This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas.
Black Friday sales are rolling full steam ahead, with one of the best iPad deals we’ve ever seen. Right now, you can get a ninth-gen iPad for $60 less than normal. Both the silver and gray variants of the 64GB model are just $270, which is only $2 away from being the lowest price it’s ever been. The iPad is still one of my all-time favourite gadgets, and grabbing one for only $270 is an absolutely absurd deal that should not be passed on.
If you’ve been eyeing a new tablet to help you stay productive on the go (or from a comfortable couch), now is the time to pull the trigger. Black Friday deals are live now, with hundreds of discounted items, including Apple devices like the 2021 ninth-gen iPad. Whether you want to work, play, stay connected, create, explore or stream entertainment, the iPad makes all that easy with an upgraded CPU and Neural Engine that offer faster, more powerful performance compared to previous models.
This is less than you’d pay at the Apple Store for the exact same product, and it’s almost half the price of the original iPad that debuted in 2010 with far less storage and power. If you want more storage, you’ll have to upgrade to the 256GB cellular-enabled model in silver, which is the only other configuration in stock right now, and is on sale for $550.
Apple’s 10.2-inch tablet may not be its best iPad when it comes to raw power — and it’s since been superseded by the 10th-gen iPad — but it has plenty of great features. It’s equipped with the powerful A13 Bionic chip, an 8-megapixel wide-angle rear camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide front camera with Center Stage technology and more. The Retina display has been upgraded from previous models and now has True Tone technology, which adjusts the screen for comfortable viewing in any light.
It also features a Lightning connector and gets up to 10 hours of battery life per charge. Plus, the 2021 iPad supports the first-gen Apple Pencil — without a dongle! — and Smart Keyboard, which are sold separately, but can help you create and work with ease and may be worth the investment.
And if you’re worried that 64GB of storage may not be enough for your pictures, videos or other projects or media, remember that Apple offers plenty of ways to increase your storage if you’re willing to use cloud services like the company’s own iCloud option or apps like Dropbox and Google Drive, so that storage size shouldn’t limit what you can do on your iPad.
As CNET’s Scott Stein wrote in his review of this iPad, “I think the basic unexciting iPad wins out. Especially for the price.” He also awarded it an Editors’ Choice. There’s no set expiration on this deal, so there’s no guaranteeing how long it will remain available. But deals on Apple devices — especially the current generations — rarely last for long, so we’d recommend getting your order soon if you’re hoping to take advantage of this discount. If you’re looking to save on a different Apple tablet, you can check out our roundup of all the best iPad deals you can shop right now.
