Summer has been great so far, but unfortunately, it won't last forever. That means school and college will be back in session soon, and you might need a tablet or laptop to study. Let's see what Apple products Amazon has to offer.
Let’s start with the 2021 Apple iPad, it’s the cheapest option and it still does a good job. The Apple A13 Bionic chipset is showing its age, but this is not a gaming tablet. The important thing is that it continues to receive iPadOS updates. Note that this is the latest version with a Lightning connector, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on whether you’ve switched your charging cables to USB-C.
The 2022 Apple iPad brings more computing power with an A14 Bionic chip and an extra gigabyte of RAM. More importantly, it has a USB-C port with DisplayPort. The screen is also a bit larger (10.9 inches vs. 10.2 inches), with both supporting the original Apple Pencil. The 2022 model is about $100 more expensive than the 2021 model, though.
Apple may have given up on the small tablet form factor: it’s been three years and no new models have come out. Yes, the latest iPad mini is from 2021, but still, it’s faster than both of the Apple A15-powered tablets above. And it has a USB-C 3.1 port with DisplayPort, so its age isn’t an issue (unless you’re hoping for a faster than 60Hz display).
For more serious work, both Apple iPad Air models from May this year are equipped with the powerful Apple M2 chip. They come in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, both with IPS LCD displays – and both running at 60 Hz. Plus, with a DisplayPort-compatible USB-C port and Stage Manager support, these tablets can multitask on an external display. The differences between the 11-inch and 13-inch models are the displays (obviously), but also the battery capacity. The rest is the same.
For even more power and better displays, Apple's new iPad Pros feature the latest Apple M4 chip (they're still the only ones to have it) and tandem OLED displays. That means there are two OLED panels stacked on top of each other to double the light output.
And if you need to get some serious work done, you might need a keyboard to match: The Apple Magic Keyboard case practically turns iPad Pros into laptops. Except there's one thing holding them back.
iPadOS just isn’t as good as macOS. That brings us to the 2024 MacBook Airs. They come in 13.6-inch and 15.3-inch sizes and are powered by the Apple M3 chipset. Amazon offers 8/256GB and 16/512GB configurations. Unlike their M2-based predecessors, these can drive two external displays when the lid is closed. And with only passive cooling, they’re as quiet as they come.
If you're looking to build a desktop setup instead, the 2023 Apple Mac mini features an M2 chipset and comes in 8/256GB and 8/512GB configurations. There's a version with an M2 Pro chip, which increases the number of CPU cores (from 4+4 to 6+4) and the number of GPU cores (from 10 to 16).
That's it for Apple gadgets, here are three deals that seemed too good to refuse even though they didn't have an Apple logo.
First up, Amazon is offering the Samsung Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24 Ultra with $200 gift cards. Note that the 256GB Galaxy S24 Ultra is also getting a regular $125 discount.
Google also ended the Chromecast branding this week with the launch of the Google TV Streamer. It was a bit disappointing to discover that it uses the same chipset as Amazon's 2021 Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
The 2023 versions of the Fire TV Stick 4K and 4K Max still use the same chipset, with the new Max even bringing a small clock speed boost. And they cost a lot less than the TV Streamer, especially now that they're on sale. They offer better wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi 6 on the 4K and Wi-Fi 6E on the 4K Max versus Wi-Fi 5 on the TV Streamer), but they don't have a gigabit Ethernet option (the official adapter only does 100Mbps).
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