Apple’s iPad Mini is $50 off at Amazon today

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Today's Dealmaster is headlined by a nifty discount on the iPad Mini, as 64GB models of Apple's 7.9-inch tablet are currently down to $350 on Amazon. That's $50 off Apple's MSRP and about $35-40 off the street price we've typically seen online over the past few months.

While we've seen the iPad Mini hit this price a few times in the past, this is the second-best deal we've tracked for the tablet in total, trailing only a brief drop to $330 in April. As of this writing, the discount only applies to the Space Gray variant. If you want more storage space, the 256GB model is $50 off as well, bringing it down to $500.

The iPad Mini is more or less exactly what its name suggests: a smaller iPad. It has the same benefits as most Apple tablets: sturdy hardware, a sharp (at 326 pixels per inch) and quality display with no air gap, well-supported software, and a rich app library. With its large bezels and lack of USB-C support, its design is decidedly more dated than the pricier iPad Pro, but its size makes it a more natural fit for ebook or magazine reading, with the occasional YouTube video or Apple Arcade game thrown in. The Mini is probably too cramped to be a reliable multitasking machine-and unlike the iPad Air, it doesn't support Apple's Smart Keyboard accessory-but iPadOS still tends to work better as a media-consumption platform than a productivity one. That said, the iPad Mini runs on Apple's A12 Bionic chip, which remains more than powerful enough for most of the tasks you'd do here. It also supports Apple's Pencil stylus.

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