Best iPad Black Friday Deals 2026

The 11-inch Air is the iPad TechRadar, WhistleOut and Stuff point most people toward, and we agree. Tom's Guide measured about 13% more multi-core speed than the M3 model in Geekbench. It runs Apple Intelligence and takes the Apple Pencil Pro, and its laminated screen puts the image right under the glass, which makes handwriting and sketching feel more direct than on the base iPad.

Skip it if you want a 120Hz screen or Face ID; both are iPad Pro features. If you can live without the Air's extras, the base iPad below costs about $300 less.

At $699 from Amazon, it sells for about $10 more than its 90-day average, so this is not a deal yet. Its $519 low in June came two days before Apple's price increase.

The base iPad covers what most families use a tablet for: streaming, homework, games and video calls. Tom's Guide said Apple nailed the affordable tablet, and TechRadar still counts it among the best tablets you can buy despite its gaps.

Those gaps are real. It does not run Apple Intelligence, it works only with the cheaper Apple Pencils, and Tom's Guide and TechRadar both found the glossy screen hard to read in bright light. Students who take handwritten notes should spend more on the Air.

At $399 from Amazon, it is only a few dollars under its 90-day average; the $50 saving on the card is measured against the list price. Its lowest price of the past year came over Thanksgiving weekend 2025, before Apple's increase, and we would not expect that price again.

The mini is the only iPad you can comfortably hold in one hand for an hour, which makes it the one for reading, travel and young kids. Engadget welcomed the fix for the previous model's jelly scrolling and the move to the Apple Pencil Pro. Stuff was less impressed, calling the 60Hz screen a lingering irritation, and The Verge called the update a head-scratcher in a design unchanged since 2021.

Timing is the bigger question. On October 26 Apple announced an OLED iPad mini with an A20 Pro chip, an 8.5-inch screen and IP67 water resistance, from $699, about $150 more than this one as we checked, and in stores November 6. If you want a small iPad to keep for years, wait for it. This model is the pick only if you want a small iPad for less.

At $545 from Amazon in Purple, it is about $18 under its 90-day average. That is a modest cut for a model Apple has already replaced.

The 13-inch Air costs about $500 less than the 13-inch Pro as we checked, which makes it the big-screen iPad for drawing, two apps side by side and movies in bed. TechRadar praised its vibrant, sharp screen, and Notebookcheck called it the iPad Pro's fiercest competitor. It has the same M4 chip and 12GB of memory as the 11-inch Air, so the extra money goes on screen size alone.

It shares the 11-inch model's limits, with a 60Hz screen and no Face ID. Notebookcheck also found it throttles under long, heavy loads, so anyone editing video for hours should look at the 13-inch Pro.

At $899 from Amazon, it sells for about $12 more than its 90-day average, so this is not a deal yet. It costs $200 more than the 11-inch Air.

The 11-inch Pro is for artists and heavy users who want the best iPad screen in a size that fits any bag. Its tandem OLED panel and 120Hz ProMotion are a clear step up from the Air's LCD, and it adds Face ID and a LiDAR scanner. Macworld calls the iPad Pro the best tablet on the market, and Creative Bloq gave it 9 out of 10 for people who will use the power. MacRumors expects no new iPad Pro in 2026.

If you already own an M4 Pro, skip it; Engadget called the M5 a minor spec bump.

The Silver model was about $40 cheaper than Space Black when we checked, at about $1,100 and about $33 under its 90-day average. That still puts it about $200 above the 13-inch Air, the better choice if you want a bigger screen more than OLED.

This is the best iPad you can buy, and the one that comes closest to replacing a laptop. It pairs the largest iPad screen size with Apple's tandem OLED panel at 120Hz, and with the Magic Keyboard attached it handles writing, photo editing and video calls like a light laptop. Macworld names it its best iPad for replacing a laptop, and T3 also rates the M5 Pro as a laptop alternative. Expert Reviews found it as brilliant, and as expensive, as ever.

At this size it is tiring to hold in one hand, and iPadOS still limits how much of the M5 you can put to work compared with a Mac. If most of your work is typing, compare it with a MacBook in our laptop deals.

At about $1,400 from Amazon, it sits about $17 under its 90-day average. Last year's 13-inch M4 Pro is still listed, but at $1,499 for 512GB it cost more than this model when we checked, so we left it out.

This is our top pick with 256GB of storage instead of 128GB. If you expect to keep an iPad five years, we would buy the larger tier, because downloaded films, big games and app updates fill 128GB sooner than most people expect. The chip, screen and accessories are the same, so the 128GB model above makes the full case.

Buy this one if you download video for flights or keep a large photo library on the iPad. Stick with 128GB if you mostly stream.

At $799 from Amazon, it is a few dollars under its 90-day average and $100 more than the 128GB model. Amazon was quoting a delayed ship date when we checked, so gift buyers should look at the delivery estimate before ordering.