Apple's new 10.9-inch iPad for $50 off is cheaper than ever
This is closer to the right price for the entry-level tablet
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: the price is (almost) right
🤑 This is the lowest price yet for Apple’s newest base model iPad
🌈 It comes in more colors than the previous generation
📷 The selfie cam is on the long side, better for FaceTime calls
🤔 The 2021 iPad is still a better deal if the new features don’t call to you
The new Apple 10.9-inch iPad is at its lowest price yet, with a $50 discount at multiple retailers right now. The discount covers both storage tiers – 64GB and 256GB – and all color variants, though you’ll find it doesn’t quite make it to all colors of the 256GB WiFi + cellular tier.
Should you get the old iPad instead?
In short, if you only care about a great performance-to-value ratio, the 2021 iPad is clearly the pick you should make. It seems the company was betting on a few new features and design aspects when it announced the 2022 iPad, but instead Apple made some strange compromises that pull it back from being an all-out win.
It uses an A14 processor instead of an M2 like the other iPads, which could hold it back from certain features, as it already did with the Stage Manager feature. It now has a USB-C port, but lacks the crucial magnetic charging port for, and therefore compatibility with, the Apple Pencil 2 (which wouldn’t be a problem, but the 2015 Apple Pencil 1 it does support charges via the lightning port of older iPads, which this one… doesn’t have).
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They’re awkward choices that might not matter if the iPad was cheaper – mostly I’d wager the target demographic of Apple’s most affordable tablet don’t care about Stage Manager or Pencil support – but the $120 premium over the $329 list price of the 9th generation iPad, would give anyone pause.
At $399, that calculus changes slightly, and the compromises don’t feel so bad. Of course, that’s if we assume the 2021 model is selling for its suggested retail price, which it hasn’t since April 2022. In fact, right now you can get the older tablet for $269, which is a stellar value for a great web-browsing, TV-watching, gaming device.
Still, I wouldn’t count the new iPad out. The selfie cam placement is a key upgrade, it genuinely feels great in hand and the larger display will look nice to all but the most critical among us. Or you could just wait for the rumored behemoth 16-inch iPad that could launch next year.