By George Storr

Published: Wednesday, 13 October 2021 at 12:00 am


Black Friday 2021 is almost here. Each year the seasonal sale offers huge discounts on big-ticket tech items, and we’re going to be on hand to help you make savings and find great devices to suit your needs.

Apple announced a slew of new products at its September event, including the 9th generation iPad and the new iPad mini 6. These new releases are likely to encourage retailers to offer good deals on previous generations of the devices, so there could be some great iPad deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021.

First off, have a good think about what you want – or need – the iPad for. Is it for video editing? In which case, you’ll want one of the more powerful models, or is it for simple web browsing or on the go word-processing and emails? Which might be better suited by an iPad mini. Whichever you’ve got in mind, we’ll be helping you find the best deals on Apple’s iPad range across the seasonal sales.

For more on the individual devices and to understand the differences between them, check out our Apple iPad Pro vs iPad Air page, or follow the links below for the latest prices on the all-new iPad mini 6.

When’s the best time to buy an iPad? Should you wait for Black Friday?

The release of a new base iPad – the 9th generation iPad – and the iPad mini 6 does mean that previous generation of iPad could be heavily discounted this year. The new models will reduce demand for older models and make retailers keen to sell them on before their value deteriorates further. If they can do that by offering some attention-grabbing discount that brings more customers to their sites on Black Friday, they may just do so.

The upshot of this is that if you want the newest iPads, you shouldn’t presume that there will be discounts on them come Black Friday. This is quite unlikely. However, if you’re looking for an iPad Air or an iPad Pro then yes – discounts may be incoming!

The iPad Air may be the most likely model to see significant price slashing. Current pricing is £579 from Apple but, because it houses the previous generation of chip – the A14 – we think this price may drop a little in the seasonal sales.

We listed the iPad Air as the “best mid-range tablet” in our best tablet guide. It’s a fantastic device, and only the Air and Pro models in the current line-up are compatible with Apple’s ‘Magic’ keyboard, which will be a big draw for some users.

Take a look at the best iPad Air deals available right now in the panel below.