Outside of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you probably won’t find a better opportunity to save on an iPad than Amazon Prime Day. Right now, for example, the 10th generation iPad The 256GB variant with Wi-Fi and 64GB of storage has dropped to an all-time low of $299 ($49 off) at Amazon and Best Buy — no membership required. The 256GB variant is also on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for a record low of $449 ($50 off), though select colors do require a Prime membership with Amazon.
Apple’s latest entry-level iPad feels a little more modern than the outgoing ninth-generation model , and with the current discount, it probably makes more sense to go for the newest one. Apple has stretched the display slightly to 10.9 inches and updated the design to make it more similar to the newer iPad Air, iPad Pro, and iPad Mini models. In the process, though, it’s swapped the 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 so that it’s centered in landscape orientation, and gotten rid of the 3.5mm audio jack, for better or for worse (mostly for worse).
Unless you have a fetish for smaller devices or 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 powers Apple’s A14 Bionic chipset, which is more than powerful enough for basic tasks like browsing, productivity, multimedia, and running many games from the App Store. However, it can’t do everything the M-series chips can, which are exclusively powered by the Apple Intelligence features coming to iPadOS 18 later this year.
If you’re coming from a 9th-generation iPad or older and you’re using the first-generation Apple Pencil, you don’t need to upgrade. However, if you don’t have a stylus yet and appreciate the ability to write and draw with it, you may want to upgrade to the Apple Pencil (USB-C)which is also on sale right now for a record-low price of $69 ($10 off) at Amazon . It’s the only other Apple Pencil compatible with the newer iPad; however, it can’t magnetically charge while attached to the side of your iPad, like the second-gen version can with newer tablets. Instead, you charge it by plugging it directly into your iPad. It’s not pretty, but it works.