The best deals of the week include all-time low prices on the 9th generation iPad and M1 MacBook Air, as well as solid discounts on Samsung monitors and Anker accessories.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
One of the most notable deals of the week focused on the 9th generation of Apple's iPad. You can get the 64GB Wi-Fi iPad for $249.99 on Amazon, which is $79 off and the best price we've ever tracked on the tablet.
Samsung is still discounting the new model of its 32-inch Smart Monitor M8, available for $599.99, down from $699.99. This monitor launched in June with updates including HDR10+ support and a portrait orientation option, and this sale price is the lowest we've seen to date. You can also save on a few other monitors, listed below.
Anker returned this week with notable discounts on its line of Bluetooth trackers, wall chargers, portable batteries, and more. You can find the full list of discounts in our original article.
This week, Amazon continued to provide an all-time low price on the 256GB M1 MacBook Air. You can get this notebook for $749.99 in all three colors, down from $999.00.
The AirPods 3 hit $139.99 this week on Amazon, down from $169.00. This is a match for Amazon's all-time low price on the AirPods 3 with Lightning Charging Case.
If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.
Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years.
iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack)
At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors.
Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report.
iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design
The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too.
2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3
Apple didn't update the...
Tuesday April 29, 2025 3:36 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
All upcoming iPhone 17 models will come equipped with 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence, according to the Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station.
The claim from the Chinese leaker, who has sources within Apple's supply chain, comes a few days after industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all be equipped with 12GB of RAM.
...
Wednesday April 30, 2025 4:01 pm PDT by Juli Clover
In a victory for Epic Games, Apple was today found to be in violation of a 2021 injunction that required it to allow developers to direct customers to third-party purchase options on the web using in-app links.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who has been handling the Apple vs. Epic Games dispute for the last five years, said that Apple is in "willful violation" of the injunction she issued to ...
Tuesday April 29, 2025 7:00 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone 18 lineup will introduce a major leap in memory performance, according to new information shared today by Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station. Apple is reportedly planning to equip the 2026 models with a high-capacity six-channel LPDDR5X memory configuration, significantly upping the memory bandwidth for future AI features and multitasking.
Expanding the memory bandwidth...
It seems that MacBooks with decent storage and RAM never go on sale, only the base models or bumped up storage but base RAM models. It seems that Apple has a strategy and retailer pricing policy to ensure that.
The back to school promo is the only discount for the higher RAM models.
The problem is I always just want the 256GB iPad 9th gen not the 64GB one. The iPad 9th gen would be a perfect upgrade because I have the 7th gen with all the accessories and the 9th gen is identical in dimension.
The problem is I always just want the 256GB iPad 9th gen not the 64GB one. The iPad 9th gen would be a perfect upgrade because I have the 7th gen with all the accessories and the 9th gen is identical in dimension.
For me, the 9th gen iPad using lightning works out b/c it's the same I use for my iPod Touch 5. I've recently been playing some games again on there (continuing what I put on hiatus for 5+ years!!). Otherwise, I use it as a glorified calculator, flashlight, and stop watch :D It's light weight and very slim size does make it convenient for that! :)
The price difference between these two ($140 for 192gb extra) is about double the cost of a 2tb SSD nowadays:
Hard to see the 256gb as a deal when they’re marking up storage by 1000%.
[shrug]... don't know what to say, other than, that's Apple in-a-nutshell? If you buy the lesser (storage) one, then you may be more inclined to sub to iCloud+? If you get the larger storage one, then you're more likely to get into multimedia, which could mean more $$ for then, in addition to paying that markup? Either way, it's a win for Apple.
FWIW, storage on an external or internal SSD or hdd can't exactly be a 1-to-1 comparison between storage on devices, as the latter means you get that available on the device. I recall somebody brought this up for the Palm Tungsten X PDA, and they did counter that being able to buy the extra 140-something MB for dirt cheap on a USB thumb drive does those users no good. Still, your point about insane markups stand.
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I got an 9th gen iPad back in Nov. 2011. I really wanted the 256 GB model, but didn't want to pay an extra $150 for that extra storage. Really, 128 GB would've been ideal, but there was no such middleground. I ended up going for the 64 GB model b/c it was $30 off (at $300), while there was no sale on the 256-one. I estimated that would be enough since most of the video games I'd have on there were digital board games. The one curve ball ended up being the Apple Arcade free trial. Some of those games are large, and can take up 1 GB+ apiece! I ended up not renewing AA after my free trial expired. I went on vacation, got a few non-AA games on iOS, and some Android games to boot, and that ended up keeping me plenty occupied in terms of gaming.
It ended up working out anyways, as not only did I still not have interest to go back to AA (I would've done so for $45/yr via Costco), I ended up getting a Switch as a gift! All of the free time that I would've spent on AA is now on that! And while I did like some of the games on AA, and it was very affordable, the Switch is a dedicated gaming console with a strong lineup, so can't really compete with that. And that's before we count in that I'm a fan of Nintendo games! If I didn't get the iPad back then, I don't think I could see myself springing for the 9th-gen 64 GB model given such a discount. (also hard to think this is less than what I used to pay for iPod Touches! :oops: )
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
