall has just begun, but the holiday shopping season is already heating up. No longer do things kick off on Black Friday: Amazon’s annual Prime Big Deal Days sale is the start of year-end deals.

This “October Prime Day” event is live through midnight PT tonight, and we’re tracking all the best iPad deals right here. Apple’s tablets were hit by price hikes this summer amid the ongoing memory crisis, so Amazon’s discounts on them are a welcome sight — even if they’re not some of the biggest we’ve ever seen.

Save $50 on the regular iPad

The standard iPad with the A16 chip is our favorite Apple tablet for budget shoppers. “Even though its tech is basic compared to the advanced iPad Air and Pro,” writes Mashable’s Samantha Mangino, “it’s great for someone who wants a portable screen for streaming, playing games, and reading.” It’s rated for up to six hours of battery life.

The base iPad with 128GB of storage is now $50 off with or without cellular connectivity. That brings it down to $399, its lowest price since Amazon bumped its MSRP to $449 earlier in June. Its lowest price ever was about $271, according to data on the Amazon price-tracking site camelcamelcamel.

Take $100 off the mega-portable iPad mini

If you wish e-readers were more powerful, more versatile, and equipped with way more storage, get Apple’s smallest iPad instead. The iPad mini’s compact size and anti-reflective display make it our favorite tablet for reading. Right now, you can grab it for $100 off (starting at just $499). Just know that we saw it hit $349 last Black Friday.

Read Mashable’s full review of the Apple iPad mini.

Apple’s latest M4 iPad Air is now $100 off

Mashable’s Timothy Beck Werth called the M4 iPad Air “a tablet that thinks it’s an AI laptop” — it’s a great pick for students, artists, and creators. It has the same super-light aluminum body and bright Liquid Retina screen as last year’s model, but it’s much faster. That M4 chip makes AI tools like fast voice-note transcription and photo editing happen almost instantly. It’s our favorite iPad for most people.

Both sizes of the M4 iPad Air are now $100 off, with the smaller 11-inch model starting at $649. (For comparison’s sake, its all-time low price is about $519.) You’ll pay an extra $150 for cellular connectivity.

Read Mashable’s full review of the Apple iPad Air (M4).

Save up to $200 on the powerful iPad Pro

Select configurations of the latest M5 iPad Pro are up to $150 off during Prime Big Deal Days, but you can save even more on two configurations of last year’s M4 model. (One has Apple’s premium nano-texture display finish.) It has the exact same design, cameras, and smooth, bright OLED touchscreen as its M5 successor. It’s not quite as powerful, but it’s still one of the fastest tablets you can buy. It actually outperforms a lot of laptops on the market. Our former tech editor recommended it for any professional artist who “needs a sleek, on-the-go device that can handle taxing workloads … while they’re traveling from A to B.”

These M4 iPad Pros have both been up to $100 cheaper before, but we think they’ll sell out before Amazon gives them any further price cuts. They’re up to $376 less expensive than their M5 counterparts.

Read Mashable’s full review of the Apple iPad Pro (M4).

More iPad Pro deals

Time is running out for Prime members to shop Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days sale. Sign up for a Prime 30-day free trial if you want to save some cash, and follow Mashable’s guide to the best October Prime Day deals and live blog for the latest updates.

Exit mobile version