The iPad has all the time been the good pill. An amazing value, a very good quantity of efficiency, strong battery life, and a sufficiently big display screen. That is why it is much more noteworthy when this humble slate goes on sale. Black Friday iPad offers abound! However no, you do not actually need to purchase that discounted iPad Professional that also prices almost $1,000. Purchase Apple’s entry-level iPad for $279 as a substitute, and save your money for all the opposite hours you are not watching this display screen.
For extra reductions, try our Greatest Early Black Friday Offers roundup.
The Greatest iPad Deal
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{Photograph}: Brenda Stolyar
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{Photograph}: Brenda Stolyar
The iPad A16 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) arrived early this yr and is the one machine in Apple’s lineup that does not help Apple Intelligence. Perhaps that is a very good factor, contemplating that a lot of these synthetic intelligence options aren’t very helpful proper now. Nonetheless, early rumors counsel that Apple is readying a Twelfth-gen iPad within the first few months of 2026, and anticipate to see Apple Intelligence help. It is in any other case anticipated to be a processor bump, so do not anticipate a lot else.
When you simply need a easy, big-screen pill to compensate for exhibits, do some work, and even play video games, the iPad A16 suits the invoice. It is highly effective sufficient for many apps and video games, and the 11-inch display screen dimension isn’t too huge and never too small. This iPad not too long ago bought a complete lot extra versatile with the iPadOS 26 replace, which provides windowing options, turning the iPad expertise right into a Mac. You possibly can resize home windows, flick them to the perimeters for split-screen, and iPadOS 26.1 brings again Slide Over, so you continue to have some choices on how you wish to multitask.
Join it with a Bluetooth keyboard and you’ll simply spend hours on this slate typing up emails or doing another sort of gentle work. Sure, you too can use it for drawing, nevertheless it solely helps the first-gen Apple Pencil and the Apple Pencil USB-C. The show can also be not absolutely laminated, which means there’s an air hole between the glass and the display screen, which makes it suboptimal for sketching.
When you particularly need an iPad for drawing, I counsel upgrading to the iPad Mini, Air, or iPad Professional. Excellent news! These are on sale as properly.
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