10th-gen iPad matches its best price yet for Prime Day

Aside from Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday, you probably won’t find a better opportunity to save on an iPad than during Amazon Prime Day. Right now, for example, 10th generation iPad The model with Wi-Fi and 64GB of storage is down to an all-time low of $299 ($49 off) at Amazon and Best Buy — no subscription required. The 256GB variant is also on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for an all-time low of $449 ($50 off), though some colors require an Amazon Prime membership.

Apple’s latest entry-level iPad looks a bit more modern than the outgoing ninth-generation model, and with the current discount, it probably makes more sense to go with the new kid on the block. Apple has stretched the screen a bit to 10.9 inches and updated its design to make it look more like the new iPad Air, iPad Pro, and iPad Mini models. However, in the process, it’s swapped out its Lightning connector for a USB-C port and lost the Home button (the Touch ID sensor is now integrated into the power button). It’s also repositioned the 12MP front-facing camera to be centered in landscape orientation and removed the 3.5mm audio jack, for better or worse (mostly worse).

Unless you’re a fetishist for smaller devices or have a specific need for the pro-oriented features of the iPad Air and iPad Pro, the standard iPad is an ideal choice for most people. It uses Apple’s A14 Bionic chipset, which is more than powerful enough for basic tasks like browsing, productivity, multimedia, and running the vast majority of games from the App Store. It can’t do everything the M-series chips can, though, which will exclusively support Apple Intelligence features coming as part of iPadOS 18 later this year.

If you’re coming from a ninth-generation iPad or older and are using the first-generation Apple Pencil, you won’t need to upgrade. However, if you don’t already have a stylus and would like to be able to write and draw, you can upgrade to the Apple Pencil (USB-C)which is also on sale right now for the all-time low price of $69 ($10 off) at Amazon. This is the only other Apple Pencil that’s compatible with the new iPad; however, it can’t charge magnetically while docked to the side of your iPad like the second-generation version can with newer tablets. Instead, you charge it by plugging it directly into your iPad. It’s not pretty, but it works.