SAVE $99.01: Amazon has the 2021 iPad mini (64GB) with cellular connectivity(Opens in a new tab) on sale for just $549.99 as of Aug. 12. That’s 15% off its $649 MSRP and a match of its record-low price.
Pull up some data on the Amazon price-tracking site camelcamelcamel, and you might notice a weird trend with Apple‘s latest iPad mini. In the middle of every month since May, the 64GB base model with cellular connectivity has briefly returned(Opens in a new tab) to an all-time low price of $549.99 — but only for a couple days. (This is “weird in a very good way,” to be clear.)
You can catch August’s price drop if you act fast: As of Friday the 12th, the pink(Opens in a new tab) and starlight(Opens in a new tab) variants had dipped down to that $549.99 mark on Amazon. (The space gray and purple ones were sold out at the time of writing.) For context, that’s 15% off Apple’s suggested retail price of $649, which nets you a savings of just under $100.
Launched in 2021, this particular tablet marked Apple’s first major iPad mini redesign since the original one came out in 2012 — and according to Mashable senior editor Stan Schroeder, “the wait was worth it.” Its 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display is brighter and larger than the previous generations’, but it’s still portable enough to take anywhere. (“It feels solid and compact in the hand, like a perfectly sized book,” noted Schroeder.) The addition of a zippy A15 Bionic chip gives it a 40 percent performance jump and an all-day battery life.
Other highlights include second-generation Apple Pencil support, a new USB-C port, Touch ID that’s built into the power button, and a 12-megapixel selfie camera with Center Stage, a feature that keeps you in frame during video calls. An iPadOS update in September or October (pending a possible delay) will add Apple’s new Stage Manager tool, a collaborative app called Freeform, shared iCloud photo libraries, a weather app, some advanced gaming features, and updates to Messages, Mail and Safari.
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Haley is a Mashable shopping reporter based in Chicago. Before joining the team, she covered politics for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, wrote about exotic pet ownership for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, and blogged for several Jersey Shore stars. In her free time, she enjoys playing video games and hanging out with her parrot (Melon) and dog (Pierogi). You can follow her on Twitter at @haleyhenschel(Opens in a new tab) or reach her via email at [email protected].