We're still a week away from Amazon's official Prime Day event, but those on the hunt for Apple's brand new iPads should be diving in early. I've been covering these events for years now (and I've been watching new iPad releases slowly shed their price tags) but even I've been surprised by the discounts available right now. You'll find record-low prices on both the new iPad Air and the new iPad Pro - dropping both devices further than I thought they would go during the main event itself.
I'll kick things off with the new M2 11-inch iPad Air. The $599 tablet is now available for $564 at Amazon - impressive considering I'd pegged actual Prime Day iPad deals to only drop it to $569.99. I'm always happy to be corrected when the results are better than anticipated, though - especially when we actually hit this $569.99 position for the first time over the weekend. Since then, Amazon has been trickling that price even further to today's record low.
Savings are a little chunkier on the new M4 iPad Pro 11-inch. You'll find this top of the range model available for $934 at Amazon (was $999). I was only expecting to see it drop to $949 over Prime Day (based on last year's offers and the pricing trajectory of previous releases). That means this is a particularly strong discount, all coming a whole week before official sales hit.
Should you wait for Prime Day?
In my experience, record-low prices on brand new iPads don't last long. These are heavily sought after devices and any new discount is snapped up fast. Considering Amazon has already surpassed my previous expectations for this annual sale I wouldn't worry too much about jumping in early here. These are expensive tablets, but they're also Apple - and that means we don't see heavy price cuts all too often. I expect it will take until Black Friday for these devices to hit the $499 / $899 price lows of their predecessors - and any further savings we could see next week will be minor.
Why jump in early then? Stock. Amazon doesn't have an endless supply of iPads, and once those numbers start to run low we'll see the price ticking back up the chain. I can't count how many times I've seen so-called 'Prime Day deals' on devices that were actually cheaper just prior to the event. Once a new record-low price drops on something this popular it's only a matter of time before demand outweighs demand.
We're also rounding up everything we expect to see from this year's Prime Day Kindle deals and Prime Day laptop deals for more tech. Or, take a look at the full roster of Prime Day gaming deals we expect to see as well.
