Deals: Apple iPad Air and MacBook Air get price cuts

11 October 2024

Amazon’s latest Prime Day sales came and went this week, but that’s not the end of promotions. Today we want to focus on something that the Prime Day offers didn’t touch on much – Apple computers and tablets.

We will start with tablets as they are more affordable. The vanilla Apple iPad from 2022 has a 10.9” IPS LCD (just 60Hz refresh rate) and an A14 chipset. It charges using USB-C, so you can use the same cable as current iPhones. A stylus is supported too (the first-gen Pencil).

More capable are the new Air models, which use the Apple M2 chip, same as the previous Pros. The iPad Air 11 also has an IPS LCD of around the same size and is also stuck on 60Hz. The Airs have USB-C with video out and Stage Manager support for multitasking – it’s not as good as macOS, but it is still quite usable.

This generation also features a larger 13” iPad Air. It is basically the same tablet, other than the larger battery (36.59Wh vs. 28.93Wh).

The same Apple M2 power is also available in MacBook Air with the 13.6” laptop from 2022. It costs more, but as we mentioned above, macOS is better at multitasking and can run iOS and iPadOS apps. Plus, you get the keyboard, which is a separate purchase with the iPads.

For £100 more, you can upgrade to M3 power with the 2024 MacBook Air, also a 13.6” laptop. These newer models support up to two external displays (with the lid closed), while the M2 model can really only handle one (although there are ways around this limitation).

There is also a larger 15.3” variant of the 2024 MacBook Air with the M3 chip. The displays can reach 500 nits of brightness and have True Tone Technology – and notches for the 1080p FaceTime HD cameras.

That’s it for the Apple offers, we will wrap up with some Amazon tablet deals. The Amazon Fire Max 11” tablet is 48% off right now (with ads) and with its large IPS LCD and stereo speakers, it makes for a great browsing and streaming device. It can handle video calls and office work too, as well as some light gaming.

The Amazon Fire HD 10 has a 10.1” LCD and stereo speakers, so it’s another great entertainment option – and this one starts under £100. Like the Max, it has an octa-core CPU (2.0GHz), so light gaming is on the table as well.

Finally, the Amazon Fire 7 is cheap to begin with and ridiculously cheap after the 54% discount – the 16GB model is just £30. You can pay £10 extra to get 32GB internal storage, but we’d rather spend that money on a microSD card. A 128GB Amazon Basics card is £10.63 right now and for a bit more you can get a SanDisk Extreme.

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