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One of the things that you’ll need to do – especially if you won’t / can’t invest in a keyboard cover for your iPad – and this Zagg protective screen will allow you to make sure that pretty iPad screen doesn’t get scratched and broken.
The Zagg InvisibleShield Glass Plus is designed to feel like the iPad screen, and it’s down to just $19.99 – which is pretty impressive, when it was $54.99 not that long ago.
In the UK you can get it for £20.10, again laughing in the face of those paying in £££s, but it’s only a £10 saving. Definitely worth thinking about when you’re spending hundreds on a top-end tablet.
What about if you wanted to buy an iPad directly from Apple? What then? Well, you’d need to wait at the moment, as the Apple Store is inexplicably down.
(If it came back up with Tim Cook just riding around in an Apple Car, and no explanation, that would be the biggest flex).
But if you do buy an iPad Pro 11 or iPad Pro 12.9, you’ll get yourself a $100 / £80 gift card to spend at Apple, which is most of the way to a pair of AirPods or a fancy case.
Right – let’s fill you in on another iPad that we’ve been checking out – and this is one that I really would recommend if you can afford it.
The iPad Pro 12.9 is a superb tablet, with our review showing just how versatile and powerful it can be – it can handle any task you throw at it, and the screen uses the new mini LED (or Liquid Retina XDR, if you give it Apple’s fancy name) to look great.
But honestly, having a 13-inch screen in your bag is excellent – I loved it and you should too. For $999 for the 128GB version in the US, it’s not the worst price in the world, given it was $1,099 to start.
In the UK the same model is £949, so you don’t save as much (it started at £999), but it’s still decent to see savings on this top model.
Right, time for another piece of accessory chat – this time, it’s the Apple Magic Keyboard, which I see as something of a conundrum.
It’s genuinely game-changing on the iPad Pro or the iPad Air – it allows you to make the iPad far more like a computer, with the large track pad and very clickable keys. I loved it… but it costs $349.
NOT ANY LONGER! In the US, Best Buy has it for $199. While that’s still a huge extra amount, it’s a lot less, and if you’re going to invest in the iPad experience, I say it’s worth it.
Look, we want to foster a good relationship here, between you and I. You need to trust me that I’m looking for the good deals for you – and with that in mind, I need to tell you that I’m not currently seeing any good iPad deals for the iPad 2021, the 10.2-inch model from this year.
I think that’s got the potential to really rocket this year, even though it’s new – but then again, it keeps going out of stock with key retailers like Amazon, which hints that maybe there aren’t enough to stay around.
If you want it in the US, you can get the 64GB version for $329, and in the UK you’re looking at £319 for the same device… again, that’s not great on the ol’ exchange rate.
If you’re in the UK or US and want to take our (excellent) recommendation for the best iPad deal, you’ll want to invest in an Apple Pencil.
Both of these iPads have high-quality touchscreens that mean the addition of Apple’s stylus dramatically enhances their usefulness. I still don’t love scrawling on a piece of glass – I wish it felt more like paper – but there’s no doubting having one of these is a real win – especially when the pen sticks magnetically to the side of the tablet.
With that in mind, the Apple Pencil 2 (with said magnets in it) costs just $99 at Amazon in the US, and £99 in the UK… again with Amazon, the brand that clearly doesn’t give a hoot about exchange rates.
Welcome to our iPad Black Friday deals live blog – we’ve got our main page that’s rounding up all the deals, but there’s going to be so much shifting in terms of prices today that we’re not sure it can catch up – so live blogging makes much more sense.
We’re going to be looking out for the best deals on the iPad units, obviously, but there’s a world of stands, cases and Pencils to talk about too – stick around and we’ll give you all you need to know.
Let’s start here: the current best iPad deal in the US is the iPad Air 2020, which is down to $539, and in the UK it’s the iPad Pro 11 (from 2021) that costs just £699 in this year’s Black Friday sales.